China
& Koreas
Take On Japan,
France Quotes
Bismarck, Of
DRC &
Rwanda
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 29 --
The UN
Security
Council debate
on "War,
its lessons,
and the search
for a
permanent
peace" on
January 29
featured
several rounds
of fighting on
issues ranging
from Japan and
World War II
to Russia and
Georgia,
Armenia and
Turkey, Rwanda
and
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo.
Chinese
Permanent
Representative
Liu Jieyi told
Inner City
Press he would
be
raising the
issue of
Japanese prime
minister Abe
visiting the
Class A
War Criminals"
in the
Yasukuni
shrine, and he
did. He said,
"What Abe is
doing is to
try to reverse
the verdict on
the war
and defend war
criminals."
Hours
later when
Japan spoke,
it argued that
there are
others, not
just war
criminals, in
the Yasukuni
shrine. Its
response on
comfort women
--
sexual slavery
-- did not
convince South
Korea, which
replied that
it
is not a
charity issue,
that Japan
must accept
legal
responsibility.
North
Korea, or the
Democratic
People's
Republic of
Korea, said
much
the same
thing: a rare
chance for rapprochement,
courtesy of
Jordan
which proposed
and sponsored
the debate.
That
the debate was
in the
Security
Council was
questioned by
some, who
saw the
Council once
again grabbing
terrain that
belongs to the
193
states in the
General
Assembly.
India's
Permanent
Representative
Mukerje
opposed any
idea for the
UN to get
involved in
re-examining
historical
narratives
(Mukerje told
Inner City
Press this
could be
inferred from
Jordan's
concept
paper.)
Georgia
talked
about Russia
giving 500
vehicle
permits for
the Sochi
Olympics
to Abkhazia;
Russia's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Pankin used a
short reply to
mention South
Ossetia as
well.
Armenia
and
Turkey, the
last of the
replies, "did
not have a
common
understanding,"
as Turkey put
it, of events
in 1915.
Turkey said
the UN had not
called it a
genocide.
Kenya
spoke about
the
International
Criminal
Court, saying
it must work
harder to be
impartial and
not to
"manipulate
justice for
the
powerful."
France's
Gerard
Araud said,
without
mentioning the
Shah, that
Iran was once
an
ally of Israel
(whose Ron
Prosor
mentioned not
only Rwanda
but also
Cambodia).
Araud cited
the Kaiser and
quoted from
Bismarck; it
hearkened back
to Araud's
statement to
the Assemblee
Nationale on
June 12,
2013 that
Rwanda is like
"the Prussia"
of its region.
The
DRC used its
speech to talk
about Rwanda
and the M23
rebels.
Rwanda's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
replied with a
series of
questions: was
it Rwanda who
killed
Lumumba? Was
Rwanda
responsible
for Mobutu?
Who hosted and
failed to
separate the genocidaires
from
Rwanda in
1994? We'll
have a
separate story
on this
question.
Watch
this site.
Footnote:
Tellingly,
even as China
spoke about
war crimes and
Japan, the UN
spokesperson's
office loudly
squawked that
correspondents
should go to
the Agence
France-Presse
(and Kyodo)
farewell
drinks hosted
by UNCA,
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
War crimes,
shwar crimes.