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No Abkhaz in UN, No Georgia in Text, Russia
Pans Ban for NATO Deal, Post-Election Put-Off of Ossetia
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
October 9 -- The UN's Mission in
Abkhazia had its mandate rolled over for four months on Thursday, amid
joke-
and deal-making and renewed Russian criticism of the UN's Ban Ki-moon.
The
situation for UN observers in Abkhazia has changed dramatically since
August.
Still, the UN wants to keep its hand in, to see what happens at the
conference
in Geneva slated for October 15. Russia agreed to the technical roll
over, but
only if the word Georgia and even UNOMIG -- in which G stands for
Georgia --
was dropped from the resolution.
Inner City
Press asked Russia's Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin why four months were selected.
Until a certain person has left office, he answered,
persons who
encouraged Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia. The reference
was to George
Bush and Dick Cheney.
U.S.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad got into the joking as well. On camera,
Inner City
Press asked him to comment on the view that the extension's for four
months
until there's a new occupant in the White House. From
the U.S. Mission transcript:
Inner City Press: Someone said
that the four month period was chosen so that there’ll be a new
occupant in the
White House. Have you heard that? What
do you think about that?
Ambassador Khalilzad: Well, I
can't read as to the motives of others.
Actually, the proposals were different proposals
made to do it for a
couple months or to do it until January 20 or to do it until some other
time.
The January 20 was an obvious
one, but I think what we've got what is reasonably-- we’ve supported
what may
have been our proposal with the Secretary-General that four months is
the right
amount in terms of what could happen in the Geneva talks.
But we were absolutely clear from
the beginning and sometimes some of our colleagues did not want us to
be as
strong as we were -- that they’ll be no change, no advantage gained for
the
puppets to be brought in to the Security Council or to have an Arria
Style
meeting as a result of the use of military force, excessive use of
military
force, that took place.
And I think we came out where we
wanted to come out.
Inner City
Press also asked Ambassador Churkin about the Arria Formula meeting,
why it
didn't happen. He said the U.S. had not granted visas for the
representatives
of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but that Russia will re-demand such a
meeting when
the four months are up or before.
Ambassador
Khalilzad referred to these representatives as puppets.
Secretaries-General of UN and NATO: in lockstep?
On other
matters, Inner City Press asked Ambassador Churkin about Russia's
criticism of
an agreement reached between the UN and NATO, which Russia hadn't seen
a copy
of. Churkin criticized the process and
said Russia had been assured it would see a copy of the agreement
before it was
signed.
Inner City
Press ran into the UN's noon briefing and asked Ban Ki-moon's
spokesperson if
the Russian Ambassador had misperceived that Russia would be consulted. We don't have to consult, the spokesperson
said, reading peeved from notes.
More and
more people say that Ban Ki-moon may be a one-term Secretary General,
and they
point to his rifts with Russia, about Kosovo, Georgia and now NATO.
Time will
tell.
Footnote: Catch this reporter on
Icelandic television, www.ruv.is
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs.
* * *
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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earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
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