Jibril of
Libya TNC
Tells Press
NATO Almost
Done, Catching
Gaddafi Is Key
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 23
-- When
Mahmoud Jibril
appeared for
UN press
conference on
Friday, it was
the first
since the
Transitional
National
Council he
heads was
given Libya's
seat at the
UN. Inner City
Press asked
Jibril two
questions,
about NATO and
the
International
Criminal
Court.
Jibril
had said that
the south is
liberated,
Sirte will be
in 48 hours
and Bani Walid
is under
seige, "we are
squeezing it."
Inner City
Press asked if
that is true,
when will
NATO's
protection of
civilians
mandate end?
"When
the need [to
protect
civilians] is
not there,"
Jibril
answered, "I
don't think
there is a
need for
NATO... Once
the whole
Libyan
territory is
liberated."
According to
him, if Bani
Walid falls
after Sirte,
that's it for
NATO.
Inner
City Press
asked for
Jibril's and
the TNC's view
on whether
Gaddafi and
the other ICC
indictees
should be sent
to the Hague,
if and when
captured, or
be tried in
Libya. Jibril
said, "the
most important
question is
how to catch
Gaddafi."
After that, he
said, it's up
to "legal
consultants"
to consider
"the supremacy
of Libyan or
international
law" and "the
national
interest of
the Libyan
people." Video
here, from
Minute 18:04.
This
deference to
consultants
differed from
Jibril's
answers to
other
questions, on
which he said
it will not be
up to the TNC,
but to "the
Libyan people"
-- which was
also Ian
Martin's
response to
Inner City
Press about
the ICC -
click here
and watch this
site.
* *
*
In
Libya,
UN Plans Over
200 Staff,
Martin Says on
NATO He Was
Right, Dodges
on ICC
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 22
-- Shrinking
from his
earlier plan
for Libya
including 200
military
observers,
UN envoy Ian
Martin on
Thursday told
Inner City
Press that 146
"international
staff" as well
as 50 local
hires are
being proposed
to the UN's
Advisory
Committee on
Administrative
and Budgetary
Questions, for
action as
early as next
week.
Inner
City Press
asked Martin a
series of
questions,
about his leaked
report and
the exclusion
of Africans
and even Arabs
from his
Mission's
leadership, to
his view of
the role of
NATO and of
the
International
Criminal
Court. Video here.
Martin
claimed that
his statement
in his August
22 report that
NATO "would"
have a
continuing
role had been
validated by
the Security
Council -- on
September 16.
But was it
appropriate
for the UN
Secretariat to
be positing
continued NATO
bombing as a
"factual
statement?"
On
Third Avenue
on September
19 Martin
graciously
answered Inner
City Press'
request for
confirmation
that Number
Three official
in the UNSMIL
mission is the
German
Hansjoerg
Strohmeyer by
saying "There
is
no number
three."
On September
21, Martin
acknowledged
that
Strohmeyer has
been given the
chief of staff
post. What's
in a name?
Inner
City Press
asked,
now that UN
mediator Al
Khatib has
left,
reportedly
miffed at
being
shouldered out
by Martin and
others, will
Martin offer
mediation for
the armed
conflict still
taking place
around Gaddafi
supporters'
last bastions,
now being
bombed by
NATO? If the
Libyans ask,
Martin said,
and they
haven't.
On
whether
Gaddafi and
the other
indictees
should be sent
to the ICC,
Martin said it
is entirely up
to the
Libyans. Inner
City Press
asked for his
assessment of
trying them in
Libya or the
Hague, but
Martin would
not answer.
(Ex)
"Mediator"
Khatib, Ban
& Martin
on Aug 26, 146
int'l staff
not shown
Martin
said he
couldn't
confirm what
Chad's
President
Idriss Deby
told Inner
City Press on
September 19,
that there
remain 400,000
Chadians in
Libya, some of
whom were
recruited as
mercenaries by
the
Transitional
National
Council and
not only
Gaddafi.
Martin said he
couldn't
confirm who
fought as
mercenaries,
nor the
numbers of sub
Saharan
Africans
remaining.
He visited a
jail last time
he was there.
Where are
those people
now? Watch
this site.
Footnote:
There were
only three
questioners at
Martin's press
conference, one
of whom
tossed a
softball
question for
Martin's views
of the role of
women in the
New
Libya.
What about the
role of women
-- so far
invisible --
in the UN
Support
Mission to
Libya?
* *
*
Libya
Mission
of UN Headed
by Brit &
Finn, German
Coming 3d,
Juppe Says
NATO Will Keep
Bombing
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 19
-- Two weeks
after Inner
City Press
wrote that
Finn Georg
Charpentier
would be named
deputy chief
to Brit Ian
Martin in
heading up the
UN's mission
in Libya, on
Monday
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
confirmed both
postings, then
refused to
answer
criticism
about them.
Video here,
from Minute
25:38.
Nesirky
said, "I've
read out two,
it's not
enough for
you, you want
the third."
But Inner City
Press reported
on Charpentier
getting the
deputy post,
from sources
inside the UN
Department of
Political
Affairs,
back on
September 1.
As
Inner City
Press
wrote on
September 14,
"Three top UN
jobs on Libya
-- four if you
count
[Canadian
elections
expert Craig]
Jenness -- and
no Africans or
Arabs, after
all the
planning was
done in New
York by a
Brit."
Twice
Inner City
Press asked
Nesirky to
respond to
criticism from
within the
UN's own
Department of
Political
Affairs that
Africans, and
Arabs, have
been cut out.
Nesirky
repeated,
these are
international
civil
servants.
Europeans
only?
Many questions
were raised
about
Charpentier's
closeness with
the Khartoum
regime of Omar
al Bashir,
indicted for
genocide by
the
International
Criminal
Court. This is
the best the
UN can find?
Earlier
on Monday,
French foreign
minister Alain
Juppe took
five questions
at the Council
on Foreign
Relations,
mostly about
Palestine.
Inner City
Press was
there, but not
called on by
fawning
moderator
James P. Rubin
to ask about
Libya. In his
opening
remarks, Juppe
said that NATO
will keep
bombing until
all Qaddafi
supporters
give us. He
called South
Africa "the
most
reluctant" of
the IBSA
countries, but
said that on
March 19 at
the UN South
Africa "got
convinced."
And so it
goes.
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:
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Other, earlier Inner City Press are
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and some are available in the ProQuest service,
and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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