Third Day of UN General Debate Gets Surreal, Canapes and Killings, Questions on Iran and Montenegro and Still Somalia

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

UNITED NATIONS, September 20 -- On the sidelines of the unfolding UN General Assembly meeting, surreal scene unfold, such as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov speaking with reporters in front of a graphic photo exhibition of victims of terrorism, while canapes go like hot cakes, literally. This took place Thursday evening, three-quarters of the way through a day of speeches. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a press conference in Conference Room 4 mused which of his questioners were Zionists, and which one "work for the UN... trying to enforce Security Council resolution" like Resolution 1701 barring weapons in Lebanon except for that country's government.

   Ahmadinejad said repeatedly that he supports people who are getting killed, anywhere and by anyone. Time or the MC did not allow for these questions to be asked: what about in Darfur? Or in Xingjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, or Chechnya?

PeaceDay@UN

  Thursday at the UN began with a ceremony for the International Day of Peace, including without explanation Michael Douglas, Jane Goodall and on cello, Yo-Yo Ma. There was singing by a choir of 193 children -- one wag wondered if this was a harbinger of the outcome of the Kosovo status talks, given that there are currently only 192 member states of the UN.

  Number 192, Montenegro, told Media Accreditation, which told the Spokesman's Office, which told correspondents, that the new nation's prime minister would appear at the Security Council stakeout to take questions. Inner City Press passed through metal detectors with two questions to ask. But there was no microphone, no camera, and no Montenegrins. Here though are the questions: what will happen with the weapons Montenegro says it will sell, now that it has split with Serbia? And what are the prime minister's plans, to step down or not? And what about cigarette smuggling? But that would be the third, unanswered question...

   Some statements are so surreal they preempt all questions. Briefing on the Day of Peace, it was read-out that "in Somalia, for example, our office there tells us that communities in major population centers throughout the country are celebrating the Day with special activities ranging from peace marches and sporting events to music and dance." But the UN's own write-up of the Day of Peace quotes UN "Special Representative Francois Lonseny Fall highlighted two 'particularly violent events this week [that] have pushed peace deeper into the shadows,' the murder of an Italian nun who had served the needs of children in Mogadishu and the assassination attempt on President Abdullahi Yusuf in Baidoa. 'I wish I could paint a bright picture for Somalia today, but there are too many clouds, too many uncertainties on the horizon. And there are far too many competing interests that have too little to do with the profound humanitarian needs of the civilian population and the development of the country,' he said." So what happened to the music and dance?

  At the same briefing, Inner City Press was asked to summarize its still-unanswered questions on Somalia. From the transcript:

Question:  What communications has the UN system had with Transition Federal Government since the assassination attempt?  And, I have two questions into OCHA and about Somalia, that if you could light a fire under them…

Associate Spokesman:  And what are those questions?

Question:  Whether OCHA works with a particular member of the Islamic Courts known to have torn up Italian cemeteries and built a mosque on top on them, a known fanatic.  Just a question whether they work with him or not.  And whether in fact there is, as is reported, an investigation of UNDP Somalia for missing funds?  Those are the two questions and both of them said they would give an answer as of last week and have not.

Associate Spokesman:  Well, I’m sure they are still looking into those two questions.  As for your first question, we are permanently in contact with the Somali authorities and we have an office based in Nairobi that specially monitors development in Somalia, and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia has very specifically the mandate of monitoring developments in Somalia.  So, he is touch regularly with the authorities in Somalia.  And, I will make sure that my colleagues get back to you on your two other questions.

  Inner City Press checked in later with the Associate Spokesman and reiterated the questions. So now we'll just wait...

US's Frazer Accuses Al-Bashir of Sabotage, Arab League of Stinginess, Chavez of Buying Leaders

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

UNITED NATIONS, September 21 -- The Al-Bashir government has sabotaged the African Union's Mission in Sudan, AMIS, by delaying visas and dismantling and removing bolts from AMIS armored personnel carriers when they arrive in Port Sudan, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer told a small group of reporters on Thursday. Speaking at the Foreign Press Center in New York, Ms. Frazer said that African leaders will have to answer for inaction on Darfur, and the Arab League for not having given funding. She stated that only Qatar has made a pledge, and that Qatar's is only a reiteration and repackaging of a previous March 2006 pledge.

