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At UN, Pride like Zimbabwe's Mugabe May Exclude Kofi Annan,
Blair Resists Agenda, France Protects Its Turf, Openness is Over
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner
City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 2 -- As the UN Security
Council presidency is handed from Costa Rica with its promise of
openness to
Croatia with its focus, it seems, on efficiency and counter-terrorism,
open
items for December at the UN involve invitations obliquely made, in
cases not
accepted. There was a murky footnote in
December's Council program of work as distributed on Tuesday, "Peace
and
Security in Africa."
The phrase
refers to countries from Kenya to Djibouti
to Zimbabwe, as a fig leaf to keep an item on the Council's agenda but
not of
it. Russia and China double-vetoed proposed sanctions on the Robert
Mugabe
regime earlier this year. But who else would rebuff Kofi Annan? Inner
City
Press' sources said the phrase referred to Kofi, not as Kenya mediator
but as
Elder excluded from Zimbabwe. (Click here for
Inner City Press' exchange rate exclusive.)
Croatian
Ambassador Neven Jurica, this month's President, confirmed that "the
question
of Zimbabwe was raised during that consultation... We also exchanged
views on
the holding of a briefing by a member of the Group of Elders...the name
of
former Secretary-General Kofi Annan was raised." Video here,
from Minute
18:32.
Annan, it
should be noted, has been slated to report to the Council on his
mediation in
Kenya for several months now. The reasons for his absence, Inner City
Press is
told, differ from those for example of another UN envoy, Tony Blair.
The UN
Secretariat's concern seems to be having Kofi and Ban Ki-moon appear in
the
same format, in the same Chamber. This is Council staffer scuttlebutt
which to
many has the sad ring of truth.
Amb. Jurica
went out that he has been directed to engage in "further consultations,
bilaterally, with inter-state [or interested] parties, about the
format, timing
and participation of such a briefing" -- i.e., of whether Kofi Annan will be
invited and come or not.
Ambassador
Jurica announced with greater certainty that Condoleezza Rice will come, in a
swan-song, to debate Somali pirates. But what, Inner City Press asked,
of UN
envoy Blair? For months Council members like South Africa have been
demanding
that he report-back. Ambassador Jurica said "there have been some
requests... we don't know if he's coming." Video here,
from Minute
18:32. Later, Amb. Jurica added that
Blair hasn't directly been invited, perhaps to avoid the snafu of an
outright rejection.
Who is working for whom, though?
Kofi Annan and Mugabe, pride,
exclusions and exchange rate losses not yet shown
Another UN envoy whose
briefing of the Council keeps being put off is Joaquim Chissano, with
his Great Lakes office in Kampala. The Lord's Resistance Army's Joseph
Kony has once again failed after much hype to sign an agreement to
disarm. Calls are mounting for military action on the LRA, now camped
out in the Congo. But if the UN peacekeepers there haven't hadn't the
FDLR, and were chased by Laurent Nkunda's CNDP, them getting Kony seems
a long-shot.
Inner City Press asked Amb. Jurica if the Great Lakes item
schedule like Condi Rice for December 16 means Chissano's mandate and
budget will just be further continued, or be reviewed? "We are watching
developments," Amb. Jurica said in UN-speak, "after that we'll brief
you." Video here,
from Minute 25:43.
An item
that had been on the November program of work of Costa Rican Ambassador
Jorge
Urbina, was cancelled and is now absent from December too is the
"Protection of Civilians." In November, the excuse was delay in
reporting by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
But now,
the reason for postponement is France. Holding the presidency in
January,
France wants to trumpet this Kouchner-ian issue. And so there's more
delay.
Footnote: Inner
City Press asked Amb. Jurica if he
will be following Costa
Rica's procedures from November, of fewer closed-door
meetings, more debates, more on-the-record. "We the consent of the
Council," he answered drily, we will try to "alleviate in a more
efficient way" and use "any of those tools if they are good for the
final outcome." Video here,
from Minute 26:04.
To most
listeners, including those from Costa Rica, this
sounds like a return to the status quo ante. We ruffled some feathers,
the
Costa Rican say. It goes toward justifying their two years on the
Council. And
for Croatia? We'll see.
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
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
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[at] innercitypress.com
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