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In
MINURSO's Wake, Doubts About Van Walsum, Ripert on the
Run
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
April 30 -- At 11 p.m. around the microphone outside the Security
Council's
meeting on Western Sahara, the scene was pure UN: a gaggle of diplomats
before
a handful of journalists, with hawk-eyed UN staffers standing on the
side. Outgoing
Council president Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa called it a dark day
for
human rights, with France, the UK and United States opposing any
presence of
the term in the MINURSO resolution, when he said he would be fast to
apply it
to Sudan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe and "even South Africa." Inner City Press
asked Kumalo why then he hadn't called a vote on the Costa Rican
amendment that
would have added human rights to the resolution. Kumalo answered, that
would
have sent a message that the Council is divided. But perhaps it is.
Inner City Press asked the Frente
Polisario representative if UN envoy Peter van Walsum should continue
in his
post. Maybe he has undermined his role, and "the basic principle of
neutrality and impartiality," was the answer. To the side, van Walsum's
staffer for the Department of Political Affairs stood taking notes.
When a
reporter asked her for comment, she turned away. That too is
undermining, given
that van Walsum rarely if ever takes questions about his work. Inner
City Press
asked the Polisario representative to compare his situation to that of
Kosovo.
"I don't want to go in that direction," he said. No one does, these
days.
Security Council in December 2005: where's
Algeria's Baali?
U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, in
a low and hoarse voice, explained of the resolution, "This is as far as
we
could go." In response to Inner City Press' question if the
negotiations
had excluded non-permanent members of the Council, as Kumalo had
alleged, Wolff
said that all had been consulted. But several non-permanent member
staffers
said, two days before the scheduled vote, they had not been shown the
text. Others
pointed out that while the Council presidency may have been excluded,
former
Algerian ambassador Abdallah Baali was around all week, perhaps with
unexplained access.
As said up top, it's pure UN. What's the point, one non-permanent
representative
asked rhetorically, of running for a seat on the Council? In the open
meeting,
Costa Rica expressed this same doubt, which Kumalo called courageous.
On the other hand, French Ambassador
Jean-Maurice Ripert ran past the stakeout without speaking. "Les droits
de
l'homme," the press called after him. But he was gone.
Footnote: Kumalo
told the press he is leaving Thursday for "hiking in Nevada." Later
one wag joked, "The Matterhorn casino, no doubt." He is the funniest
of the members of the Council, even if the "I'd didn't do it" protest
needs to be updated. One day, speeches on the Council may be matched by
action.
But today was not the day.
* * *
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,
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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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