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In Famine Wars at UN, Russia Charges Bias by Secretariat, d'Escoto's Different Tale

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, October 28 -- Tuesday saw an airing and acceleration of the disputes between Russia and the U.S., the United Kingdom, Georgia, the UN and now possibly even Nicaragua, or at least the president of the General Assembly, and former Nicaraguan foreign minister, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin called a press conference, ostensibly on "current issues of the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly." In fact, the briefing was limited to a single issue, a pending resolution about the famine in Ukraine "seventy five years ago," as Churkin put it.

  As Inner City Press exclusively reported at the time, a September meeting of the UN's General Committee devolved into verbal fireworks between the U.S., Kazakhstan and Russia, concerning this very item. Later d'Escoto's spokesman chided Inner City Press for the story, saying there was no "incident." But not only did Inner City Press privately receive confirmation of the incident from the participants, Tuesday Churkin went public, saying that the U.S. cut off Kazakhstan's Ambassador "like knocking down a passenger coming off a bus."  So, there was an incident.

  Tuesday press conference, however, focused on the next meeting of the General Committee, scheduled for last week but cancelled. As Churkin described it, representatives of the US and UK stood around President d'Escoto stopping him from starting the meeting. Churkin added that some staff members of the UN Secretariat helped slow thing up, acting "unprofessionally" as he put it. Despite questions from Inner City Press, Churkin declined to name these UN staffers. Video here. 

  Minutes later at the UN's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked the Secretariat's spokesperson Michele Montas for the name of the staff members who service the General Committee meetings. Ms. Montas said she didn't know, but would find out.  Inner City Press put the same question to d'Escoto's Spokesman Enrique Yeves, who said it was more properly a question for the Secretariat. And so it goes.

Churkin at the center of a storm, famine resolution and d'Escoto's version not shown

  Interestingly, Yeves' description differed from Churkin's. He said that d'Escoto never wanted a vote, never wanted the meeting to start - and therefore was not stopped by the US and UK.  Pressed on the matter, Yeves clarified that eventually a vote could be held, but that d'Escoto would prefer consensus, which appears unlikely.

News analysis:  not for nothing, but Nicaragua is for now the only country other than Russia which has recognized the declarations of independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. D'Escoto himself, in  his first press conference at the UN, pointedly said that Georgia was the aggressor in the war this August. So why would d'Escoto be choosing either consensus and silence, or stranger still the US and UK, over Russia? Why would the descriptions of the General Committee meeting(s) given by Russia and d'Escoto, through his spokesman, be so different?

Footnote: during Churkin's press conference, a new face in the briefing room asked two detailed questions about the famine. The second time, he was shouted down as "an NGO."  Churkin made a show of saying, let him ask, then commenting that the fact that a pro-Ukraine NGO was let into the press conference was just another sign of the Secretariat taking sides.  Afterwards, the NGO representative -- reportedly with an expired press pass from the General Debate -- was marched away from the briefing room as other disputes erupted. Only at the UN.

Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on UN, bailout, MDGs

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

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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

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