Coomaraswamy
Admits
Problems in
Yemen, Myanmar
& DRC,
Rwanda to
UNSC
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 5 -- In
her farewell
to the UN
press
conference on
Thursday,
Radhika
Coomaraswamy
came to praise
the transition
in
Myanmar,
leading to the
belated
signing of an
action plan on
Children
and Armed
Conflict in
that country.
Inner
City
Press asked
her about the
UN staff
recently
detained by
the
government
there, whose
names the UN
didn't even
want to give
out.
Coomaraswamy,
as has often
been the case
during her
tenure, at
least
acknowledged
that there was
and is a
problem.
Listing
countries in
which child
soldiers are
recruited but
where the US
nevertheless
provides
military aid,
Inner City
Press asked
Coomaraswamy
about the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo and
Yemen. The
latter, she
said, was
only listed
this year; the
DRC is
negotiating a
deal.
(Later
on
Thursday, Rwanda's
Permanent
Representative
spoke of the
DRC with
Inner City
Press, outside
the Security
Council which
his
country will
be joining in
January,
and presiding
over in March.
He said Rwanda
was asked to
mediate,
that's why
they made the
calls. He
spoke again
of Human
Rights Watch
and their
"arrogant"
attitude.
"Countdown on
Ken Roth," he
said. Things
will change in
January.)
Coomaraswamy's
approach,
by contrast,
has not been
arrogant. She
tangled with
countries like
Colombia and
India, mostly
because her
listing of
rebel groups
there led to
attempts to
sign plans of
action and, in
the
authorities'
view, a
legitimization
of the rebels.
Inner
City
Press asked
Coomaraswamy
how to solve
this battle of
perception.
She said her
Office, soon
to be headed
about another,
can only
negotiate in a
country with
the consent of
its
government.
But that
consent
sometimes does
not come easy.
Coomaraswamy's
next
stop will be
just south at
NYU. We wish
her well.
Watch this
site.
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