|
On Zimbabwe Resolution,
All Eyes Turn to Russia and
G-8, France's Stance Questioned
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
July 8
-- As Zimbabwe was discussed
inside the Security Council's closed-door consultations room, outside
the
Ambassadors were spinning, projecting now a vote by the end of the week
on the
resolution to impose sanctions on Robert Mugabe and 11 allies. With an ever more widely held view that China
would not veto a Zimbabwe resolution in the run-up to its Olympic
Games, Russia
is viewed as the wildcard.
While
French
Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert
emphasized to the press that Russia had signed on to the G-8 statement,
implying this meant they would vote for sanctions, Russia's Permanent
Representative Vitaly Churkin stopped to point out that the statement
they
signed on to contains no reference to the UN Security Council. So what if the Southern African Development
Community preemptively adopted some form of sanctions?
If the
resolution gets watered down to only cover luxury goods, could South
Africa
support it? Inner City Press asked Dumisani Kumalo, South Africa's
Ambassador,
who quipped that there are not many luxury goods left in the country.
Video here.
That may be
true for nearly all Zimbabweans, but what would Mugabe's Saville Row
suits? Or
things bought with the funds he's said to stash in Malaysia?
Amb. Ripert spins to French press, Amb.
Kumalo's charge of colonialism
not shown
South
African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo quoted the French presidency of the
European
Union as saying that the only acceptable outcome is the primacy of the
Movement
for Democratic Change. That is not helpful, Kumalo said, the French
trying to
choose leaders for Africans. Video here.
But France
has been known to do it, one wag muttered in Amb. Ripert's wake.
|
