Inner City Press

Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis

Google
  Search innercitypress.com Search WWW (censored?)

In Other Media-eg Nigeria, Zim, Georgia, Nepal, Somalia, Azerbaijan, Gambia Click here to contact us     .

,



Home -

These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis

CONTRIBUTE

Subscribe to RSS feed

BloggingHeads.tv

Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

Video (new)

Support this work by buying this book

Click on cover for secure site orders

also includes "Toxic Credit in the Global Inner City"
 

 

 


Community
Reinvestment

Bank Beat

Freedom of Information
 

How to Contact Us



On Libya, AU Ministers Set to Come to UN June 15, China Opposes Syria Draft

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 1 -- On Libya, an African Union ministerial delegation will come to the UN Security Council on June 15 for an open meeting, the Permanent Representatives of South Africa and China told Inner City Press on Thursday after the Council set its program of work for June.

   Inner City Press first wrote on May 31 about South Africa's proposal of an AU ministerial visit, here.

  The US and UK were against the idea, it was indicated, because the AU while calling for a ceasefire has not called for Gaddafi to leave. A Western spokesman, leaving the Council session, was asked how many AU ministers will come. “I don't know,” he said dismissively.


Ban & UK Hague, notice of copters to Libya not shown

  On the seemingly moribund Syria draft resolution, China's Permanent Representative Li Baodong continued to speak in opposition, telling Inner City Press that for the Security Council to get involved in the business of Syria could only make things worse.

  The play-out in Libya after China and Russia abstained on Resolution 1973 does not help passage of any Syria resolution. Now it is reported that former UK troops are acting essentially as mercenaries in Misurata, paid by Qatar. Has UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gotten or requested any notice or disclosure of this, in the role assigned to him under Resolution 1973? The answer so far has been no. Watch this site.

* * *

After Zuma Libya Trip, AU Visit to UN SC Planned, Forum Shopping as Risk

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 31 -- South African president Jacob Zuma's just concluded trip to Tripoli was discussed by the UN Security Council in closed door consultations on Tuesday.

  Afterward South Africa's Permanent Representative Baso Sangqu told Inner City Press that “there is a African Union ministerial delegation we are planning to have an engagement with the Security Council members,” possible in mid June.

  The danger, Ambassador Sangqu told Inner City Press, is that “if there's a plethora of initiatives there will be forum shopping and no commitment to any of them.”

  At Tuesday's UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky what the relation is between Zuma's endeavors and those of part time UN envoy Abdel-Elah Al Khatib.


Ambassador Sangqu: danger of "forum shopping"

 While Nesirky responded by describing a visit by Al Khatib to Cairo, mentioning Catherine Ashton, the coordination is not clear.

Ambassador Sangqu told Inner City Press that Al Khatib should be in New York in mid June for the meetings.

Footnotes: Another diplomat exiting the Council, asked by Inner City Press about this mid June timing, quipped "if Gaddafi's still there -- or still alive."

 Also at Tuesday's noon briefing, UN spokesman Nesirky told Inner City Press that Ban Ki-moon has not received any notice, under Resolution 1973, of the attack helicopters the UK and France say they are sending, nor of the "boots on the grounds" depicted near Misurata.
 
  The chair of the Council's Libya Sanctions Committee said he'd seen the media report of Western boots on the ground, but nothing had come through the Committee, on that or the report of steps to block Gaddafi's television broadcasts. We'll see.

* * *

As UN Sends “Low Level” Envoy to Libya, Provides “Cover to NATO"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 -- With the UN making much of having sent Jordanian senator and businessman Abdel-Elah Al Khatib as its envoy to Libya, Inner City Press on May 16 asked Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations what he thinks might come of the UN's work on Libya.

  “Nothing,” Cook said flatly. Pressed, he said that even countries which “supposedly have leverage... like Turkey with Assad” of Syria, are having little impact. It has become “existential” for Gaddafi, Assad and Salih of Yemen, he said.

  So sending a “relatively low level Arab functionary, a former foreign minister” like Al Khatib will accomplish little, he predicted. “The UN need to be doing something because it's the UN,” he said.

  Inner City Press asked about the UN's role, under the Security Council's resolutions, in coordinating and record-keeping for enforcement of the Libya no fly zone and arms embargo. Cook was again dismissive. “The UN provided legal cover for NATO in Libya,” he said. And that was it.

  Meanwhile at the UN on Tuesday, the Security Council will get a briefing on Yemen, where the immunity deal brokered by the GCC has fallen apart. No action has been taken, or even tried of late, regarding Syria.

The UN has still refused to “clarify” Al Khatib's contract, how he was at once work for the UN and be a paid Jordanian senator. The UN Department of Political Affairs put Ian Martin in a position for “post transition” Libya, but has refused requests by Inner City Press to describe what Martin is doing, or even what his rank is.

Now Inner City Press is told that Martin wants to replace Haile Menkerios in South Sudan, in a mission that Khartoum is moving to throw out of the North. And so it goes at the UN.

From CFR's May 16 transcript:

OPERATOR:  Thank you.  Our next question comes from Matthew Lee from Inner City Press.

Inner City Press: Yeah, hello.  I cover the U.N. a lot, so I wanted to know -- and I know it's a smaller part of a larger story, but what you guys each think of the U.N. -- I guess the secretary's performance in Libya and Yemen, both of which they have kind of envoys do.  I mean, obviously they're having to, you know, please the major powers, but do you have any insight into -- you have this Jordanian senator, al-Khatib, that they've sent to Libya a couple times.  What do you think is going to come of that?

COOK:  Nothing.  (Pause.)  Is that concise enough?

(Cross talk.)

ROSE:  No, expound, Mike -- I'm sorry -- Steve.

COOK:  Well, no, look, I think that what -- and I think this is the case with any kind of envoy.  And we see this with countries that actually supposedly have leverage and influence in the region, is that the Gadhafis, the Assads, the Salehs of the Middle East, it has now become existential for them.  And so no matter what kind of vaunted leverage the Turks, for example, believe they have with Assad, if it's a choice between what Assad believes is in his interest and what the Turks are telling him to do, he's going to ignore it.

Then you take the U.N., which does not have the same kind of leverage or influence, and they have some moral authority and some, you know, relatively low-level Arab functionary or former prime minister to come over and talk something -- some sort of sense into these people strikes me as -- it strikes me that the U.N. needs to do something because it's the U.N., but there's hardly any reason to believe that they can be effective.

Inner City Press:  And what about the U.N.'s role in the military?  I mean, I'm assuming you're going to say largely the same thing, but supposedly they're coordinating the enforcement of the no-fly zone and the arms embargo.  I mean, is that just sort of a joke?

COOK:  Well, look.  You know, the U.N. has provided legal cover for NATO to be doing what NATO is doing in Libya right now. 

Inner City Press: Asked and answered.

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

 Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate

Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56

Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza

Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate

Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger

Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards

Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

* * *

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

Google
  Search innercitypress.com  Search WWW (censored?)

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

            Copyright 2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com -