To
UN
for Sanctions
Vote, Eritrean
Rep Tells
Press "No One
Will
Come" on Short
Notice
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 2 --
"No one will
come" from
Asmara to
the UN in New
York on
Monday,
Eritrea's
Permanent
Representative
Araya Desta
told Inner
City Press
after 5 pm on
Friday.
After
a
Security
Council fight
resulting in
an eleventh
hour
invitation to
President
Isaias Afwerki
to address the
Council on
Monday
just before
new
sanctions on
Eritrea are
slated to be
voted on,
throughout Friday
afternoon
there was
discussion
that the US
hadn't come
through with
visas.
But
by 5 pm the
US bragged
that 11 visas
were being
granted, for
pick up
Saturday
morning.
This
put the ball
back in
Eritrea's
court. Three
times Isaias
Afwerki had
asked to
address the
Council before
it votes on
further
sanctions. The
request
was ignored
until Gabon
and the United
States on
November 29
pushed
for a vote on
sanctions the
next day.
Facing
opposition,
it was agreed
to invite not
only Isaias
Afwerki and
but
also leaders
of Eritrea's
neighbors to
address the
Council Monday
morning, then
vote on Monday
afternoon.
But
as Desta told
Inner City
Press on
Friday night,
this schedule
lacked due
process.
He said, "They
[fouled] it
up, I'm sorry
to say it that
way.
That's what
Doctor Rice
wants. No one
is coming."
Desta
provided
reasons of
timing, and of
due process,
first calling
it "short
notice, we
would have had
to arrange a
charter. You
don't ask a
president to
come within a
day and a
half." Still
he
emphasized,
"My President
was ready to
come."
Then
Desta pointed
out that the
sanctions
resolution
will already
be "in blue"
-- what if
Security
Council
members wanted
to consult
that capitals
after hearing
the morning's
speeches?
He
said, "the
Security
Council should
take time, the
experts should
meet and
discuss on
each and every
paragraph.
They don't
want to do
that. There is
no crisis in
the region. So
what is the
reason they
are
bringing it in
a rush? You
wrote it
yourself, they
didn't want to
deal with the
Russians."
To
many, the push
on November 29
to haul off
and vote on
November 30,
the last day
of
Portugal's
Council
presidency, seemed
strange.
Desta said,
"the
way Doctor
Rice has done
was
imposition,
really
outrageous."
(c) UN Photo
Araya Desta,
Perm Rep of
Eritrea: "No
one will come"
It
does look like
a strange
compromise
now. As one
Council member
mused to Inner
City
Press, "to put
a head of
state into a
situation in
which he
speaks to the
Council in the
morning, and
they adopt
sanctions
against his
country in the
afternoon, is
a set-up for a
no-show."
Another
suggested
that the
Council should
have scheduled
the President
to speak as
early in
December as he
could, and
then hold the
vote on
another
subsequent
day. But that
appears no
longer here
nor there. "No
one will
come," Desta
told Inner
City Press.
Watch this
site.
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