By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 27 --
After the UN
Security
Council
adopted a
resolution
against the
paying of
ransom to
kidnappers,
Inner City
Press asked UK
Ambassador
Mark Lyall
Grant if he
thinks that
France pays or
works with
companies like
Areva to pay
ransoms.
Lyall
Grant
responded that
since France
is a member of
the G8, it had
agreed last
year not to.
But what about
the release of
Father
Vandenbeusch
by Boko Haram?
And the
release in
Niger of
Pierre Legrand
and Daniel
Larribe?
In the
Security
Council after
the vote,
Argentina took
the floor to
explain its
reservations
about the
resolution and
process,
including that
it should have
been dealt
with in the
General
Assembly, and
not in the
more limited,
five-country
dominated club
of the
Security
Council.
(Inner City
Press asked,
and Lyall
Grant said he
had no
objection to
it being
considered in
the General
Assembly as
well.)
But
France didn't
speak. (Its
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud
was present,
perhaps mostly
for the
session to
follow on
France's
former colony
Cote
d'Ivoire.) Is
France
agreeing to
live by this
resolution it,
as a Permanent
Five member of
the Council,
is preaching
to others,
including the
provisions
about private
companies? Or
it another
case of "Do as
I say, not as
I do?"
Also,
after Robert
Fowler and
Louis Guay
were kidnapped
while working
for the UN in
Niger -- until
then not known
-- and then
ultimately
released,
cables
released by
Wikileaks
assert that
Canada (and
Austria) "pay
ransom."
What is their
response to
this UN
Security
Council
resolution?
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
Just by
coincidence
(?) Pamela
Falk of CBS
the president
of the United
Nations
Correspondents
Association, degenerated
into the UN's
Censorship
Alliance,
tried to ask
the first
question to
Lyall Grant,
as if this
were a
precedent or
tradition.
It is not, and
should not be
allowed to be,
given UNCA's
and its
"leaders'" repeated
descent into
censorship,
for example
about Sri
Lanka,
also for
France and officials
it places on
the UN
payroll,
and even by blocking
access to
leaked
documents by
Google's
Search,
abusing the
Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act.
There should
be no sacred
cows, no "Holy
Seats."
And
we'll
wait to see Falk's
and CBS'
story
on
the anti-ransom
resolution. Watch
this site.
Here
is the UK
mission's
transcription:
Inner
City Press:
What do you
make of the
questions
raised by
Argentina
after the vote
and also, do
you believe
that either
France pays
ransoms or
coordinates
with
countries,
like Areva, to
pay ransoms
for kidnapped
employees of
such
enterprises.
Amb Lyall
Grant: I can’t
speak on
behalf of
Argentina or
France.
Argentina’s
concerns
seemed to be
that they
wanted the
General
Assembly more
involved, not
just the
Security
Council and we
have no
problem with
that. This is
the start of a
process and
we’re looking
to engage with
other UN
bodies and
with other UN
Member States
to take
forward this
issue, but
because it is
focussed on
counter-terrorism
and tackling
the threat of
financing for
terrorist
activities
caused by
kidnapping, we
do think it
was right to
bring this
issue to the
Security
Council. On
France, as you
know, France
is a member of
the G8, and
all G8 leaders
expressly
rejected the
payment of
ransom to
terrorists for
kidnaps in the
June G8 summit
last year.
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