By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 17 --
When former UN
Secretary
General Kofi
Annan's
communications
chief Edward
Mortimer spoke
at the UN on
November 17,
Inner City
Press asked
him about
Darfur, which
is mentioned
in the
“Responsibility
to Protect”
section of the
recently
released book
of Annan
speeches
edited by
Mortimer, and
about Sri
Lanka.
Mortimer
selected a
speech by
Annan on April
7, 2004 where
Annan said “at
the invitation
of the
Sudanese
government, I
propose to
send a high
level team to
Darfur to gain
a fuller
understanding
of the extent
and nature of
this crisis.”
Now in
November 2014,
more than 10
year later,
Annan's
successor Ban
Ki-moon has belatedly
responded to
the UNAMID
mission's
November 9
press release
denying rapes
by Sudanese
forces,
saying
“village
community
leaders
reiterated to
UNAMID that
they coexist
peacefully
with local
military
authorities in
the area. None
of those
interviewed
confirmed that
any incident
of rape took
place in
Thabit” --
seeking to
send in
another team.
Inner
City Press
asked Mortimer
what he
thought of the
UN's record on
Darfur in the
last ten years
-- and of the
UN's record in
Sri Lanka, on
and after the
war crimes in
2009.
Mortimer
is
the chair of
the UK-based
Sri Lanka
Campaign. One
can only
imagine his
views of
Annan's
successor Ban
Ki-moon going
on a Rajapaksa
“victory tour”
on northern
Sri Lanka in
May 2009,
but would
still like to
hear it. But
not at the UN,
apparently.
Mortimer's
answer
focused on
Responsibility
to Protect
generally,
with an
emphasis on
how it was
used in or on
Libya in 2011.
He said that
called into
question what
would have
happened had
NATO not
started
bombing, and
provided
lessons for
other
dictators:
don't use
language like
Gaddafi did
about
Benghazi, and
develop
friends in the
international
community -
or, on the
Security
Council.
This
last might
well be
applied to the
Rajapaksa
government.
But for the
record,
Mortimer
didn't say it
here.
In a
session
moderated by
Maher Nasser,
acting head of
the Department
of Public
Information,
Mortimer was
also asked
about humor in
speeches, and
recounted
Annan
mishandling
the Arnold
Schwartznegger
line "I'll be
baahhk"
to “I will be
back.”
He mentioned
the group
Independent
Diplomat,
which is
pursuing
issues of war
crimes in Sri
Lanka -- as,
apparently, is
also British
Ian Martin,
“under the
radar” -- and
the publishing
industry's
lack of
interest in
the UN. That
may be true at
least for now.
But we
recommend the
book Mortimer
has edited,
“Kofi Annan,
We the
People's: A UN
for the 21st
Century” put
out by
Paradigm
Publishers,
and any memoir
he may
publish. Watch
this site.
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