Libya
Echo Stalls
C-34 Draft,
Costs &
Accountability
for
UN Political
Missions
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 16 --
Echoes of the
Libya conflict
reached the
UN's
C-34 committee
on
peacekeeping,
sending
negotiations
into Friday
night after
the
translators
left. The US
and European
Union were
opposing
proposed
language that
protection of
civilians
should not be
used to change
governments.
But
they were also
opposing a
proposal that
the same
conduct and
discipline
standards
applicable to
UN
Peacekeeping
missions
should apply
to "special
political
missions" like
Iraq and
Afghanistan.
As one
Non-Aligned
Movement (and
troop
contributing
country)
representative
told Inner
City Press,
"why should
our soldiers
in
peacekeeping
be held
accountable,
but your
people in
Special
Political
Missions
are not?"
The
US, led by
uber-Tweeting
Ambassador Joe
"One-Way"
Torsella, and
the EU
were also
trying to
limit payments
for troops
costs. They
were countered
by an argument
that since
compensation
for UN
Peacekeepers
is barely over
$1000 a month,
but NATO
soldiers get
four times
that, maybe
that latter
are
"mercenaries."
Or, one wag
suggested,
"bounty
hunters."
There
is another
brewing budget
fight, about
why Special
Political
Missions like
those
in Iraq,
Afghanistan
and now Libya
should be in
the regular UN
budget
instead of in
the
peacekeeping
budget for
which the
Permanent Five
members of the
Security
Council,
creator of
these
missions, pay
more.
The reference
above to the
US' Joe
Torsella is
that despite
repeated
Press requests
that he state
the
US position on
the proposed
new DC-5
building for
the UN, Inner
City Press has
been told to
just "read
Joe's tweets."
But even on
Friday, as
Torsella tweeted
from a
listed closed
consultation
of the Fifth
(Budget)
Committee, he
did
not answer direct
questions
Tweeted at him.
Rather, he re-tweeted
about "the
boss"
@AmbassadorRice
flying from
New York to
Washington on
Friday, in
coach,
without
providing the
thrice
requested
position of
the US Mission
to the UN.
Hence, Joe
"One-Way"
Torsella. We
will continue
on this.
Footnote:
Across
the hall from
the ongoing
meeting of the
C-34 (a
committee
which used
to have just
34 members)
was a meeting
of the
similarly
misnamed
G-77, which
used to have
only 77
members.
There, Inner
City Press is
told, Kenya's
Ambassador
made demands
about the
Group's
position.
"What he
really wants,"
a well placed
G-77 source
told
Inner City
Press, "is to
make sure if
there's a new
environmental
agency that it
stays in
Nairobi, and
doesn't get
'stolen' by
Germany or
Denmark." Or
France. We'll
have more on
this.
, 
