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In Nepal, UN Is Counting Guns
But Not Controlling, Terai Cries Misunderstood
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
November 11 -- Even one of the UN's
better moves in recent years, assisting the demilitarization process in
Nepal,
is shrouded in mandates misunderstood, communications missed or
misreported,
support from Headquarters not constant.
The UN's
envoy to Nepal Ian Martin briefed the Press on Monday. It was three
days after
he spoke before the Security Council, drawing comment in public from
only one delegation,
that of this month's Council president Costa Rica. Then they repaired
-- or
Riperted, to use the similarly-sounding name of the Ambassador of
France -- to
the closed consultations room. It is not known if the following
questions,
asked Monday by Inner City Press, were addressed in the consultations
room.
Inner City
Press asked Martin about two reported letters to Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon,
during his recent visit to Kathmandu, from independence fighters from
the Terai
plains region. Martin addressed not these letter and claims but those
of
parliamentarians, some of whom met with Ban during his visit.
So Inner
City Press asked Martin to respond to the Nepali opposition's comments
that he
over-favors the Maoists, perhaps according to one representative
because he
himself is a Communist. "I'm not asking if you are a Communist, given
the
history of that question," Inner City Press said. But what about the
criticism?
Martin's
response showed yet another misunderstood UN mandate. These opponents,
he
said, see the Maoists still using their own armed security, and blame
the UN
for it. But all the UN does is count and register guns, Martin said. As
he is misunderstood, he has urged that this policy with regard to the
Maoists maintaining their own armed security be revisited. Is that
after UNMIN has left?
UN's Ban choppers to Buddha's birthplace,
Terai letters not shown
Inner City
Press asked about the beating death of a Kathmandu businessman in one
of the
Maoist cantonment sites in May. Martin replied that three Maoists have
been
asked to surrended to police, but none have. One has even resurfaced
with the
Maoists forces. So much for an end to impunity. Perhaps a pattern can
be discerned here.
What is the
UN's view of the Maoists demand that its fighters killed during the war
be
compensated as martyrs? Martin said inscrutibly that all classes of
victims should be made
whole, equitably. He went on to claim that he and even Ban Ki-moon are
not
pushing for have UNMIN's mandate, which expired in January 2009,
extended. Coulda
fooled us...
Footnotes: This month's Security
Council president Jorge Urbina of Costa Rica has made a point of saying
that more of the Council's work should be in public. But like another
UN official, apparently while he tries to lead by example, no one is
following. At the November 7 session, he alone among the members spoke
in the open session.
Afterwards, Inner City
Press asked him on the record what was said in consultation, if for
example Western Sahara had been raised. Only then did Amb. Urbina
acknowledge the item. Why not at least disclose the agendas of
consultations, unpacking the oft-used "Other matters"?
On November 10,
Inner City Press asked Martin, as a longtime UN official, if he thought
that more of the Security Council's work could or should be done in
public. Martin declined to comment on the issue, even in the abstract.
Finally, Martin's New York
support team from the Department of Political Affairs, present at the
November 10 briefing, has now directly been asked for an update on what
DPA's loudly-announced team of Stand-by Mediators has done for the past
eight months. Getting an answer shouldn't be like pulling teeth but for
now it feels that way. Watch this site.
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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