|
At UN, Russia - US Dispute Triggered Call for Adjournment and
Security
Officers by Nicaraguan Priest, Witnesses Say
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Muse
UNITED NATIONS,
September 19, updated Sept. 25
-- The mounting
tensions between Russia and the U.S. resulted in security officers
being called
to restore order to a closed meeting of the UN General Assembly's
General
Committee this week. Responding to a heated dispute between the U.S.
and
Russian representatives on the Committee, the new General Assembly
President,
Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, called a half-hour
adjournment of the meeting, and UN Security. Since it was
a closed meeting, attempt have been made to keep the incident quiet.
Inner City
Press, however, has been told the same story by numerous witnesses, and
now
reports it.
It
was on
the morning of September 17, during the General Committee's debate of
putting a
resolution to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the famine in Ukraine
on the
General Assembly's agenda. There was a list of speakers, starting with
Kazakhstan and including Belarus. But the U.S. sought to speak first by
claiming a point of order. The microphone of the Kazakh representative
was cut
off, and she spoke more loudly about the "outrage."
The U.S.
representative pushed forward, and he and Russia's Representative got
into a
tit-for-tat through serial points of order. Finally the President of
the
Assembly, presiding over his first such meeting, thought it had gotten
out of
hand and called an adjournment and security. A
half an hour later, things have been cooled, the
U.S. apologized and
allowed proceedings to continue. No press release was issued, and
attempt to
withhold the recordings have been made. But Inner City Press reports it
here.
In public,
in the Security Council during its last meeting on Georgia, Russian
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin intoned
"If here
in our chamber today
for the first time we had had aliens from outer space, I'm sure that
having
listened to our discussion he would have been filled with pride for the
member
of the Security Council, how consistently they champion the principles
of
international law. I must say I in particular liked the statement of
the
permanent representative of the United States, reminding the members of
the
Security Council that states in their activity must refrain from the
use or the
threat of the use of force.
"And
I would like to ask the distinguished rep of
the United States, weapons of mass destruction, have you found them yet
in
Iraq? I would like to ask the distinguished rep of the US as to whether
there
are threats coming out of Washington against another member of the UN
to use
force against that other member and even wipe it off the face of the
earth.
Now, several other members of the Council have referred to the
importance of
complying with resolutions of the Security Council, complying with the
principle of territorial integrity. And where, dear colleagues, were
you when
we were discussing Kosovo?"
Being
debated in the General Committee was a draft resolution by Serbia,
seeking to
have the General Assembly request an advisory opinion on the legality
of
Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence earlier this year.
Russia
supports Serbia's position, and as quoted above, cites Kosovo as a
precedent
for its recognition of the independence from Georgia of South Ossetia
and
Abkhazia.
Russia's Vitaly Churkin and Zalmay
Khalilzad of U.S., d'Escoto Brockmann not shown
Following d'Escoto
Brockmann's speech
heavily criticizing
the U.S., Ambassador Khalilzad was asked to comment on "the GA
president's speech." Khalilizad
responded
Ambassador
Khalilzad: Well, it's very important to
know what the
role of the president of the GA is. He
is the president of the entire 192 tribes that are here.
And his role is to facilitate the discussion,
to follow the rules, to do things that makes this organization work and
brings
people together. So I hope that the
president appreciates that, that is his role, and that's the
expectation of the
members of this organization. For him to succeed in the role that – he
has to
play his role, and that role is to be a unifier, to look forward
representing
the interests of all members rather than picking on some members,
siding with
others. That, I think, would undermine
his effectiveness, and I don't think that's in his interests or the
interests
of the organization.
On
September 19,
Inner City Press asked Brockmann's spokesman about the comments, and
was told
that the two had met and agreed to work together. We'll see.
Update of September 25 --
The spokesman for the
President of the General Assembly, while confirming the suspension of
the
meeting at issue, that the Ambassadors involved were Alejandro Wolff of
the
U.S. and Vitaly Churkin of Russia (he has committed to confirming or
denying
that Kazakhstan's Ambassador called being cut off an outrage), has
stated that
security was not called, even that no incident occurred. This is course
depending on how one -- or in this case, Inner City Press' multiple
sources who
were present in Conference Room 4 that day -- define(s) incident. This will be further updated when promised
information comes in.
Watch this site, and this (UN) debate.
* * *
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
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
|
