As
Annan Heads to
Moscow, Will
His &
Ban's Tremseh
Letters Be
Updated,
Resolution Go
Chapter 7
Free?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 15 --
When Russia's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
to
the UN Sasha
Pankin emerged
from the
Security
Council late
on the
afternoon of
July 12, he
was pointedly
asked if the
"massacre at
Tremseh makes
Russia support
Chapter 7" in
the UK-drafted
resolution on
Syria.
"We are
not reading
newspapers in
there," Pankin
replied.
as Inner City
Press reported
moments later.
Neither
do Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon and
envoy Kofi
Annan,
apparently.
Each sent a
July 13 letter
to the
Security
Council
adopted one
view
of what
occurred in
Tremseh --
those quoted
in Gulf and
most Western
press said
over 200
killed, mostly
women and
children --
ignoring
what even the
New York Times
found.
(On July
13, a
non-Western,
non-Permanent
member of the
Security
Council
told Inner
City Press
that his
country's
intelligence
service
disagreed
strongly with
the version
of over
200 killed,
mostly women
and children,
click
here for that.)
Later,
after Ban's
and Annan's
letter, the UN
mission in
Syria UNSMIS
let out that
"the
attack on
Treimseh
appeared
targeted at
specific
groups and
houses,
mainly of army
defectors and
activists."
Does
this
mean that
Ban's and
Annan's
letters will
be updated?
What of the
draft Security
Council press
statement that
some bemoaned
that Russia
did not
immediately
approve on
July 13?
Annan's
spokesman
Ahmad Fawzi
announced on
Sunday that
Annan will be
in Moscow on
July
16 and 17 to
meet with
Vladimir Putin
and his
foreign
minister
Sergey
Lavrov. The
focus, it
would seem,
will be on how
-- even if --
to
pass a
Security
Council
resolution to
extend the
mandate of
UNSMIS,
before the
July 20
deadline.
On
July
12, it seemed
what happened
in Tremseh
made more
likely the
inclusion of
the stronger
Chapter 7 in
the
resolution.
Now could the
opposite be
true, and the
resolution
proceeding
only Chaptner
"Seven
free"? Watch
this site.
, 
