At
UN
as Pillay
Briefs on
Syria, 4000+
Killed, She
Invites
Questions on
Palestine
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 12 --
On Friday
Security
Council
president
Vitaly
Churkin of
Russia told
the press that
High
Commissioner
on Human
Rights Navi
Pillay's
briefing
Monday at 3pm
on "the Middle
East"
was understood
to include
Palestine as
well as Syria.
But
Western
Council
members, and
the
Spokesperson
for Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon.
continued to
describe her
briefing as
only about
Syria.
A
Western
members'
Deputy
Permanent
Representative,
when asked by
Inner
City Press if
it was his
understanding
that the
briefing would
also
be about
Palestine,
said "no."
Inner
City Press
asked Indian
Permanent
Representative
Hardeep Singh
Puri if the
briefing would
be on
Palestine too.
"I think so,"
he said.
"On the Middle
East -- did
Palestine move
out of it?"
Navi
Pillay
declined to
answer the
question on
her way in --
she did say
that
"definitely
more than four
thousand" have
been killed in
Syria. But
sources inside
the Council
told Inner
City Press
that
Pillay briefed
about Syria
and then said
she understood
some were
interested in
the wider
Middle East,
and took
questions on
Palestine.
(c) UN Photo
Pillay, with
d'Escoto and
HRW, Syria #
but Palestine
Qs not shown
The
Western
Council
members said
they would be
speaking to
the press at
the
stakeout after
the closed
door meeting,
presumably
initially or
only
about Syria.
Would the
non-Western
members
similarly
speak? Watch
this site.
, 
