As
Sellstrom
Agrees To Go
to Syria, UN
Won't
Characterize
80 Pages or
Popova
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
10 -- It's
been three
days on Syria
and chemical
weapons at the
UN. On July
8, Syria's
Bashar
Ja'afari
invited UN
official
Angela Kane
and prober Ake
Sellstrom to
Damascus
for talks,
citing 281
containers of
rebel chemical
weapons just
found.
On
July 9,
Russia's Vitaly
Churkin told
the press he'd
given an 80
page
analysis to
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, of
rebel use of
chemical
weapons at
Khan al-Asal
in March.
And now on
July 10, in a
statement
issued three
hours after a
meeting of
which no
independent
photographing
much less
coverage was
allowed, the
UN says Kane
and
Sellstrom have
agreed to go
to Syria, to
get on the
road to
Damascus. All
in three days.
On
Tuesday after
Churkin's
lengthy
stakeout --
Inner City
Press asked
him about the
evidence of
Russian state
television
reporter
Anastasia
Popova -- at
the day's noon
briefing Inner
City Press asked:
Inner
City
Press: I
wanted to know
about this
80-page
presentation
that Russia
says it
made to, to
the
Secretary-General.
Do you have
any comment on
it?
How does it
affect he
invitation
from Syria? Is
it the biggest
submission
that he has
received to
date and when
will it be
given to
Mr. Sellström?
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky: Well,
I don’t think
that
Ambassador
[Vitaly]
Churkin made
an 80-page
presentation.
What he did
was to hand
over a
document of
that length.
And needless
to say, given
that it is a
weighty and
quite
technical
document, that
is being
studied. And
of
course, it is
then for my
colleagues in
the Office for
Disarmament
Affairs to
analyse and to
then provide
guidance and
advice to the
Secretary-General.
That document,
that
information
was only
handed
over just
very, very
recently.
Ambassador
Churkin came
to the
stakeout
directly from
the meeting
with the
Secretary-General;
therefore, I
think you
would not
expect us to
have an
immediate
detailed
comment. The
Secretary-General
has stated
repeatedly
that
he takes
seriously all
credible
allegations.
And of course,
there is
a technical
mission headed
by Dr. Aka
Sellström. And
that mission
has the job to
look into all
credible
allegations.
And so
therefore,
when material
is provided by
Member States,
then it is
looked at
extremely
carefully.
Inner
City Press:
this among the
most detailed
presentations
so far that
had been
turned in to
either the
Secretariat or
the team? Can
you
characterize
that?
Spokesperson:
No, I can’t,
really, no.
Similarly
on
July 8 when
asked by Inner
City Press,
Nesirky
declined to
provide
specifics on
how much of
Popova's
presentation
had been given
to
Sellstrom by
Angela Kane's
team. But at 7
pm on
Wednesday, the
UN
announced in
pertinent
part:
“Professor
Sellström
provided an
oral update on
the Mission’s
off-site
activities,
which included
the analysis
of information
received from
Member States
and
fact-finding
activities in
a neighboring
country.
The High
Representative
for
Disarmament
Affairs, Ms.
Angela Kane,
and
Professor
Sellström,
have agreed to
accept the
Government of
the
Syrian Arab
Republic’s
invitation to
visit Damascus
with a view to
completing the
consultations
on the
modalities of
cooperation
required for
the proper,
safe and
efficient
conduct of the
United
Nations
Mission to
Investigate
Allegations of
the Use of
Chemical
Weapons in the
Syrian Arab
Republic.”
That
would be the
UNMIAUCWSAR --
quite an
acronym. And
what will it
accomplish?
Watch this
site.
, 
