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At UN, France
Opposes Human Rights in W. Sahara, Sudan Grandstanding
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 30 -- As a Security Council meeting on both South Sudan and
Western Sahara droned on an hour past noon, US Ambassador Susan Rice
emerged, looking around at the stakeout for her French counterpart
Jean-Maurice Ripert. The issue was France's insistence that the
Council's resolution on South Sudan should call on President
al-Bashir to reverse his decision to expel international NGOs from
Darfur.
China
had
countered that the resolution should then also note the African Union
and Arab League position that the indictment of al-Bashir should be
suspended. China proposed a compromise, sources tell Inner City
Press, in which the resolution would refer only to two events in
March, leaving unstated the indictment and expulsion. France said no,
they would abstain and make a statement to explain why.
Simultaneously,
France was opposing a Ugandan proposal to include human rights
language in the Western Sahara resolution. Cynics guessed that the
two disputes might become linked, with France getting its way on one
and not the other. (As usually in such a trade off, Polisario of
Western Sahara could be expected to get the short end of the stick).
Polisario's own unpaid lobbyists from Independent Diplomat were on
the scene, speaking also about the illegal exploitation of natural
resources in Wester Sahara, including Europe's yen for fish, slaked
also illegally off Somalia.
UN's Ban and Pascoe-look alike Ross: human
rights in Western Sahara not shown
The
UN's new
envoy to Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, sat taking it all in.
Inner City Press asked him about resources and human rights,
questions he genially deflected. You look like Lynn Pascoe, Inner
City Press finally said. I've heard that, he responded. And then went
back into the meeting.
At
1:05 p.m.,
Ambassadors Rice and Ripert went back into the meeting, and the bell
rang to convene the other members. Moments later, it was announced that
consultations on both items is postponed to 4 p.m., with an emphasis
the Western Sahara MINURSO human rights language. A Western P-5 Perm
Rep sai the Sudan resolution is agreed to. Watch
this site.
Click here
for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters
footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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