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Before
UKpres of
UNSC, Rycroft
Fields Qs on
Yemen, DRC,
Ladsous
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 30 --
As the UK
takes over
presidency of
the UN
Security
Council for
November, its
Permanent
Representative
Matthew
Rycroft took
and even
answered
Twitter
questions for
an hour on the
morning of
October 30, as
the Council
adopted a
resolution
about its
Working
Methods.
Questions
ranged from
Yemen and the
DR Congo to
peacekeepers'
sexual abuse,
NGO
involvement
and
transparency
to the public
of the
Council's
closed-door
proceedings.
Inner City
Press asked
Rycroft what
he would do to
make the
Council more
accessible to
those impacted
by it, for
example in
Burundi,
Yemen, Libya
and Haiti, and
if
he or his
Deputy Peter
Wilson
will hold
question and
answer
stakeouts
after closed
consultations.
The
latter,
Rycroft answered
in the
affirmative,
adding that
the UK mission
will be using
Periscope as
well.
How to
supplement
stakeout over
coverage by
UNTV is a
question Inner
City Press has
been working
and 'Scoping
on; the UK
take will be
interesting to
see.
Asking about
the MONUSCO
mission in the
DR Congo, and
by Inner City
Press about
the mission's
failure to try
to
“neutralize”
the FDLR
militia,
Rycroft
replied with
worry for
civilians and
the hope that
the government
will work with
MONUSCO.
Given
questions
about the
government's
commitment to
go after the
FDLR as it did
the M23, and
given that
DPKO's Herve
Ladsous said
the mission
could go after
the FDLR on
its own, why
hasn't it? This
question
hasn't been
answered, nor
any comment
or action on
Ladsous, on
camera,
including
peacekeepers'
rapes to
“R&R.”
Rycroft
was urged to
engage with
the Saudi
mission about
airstrikes in
Yemen - one
wonders,
aren't weapons
being sold? -
and to open up
to NGOs. To
this, he
agreed; it was
pointed out
not only that
the usefulness
of NGO
submissions is
uneven, but
that the UN
has allowed in
the NGOs of
the
now-indicted
Ng Lap Seng,
Frank Lorenzo
and Sheri Yan.
We'll have
more on this.
Back on
September 23,
Inner City
Press asked
Rycroft
similar
questions not
in the UN but
a dozen blocks
away at a
Digital
Diplomacy /
“Soft Power”
event by
Facebook and
Portland
Communications.
#Periscope
video [was]
here.
Rycroft told
Inner City
Press that the
best Security
Council
meetings he's
been in have
allowed in
outside
voices; he
noted it is
still not the
custom to
tweet from
inside
consultations,
though perhaps
it should be.
Inner
City Press
asked the US
State
Department's
Moira Whelan
about US
Ambassador to
Libya Deborah
Jones quitting
Twitter back
in March,
after one of
her tweets
about bombing
of the Tawerga
was attacked.
Whelan said
the State
Department
wants to
support its
diplomats when
they come
under fire;
Rycroft said
if a
diplomat's
intentions
were good and
well-considered,
they should be
supported even
if things go
wrong.
Facebook's
Katie Harbath
mentioned that
India Prime
Minister Modi
would be
meeting with
Mark
Zuckerberg; an
hour later at
the Indian
delegation's
press
conference in
the Waldorf
Astoria's huge
Empire room,
there was
confirmation
of this and
other tech
meetings for
Modi. (Inner
City Press
asked about UN
Peacekeeping,
whose chief Herve Ladsous recently linked UN
rapes to
“R&R” on
video, here.)
There
was talk of
the UN and
social media;
from Inner
City Press'
and the new Free UN Coalition for Access'
perspective,
the UN itself
far too
infrequently
responds and
engages, and
much of the
corporate
press corps
resents new
media coverage
of the UN, for
example with
the old UN
Correspondents
Association's
Valeria
Robecco saying
multimedia is
NOT a
photographer
to block
coverage of
the Pope's
visit, click
here for that.
But we will
continue:
watch this
site.
* * *
These
reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
Press at UN
Click
for
BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN
Corruption
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