CAR
Idle at UN, No
French
Statement
Emerges, Only
Feltman &
the Experts
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Blog
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 4, updated
-- The first
crisis on the
UN Security
Council's
agenda for
January is the
Central
African
Republic.
On
January 3,
after a
briefing by UN
Department of
Political
Affairs
chief Jeffrey
Feltman,
French
Ambassador Gerard
Araud told the
press
France would
circulate a
statement that
night and"I
hope it will
be issued
tomorrow, I
think there is
unity of the
Council, I
guess
there won't be
any problem."
Before
10 am on
January 4, the
French Mission
to the UN
issued
bilingual
tweets that
the CAR press
statement was
"being
prepared."
But when Inner
City Press got
to the
Security
Council
stakeout,
where
such
statements are
read out, there
was no UNTV
camera,
tweeted photo
here.
The
month's
Security
Council
president,
Pakistan's
Masood Khan,
worked
throughout the
day, meeting
with
humanitarians
and UN
Sudan envoy
Haile
Menkerios,
who opined to
Inner City
Press about
mediators the
other party,
South Sudan,
would not
accept.
Council
members'
experts
huddled to
work on a
statement for
Pakistan's
January 15
open debate on
"a
comprehensive
approach to
counter
terrorism."
But still: no
statement on
the Central
African
Republic.
There
are questions
to be asked,
for example
about the
teetering
Bozize
government's
arrest of
perceived
supporters of
the Seleka
rebels,
including on
ethnic and
religious
lines.
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
about this
on Thursday,
as well as if
Feltman would
take questions
on the topic.
Feltman,
who
generally
affable, did
not take any
press
questions on
Thursday
as his
entourage left
the Council,
back through
the UN garage
to
their offices
in the
re-opened 38
story tower.
What
was the story,
then, on the
Central
African
Republic
statement?
Inner
City Press tweeted
the question
at the French
Mission, in
English
(4:15 pm) then
French
(4:25 pm),
without reply.
Social
media,
increasingly
relied on in
diplomatic and
UN circles, is
supposed to be
a two-way
street. But
still no
answer. And at
5:24 pm the UN
announced,
"there is no
balance, the
lid is on." So
what happened,
France?
Update:
And then past
6 pm, with no
live UN
webcast, there
was the
statement --
no reference
to Bozize's
arrests -- and
a stakeout,
Inner City
Press asked
Ambassador
Khan two
questions, click
here.
, 
