Budget
Endgame Has
Russia on
ICTY, Cuba on
R2P, Swiss Ox
Gored, Silva
Eminent?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 24 --
Past 3 pm on
Christmas Eve,
the UN's Fifth
(Budget)
Committee
called votes,
deferred some
items
including
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
"mobility"
proposal, and
ended.
In
the waning
minutes, Ban's
senior adviser
Kim Won-soo
lobbied hard
with Algeria's
Permanent
Representative,
the chair of
the Group of
77, and even
with the chair
of the Budget
Committee,
which was
called
a "circus."
But
mobility,
along with
Human
Resources
Management,
got deferred.
The
first
intervention
in this final
Fifth
Committee
session was by
Switzerland,
criticizing a
paragraph
inserted,
again after
lobbying
by Mr. Kim, to
merge seven
entities. The
rationale is
not clear,
Switzerland
complained.
Inner
City Press
notes that
several of the
entities to be
merged are in
Geneva. But
it's true that
some of the
entities have
different
governing
structures, so
there are
legal
questions.
The
next open
conflict
involved the
budget of the
International
Criminal
Tribunal on
the former
Yugoslavia.
Earlier in the
month, as first
reported
by Inner City
Press, Russia
proposed
amendments to
and then
abstained on
the ICTY
resolution.
This was seen
as related to
the
release of two
Croatian
military
figures who
ethnically
cleansed
Serbs.
In
the Fifth
Committee,
Russia
proposed a
series of
amendments for
example to
reduce the
Tribunal's
budget cycle
from biennial
to
annual. The
vote on the
amendments of
Russia and
Serbia was 17
for,
59 against, 58
abstaining.
On the
resolution as
a whole,
Russia
abstained --
Belarus and
Laos initially
voted no, then
switched back
to abstain.
As
Inner City
Press
predicted,
including to
Under
Secretary
General
Adama Dieng,
Cuba on behalf
of others
proposed
amendments on
or
against the
Responsibility
to Protect
office, which
it says was
launched
without
following the
rules.
The
vote on Cuba's
amendments was
14 for, 73
against, 56
abstaining.
Those in favor
included
Sudan, St.
Vincent,
Nigeria and
Myanmar,
bringing to
mind the
Rohingya, and
President
Obama's moves.
Cuba said
it would call
the question
again in the
General
Assembly.
Then,
in a letdown
for Ban and
Mr. Kim, and
South Korea
and some
others,
mobility was
deferred. The
final item in
committee was
mention of
Ban's Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations;
chairman
Miguel Berger
of Germany
said it
included
"eminent
persons."
As
Inner City
Press exposed,
the SAG
included
General Shavendra
Silva of
the Sri Lankan
Army, depicted
in the UN's
own report as
engaged in
war crimes.
Ban told Inner
City Press
this was a
decision of
member
states. So is
the budget.
Watch this
site.
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