South Darfur

            Ms. Frazer said that the commander of AMIS is waiting in Ethiopia to receive an already-delayed visa from Sudan.  She questioned why the UN could get 5000 peacekeepers to Lebanon in weeks, but has said it could not be in Darfur until a year after the need became clear, not until January 2007 -- when the newly extended African Union mandate expires. Ms. Frazer stressed that the world must act, because Al-Bashir is openly claiming he should be allowed impunity.

            Asked by Inner City Press for the U.S. position on Uganda's Museveni government's offer of amnesty to Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti and two other leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army who have been indicted by the International Criminal Court, Ms. Frazer said the first priority is peace. She added that Museveni and Uganda's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa are suggesting a more local, Acholi process for the LRA Four, and that the U.S. likes to leave solutions local.

   As another example, Ms. Frazer said it's up to the Congolese, which would be current President Joseph Kabila with whom Condoleeza Rice met this week, to agree to put ex-militia leaders like Peter Karim into the Congolese Army. On other Peter Karim issues raised -- click here for some of the issues -- Ms. Frazer said that she was not aware. She said the same of the April 21, 2006, torching of the village of Kazana by the Congolese Army, with the UN's MONUC present. Just because it's reported doesn't mean it's true, Ms. Frazer said. But the UN has already acknowledged that the huts of Kazana were burned by the Congolese Army.

            Ms. Frazer stated that a major U.S. initiative on the Congo are the "Tripartate Plus One" meetings, the next of which will occur September 22, with representatives of the Congo, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. Whether Uganda's UN-documented lack of cooperation with the UN's attempt to crack down on the exploitation and export of the natural resources of Eastern Congo will be raised by the U.S. remains to be seen.

            Ms. Frazer also denounced the African gambits of both Iran and Venezuela. Wednesday, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez answered Inner City Press' question about Darfur by referring to Venezuela's plans to build an oil refinery in West Africa. 

            Thursday, Ms. Frazer said, "They can buy off a few leaders but it will not last," that "it is just hot promises, hot rhetoric." Ms. Frazer opined that Gambia is reaching out to Venezuela and Iran "and others" because it is not implementing good government initiatives that would be required to receive similar funding from the United States.

            On Somalia, Ms. Frazer rattled off a list of leaders with whom she has met, including the foreign ministers of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. On substantive questions of the involvements of the U.S. and UN in the current Somali chaos, Inner City Press was told that time did not remain for any answers by Ms. Frazer, but that some would be provided Friday by phone. Developing.

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At the UN, Ivory Coast Discussed Without Decision on Toxic Politics, the Silence of Somalia

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

  UNITED NATIONS, September 20 -- In the Ivory Coast the political as well as environmental situation has become toxic, Gerard Stoudmann, Kofi Annan's envoy to Abidjan, told Inner City Press on Wednesday. Following a Mini-Summit meeting that Laurent Gbagbo boycotted, the UN's peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno spoke to the media. Asking about the dumping of toxic waste in Abidjan that led to the disbanding of the country's cabinet, Mr. Guehenno called it a "tragic reminder" that the "broken institutions of Cote d'Ivoire" are now "playing with health." Asked what should happen to those charged with responsibility for the spill, which to date include two French citizens, Mr. Guehenno said that Kofi Annan "will call for accountability" and that those responsible "should be prosecuted."

            Following the Mini-Summit in the basement of the UN, Inner City Press conducted an exclusive interviewed with UN envoy Gerard Stoudmann, who confirmed that Kofi Annan raised the issue of toxic waste at the beginning of the meeting. "I haven't checked for myself," Mr. Stoudmann said, but I've heard the "toxic waste is in the process of being cleaned." Asked about Laurent Gbagbo's invitation this week for UN troops to leave, he noted that Gbagbo said the same in January of this year, then attended the Day of the Peacekeeper at UNOCI in June. "M. Gbagbo," said Mr. Stoudmann, "makes statements of all sorts." He said that so far only the ministers of environment and transportation have paid the price for the dumping of toxic waste.

UN, guns in Guiglo

            Asked if the imprisonment of journalists who linked Gbagbo's wife Louise with the waste had come up at the meeting, Mr. Stoudmann said no. "Too nitty gitty?" asked Inner City Press. "No," said Mr. Stoudmann. "It is symbolic of the type of atmosphere the regime has imposed on Cote d'Ivoire... There is a toxic atmosphere in politics, and there is pollution at different levels."

