At
UN,
Budget Stalls
at 6 AM on
Ivorian $2
Million,
"Backroom"
US Predicted
to Brag
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 24 --
As the UN
budget fight
whimpered past
5 am on
Christmas Eve,
the heralded
US drive for
reform and
transparency
came
down to a
desire to cut
$7 million
rather than $5
million from
the
budget of the
UN Mission in
the Ivory
Coast, UNOCI
-- "just two
million
dollars,"
Fifth
Committee
chairman Tommo
Monthe told
Inner City
Press.
More
than one
delegation
mocked the US
and its
Ambassador on
Management and
Reform
Joe Torsella.
"Watch," one
said, "the US
will claim
this is a big
victory for
them." They
voted with
scorn
Torsella's
"flexibility"
proposal
unveiled for
the first
time at
midnight on
Christmas Eve.
"That
must
have been a
strategy," the
representative
of a smaller
country
said. But it's
not one that's
consistent
with the
transparency
Torsella was
publicly
urging.
The UN's Ivory
Coast mission
seemed a
strange one to
be where the
US drew the
line, given
the weight it
threw behind
the mission's
role in
supporting
Ouattara,
including
bringing in
helicopters
from the even
more
US-favored UN
mission in
Liberia.
Torsella
predicting
done by Dec 20
&
Transparent,
(c) MRLee
Some
diplomats lay
sleeping on
couches on the
first and
second floors
of the North
Lawn
building; the
UN staff
required to
formalize the
votes on
Christmas
eve waited
over cold
pizza and hot
water without
tea
bags.
Recorded
votes
were predicted
on the
Responsibility
to Protect,
and the
Myanmar item
left over from
the Third
Committee due
to Program
Budget
Implications.
"Our
colleagues
left us the
Law of the Sea
too,"
a
representative
said,
predicting a
General
Assembly vote
by 8 am.
Others said
noon. We'll
see.
, 
