Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

Colombia's UN Council Month Ends in Music & Middle East Turmoil, Dissing of EU & Caricom, by France & Ban Ki-moon?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 26 -- Throughout Colombia's month as president of the UN Security Council, diplomats have streamed in and out of the Council chamber for small servings of hot or iced coffee in light brown cups emblazoned with the Juan Valdez image.

The Colombian presidency cannot end, some have joked, twitching. But end it must.

Monday night a the Upper East Side townhouse where Permanent Representative Nestor Osorio lives the end of presidency reception was held, complete with lobster and avocado canapes and music featuring indigenous flutes, a Colombian former child television star and reknown classical guitarist Nilko Andreas and his usual soprano partner Angelica de la Riva, who sadly did not sing.

In the second floor's front room, a mixture of Security Council and Latin America group diplomats mingled exchanging tidbits of information, on Council topics ranging from Syria to Western Sahara (click here and here respectively for those stories.)

In the General Assembly the European Union, it seems, is pushing for action in early May on its request for “special rights in the GA,” as one delegate put it.

The Caribbean regional group CARICOM is said to still be opposed. A European Union leader complained to Inner City Press that the EU doesn't know “what bothers Caricom.” Another developing world diplomat, from Asia, seemed to know: the EU's request to have its representatives including Catherine Ashton speak before member states in the GA. Ah, protocol.

“Caricom's been hard to reach,” the Asian diplomat conceded. “They've been traveling, and they are small delegations to begin with.”

Another Caricom issue, or exclusion, was raised regarding Haiti. To replace current UN envoy Edmond Mulet, a diplomat from Caricom was in the running but rejected. One of the Ambassadors most involved asked Inner City Press, does it have to ONLY be a Latin American?

That is what Osorio has said. Monday night he was gracious, greeting Ambassadors as they came up to the second story, among them the Permanent Representatives of Turkey, Japan, South Africa, Nigeria, Mexico, Venezuela and Morocco. There was a representative of Palestine, but not Polisario.

Osorio & Pascoe in Council, next Prez France & Ban not shown

From the UN Secretariat's Department of Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe and new Security Council Affairs chief Mosves Abelian were seen there, but neither Secretary General Ban Ki-moon nor his advisors Vijay Nambiar or Kim Won-soo. Ban and Kim, to be fair, were earlier attending a malaria event in the GA entrance.

China's Li Baodong appeared to be the only Permanent Representative of the Permanent Five Security Council members in attendance.

From the “host country” the US, Numbers Two and Three were there -- Susan Rice, not present, nevertheless e-mailed out two statements, one on malaria and another on Sri Lanka which unlike many of the diplomats queried on the topic by Inner City Press at the reception did not expresss surprise at Ban Ki-moon's cover letter saying he “is advised” that he cannot order any investigation without the consent of Sri Lanka or a vote by member states.

Click here for Sri Lanka story and report, here for podcast done Monday night after the Colombian reception.

Russia's new jovial Deputy Permanent Representative was there; another diplomat recounted that he served in Burkina Faso when it was still Upper Volta.

Talk turned to Djibril Bassole, the mediator of teh Darfur process in Doha, returning on an emergency basis to become the Burkinabe foreign minister, something on which Inner City Press has asked the Secretariat and on which we'll have more.

The UK's Deputy and spokesman were there, but France's did not appear to be, despite France taking up the Council presidency in May. Ironically earlier on Monday in the Secretariat, French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud had met with Ban on just this topic. That is, unlike some other P-5 Perm Rep, both here in New York, but not at Osorio's. Mais c'est gauche, one frag quipped in a fragment. Watch this site.

Literal Footnote redux: to update our April 6 note about the Colombian Mission's intrepid spokeswoman's foot having been run over that a Turkish diplomatic car, she was up and about and greeting Monday night, joking to Inner City Press that she is going to send the medical bill... to Turkey.

