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UN W. Sahara Day Two, Of Elliot Abrams and
Malawi For Sale, Fishing Off Somalia
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
October 7 -- "Malawi has
recognized us four times," Western Sahara's representative told Inner
City
Press on Tuesday, "and four times they unrecognized us." He paused. "You can't do that, under international
law. You can declare war. But you can't unrecognize."
Inner City
Press asked him about Serbia's resolution to seek an opinion from the
International Court of Justice on the legality of Kosovo's declaration
of
independence. While he said he hadn't been paying attention -- to
organize the
UN Fourth
Committee's annual hearings on Western Sahara is more than enough
work -- he said that most of the countries which recognized Kosovo did
not recognized
Western Sahara. "The West is full of double standards," he said. This
has been heard in the Security Council as well.
Well placed
sources on the Western Sahara issue, pointing to Ban Ki-moon's pending
appointment of U.S. diplomat Christopher Ross as envoy on the issue,
say that
the U.S. has changed from a middle of the road position under Jim Baker
to a
pro-Morocco stands, driven by Elliot Abrams. This is due, they say, to
Morocco's perceived strategic importance. Some are waiting for the U.S.
November election. The hallway allegation about Malawi is more
concrete: that
they take money for the change of their position. One wag joked that
selling a
baby to Madonna is one thing, selling out Western Sahara is another,
in his view.
Outside
the Council on Tuesday morning, Inner City Press asked French
Ambassador
Jean-Maurice Ripert if France and the European Union have finally made
a
decision on how to approach Serbia's resolution, slated for debate
tomorrow. Video
here.
We are hoping to be able to articulate some elements, Ripert said.
Inner
City Press asked if he still saw the Serbian request as unhelpful.
Previously,
Ripert had
said it caused "turbulences." Ripert said it is of course
Serbia's right, but that the timing is not right. But if not now, when?
Elliot Abrams and EU's Javier Solana,
single standard on Kosovo and Western Sahara not shown
The Security
Council on Tuesday addressed Somalia piracy and the question of
Guinea-Bissau,
with talk of imposing sanctions on individual drug traffickers.
Afterwards,
this month's Council President, China's Ambassador Zhang Yesui,
emerged. He spoke briefing
on each item, took one question from Inner City Press, and was gone (to
a
"pressing engagement," his staffer said). The
question was whether anyone on the
Council had brought up the problem of toxic waste being dumped on
Somalia's
coast line, and of illegal fishing. That didn't not come up, China's
Ambassador
hurriedly said. Video here.
France's
Ripert, when Inner City Press asked the same thing, answered only on
fishing,
saying that France is hurt by illegal fishing off of Africa too.
Sources tell
Inner City Press that Spanish ships, for example, fish off of Western
Sahara.
The list of those going it off Somalia is not impossible to finding,
trending
to the East. But all they can talk about is pirates...
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs.
* * *
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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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