            Elsewhere in the world of UN peacekeeping, Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman at his Wednesday noon briefing, in light of the U.S.'s fast-offered but perhaps self-serving help, if the UN will help investigate who tried to kill Somalia's president (who has cancelled his speech to the General Assembly). Late Wednesday, this short response arrived: " To date, the UN has not received any formal request from the Somali authorities and therefore has no immediate plans to join the investigation."  At least it's an answer. Inner City Press continues to await long-ago requested answered on Somalia from Jan Egeland's humanitarian OCHA as well as from UNDP. Also unanswerd, from Wednesday's noon briefing, is a question about Kofi Annan and Robert Mugabe, who was spotted on Wednesday outside the Security Council. Patience soon comes second to truth.

On Darfur, Hugo Chavez Asks for More Time to Study, While Planning West Africa Oil Refinery

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

  UNITED NATIONS, September 20 -- Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela who is vying for a seat on the Security Council, said on Wednesday that he would need more time to study the question of Darfur before recommending sending UN peacekeepers or not. As a response to a question on Darfur from Inner City Press, he rattled off the names of African counties he has visited, and those to which he has been invited, including Zimbabwe.

  Chavez spoke of opening an oil refinery in West Africa, presumably through Venezuelan-controlled Citgo. He noted that Venezuela is an observer at the African Union, and said "we are observers, not players, in Africa... we do not want to act like we own the world." He said of Africa, as he said of Mexico and Colombia, that he loves  it. But he did not answer on Darfur. Video here, Minutes 39 to 43.

Red not blue berets

   Chavez did, however, predict that the price of oil would hit $200 a barrel if the U.S. tried to invade Venezuela, a possibility he ascribed to "your Devil President" (in Spanish, "su presidente diablo"). Perhaps for this reason, one correspondent for Japanese television, himself not Japanese, declined to answer Chavez as to where he was from. "This is not about nationality," the reporter answered. Chavez made light of it, saying don't be ashamed. He explicitly praised other Americans, naming Muhammad Ali, Abraham Lincoln, and Pete Rose, of whom he noted the disgrace of betting on baseball but "who could deny his talent." He held up a copy of Noam Chomsky's latest book, as he had in his speech earlier in the day to the General Assembly. (Click here for the speech, so far only in Spanish.) He listed American communities to which Venezuela has provided cut-rate heating oil, from Boston and Chicago to Harlem and The Bronx. He spoke again of baseball and the many home runs there.

   One correspondent recollected a past visit to the UN General Assembly in the late 1980s of a somewhat similar figure, then-Nicaraguan head of state Daniel Ortega. Ortega went to Brooklyn, lead the U.S. to limit the number and scope of visas given to Nicaragua the next year. This year, Venezuela like Iran has raised issues about the U.S.'s processing of visa applications. The UN Secretariat confirms receiving the complaints, but not what's been done about them. Fox News Wednesday morning lamented the UN allowing the presidents of Venezuela and Iran, to which it could have added Bolivia, to "spew their views" with the UN's megaphone. But this is the UN, and questions should be asked -- and answered.

A Tale of Three Leaders, Liberia Comes to Praise and Iran and Sudan to Bury the UN

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

  UNITED NATIONS, September 19 -- Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf on Tuesday sung the praises of UN. To the General Assembly, she thanked the "men and women of the United Nations Military Mission in Liberia [who] have largely comported themselves well." The reference was to sexual exploitation and abuse. There are questions about UNMIL's role, or lack of it, in Liberia's security breakdown, which has led the government to call for vigilantes.

  At a press conference Tuesday, Inner City Press asked President Johnson-Sirleaf about this, and about UNDP reportedly not paying wages due to Liberians. Video here. She said that the vigilante comment -- which was made by her Justice Minister -- has since been clarified, that the call was for community groups to keep their eyes open and call police. Oh.

Prez Johnson-Sirleaf

  Meanwhile, at least two other high profile speakers at the UN on Tuesday took a different approach. Iran's President delivered a detailed critique of the current Security Council, saying that because of the veto rights of five countries, the Council protects only the powerful, while "children are killed in alleyways and streets." Notably, Iran's president and U.S. Senator Norm Coleman have called the Security Council outmoded, a relic in need of expansion.

