At UN,
Child Soldiers
Grab Bag Has
Mali Against
MNLA, Sri
Lanka Cited
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
25, updated
-- When the UN
Security
Council's
debate on
Children and
Armed Conflict
proceeding
throughout the
afternoon of
March 25,
countries used
their speeches
for their own
reasons --
and even more
so their replies.
Mali used its
speech to
trash the MNLA
“separatists”
for not
signing on to
a draft deal
which is
widely
protested in
northern Mali
or Azawad.
The
Philippines
said that the
UN's own
Children and
Armed Conflict
website is out
of date, at
least as to
the Moro
Islamic
Liberation
Front of MILF.
(Recently the
UN's refugee
agency UNHCR
cut the
Philippines
some slack,
calling their
fight with the
Bangsamoro
Islamic
Freedom
Fighters a
“law and order
operation.”
That's what
Sri Lanka
wanted its
2009 Bloodbath
on the Beach
to be called.
Who decides?)
Luxembourg,
previously the
chair of the
Security
Council's
Children and
Armed Conflict
committee,
mentioned Sri
Lanka's
previous
action plan
with the UN;
the UN
has deferred
release and
consideration
of its own
report on war
crimes in Sri
Lanka for at
least six
months.
Burundi used
its speech to
praise the
Security
Council for
its visit
earlier in the
month but did
not mention
the arming of
the ruling
party's youth
wing, in
support of a
third term
said to
violate the
agreements in
Arusha.
But who's
watching?
Liechtenstein
said, entirely
accurately,
that armed
groups which
recruit
soldiers were
not watching
the UN
Security
Council's UNTV
webcast.
What about
child soldier
recruitment by
the “moderate”
Syrian groups
members of
which the US
wants to arm
and train as
the vetted
opposition?
There was not
enough mention
of the 89 or
more children
grabbed up in
South Sudan by
a militia
which supports
the government
-- but which Gordon
Brown told
Inner City
Press is a “terrorist”
group led by a
war lord.
What was that
about “law and
order”
operation,
again? So it
goes at the
UN.
Update:
at the tail
end of the
meeting, past
7 pm, Russia
criticized Ukraine's
speech, and
its reply;
Israel replies
on Gaza and
Palestine
fired back,
saying "we are
still
committed to
the two state
solution, the
other side's
commitment is
in question."
Those in the
Children and
Armed Conflict
seats at the
horseshoe
table looked
embarrassed.
This is how it
goes at the
UN: let them
talk.
, 
