At
UN,
Illicit Flows
Range from
Azawad to
Child Organs,
Wrong
Organ Alleged
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 25 --
When the US
scheduled a
debate on
so-called
Illicit Flows
for near the
end of its
month as
President of
the UN
Security
Council,
several other
Council
members
expressed
confusion
to Inner City
Press about
both the name
and purpose of
the session.
"It
sounds
like a
disease," one
Permanent
Representative
joked.
Another,
more
seriously,
said this was
a matter for
the General
Assembly, not
the Security
Council.
This
latter point
was repeated
Wednesday
during the
debate (now
re-named
"cross-border
trafficking
and movement,"
not flows) by
India's Deputy
Permanent
Representative,
who called the
Security
Council the
wrong
organ.
After
the 14 other
members of the
Council spoke,
US Ambassador
Susan Rice
read out first
here statement
-- in fairness
we
link to it
here --
then the
agreed on
Presidential
Statement.
In the
Security
Council reform
debate,
several have
argued that
such PRSTs
should not be
read, or
even agreed,
until after
the Council
hears from
member states
which
are not on the
Council. But
that did not
happen
Wednesday.
As
the debate
proceeded, the
flow of
Gaddafi
weapons into
Mali and
beyond was a
recurrent
theme. Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Briens of
France,
which air
dropped
weapons into
Libya's Nafusa
mountains,
denounced
illicit flows,
apparently
without irony.
Later,
Libya's
Ibrahim
Dabbashi
denounced the
Azawad
formation in
Northern Mali,
saying it was
created by
people who had
been armed,
trained and
even
in some cases
given Libyan
citizenship by
Gaddafi.
South
Africa's
Baso Sangqu
also mentioned
the flow of
weapons out of
Libya, but as
a
critique of
the unintended
consequences
of the NATO
campaign in
Libya.
Notably,
when the
French Mission
to the UN
promoted the
upcoming NATO
meeting in
Chicago via
Twitter, it
emphasized
Afghanistan,
"Smart
Defense,"
Balkans, Iran
and Syria --
not even
mentioning
Libya, much
less any
inquiry into
the killing of
civilians
including
rescue workers
in
Majer, Libya.
Earlier
in the
week, Inner
City Press
asked Israeli
Permanent
Representative
Ron
Prosor about
Turkey
blocking
Israel from
attending the
NATO meeting
in Chicago. He
said he didn't
have the
details.
Israel's
speech
on illicit
flows drew a
response in
the afternoon
from Iran --
whose
Ambassador
stopped
afterward to
muse to Inner
City Press
that the
issue of Abu
Mousa island,
owned by Iran
"for 2,500
years before
those others
were even
countries,"
should have
been raised by
the United
Arab Emirates,
not as
happened from
Saudi Arabia.
(Their
explanation
is that they
speak at the
UN for the
Gulf
Cooperation
Council, which
designed the
still
controversial
immunity deal
for Ali Saleh
in
Yemen.)
The
last speaker
on
illicit flows,
previously
unscheduled,
was a Syrian
diplomat who
ended at least
as translated
by saying that
now gangs led
by Israelis
are
trafficking
children's
organs.
Immediately
after that,
the US
diplomat
chairing the
meeting said,
there are no
further
speaker
inscribed on
my list, and
gaveled the
meeting
closed.
What
did it all
come to? We'll
say at the end
of the month,
when we'll
also compare
the number and
content of
Ambassador
Susan Rice's
stakeout to
those
of Mark "Gold
Standard" (for
now) Lyall
Grant the
month before.
Then
we'll welcome
in Azerbaijan
as Security
Council
president for
May.
Will there be
an Azeri
"Horizon"
debate by the
Department
of Political
Affairs, with
will the new
American --
likely Jeffrey
Feltman -- by
installed at
DPA in May?
Watch this
site.
, 
