Amid
Opposition
to Leaked UN
Plan for
Libya, UN
Refuses to
Answer
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 29 --
After Inner
City Press obtained and
published
the UN's plan
for Libya,
complete with
200 military
observers and
the
expectation of
NATO
maintaining a
role, the
plan's author
Ian Martin
refused to
answer
questions,
telling Inner
City Press
that "it's
an internal
document."
Now
that Inner
City Press' publication
of the leaked
report has
spread, from
Geneva
to Doha
to Istanbul to
as far as The
Australian,
Inner City
Press has
asked the
Office of the
Spokesperson
for Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon a
series of
questions:
"On
the
Martin
report,
published on
Friday,
can you first
provide UN
description of
what the
document
represents
(esp in light
of a
statement by
OSSG last week
that is it
"not a UN
document")
and then state
the basis for
saying NATO
has a
continuing
role, for
saying that
some
deployments
can be made
without a
specific
mandate
and more
generally, on
whose behalf
and at whose
behest this
planning
was done, if
and when the
plan was even
going to be
shown to
member
states, if so,
which member
states and
when?"
Several
member
states' lead
ambassadors at
the UN have
asked Inner
City Press
about
the report,
saying they've
sent it to
their capitals
for analysis.
At
a Security
Council lunch
with Ban
Ki-moon on
August 26, Ban
said he
would brief
the Council
about it in
the coming
week (just as
Martin
has promised
to belatedly
give a press
briefing).
But
even once the
Secretariat
moves to
legitimate the
plans by
making some of
them a
public request
to the
Security
Council, the
question
remains: on
whose behalf,
and for whose
benefit, did
the UN
Secretariat
engage in
this planning?
Beyond
the
ongoing split
in the UN
Security
Council
between the
Westerners --
European four
plus US and
its allies --
and Russia and
China, with
IBSA (India,
Brazil and
South Africa)
in the middle:
there have
been
demonstrations
in Libya
against any
international
peacekeeping
force.
Inner
City Press'
sources
describe a
fight inside
Ban Ki-moon
team as to
which official
would be sent
to Tripoli,
Martin or Al
Khatib? It's
said that
Martin
is winning,
and the Al
Khatib may
simply
withdraw.
Like
Martin, Al
Khatib jumped
the gun and
went to
Benghazi with
an already
made plan:
a five person
structure, two
from the
rebels, two
from Gaddafi,
one
from neither.
It was
rejected.
Now
Martin has
developed a
detailed plan,
apparently
without a
mandate. Watch
this
site.
Ban & Ian
Martin - nouveau
L. Paul
Bremer?
From
the
UN's
transcript of
its August 26
noon briefing
(the UN
canceled
its August 29
briefing)
Inner
City
Press: ...the
[Ian] Martin
report on
Libya. It’s a
10-page
document, and
among other
things, there
is two things
I want to ask
you about...
there is a
statement,
apparently
it’s a UN
statement
saying that
NATO’s role
will continue
to have
responsibility
after
the fall of
the [Muammar
al-]Qadhafi
Government,
and saying
that for
this UN
planning,
including for
200 military
observers,
that no
further
mandate is
needed from
the Security
Council. I
wanted to
know, what is
the
Secretary-General’s
position on
this, on those
two
statements?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson
Farhan Haq: As
far as that
goes, I
wouldn’t
comment on the
text of this
document,
which was an
internal
document
for the
Secretary-General’s
information
and for the
information of
his advisers.
The
Secretary-General
will be
talking to
regional
organizations
at 3 p.m. this
afternoon to
coordinate
planning, and
he
will talk to
the press
after that.
Inner
City
Press: how
would you
characterize
this pretty
detailed
planning
with the idea
that Mr.
Martin and Mr.
al-Khatib went
out to hear
what
the NTC
[National
Transitional
Council]
wanted or that
on the video
conference
today he is
going to hear?
It seems to be
a pretty
detailed plan.
Is this a
preliminary
plan? What
adjective
would you
put on it,
because it
looks
inconsistent
with this
outreach after
the
fact?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson
Haq: No, not
at all. The
sort of
efforts that
we have been
doing and the
sort of
efforts that
Ian Martin was
in
place here at
the United
Nations to do
is to plan for
a possible
transition
down the line.
We are now at
the stage
where we need
to
talk with our
various
partners about
that. But it
helps to have
concrete ideas
about the way
forward. And
those are
what, for
example, Ian
Martin and
Abdel-Elah
al-Khatib were
talking with
people
in Doha. This
is what the
Deputy
Secretary-General
has been
talking
with people in
Addis Ababa
earlier today,
and this is
what the
Secretary-General
will discuss
with the
regional
groups this
afternoon.
But
Haq
and Ban
Ki-moon
refused to
take Press
questions
about the
exclusively
published
report on the
afternoon of
August 26.
Asked more
directly,
Ian Martin
refused to
answer
questions,
telling Inner
City Press
that
"it's an
internal
document." The
UN canceled
its regular
noon briefing
on August 29.
, 
