On
R2P, ICP Asks
UN Duo of
Burundi &
S Sudan,
Failure in Sri
Lanka &
Critique
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 8 --
Responsibility
to Protect was
the topics of
a UN press
conference and
debate, or
series of
speeches, on
September 8,
even as the UN
said nothing
about the
Saudi
coalition's
airstrikes on
Sana'a and
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon did
not mention
Burundi in his
prepared
speech, much
less Sri
Lanka.
Inner
City Press
asked UN
officials
Adama Dieng
and Jennifer
Welsh at their
joint press
conference
about both Sri
Lanka and
Burundi, as
well as South
Sudan and the
critique by
Venezuela and
others of R2P
in the UN.
Dieng called
for the
release of the
African
Union's report
on crimes in
South Sudan;
he called
Burundi a
political
problem and
Welsh spoke of
preventive
diplomacy. 12 minute video here.
Welsh
acknowledged
that the UN's
response to
crimes in Sri
Lanka has been
a failure; she
paid some
respect to
Venezuela's
and Cuba's
objections
(though back
in the
afternoon's
session, she
disagreed with
Venezuela's
argument that
R2P divides
states into
those who are
“responsible”
and those who
are not).
In the
final 24
minutes there
were 12
speakers;
Myanmar got
cut off (it
had not used
the work
Rohingya) for
the next
speaker, Iran;
Dieng uses his
prerogative to
give out some
more time.
Inner City
Press
believes, on
both Burundi
and South
Sudan, that
the UN when it
wants to uses
deference to
regional
organizations
to turn away
from its R2P
claims, while
it didn't
defer to the
African Union
on Libya. And
so it goes.
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