For
UNSC's Uruguay May, ICP
Asks of Yemen, Burundi
and Western Sahara,
Peacekeeping
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
May 1 – With the Presidency of
the UN Security Council for May
being taken over by Uruguay,
Ambassador Elbio Rosselli on May
1 took questions from
the media about the month's
Program of Work. Inner City
Press asked him about new envoys
for Burundi (Michel
Kafando) and Western
Sahara (Horst
Kohler, apparently Inner
City Press' 227th
question on Western Sahara
according to Morocco's count),
and about the May 30 meeting
on Yemen. Video
here. Rosselli said the
envoys are up to the Secretary
General and spoke about
Morocco's ouster, now reversed,
of the MINURSO mission. On
Yemen he said the meeting is
at the end of the month
because it is hard to move
these around, it's like
Tetris. On behalf of the Free
UN Coalition for Access Inner
City Press asked Rosselli
after the month's eight closed
door consultations to hold
on-camera stakeouts on UNTV.
We note
that Frente Polisario's April
28 stakeout, unlike that of
Morocco's Omar Hilale, is
still as of this writing on
May 1 not on the UNTV website.
We'll have more on this.
Back at
the beginning of March,
then-incoming UNSC President
Matthew Rycroft of the UK
answered Inner City Press on
Burundi by referring to France
as the penholder. On Yemen --
on which the UK holds the pen
-- he said sometimes there is
a benefit to a closed door
discussion. Fine: but what's
the problem with an open
briefing, then closed
consultations? The Free
UN Coalition for Access
will continue to pursue this.
On Yemen
Inner City Press also asked if
the UK's findings as it looks
into more than 250 incidents
of the Saudi led coalition
will be shared with the
Security Council. It remains
unclear.
At the end,
Inner City Press asked Rycroft
if Nick Kay is still a
candidate to be UN Envoy to
Libya. Rycroft said the UK
supports current envoy Martin
Kobler but if he is to be
changed, it should be fast,
there is momentum.
Rycroft
said that civil society will
be invited to participate in
the month's wrap up session, a
first. Boris Johnson will
chair the March 23 meeting on
South Sudan, and something on
Somalia later that day. We'll
have more on this.
***
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