   Sudan's president Al-Bashir Tuesday told reporters, "Everyone knows who is the real power behind the transition to a UN force... It's an attempt to dismember Sudan" and divide it into five pieces. Then, when asked about all those demonstrating under a banner of "Save Darfur," President al-Bashir said that "Zionist organizations organized the rallies." To that, one CNN reporter followed-up, talking over Bloomberg and other media, until President Al-Bashir opined that maybe CNN is part of the conspiracy as well.

  Meanwhile, General Assembly spokeswoman Sainte informed Inner City Press that the Thai prime minister had cancelled, with only an hour to spare, his appointment to speak to the GA -- while the coup goes on. And, Somalia was bounced from Wednesday into next week due to the substitution away from the head of state, despite the explosive attempt on his life. Tough crowd...
 

Behind the UN Speeches, A Thai Coup, Somali Assassins and Hit-and-Run Chirac Ignoring Ivory Coast

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

UNITED NATIONS, September 19 -- As speeches began in the UN General Assembly, at least two of the planned speaker had more pressing business in mind. Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, already in New York for the General Debate, called a television station in Bangkok to declare a state of emergency. Tanks has surrounded government buildings and a coup d'etat is reportedly underway.

            The president of Somalia, scheduled to speak Wednesday at 4:30, was nearly assassinated on Sunday and his brother and ten others were killed by a suicide bomber in Baidoa. The Islamic Courts Union blame the blast on Ethiopia; others more darkly point the finger at Al Qaeda.

            Meanwhile journalists waited more than an hour for a briefing by French President Jacques Chirac. During the hour long wait, a series of "Reserved" signs appeared on the first two rows of seats. There was grumbling that the questioners had already been selected, including the Associated Press. The UN Correspondents' Association, traditionally given the first question, was told that might or might not take place. "President Chirac will decide," his staffer said.

            When finally Monsieur le President arrived, he made three points, the last of which was ecology. On this he spoke of Kyoto, and vaguely of the abuse of the environment. Inner City Press prepared, as it had at Kofi Annan's spokesman's noon briefing, to ask about Ivory Coast. As highlighted by the Spokesman's Office:

"COTE D'IVOIRE MINI-SUMMIT TO PROCEED: Asked whether it was confirmed that President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d'Ivoire would not show up for the mini-summit on Cote d'Ivoire that was scheduled later this week, the Spokesman said that the United Nations would wait and see whether he comes, although the indication was that he would not. The Spokesman added that the mini-summit would go ahead, and would deal with actions to be taken in the region. It would also address the question of governance before the 31 October deadline."

            Two French citizens, Claude Dauphin and Jean-Pierre Valentini, have now been arrested for their part in the dumping of toxic waste in Abidjan by Trafigura Beheer BV. Inquiring minds want to know what's the Chirac Administration's position on the deaths in Abidjan, and on Laurent Gbagbo's plan to not attend the long-planned September 20 meeting on Cote D'Ivoire, and his invitation for the UN to leave the Ivory Coast? Or how about the Gbagbo administration's prosecution of journalists for suggesting that his wife Simone was connected to the toxic waste? A long-time Cote D'Ivoire correspondent says she heard, years ago, Simone say she would never give up power once she got it.

Kofi, Gbagbo & Banny

  There are also questions, including in the very mainstream press, about Chirac's continued support for the "corrupt" Deby government in Chad, and for having dropped a bomb on Chadian rebels, in support of Deby.

            But neither question was allowed. There was Iran, twice; there was the tribunal on the murder of Lebanese president Hariri, and a question from Arabic television which Chirac unceremoniously refused to answer.  And then he raised both hands and left. "Merci for nothing," a correspondent said. Or, was it aide de camp or aid de con?

  A more productive briefing was given at noon by Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte, who summarized the just-completed meeting on the least developed countries. Inner City Press had specifically asked about the five LDCs which are rich on oil: Angola, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Yemen and The Sudan.  Monday's video here. The answer, a day later, was that the discussion included a recognition that not only are these conflict or post-conflict societies, but also that "absence of good government" and "corruption" are problems as well. The president of Equatorial Guinea is slated to speechify Wednesday at 5:30. While he might address these issues, he probably will not. To be continued.

Other Inner City Press reports are archived on www.InnerCityPress.org - 

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Other Inner City Press reports are archived on www.InnerCityPress.org - 

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