On
Syria
Chem Weapons,
Kaag Says UNEP
To Assess,
National
Staffer
Killed
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 4 --
In the
evolving plan
to destroy
chemical
weapons from
Syria, who
will assess
and ensure
environmental
safety?
Inner City
Press asked
official
Sigrid Kaag on
Wednesday and
her
answer, at
least as to
assessment,
was UNEP, the
UN
Environmental
Program.
Kaag
acknowledged
that
complaints --
she called
them
"concerns"
-- have arisen
due to a lack
of
information.
She said there
are plans
for a public
education
component,
apparently to
consist of
telling
the public
that many for
the resulting
chemicals are
in fact
shipped
all over the
world with no
one knowing
about them.
(The
hijacking in
Mexico this
week of a
truck full of
radioactive
Cobalt
60 hardly
gives
comfort.)
Earlier,
while
Kaag was still
briefing the
Security
Council, UK
Ambassador
Mark Lyall
Grant emerged
and told the
press that she
had described
a
UN staff
member killed
in Syria the
previous day.
Inner
City Press
asked both
December's
Council
president
Gerard Araud
and
Kaag about
this death.
Kaag said it
was a national
staff member,
but
did not
provide
further
detail.
Earlier
this year when
Inner City
Press asked UN
humanitarian
chief Valerie
Amos a
question, she
replied that
more than a
dozen UN
staffers had
been killed. A
question is,
by the
government or
the armed
opposition?
To
Araud, the
French
Ambassador to
the UN, Inner
City Press
asked if
France has
contributed
any money to
the UN or
Organization
for the
Prevention of
Chemical
Weapons trust
funds. (No
French
contributions
are listed in
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
November 27
letter to
the Council on
the topic;
Inner City
Press
continues to
wonder if
these letters
are the only
reporting
there will be
for the UN
Trust
Fund.)
Araud's
reply
cited France's
moral and
political
support; then
he referred to
technical
assistance.
So, no. No
money at all.
Nor have the
Gulf
countries so
vocal about
Syria
contributed,
Kaag made
clear. And so
it goes at the
UN. Watch this
site.
, 
