At
UN
As Ashe Hands
Over to
Kutesa, Steel
Drums As
Tables Are
Turned
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 15
-- At the UN
when President
of the General
Assembly John
Ashe held his
last press
conference, GA
session and
farewell
reception
complete with
steel drums on
September 15,
Inner
City Press
began by
asking him
about
transparency
and about
Security
Council
reform.
On
the latter he
recited the
work done
during his
year, but
opined we
are not any
closer to
reform than we
were before.
Inner
City Press
then went to
watch his
concluding GA
session, in
the
renovated
General
Assembly Hall,
from a
photographers'
booth smelling
of fresh paint
but without
any chairs or
translation of
speeches. Amid
the
bureaucratic
ritual of
deferring
items to the
next session,
over which Sam
Kutesa of
Uganda will
preside, the
United States
and
then European
Union objected
to Item 64
being
deferred,
report of the
UN Human
Rights
Council.
A
source in the
PGA's office
told Inner
City Press
that “the
letter
was received
late and if it
hadn't been
deferred,
others would
have
been angry.”
Perhaps we'll
hear more from
the US or EU
on this.
At
7:30 pm on
September 15,
there was a
farewell
reception for
Ashe in
the UN
Delegates
Dining Room.
For the second
time in the
day, Ban
Ki-moon
congratulated
Ashe for his
timeliness. A
steel drum
band
played Bob
Marley, and
dozens of
Permanent
Representatives
enjoy
their last day
as top dog for
a while. Heads
of state or at
least
foreign
ministers are
coming to
town. The
master becomes
the servant,
at least for a
few days as
one of them
put it.
At
the end of the
GA proceeding,
Ashe invited
his successor
Sam Kutesa
up to take the
gavel. Inner
City Press --
and the Free
UN Coalition
for Access --
have been
communicating
about this
coming era
with Jean
Victor Nkolo,
who was also
spokesman for
the president
of the
Sixty-Fifth
session of the
GA, Joseph
Deiss. With
him, there
were
questions of
who was
funding what
-- all the
more reason
for a
Freedom of
Information
Act for the
UN, as FUNCA
is pressing
for.
Watch this
site.
, 
