UNITED
NATIONS, July
25 -- When US
Secretary of
State John
Kerry came to
New
York on
Thursday, he
chaired a UN
Security
Council
meeting at
which
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo
foreign
minister said
all
rebellions in
the region has
the "same
genetic
signature."
Despite
this,
most of the
media interest
was in Kerry's
4:20 pm
meeting at
the US Mission
to the UN with
representatives
of the Syrian
opposition.
On July 24 at
the State
Department,
spokesperson
Jen
Psaki said
Kerry "plans
to meet with
SOC President
Jarba and
other members
of the
coalition,
including
Michel Kilo
and Burhan
Ghalioun. They
will discuss
the current
situation in
Syria, how to
support a
process of
political
dialogue and
the Geneva
conference,
and ways to
bolster our
assistance to
local
communities in
coordination
with the SOC."
There
was an irony.
A recurrent
message at the
Security
Council
meeting in
the morning,
and from the
State
Department
spokesperson
Jen Psaki,
was that
foreign
countries
should not
support rebels
inside the DR
Congo. But
support to
rebels in
Syria is not
criticized: it
is
welcomed, it
is engaged in.
The
press was told
that to come
to the 4:20 pm
photo op --
there was a
mention of a
briefing, but
that was
clarified in
the morning as
a
mis-statement
-- they'd have
to arrive at
the US Mission
at 3:15 pm.
It's directly
across First
Avenue from
the UN, and
Inner City
Press
and 30-some
other
journalists
went there
while the
Congo meeting
proceeded.
To
put it
diplomatically,
this being
UN-world,
things could
have been
better
planned. The
thirty-some
journalists
were
shepherded up
to a
second floor
hallway where
they stood for
two hours.
It became to
smell like a
locker room,
as one
correspondent
put it. From
time to
time a Mission
staffer would
disappear
behind the
door - a quick
waft
of air
conditioning -
but without an
explanation.
At
5:12 pm, the
remaining
journalists
(some had
left) were let
into the
room. On one
side of a
table sat John
Kerry and his
team, on the
other, the
opposition.
They made
small talk for
less than a
minute to
the click
click of
cameras. (An
Inner City
Press tweeted
photo is here.)
Then the media
was asked to
leave. There
was groaning,
there was push
back.
Were
this to
happened
inside the UN,
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
which Inner
City Press
co-founded
would protest,
as it did the
truncation
of the UN noon
briefing
earlier in the
day. But
does or should
FUNCA work on
press access
and
treatment
issues at
Mission? It
has been asked
to. And so it
will.
Watch this
site.
(On
DRC's "genetic
signature"
line, Inner
City Press has
asked the US
Mission if
Kerry, Russ
Feingold or
the Mission's
Acting Chief
have any
comment. As of
5:45 pm, none
- but we
remain
hopeful.)
, 
