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In UN Council, Zimbabwe Added to Vietnam
President's Agenda, Myanmar Still in Limbo
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
July 2 -- Zimbabwe will be
discussed in the UN Security Council this month, and Myanmar may be,
the Council's
president for July, Vietnam's Mr. Le Luong Minh, told the Press on
Wednesday. In the schedule he passed
out, both issues were confined to footnotes, meaning they might or
might not
come out. But U.S. Ambassador to the U.S. Zalmay Khalilzad, moments
before the
Vietnamese mission's briefing, announced that Zimbabwe will be
discussed on
Tuesday, with a briefing by UN Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose
Migiro.
Inner City Press asked Le Luong Minh about
Khalilzad's statement, and he insisted that no agreement on time or
format had
yet been made. Video here.
Later at a reception in Amb. Khalilzad's rooms atop
the Waldorff Towers, Le Luong Minh was seen in animated discussion with
Khalilzad.
Inner City
Press asked if Myanmar will come up, and Le Luong Ming said that
remains to be
seen. He made a point of saying that some on the Council don't think
the
situation in Myanmar is a threat to international peace and security.
Inner
City Press asked UN spokesperson Michele Montas if the UN's envoy on
the
politics of Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, is currently working for the UN,
or is on
leave working on Niger Delta issues in Nigeria. Ms. Montas said she'll
find
out; her response if and when received will be incorporated into this
site.
Le Luong Minh on Wednesday,
Myanmar briefing not shown
On
International Criminal Court indictments, Inner City Press asked Le
Luong Minh
if he or the Council have received letters from the Congo's Jean-Pierre
Bemba
or from Uganda's Joseph Kony, asked that indictments be suspended for a
year or
entirely vacated. He said that since he
has been President of the Council -- 36 hours at most -- he has not
received
any such letter. Nor any letter from Georgia, asking the Council to
consider
Abkhazia's shutting of its borders with Georgia, after bombs went off.
There
may be a cold war brewing. And this month, Vietnam presides over the
Council.
Footnote: Earlier
on Wednesday, Inner City Press
asked Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki about reports his
country has
applauded Robert Mugabe's dubious re-election in a vote in which the
major
opponent withdrew after violence. Mottaki said that "some countries may
desire to interfere in other peoples... Special individuals or trends
are
strengthened or weakened," he said. Video here,
from Minute 55. "This
is a wrong trend. Britain in Afirca, there is a long history of
interfering
there. Countries should avoid interfering," he said. Again, there may
be a
new cold war brewing.
* * *
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
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[at] innercitypress.com
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