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At UN, Responsibility to Protect Has Different Meanings, Envoy Luck Has No Phone, UN's Own R2P in Haiti?

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, April 28 -- Darfur is not a good test case for the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect, the UN's special advisor on the topic Edward Luck said Monday. In front of him sat Sudan's ambassador to the UN, who after the panel discussion offered praise for Mr. Luck. "That's the kiss of death," another panelist remarked.  The three remarks evidence the range of views on Responsibility to Protect, known by some its adherences as R2P. There is not even agreement on when R2P began.  One astute panelist dates it to 1999 and NATO's proto-R2P bombing. Luck, on the other hand, seems to place the concept's birth after Darfur became a prominent issue, for example in Kofi Annan's speech on the tenth anniversary of the Rwanda genocide.

            Rwanda's Ambassador to the UN Joseph Nsengimana was on the panel, and intoned that the genocidaires from his country are still alive and active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (UN Peacekeepers are reported by the BBC to have traded arms for gold with the FDLR fighters, click here for today's story on that.) Filipino professor Noel Morada spoke of ASEAN's reservations about R2P, ascribin these to a mis-using of the concept of humanitarian intervention in Cambodia to justify foreign domination. He described growing support for R2P within Thailand, despite former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's opposition to the concept. A representative of the Thai mission to the UN took the floor to dispute any support for R2P in her country. Sudan's Ambassador asked why the concept is not applied to Gaza, or to immigrants in Western societies.

            Luck, as luck would have it, was surprisingly accommodative of Sudan's views. The concept must apply everywhere, he agreed, and it does apply to immigrant, and not only to citizens of countries. Several observers opined that Luck, given problems earlier this year with even setting up his office, is trying to befriend countries perceived as on the receiving end of R2P doctrine. Whether this undermines the concept, or Luck's credibility in his post, remains to be seen.

            Inner City Press asked Luck to address criticisms leveled in the UN's budget committee on March 3, and the UN spokesperson's response on March 4 that Luck's post is temporary and interim, and funded by voluntary contributions. Video here, from Minute 2:08:00. We got beaten up in the Fifth Committee, Luck joked, and we weren't even asking them for anything yet. But "that's life." He said he is getting a dollar a year, and as an Assistant Secretary General does not have a UN e-mail account or even a UN phone number. But "I can roll with that," he said. Video here, from Minute 2:25:50.

UN's responsibility to protect, actual funded mandate not shown

            Canada, on the other hand, bragged of larger sums of money. Inner City Press asked Canadian Ambassador John McNee about a speech by a fellow Canadian, Stephen Lewis, which took the UN to task for not implementing or living up to R2T in the Eastern Congo. Video here, from Minute 2:07:25. Amb. McNee responded that his country has given $15.5 million to Eastern Congo. Video here, from Minute 2:33:40.

            And Ed Luck still doesn't have a phone or e-mail address. All he has is a concept and soon, after a buy-out, a new spokesman. He said that the next approach to the budget committee will be better organized, and build "a bridgehead on this side of First Avenue, and not only at IPI," the International Peace Institute. Video here, from Minute 2:25:50. We'll see.

on the UN's own R2P, in Haiti and Kosovo, click here --

 at Monday's UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked

Inner City Press: There are reports from Haiti that a protest has been filed with MINUSTAH (the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) after the death of the peacekeeper and the shooting up of street vendors and the destruction of their property and some deaths.  Has MINUSTAH received a protest in that regard and is there an investigation?

Deputy Spokesperson:  I'll look into that for you.

Added later to the transcript:

"The Deputy Spokesperson later told the correspondent that, according to MINUSTAH, the mission says it has not been sent any complaint or protest directly, but it has received a copy of a letter from two local commercial associations (Association of the Defence of Haitian Merchants & Consumers and The Association for Small Businesses) addressed to the Government prosecutor, in which it is alleged that the two persons named were killed by MINUSTAH troops on 12 April 2008 following the public murder of a Nigerian United Nations Police, who was shot dead in the market in Belair."

            The individual named in Inner City Press follow-up written question were Amonese Pierre and Anna Ainsi Connu. While the UN has said it is investigating itself -- we have heard this before -- this particular case should continue to be followed, as a matter of the UN's own R2P and otherwise.

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These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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