At
UN, UK Wrap-Up Session Light on
Yemen & Burundi, NGO-1 Urges
End to Arms Sales to Saudi, US Q
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
March 31 – When the United
Kingdom did a wrap-up session
on its March Presidency of the
UN Security Council on the month's
final afternoon, it was Sweden
which spoke about Yemen, and
"NGO 1" - a first - urged the
UK to suspend its arms sales
to Saudi Arabia. Syria took Liechtenstein
to task for, they said, having
quoted (UK) Stephen O'Brien
about UN staff leaving the
country. Liechtenstein, which
is set to speak again about
the General Assembly mechanism
toward accountability in
Syria, said it was
mis-interpreted, it was
quoting an NGO, about medical
personnel. Many spoke about UN
experts Michael Sharp and
Zaida Calatan killed in the DR
Congo. Morocco said the
killings threaten to undermine
human rights monitoring on the
ground (he did not mention
Western Sahara, where Morocco
and France have opposed the UN
Mission MINURSO having any
human rights monitoring
function). The answer on
Burundi did not mention to
failure to deploy the mandated
226 police. Finally Albania
asked about the upcoming April
6 debate
on
peacekeeping under
the Security Council's US
Presidency. We'll have more on
that. And on this: while the
floor seemed open at the end
to anyone in the Trusteeship
Council Chamber, Inner City
Press unlike other correspondents
(and despite for example
garnering 6,000
Periscope viewers at the
UNSC stakeout on March 31, here)
remains banned from going
there under a no
due process eviction and
restriction order of outgoing
USG of DPI Cristina Gallach.
Will her era of Press censorship
end, as it should,
immediately? We'll see.
Back on March 1,
Ambassador Matthew Rycroft
took 20 questions from the
media. Inner City Press asked
him why the meetings on
Burundi on March 9 and on
Yemen on March 29 are both
closed door. Video
here.
On
Burundi, Rycroft referred to
France as the penholder. On
Yemen -- on which the UK holds
the pen -- he said sometimes
there is a benefit to a closed
door discussion. Fine: but
what's the problem with an
open briefing, then closed
consultations? The Free
UN Coalition for Access
will continue to pursue this.
On Yemen
Inner City Press also asked if
the UK's findings as it looks
into more than 250 incidents
of the Saudi led coalition
will be shared with the
Security Council. It remains
unclear.
At the end,
Inner City Press asked Rycroft
if Nick Kay is still a
candidate to be UN Envoy to
Libya. Rycroft said the UK
supports current envoy Martin
Kobler but if he is to be
changed, it should be fast,
there is momentum.
Rycroft
said that civil society will
be invited to participate in
the month's wrap up session, a
first. Boris Johnson will
chair the March 23 meeting on
South Sudan, and something on
Somalia later that day. We'll
have more on this.
***
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
Past
(and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 20047,
Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in
the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-2017 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
for
|
,