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UN on Syria, “Watered Down” Proposal for Tuesday, Under Yemen Precedent

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 25 -- Amid the crackdown in Syria, among the members of the UN Security Council in New York a draft statement was circulated Monday morning.

In front of the Council Monday afternoon, the Press asked entering Ambassadors what they thought about the draft. “What do you think?” US Deputy Permanent Representative Rosymary Dicarlo said. (She later told Inner City Press that she'd been joking).

Lebanon's Permanent Representative Nawaf Salam said, “That's for tomorrow, not today.” Later another member's Permanent Representative predicted that the Arab League, and thus presumably Lebanon, would be urging to go slow on Syria -- unlike their request on Yemen.

Even the Permanent Representative of one of the countries which introduced the proposal told Inner City Press on Monday evening that the draft is “watered down,” and said their country would prefer a “Security Council debate on Syria, to send a message.”

But it is unclear what message will be sent. Also on Monday evening, Chinese Permanent Representative Li Baodong told Inner City Press that China is concerned about issues getting put so quickly onto the Security Council agenda.

He pointed at the rejection last week in the Council of a draft statement on Yemen, noting that after that, President Saleh reportedly reached an agreement with the regional Gulf Cooperation Council. Under this agreement, which Saleh's own statements have since called into question, Saleh would leave power in exchange for immunity for himself and his family.

One cannot imagine, at least at this point, Assad leaving in this way. Council members were told to get instructions and, on that basis, respond to the draft by 10 am on April 26. Watch this site.

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At UN on Yemen, Russia Blocks Lebanese & German Security Council Statement Supporting GCC

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, April 19 -- When the UN Security Council got a briefing on Yemen on April 19, a statement was proposed by Germany and Lebanon. But it was not agreed to.

Inner City Press has seen the proposed statement, and it is very simple:

“The members of the Security Council heard a briefing from... on the situation in Yemen.

“They expressed their concern at the political crisis in Yemen, and called on the parties to exercise restraint and to enter into a comprehensive dialogue to realize the legitimate aspirations of the Yemeni people.

“They also expressed their full support to the mediation role of the Gulf Cooperation Council.”

A Western spokesperson told the Press pointedly that “the usual suspects” had blocked this simple statement by saying that they needed instructions from their capitals. Other sources in the Council, however, reduce the suspects to a single one: Russia.

They describe a standoff between the second and third highest diplomats in Russia's Mission to the UN -- top ambassador Vitaly Churkin was not involved -- and Lebanon's Permanent Representative Nawaf Salam.

The Russians, they say, asked Salam why Lebanon wasn't taking the anti-statement position. Salam in turn raised his voice, saying that Russia should be following the Arab countries' lead, and that Russia's Ambassador in Beirut would to asked to explain why not.

Inner City Press will venture this explanation: Russia sees the GCC as a pro-American grouping and does not want to support it.

Ban & Saleh, previously, Russia and 2d term not shown

Another Western spokesman, on background, said that the real purpose of the briefing was to provide support to the Gulf Cooperation Council mediation in Yemen. A well placed UN source told Inner City Press this was wishful thinking, that the GCC process would need outside support or “content.”

The reason for the Western countries deferring to the GCC, he said, was that “probably only a GCC country would be willing to take Yemen's president” Ali Abdullah Saleh if he stepped down.

While the UN Secretariat seems to feel positive about the Security Council session and that it could do more in Yemen than the GCC can, others predict that Russia will not get instructions for the rest of the shortened week, and the statement will die. The questions is whether this is another thing Russia will admonish Ban Ki-moon about during his upcoming visit there. We'll see. Watch this site.

Footnote: As US Ambassador Susan Rice left the meeting, she was asked if Syria had also been discussed. “No,” he said. Why not? Because the topic was Yemen, she said as she left. But Syria did come up in the Security Council during Monday's “horizon” briefing by Lynn Pascoe. Watch this site.

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

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

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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