Amid
Bombing
in Somalia,
Cabral to Hear
from Kenya,
Eritrea
Blocked, Ban
Silent
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 4 --
As Kenya's
intervention
in Somalia
continues,
past bombing
Internally
Displaced
Persons to
threatening
any aircraft
from landing
at Baidoa in
Somalia,
silence at the
UN continues.
But
it will, Inner
City Press
learned
Friday, result
at least in a
meeting
between the
Security
Council
president for
November and
Kenya's
Ambassador
early next
week. Video here,
from Minute 3.
Inner
City Press
has twice
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin
Nesirky about
Kenya's entry
into Somalia.
Asked Friday
about Kenya's
Baidoa "no fly
zone," Nesirky
directed Inner
City Press to
statements of
Ban's envoy
Augustine
Mahiga. Inner
City Press
asked,
"Has Mahiga
said anything
about Kenya's
threat to
airplanes in
Somalia?"
No,
Nesirky said,
not yet. Video
here,
from Minute
8:41. Mahiga
was strikingly
accepting of
Kenya's
bombing of the
IDP camp,
which Doctors
Without
Borders MSF
says killed
five
civilians.
On
November 3
Inner City
Press asked
November's
Security
Council
president,
Portugal's
Ambassador
Jose Filipe
Moraes Cabral,
if he was
aware of
letters to the
Council from
Kenya. Cabral
said no, he
was not aware.
Inner City
Press asked
him, doesn't
the Security
Council's
total inaction
on
this "hot" war
undermine the
UN's
credibility?
"We'll
look
into it
carefully,"
Cabral said.
Video here,
form Minute
7:50.
The
next day on
November 4,
Inner City
Press asked
again about
the letter(s)
and what
Cabral would
do. Cabral
replied this
time that yes,
there was
correspondence
during the
last
Presidency --
that is in
October,
under the
Nigerian
presidency. He
added that he
will "meet
Kenya's
Ambassador at
the beginning
of next week."
Video here,
at Minute 3.
Off
camera, Inner
City Press
asked Cabral
about the
meeting. Kenya
will want to
explain
what it had
done, Cabral
predicted.
Kenya
is accusing
Eritrea of
arming Al
Shabab. The
Security
Council is
considering
imposing
additional
sanctions on
Eritrea for
this and other
reasons. But
now that
Eritrea's
president
Isaias Afwerki
has asked to
speak to
the Security
Council, the
US is opposing
Afwerki's
request --
click
here
for the
explanation US
Ambassador
Rice gave
Inner City
Press on
November 3.
Inner
City Press
asked Ban's
spokesman
Nesirky if
Ban, as the UN
system's top
official,
thought that a
head of state,
when he or she
asks to
address an
organ like the
Security
Council,
should be
allowed to: if
talking is
better that
not talking.
Video here,
from Minute
9:30.
Ban's
spokesman
Nesirky said,
"it's for the
Security
Council to
decide."
(c) UN Photo
Ban and Raila
Odinga,
silence on
Kenya in
Somalia
continues
Some
wonder
whether
previous
Secretaries
General would
have had
NOTHING to say
about the
legality and
impacts of one
country's
intervention
into
another, or
about one
country's
block on a
head of state
whose
country faces
sanctions
addressing
those who'll
vote on
sanctions.
This seems to
be beyond
"quiet
diplomacy."
Watch this
site.
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