At
UN
for Mandela, Diplomacy Instead of Park Bench Painting, Obits in
the Air
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 18 -- Nelson Mandela's birthday was celebrated in New
York on Monday, in the morning in Central Park and at night at South
Africa's mission to the UN on 38th Street.
While
Ambassadors'
car idled on the street below, upstairs the Permanent Representatives
of countries like Venezuela, Brazil, Rwanda, Portugal and Namibia
milled around, with red and white wine, cheese cubes and chicken
wings, listening to African music.
A
Central Park
attendee told Inner City Press that park benches had been painted.
South African TV had interviewed a number of attendees, to broadcast
birthday greetings. The Deputy Permanent Representative of a P-5
country told South Africa's charge, you have a living hero, we don't.
But
what would
Mandela do? The call Monday was for volunteerism. But for many
diplomats, their work was at the UN. They said Mandela would
understand.
Nelson & Winnie Mandela @ UN 1990 w/ de Cuellar & Dinkins
Many
media outlets
are compiling in advance obituaries for Mandela. Some rightly find
this ghoulish. Why not run appreciation while the man is still alive?
Watch this site.
* * *
At
UN
on Eritrea, Badme Is In Eye of Beholder, Meles Ego Blocks a Deal?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 18 -- On Eritrea's request the UN Security Council will
meet on July 19. But the meeting is now turned against Eritrea, with
not only Ethiopia
and Somalia but also Djibouti, Uganda and other set
to attend.
“Eritrea is going to get its [behind] kicked,” a
Security Council member told Inner City Press on Monday night.
“They're not going to know what hit them.”
When
Eritrea's
president met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on July 8, he asked
for “three hours” to make his case, including against sanctions.
But sanctions aren't set by Ban Ki-moon, but rather by the Council.
Just
like last
September, when Eritrea got thrown out of a meeting on Somalia at the
last minute at the insistence of Uganda, now it will be barrage on
Tuesday afternoon.
But
as more than
one Council member told Inner City Press, why not pressure Ethiopia
to give back the strip of land in Badme that Eritrea won? “They
they'd have no leg to stand on,” as one member put it. “Meles
Zenawi is ready to give it back, but he doesn't want Eritrea gloating
about it.”
This from a
person who called Eritrea repressive, accusing it of not giving
passports to any male between 20 and 40 years old.
Will
the solution
to this problem have to await the next generation of leaders? Watch
this site.
* * *
As
S.
Sudan
Joins UN, Machar Speaks of Darfur & Eritrea, Ban
Silent, No Q&A
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July
14 -- South
Sudan was admitted to the UN on Thursday
morning in New York, its new flag raised on the pole of Mauritius
facing First Avenue.
In
the General
Assembly, US Ambassador Susan Rice on behalf of the host country
quoted President Obama, that “after the darkness of war, there can
be a new day of peace and progress.” Her speech did not mention the
continued war in Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur in the
Sudan.
South
Sudan's
vice
president Riek Machar in his speech spoke of these and of Darfur, and
called for peace between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and in Somalia. UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during his trip to Juba last weekend
met with Eritrea's president Isaias Afewerki, and his office issued
this read out:
“The
Secretary-General met with President Isaias Afewerki in Juba on 8
July 2011. The Secretary-General and President Afewerki discussed
peace and security issues in the region in particular the
independence of South Sudan, and they agreed to find another
opportunity to discuss the role of Eritrea and the complexities of
the sub-region.”
Strikingly,
the
UN's
read out of the meeting did not even mention Ethiopia or
Somalia. On July 11, Inner City Press
asked Ban's spokesman Martin
Nesirky about it:
Inner
City
Press:
the Secretary-General met with the President of Eritrea. I
wanted to know if that was his first meeting with him. And also
the readout didn’t seem to make any reference to the widespread
allegations that Eritrea supports Al-Shabaab and is a destabilizing
factor in Somalia. Was this something that was discussed, or was not
in the readout, or not discussed at all?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well,
the readout speaks for itself, Matthew.
Inner
City
Press:
Is that his first meeting with the President of Eritrea?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
I’ll
check, but on the other topic that you’ve
mentioned, I think the readout speaks for itself.
While
more
than
two days later this simple question had not been answered, in the
meantime several diplomats at the UN told Inner City Press that what
the read out speaks of is a diplomacy by Ban that is far too quiet.
Even South Sudan with all the work ahead of it is talking about peace
between Eritrea and Ethiopia, including in Somalia. How could the
Secretary General not even bring it up?
Ban
spoke at the
South Sudan festivities on Thursday morning, but unlike President of
the General Assembly Joseph Diess, Ban took no questions. (Nor did he
on July 12, when he came to the Security Council stakeout but left
without taking any questions.)
So
Inner City
Press went to Thursday's noon briefing, after the South Sudan flag
raising and PGA Deiss' stakeout were over.
Sudan's PR with Ban in foreground,
Q&A not shown. (c) MRLee
Several journalists
were
waiting, but none of Ban's spokespeople ever appeared. Finally Inner
City Press was directed to an email of 10 am that day, that “Noon
Briefing canceled.”
Inner
City
Press
immediately emailed Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky and his deputy
Farhan Haq, asking, “Could you say why there is no noon briefing
today?”
A
quarter of an
hour later, Haq replied, “We had explained to the press via the
intercom this morning: Because of the flag raising ceremony for the
Republic of South Sudan just before noon, there will be no noon
briefing today.”
This
does
not
explain it: the Office of the Spokesperson has more than enough staff
to cover the flag raising ceremony -- which like Deiss' stakeout was
over before noon -- and the already determined admission of South
Sudan to the UN is hardly the only news of the day.
So
why did Ban not
take questions on July 12, not hold a stakeout like President of the
General Assembly Deiss on July 14, and cancel even the normal noon
briefing on July 14? Watch this site.
Footnotes:
Mauritius
gave
up its flag pole space because it happened to be right
in front of the GA, Inner City Press was told. Inside the General
Assembly, making an extra space for the Republic of South Sudan was
said to require one of the three Observers to not have a space.
Palestine and the Holy See continued to share; the EU was not in.
Camera space is going to be taken for extra states under the Capital
Master Plan, Inner City Press has been told. We'll be here.
, 
in