As
Kills SC
Reform,
O'Brien Tells
ICP Letter Was
to PGA, PGA'll
Be Asked?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNdislosed
Location,
June 6 -- As
the Qatari
President of
the General
Assembly
appears with
little notice
to take
questions at
the UN,
something he
should be
asked about is
the role he
played in
killing off
the
reforms to the
Security
Council's
working
methods
proposed by
the
so-called
Small Five.
In
the run-up to
what was
supposed to be
a vote on the
Small Five's
proposal,
which
among other
things would
have urged the
Permanent Five
not to use
their vetos to
defend
genocide and
other "ICC
crimes," the
PGA after
being lobbied
requested an
opinion from
Ban Ki-moon's
top
lawyer
Patricia
O'Brien.
O'Brien,
who has
repeatedly
refused to
hold any press
conference to
take
questions,
dutifully
issued a
letter that
the Small Five
proposal
should require
a
super-majority
of all UN
states:
effectively
killing the
proposal,
which was
withdrawn.
Inner
City Press
asked Ban's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
for O'Brien to
come explain
her
position.
Nesirky said
that he
doubted she
would do a
press
conference,
and she has
not.
But
on Tuesday,
June 5, even
under fire at
the UN, Inner
City Press
spotted
O'Brien
leaving the
ICC Darfur
briefing in
the Council
and said, "Can
I
ask you one
question, and
you can answer
it or not?"
O'Brien
repeated
the phrase, "I
can answer it
or not?" But
then she
paused
and Inner City
Press
proceeded,
asking her to
state the
legal
significance
and status of
her letter
which killed
the Small Five
reform, was or
is it an
official UN
document?
O'Brien
said it
was a letter
prepared at
the request of
the President
of the General
Assembly. And
then she left.
Moments
later a
Small Five --
or Four, more
on that as
Inner City
Press' sources
told
it soon after
the withdrawal
that Singapore
was dropping
out --
Permanent
Representative
complained to
Inner City
Press about
Ban's
O'Brien and
the PGA,
saying that
the letter
didn't take
into account
the Small
Five's
arguments.
The
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press
that the Small
Five withdrew
their proposal
because it
would have
becomg
"official
precedent"
if the
President of
the General
Assembly just
"accepted the
letter," as
the Permanent
Representative
predicted
bitterly that
the PGA would
have.
So
the PGA should
be asked this,
or should
otherwise
answer. Watch
this site.
, 
