At
UN,
European
Splits After
Syria Failure,
Lawless
France,
Portugal's 1st
Year
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 9 --
In the wake of
the European
draft
resolution on
Syria failing
in the UN
Security
Council,
differences
between the
four European
members of the
Council have
come into
focus.
As
exclusively
reported
by Inner
City Press
last week, the
United
Kingdom has
taken
the lead in
questioning
the proposed
new prominence
of the
European
Union in UN
General
Assembly
affairs.
The result?
All week in
the
committees of
the General
Assembly, the
EU did not
speak.
The
UK has some
innovative
ideas about
the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
that one hopes
to see
implemented,
even with the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row put in
charge of
DPKO.
Germany,
beyond
joining the US
in voting "no"
on Palestinian
membership in
UNESCO, led
the charge in
slowing
Palestine's
application in
the
Security
Council in a
closed-door
meeting on
October 7,
again as
exclusively
reported
by Inner City
Press. Germany
has generally
served the
press well day
to day.
Of
France we have
and will have
much to say.
They try to block
inclusion of a
human
rights mandate
for the UN
Mission in
Western
Sahara,
MINURSO.
It was
France's open
flouting of
Resolution
1973's arms
embargo on
Libya, by
air dropping
weapons into
the Nafusa
mountains,
that it
pointed to by
other Council
members for
distrusting
the "motives"
behind
the now-failed
Syria draft.
We
will focus
below
on Portugal,
as the
European
member of the
Council which
neither has
nor aspires to
have a
Permanent
seat.
Even Syrian
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari, when
he indicted
the
resolution's
sponsors at
his post-vote
stakeout,
forgot
Portugal until
Inner City
Press asked
what Portugal
ever did to
Syria.
Ja'afari
paused before
saying, they
were
colonialists,
see what they
did in Africa.
But
even in these
former
colonies, at
least those on
the agenda of
the Security
Council,
Brazil has
been taking
the Lusophone
lead. Portugal
has
taken the role
of the "soft"
European.
France, for
example,
accuse
Portugal of
being "soft"
on referring
Libya
and Gaddafi to
the
International
Criminal
Court.
Portugal
responded,
not entirely
unlike India,
that the
referral to
the ICC
perhaps ought
to be part of
a sequence,
not done in
Resolution
1970. This has
led some to
think that
Portugal might
break from the
otherwise
negative
response by
the European
members to
Palestine's
application
for UN
membership.
But that does
not appear to
be the
case.
Portugal
began its
two year
tenure on the
Council with
an attempt to
chair the
Committee
on Working
Methods, to
advance what
its Permanent
Representative
Jose Filipe
Moraes Cabral
says its
commitment to
transparency.
But the
Permanent
Five,
distrusting
this, pushed
to give the
chair to
Bosnia, with a
promise
Portugal could
take it in
January 2012.
After
that,
Portugal's
highest
profile
assignment has
been as chair
of the Libya
Sanctions
Committee. It
has not been
the most
aggressive
chairmanship.
The affable
Cabral is more
open than most
of his
Council,
particularly
European,
peers.
But
at the height
of the
Libyan
conflict he
went on
vacation for
more than a
month. (One of
his peers
remarked to
Inner City
Press that if
a Perm Rep
could "get
away" with
this, while
serving on the
Council, at
least one form
of Security
Council reform
would have
been
achieved.)
Cabral's
subordinates
continued with
the work, but
either weren't
or didn't
think they
were
authorized to
speak as much.
Coverage
suffered.
Cabral speaks,
under eyes of
Araud, Lyall
Grant &
Wittig
Repeatedly
the
press asked
the
Portuguese,
what about
this evidence
that France is
violating the
sanctions and
arm embargo
regime?
Finally Cabral
gave
Inner City
Press one of
the quotes of
the year, that
the Council
"is
not a society
of masochists"
-- that is,
that nothing
would be
done. And so
it happened.
With
Portugal
slated to take
over the
committee on
working
methods in
January, it
will have a
chance to
leave a mark
on the Council
going forward.
Will
it? Watch this
site.
, 
