At
ICC Debate,
Nothing on UN
Partying with
Bashir, Air
Harun, Libya
Missing?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 17 --
With the "Rule
of Law," or
really
the
International
Criminal
Court, the UN
Security
Council's
topic for
debate on
Wednesday, 55
countries
signed up to
speak. But
Libya was
not among
them, despite
currently
arguing
against
transferring
Saif
Al-Islam
Gadhafi to the
ICC.
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon,
as is the
custom, spoke
first. He
described the
UN's work with
the ICC, but
didn't mention
that his envoy
to Darfur
Ibrahim
Gambari
partied at a
wedding
reception with
ICC-indictee
Omar
al-Bashir, nor
that the UN
flew fellow
indict Ahmad
Harun to
Abyei.
Behind
Ban was his
top lawyer,
Patricia
O'Brien, who
has for months
sat on a
legal claim
against the UN
for
introducing
cholera into
Haiti. How
can the UN
preach rule of
law if it does
not practice
it?
Early
in the
proceeding, an
African
Permanent
Representative
leaving the
proceedings
stopped and
told Inner
City Press,
"the ICC is
all
about Africa,
but look at
the audience.
Even, look at
the speakers.
Keep it up."
On
her way in as
the debate
began, Inner
City Press
asked US
Ambassador
Rice the
obvious
warm-up
question, "I'm
sure you
watched the
debate"
between
President
Obama and Mitt
Romney.
Rice
smiled and
said, "Ya
think?" She
then rushed
into the
Council. The
issue of
Administration
statements
about the
deadly
Benghazi
attacks was
central to the
debate. But at
the UN,
endless
one-way
debating
continued:
without Libya.
The
UN is mostly
about SEEKING
positions. The
speakers list
included the
foreign
ministers of
Finland and
Luxembourg but
not Australia,
with
which they
will compete
this week for
two Security
Council seats.
The
Permanent
Representative
of Finland
Jarmo
Viinanen told
Inner City
Press his
country
has 165
commitments;
Australia's PR
Gary
Quinlan
told
Inner City
Press he has
162.
With
Luxembourg
supporters
issuing a
count of 150,
several UN
member
states are
dissembling:
and not only
on the
elections.
Watch this
site.
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