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UN's Ban Keeps Kosovo Report Secret, Sends Envoy,
Mauritania Coup Not on Radar
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
August 6 -- With relations between
Kosovo and the UN mission there once again heating
up, on Wednesday the
Security Council met behind closed doors about a previous snafu, the March 17
re-taking of the courthouse in North Mitrovica. The courthouse is
still closed,
calling into question why it was retaking, in what the UN's Edmond
Mulet called
an "inadvisable" use of force, according to briefing notes seen by
Inner City Press. The UN insists that the underlying report will not be
released, even to member states, but that Ban Ki-moon will issue some
sort of
statement by the end of the week.
Inner
City Press asked the UK's Deputy
Permanent Representative Karen Pierce if the UK favors releasing the
report,
and if not, why not. "I take your point about transparency," she
replied, but added that the UK is happy to let the Secretary-General
take the
lead. So much, then, for transparency, at least in this case.
Ban has
sent his senior political and peacekeeping advisor Nicholas
Haysom
to Kosovo,
ostensibly to fill in for Lamberto Zannier during his summer vacation.
Just be
leaving, however, Zannier angered Kosovo authorities by among other
things
being quoted comparing North Kosovo to Hong Kong, with Pristina as
Beijing. UNMIK now claims that Zannier was
misinterpreted.
UN's one photo of Mr. Haysom, with Ban
and Nambiar, Kosovo report and Mauritania coup not shown
In
response to questions
Inner City Press asked at Wednesday's noon briefing, the following
arrived
Your questions were covered at
length in today's press briefing in Pristina. Responding to questions,
UNMIK
Spokesperson Alexander Ivanko said the following:
"There has been no proposal
of changing the chain of command, none whatsoever. The chain of command
remains
the same. All police officers, be it Serbs, Albanians, Turks, Gorani,
report
through the chain of command which is to KPS in Pristina. That is the
chain of
command. There are no other proposals on the table and we cannot make
proposals, we are not a negotiating side. What we are is we are trying
to
facilitate a dialogue on six issues between Pristina and Belgrade. But
we are
not a party to the negotiations, so there has been no proposal on any
table to
change the chain of command. I want to be very clear on that because I
think
that there has been a lot of misunderstanding in the media on this
issue.
"
Back in New
York, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin was asked about reports
that Kosovo
might declare Zannier "persona non grata." Amb. Churkin called it
hypothetical, but then connected Zannier and Resolution 1244, in a way
he did
not connect Zannier predecessor Joachim Rucker. Amb. Churkin again
called for
personal responsibility from Rucker's then-Deputy, Larry Rossin, whom
the UK's
Karen Pierce then explicitly defended.
While some were whispering that Nicholas Haysom may
somehow become
Zannier's deputy, that would seem a step down; another name being
thrown around is
that of New Zealander David John Harland. We'll see.
Footnote on a
coup: The echo of the coup d'etat in
Mauritania was faint indeed at the UN. At Wednesday's noon briefing,
Spokesperson Michele Montas read out a statement beginning that "the
Secretary-General deeply regrets the overthrow on 6 August 2008 of the
Government of President Sidi Mohamed Ould Chiekh Abdallahi." Why, she
was
asked, did Ban Ki-moon not "deplore" the coup?
U.S.
Ambassador Alejandro Wolff raised the stakes at the stakeout in front
of the
Security Council, stating that "coups against democratically elected
constitutional governments are to be deplored." But when asked if the
U.S.
would raise the matter in the Council, he said "we
are looking into the matter and assessing its implications for
international
peace and security... we'll be able to give you further details as the
day
progresses."
Later in
the day, an African diplomat coming out of the Council told Inner City
Press
that the issue still hadn't been raised. Some wondered, with the
Council's
recent interest in elections, why nothing was yet said about an
outright coup
d'etat.
Watch this site.
And
this --
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