UN
Mute on Sudan,
Syria and Sri
Lanka, with
UNSC to
Meet, UPR to
Come
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 31 --
On issues the
UN purports to
care about, it
has gone
silent even
now with Hurricane
Sandy gone
and other
institutions
in New York,
like the stock
market, open
again.
On
Wednesday
morning Inner
City Press
posed
questions to
the four top
spokespeople
for Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, who
has been been
in
South Korea
collecting the
Seoul Peace
Prize. Inner
City Press
asked
about Sudan,
Bahrain, Sri
Lanka and
again Myanmar.
Before
Hurricane
Sandy arrived,
Ban's
spokesperson
told Inner
City Press the
UN has nothing
to say about
Myanmar beyond
its October 25
statement,
and that if
and when it
had something
to say, on
that and
Syria, it
would be
announced.
Little to
nothing has
followed.
And
so after the
New York Stock
Market opened
Wednesday
morning, Inner
City Press
asked the
four:
if
the
Secretariat /
SG or Mr.
Nambiar have
any role in or
response to
ASEAN's
call for
tripartite
talks among
the UN, ASEAN
and Myanmar
about the
violence
against the
Rohingyas (and
any comment on
Myanmar's
seeming
rejection of
such talks,
or the
violence in
the
past four
days).
Also,
any UN
position on
Bahrain's
prohibitions
on peaceful
protest?
Any
information or
statement on
the reported
resumed
bombings in
Southern
Kordofan?
On
the eve of the
UN
Human Rights
Council's
Universal
Periodic
Review of
Sri Lanka, is
the Obaid /
Petrie report
finished? What
(three?) other
people worked
on it? Has
anyone in the
Secretariat or
the SG seen
it?
Will it be
released?
When?
Hours
later, even as
the UN
Security
Council
prepared to
meet about
Somalia
and "Women,
Peace and
Security," the
UN hadn't
managed any
response. In
fact, it has
left it to
Security
Council
missions like
the UK and US
(which
announced it
had re-opened)
to announce
the Security
Council
meeting.
A supposed
improvement to
UN Television
webcast has
made it so it
is not
viewable, at
least on
Android phones
(unlike, for
example, the UK
House of
Commons).
And this
freeze-out was
before Sandy.
Will it be
fixed?
While
snarky, when
the UN Library
tweeted that
its collection
might be
damaged, one
wag wondered
if that's
where they
stored the
cable from
Kigali
predicting the
Rwanda
genocide.
Watch this
site.
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