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At UN, Iran and Sudan Indictment Freeze Are Not on August's
Agenda, Ban's Heat-Up Is
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
August 4 -- As the Security Council
presidency passed from Vietnam to Belgium, from July into August, a previously-Pressing
Sudan item dropped from sight, while the re-emerging issue
of sanctions on Iran was not on the agenda.
Jan
Grauls, as Council president, took questions from the Press about the
month's
program of work. Inner City Press went first, and after foreshadowing
the Iran
questions that would follow, asked what happened with the hottest
end-of-July
topic, the possible freezing
of the International Criminal Court's proceedings
against Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir. China's Ambassador to the UN
Wang
Guangya on July 31 told the Press that "in the next few weeks,
interested
parties" should take the matter up. But
Belgium's Grauls on August 4 replied, "At this
time no
delegation has requested consultations or announced intentions to take
this up
at any particular moment. I do know China's Ambassador made the
statement you
have referred to." Video here,
from Minute 16:53.
It is worth
noting that while China's Amb. Wang's comments
were in front of the UN
Television cameras in front of the Security Council, the footage was never
included in the UNTV webcast archives.
Amb. Grauls
went on to say that not only China wants the issue considered, that
that
"if no delegation objects," a discussion of the issue was be
scheduled. This raises the question of whether the U.S., which
abstained even
from the extension of the Darfur peacekeeping mission mandate because
including
the possibility of considering the indictment freeze would "send the
wrong
message, might not by the same logic try to block debate on the
possible
freeze. Some say it is an unwritten rule not to block debate -- but
several
items, including at various times Myanmar and Zimbabwe, have been
blocked from
consideration. Some items never even come up, due to the shadow of the
veto,
even over agenda items.
Amb. Grauls take the presidency, Iran and
Article 16 not yet shown
On Iran,
despite the U.S. choosing to make its statement about moving for more
sanctions
at the UN, Amb. Grauls declined to discuss or even comment on it.
Several
reporters expressed frustration, likening the refusal to even dodge the
questions to an unhelpful clerk in the middle of a bureaucracy like the
Department of Motor Vehicles. In any event the issue will come up.
On the
agenda, under the code of Resolution 1244, is Russia's demand for a
meeting
about the still-suppressed UN report on its use of force in North
Mitrovica on
March 17. Djibouti and its stand-off with Eritrea is included in a
footnote,
"Peace and Security in Africa," about which Inner City Press asked if
Zimbabwe was also included. Amb. Grauls' answer was not clear. Video here.
His answer
on another disappearing item, the Cambodia -Thailand temple dispute,
was
clearer: the issue is off the agenda, at the request of Cambodia. ASEAN
breathes
a sigh of relief.
Footnote:
on Sudan, it is said that the new
UN-AU mediator, former foreign minister of Burkina Faso, will be in New
York
tomorrow. But he is not scheduled to speak to the media, and Ban
Ki-moon is out
of town in Mexico City. There is growing grumbling among staff, that
while they
sweat in the UN headquarters rendered ever-hotter by Ban's climate
change
decision to cut down air conditioning, Ban is away in a hotel, and
soon to go
on vacation. Charity begins at home, one staff member send, carrying a
brand
new fan toward the UN elevator. If fan use increases, the cost and
climate
savings will be reduced.
Watch
this site.
* * *
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
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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