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At UN, Envoy to Zimbabwe Is Blocked
at Gate, Security of Somalia and MDC
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, August 26 -- As
Zimbabwe's Mugabe government moves forward, despite heckling on
Tuesday, with a
deal with a breakaway faction of Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic
Change, the UN's ostensible envoy to Zimbabwe Haile Menkerios began the
day in
conflict with UN security guards. He arrived at First Avenue and 42nd
Street with
a big rolling suitcase, only to be told at the gate that it had to be
sniffed
by guard dogs. "I have a 9:30 meeting!" Menkerios complained. A crowd formed; one Menkerios supporter said, "Call Bruno
Henn," the person in charge of UN Headquarters security. Finally
Menkerios left the bag at the guard booth
and set off muttering toward the glass-faced Headquarters building.
Later in the afternoon, Menkerios re-emerged outside
the Security
Council chamber and was asked about his buzzing around but not in
Zimbabwe. He
replied that the crux now is the security mechanism, whether Mugabe's
Zanu-PF
will share it with Tsvangirai's MDC or whether some "outside" force
will be needed, to guarantee a free election.
Ban Ki-moon and Haile Menkerios, sniffed bag
not shown
Soon thereafter, another
repeat-player in
UN mediations, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, came to speak to the press about
the
Djibouti agreement he helped negotiate, between the Transitional Federal Government and some of the
opposition. One problem is that the active opposition of Al Shabab is
not a
part of the agreement. Inner City Press asked Ould-Abdallah about the
recent
fighting in Kismayo. Ould-Abdallah said this was nothing but a fight
within a
clan, the Darood, about economic resources. Video here.
Last week
Inner City Press asked Ould-Abdallah's spokeswoman, and
then UN spokespeople, for his response to the escalating violence on
the ground. From the transcript
of the August 22 UN noon briefing --
Inner
City Press: Has Mr. Ahmedou
Ould-Abdallah, does he have any comment on the fighting, 60 [dead]?
Deputy
Spokesperson Okabe: I had a humanitarian
update that I would like to draw your attention to today.
Inner
City Press: Sure. What
I am saying is, politically, he is the
envoy. He has been putting out
statements saying how great things are going, the Djibouti talks and
various
thing.
Deputy
Spokesperson Okabe: I don't have
anything specific from the Special Representative today, but I do have
a note
on the humanitarian situation on the ground.
With that, have a good weekend.
See you on Monday.
This led to a weekend press release, essentially minimizing the import
of the carnage in Kismayo.
When Inner City Press asked about an
incident in which Ethiopian forces are said to have fired into a crowd
of
civilians after a run-in with a improved explosive device, on which
his spokeswoman had not commented despite an August 18 request for
response and for who funded the Djibouti talks, Ould-Abdallah said
generally that Somalis have suffered too much, and that he does not
favor the
Security Council extending authorization for the Ethiopians to stay in
Somalia.
But who will replace them?
Watch
this
site. And this (on
South Ossetia),
this, on
Russia-Georgia,
and
this --
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