As UN Plans for Durban
Discussion, Tiptoeing Around Holocaust
Denial, Press Access
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 26 -- In the run up to September's
UN meeting on the
Durban Declaration, with Holocaust denial in the air, a meeting was
held Wednesday on 48th Stree to scope out the session. Should the
opening run from 9 am to 11:30? Or only to 10? Should it be
televised? These were the questions, in the so-called “informal
informal” consultations held in the UN's North Lawn building.
Monaco
and
Cameroon were in the chair position, and Switzerland spoke more than
any other delegation. Sources tell Inner City Press that the US and
Canada are nowhere to be seen in the process. But whether this will
serve them come September remains to be seen.
European
Union
sources tell Inner City Press they are between a rock and a hard
place. They would like to denounce racism, the ostensible goal of the
Durban Declaration. But given how things went in Durban in 2001, and
even more in 2004, they are concerned the event will provide a
platform for Holocaust denial.
At
the same time
the EU does not want to be seen questioning free speech. Try to
block media coverage -- to some, one possible solution -- or to ask
in advance what participants will say, is hardly in keeping with
freedom of expression.
Inner
City Press
covered
the vote on Durban III in December 2010, when funding was
approved 102 for, 33 abstaining and 17 against, including Canada
and
the United States.
The French
Mission to the UN later told Inner City
Press it had abstained because “there were many elements in the
text that we couldn't support, but we support the Durban declaration
and want to engage in the Durban process. Hence our vote."
The
fights on May 25 were mundane: would the speakers come from regional
groupings or so-called political groups like the G-77; would there be
“program budget implications;” would the panel discussions be
televised. The elephant in the room was who would use the spotlight,
and for what purpose. We'll see -- watch this site.
* * *
As
UK
Calls
for Myanmar UN Envoy Replacement for Nambiar, He
Brushes Off Press
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May
19 -- After the UN Security
Council met Thursday about
Myanmar, UN envoy Vijay Nambiar explicitly refused to answer even a
single question from the Press.
Rushing
out of the Council, Nambiar
made a brushing-away motion with his hand and disappeared down a
corridor. This despite a standing request by the UN Correspondents
Association that he hold a press conference and take questions.
The
Permanent
Representative of the UK Mark Lyall Grant did speak to the Press. He
recounted that democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has suggested that
need for a full time UN envoy, adding that the UK “has long
believed that it would be good to have a permanent, full time envoy
to regularly visit” Burma.
Lyall
Grant said
that while Nambiar “felt the tone of what the government was doing
since the election was better, more open than it had been before,”
the UK sees “no effective response to key demands of international
community.”
The
military
dominated government has given “amnesty only just over two percent
of political prisoners, there are still over two thousand.” Lyall
Grant was dismissive of “taking one year off a sixty five years
sentence of student leaders, and the ninety three years given to Shan
community” leadership.
He
added that
“there has not yet been any inclusive dialogue with opposition
outside Parliament.” In the run up to Nambiar's trip, Inner City
Press asked without answer if he would be meeting with ethnic
minorities.
Inner
City Press
has previously reported calls for a full time replacement to Nambiar
as envoy, by the UK along with former Security Council member Mexico
and others. But Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has made no move to
appoint a full time envoy, instead continuing to send his chief of
staff Nambiar to Myanmar, then refusing to take questions when he
comes back.
Nambiar previously seen from behind, no Qs taken
Ban
Ki-moon, too,
has become resistant to taking questions from the press, at least in
New York. Despite multiple requests that he hold the promised monthly
press conference - the last was in January, four months ago -- Ban
has not held a press conference.
Since
he last held
a shorter stakeout, he has for example said he was “relieved that
justice was done” in the killing of Osama bin Laden, a position
that differs from the UN's own human rights commissioner Navi
Pillay's.
Ban
on May 18
granted an interview to one wire service, and used it to state that
if member states want him for a second term as Secretary General, he
is ready to serve.
Ban's
spokesman Martin Nesirky declined Inner City
Press' request for a transcript. He said he would be getting
clarifications from Nambiar, but none has been given, including any
UN response to the Myanmar government prohibiting reporting of ASSK's
comments after meeting Nambiar, and on Myanmar's push to head ASEAN.
Watch this site.
