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At UN, Amid Sudan Indictment Hoopla,
Myanmar Follow-Up and Sri Lanka Forgotten
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, March 5 -- While
inside UN Headquarters television crews covering Sudan's President
Bashir's
indictment on Wednesday chased quotes from the human rights elite and
the
Ambassador of Liechtenstein, across First Avenue in a small conference
room the
indictment of Myanmar's General Than Shwe was urged with almost no
coverage.
Alongside a small plate of cookies there were flyers describing
"hundreds
of cases of rape, forced pregnancy and murder" and over 450,000
"Burmese deemed to be internally displaced in eastern Burma." There
were no reporters, save one. This is a great day for international
justice, one
of the speakers said. There is no obstacle to indicting Than Shwe than
our own
thinking, she added, saying that China has been meeting in secret with
the
National League for Democracy, hedging its bets about Than Shwe.
Earlier on Wednesday, Inner City Press asked Human
Rights Watch's
Richard Dicker if HRW is urging the Security Council to refer to the
International Criminal Court Than Shwe, Kim Jong-Il in North Korea and
even, as
has been requested, some in Sri Lanka. He replied that Sri Lanka, like
Myanmar,
is not a member of the ICC. Neither is Sudan; HRW among others pushed
to get
the Council to make the referral.
In the conference room with cookies, Naw Htoo Paw
and Khin Sann Htwe of
the Thailand-based Women’s League of Burma spoke passionately about the
lack of
freedom in their country, and their refusal to accept the 2008
constitution,
which was pushed through just after Cyclone Nargis in a campaign in
which it
was illegal to speak against the constitution.
Myanmar presentation, "good luck" says UN's Gambari
The speakers called the result
one of "gender apartheid," noting that 25% of the seats have to go to
those with military backgrounds, and that the two military academies do
not
accept women. It was unclear if they would like Than Shwe's schools to
open
themselves to women.
Earlier in the week, Inner City Press had asked two
UN constitution experts
whether their seemingly laudable work, in Timor Leste and Afghanistan,
is undercut
by the UN considering assisting with an election based on a
constitution like
Myanmar's. Neither of the two would answer; later, one of them said
that the
decisions about Myanmar are being made elsewhere in the UN. But where?
Wednesday night at a surreal
"gala for spirulina," Inner City
Press caught up with Ibrahim Gambari, and told him of the call to
indict Than
Shwe. "Good luck," he said. He has previously criticized moralizing
Western powers who demand changes in Myanmar but don't take steps to
bring them
about.
The speakers with the cookies had a simple answer: the policy that has
not worked in Myanmar is one of appeasement, of trying to "talk a war
criminal
into rehab." They described Ban Ki-moon's visit to Myanmar, and
consideration
of a second trip, as "desperate and embarrassing," notice the Than
Shwe wouldn't even take Ban's telephone call.
Like that, there seemed a huge disconnect Wednesday
between the hoopla
about Sudan, and the relative obscurity of those worried about Myanmar,
much
less Sri Lanka. The Burma campaigners are at least at the fringe of the
UN
debate. Those concerned with Sri Lanka are not even present. The
Security
Council had a single briefing on the topic; March's plan of work does
not
include it, even as a footnote. Will the Council meet about Bashir?
Watch this
space.
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate esp. here
on Darfur
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
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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