Crimea
Meeting Lacks
4 UNSC
Members, E.
Ukraine
Banking
Cut-Off Raised
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
19 -- When UN
humanitarian
operations
chief John
Ging spoke to
the press
about
conditions in
Eastern
Ukraine on
March 19, he
said aid
groups could
not pay their
workers there
due to the
cut-off of the
banking
system.
Inner City
Press asked
Ging if he had
raised this in
his meeting
with the
Deputy Prime
Minister of
Ukraine; Ging
said yes but
not the deputy
prime
minister's
response or
any fix.
Later on March
19 Inner City
Press asked
the Permanent
Representatives
of Ukraine and
Lithuania
about what
Ging had said.
Ukraine's
Yuriy Sergeyev
said his
country is
open to any
objective
criticism; he
read out a
long statement
about recent
votes of the
Rada in Kyiv
and vowed that
the issue of
Crimea would
continue to be
raised in the
UN.
That is why
Lithunia's
Permanent
Representative
Raimonda
Murmokaite was
at the UN
Television
stakeout on
the first
floor,
following an
“Arria
formula”
meeting about
Crimea with
Tatar leader
Mustafa
Dzhemilev.
On what the
UN's John Ging
had said,
Permanent
Representative
Murmokaite
said while of
course Kyiv
could do more,
the fault lay
mostly with
the
separatists
and their
supporters.
Russia had
said it would
not attend the
Arria formula
meeting; as it
turned out,
also declining
to attend were
China, Angola
and Venezuela.
One long-time
Council
watcher told
Inner City
Press this was
the largest
number of
no-shows for a
Arria formula
meeting in
memory.
Speaking of
memory, it
seemed ironic
that the first
floor stakeout
where
Murmokaite and
Dzhemilev
spoke shared
the wide UN
hallway
with a large
memorial to
the life of
Venezuela's
Hugo
Chavez.
Murmokaite
pointed out,
correctly,
that she spoke
in front of a
UN logo
backdrop
brought to the
first floor
stakeout
location.
Further
inquiry by
Inner City
Press gleaned
that the
request had
been to hold
the stakeout
in the 1B
level, but it
was denied due
to too many
people walking
by that
location. The
battle for
space in the
UN may mirror
that in the
real world
outside. Inner
City Press
tries to cover
both. Watch
this site.
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