On
Myanmar, France's Total Conflict, China's Hedged Bet, Zimbabwe Precedent for S.
Africa
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
October 11 -- After adopting a weakened Myanmar presidential statement, members
of the UN Security Council emerged to take questions from the press. French
representative Jean-Pierre Lacroix said his country would have preferred a
stronger statement, and said that France will be considering sanctions against
Burmese leaders. Inner City Press asked what, if anything, France will do about
French companies like Total doing business with the Burmese regime. "The
additional activities by Total and other companies are strongly discouraged,"
Amb. Lacroix said, before adding that "in devising whatever further sanctions
against the authorities of Myanmar, we must be attentive to not targeting the
people of Myanmar." Video
here,
from Minute 5:37.
The
French foreign ministry may have something of a conflict in this regard. Bernard
Kouchner, before joining the regime de Sarkozy, was commissioned by Total
to write a report, generally favorable, about its activities in Myanmar,
including photogenic development projects near the Yadana pipeline. Can Kouchner,
now the boss of Ambassadors Lacroix and Jean-Maurice Ripert, now come out
strongly about Total?
Chinese
Deputy Permanent Representative Liu Zhenmin came out, to his credit, and argued
that the solution of Myanmar's problems is up to Myanmar-ians. Implicitly, the
argument is that it is not an international issue, and should not be in the
Security Council, the basis on which China and Russia earlier this year vetoed
the attempt to get Myanmar on the Council's agenda. But what with television
pictures of monks beaten in the street, and the upcoming Olympics (some say),
China agreed to a presidential statement, albeit in modified form, justifying
its agreement as no more than an attempt to support the "good offices" role of
"Professor" Gambari.
Inner
City Press asked Ambassador Liu Zhenmin to confirm that his government has in
fact had contacts with democracy activists, some in exile, from Myanmar,
including the so-called Ottawa Group. Amb. Liu came back to the microphone to
say, "We have good relations with the government of Myanmar, and the people of
Myanmar... for national reconciliation." Video
here,
from Minute 1:56. The idea is, if China admitted to contacts with the other side
of the Myanmar question, it would undermine the government of Gen. Than Shwe.
But China is savvy. Any major power covers its bets and speaks to both sides,
the experts say.
Myanmar energy contract signing, Total not
shown
South African Ambassador Dumisani S. Kumalo came to the stakeout to
talk about the statement. Inevitably, the subtext, at least to Inner City Press,
was South Africa's earlier opposition to the Security Council issuing even a
presidential statement about Zimbabwe, where there have also been human rights
violations, violence, and refugee flows, not least to South Africa. Inner City
Press asked, is this statement a precedent for Council consideration of
Zimbabwe?
Amb. Kumalo, ever the savvy showman, played it as comedy, saying "The American
Ambassador is very happy you raise Zimbabwe." But that's not why Inner
City Press raised it. Amb. Kumalo went on to say, "There are many thousands of
miles between Zimbabwe and Myanmar," and to gamely attempt to distinguish the
two cases "because of the good offices of the Secretary-General" and Gambari in
the case of Myanmar. Video
here,
from Minute 2:10. Finally, he said that while Gambari is meeting with a military
government, Zimbabwe has a democratically elected government, which has "held
elections when it has been necessary." But hasn't Myanmar purported to hold a
constitutional convention? Developing...
* * *
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
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UN Office: S-453A,
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Reporter's mobile
(and weekends): 718-716-3540
