At
UN, Australia
Campaigns with
Small
Arms, Nigeria
Talks
Peacekeeping
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 30 --
If the UN is
genuinely
about
peacekeeping
and
disarmament,
then Wednesday
evening was
the nigth for
it.
After two
canceled
stakeouts
by French
Ambassador
Araud and
a Brahimi
no-show,
four countries
gave speeches
about small
arms and light
weapons.
Click
here for
Inner City
Press first
story on SALW
confab.
The
venue was the
former
cafeteria,
long closed
under Ban
Ki-moon. The
MC
was
Australia's
deputy, who
made sure to
mention her
country's $1
million
contribution
and that her
Permanent
Representative
Gary Quinlan
is in Tehran
at the
Non-Aligned
Movement
meeting.
Australia is
running for
the Security
Council, and
remembers the
lesson last
year of
Canada.
Speaking
for
Cote d'Ivoire
was the
Mission's
counselor
named
Ouattara;
there
was also
Guyana and
Papua New
Guinea.
Working the
crowd was the
Perm
Rep of Fiji,
for an
upcoming
election.
Still, the
tenor was
against
weapons and
war, what
(most of) the
UN is about.
Two
blocks north
and one block
west, Nigeria
was feting its
outgoing
military
adviser Audu.
The speeches
were pushed
back for the
arrival
of Perm Rep
Joy Ogwu. The
food was
spicy, the
vodka Russian.
In the
crowd was
China's Navy
adviser.
The
mood, when
Inner City
Press asked,
was that the
UN should not
have
left Syria.
Just like what
Rwanda's
foreign
minister told
the Press
was the UN's
"abandonment"
of her country
in 1994,
the
flight from
Damascus
struck more
advisers as
short sighted.
But they
do not make
policy.
Under
a portrait of
Goodluck, Audu
reflected on
this three
years, and
introduced his
successor. He
was given a
plaque signed
by his
colleagues
from Chile and
Norway, and
the entire
African group.
The
talk as so
often in Casa
Gambari turned
toward
Ibrahim's next
move.
Could he take
the OIC? He
could. Watch
this site.
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