At
UN,
India's Open
August Viewed
from Past
Before
Palestinian
September
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 31 --
As India's
month as
president of
the UN
Security
Council ends,
one thing that
distinguishes
it from others
is
accessibility
to the press
by Permanent
Representative
Hardeep Singh
Puri.
When he would
come to the
Council
stakeout to
read out a
Press
Statement --
eight times in
August -- he
would accept
and even
invite
questions in
other topics,
from Libya
to Syria
to The
Sudan and
Kosovo.
In
one memorable
exchange,
questions were
lobbed from
the side of
the stakeout
and
Hardeep Singh
Puri turned
and answered
them, Phil
Donahue-style.
It
can be
contrasted, as
simply one
example, to France's
most recent
presidency in
May, when
Gerard Araud
held only
three
stakeouts and
tried to avoid
press
questions even
then. Once
he read out a
Press
Statement in
French, then
handed it over
to a staffer
to read the
English
translation,
during which
time Araud
left to not
take
questions.
Araud
has long
been out of
town, first on
vacation and
now hearing Nicolas Sarkozy's
speech at the
"19th
Ambassadors'
Conference,"
and so was
not present
Tuesday night
at India's end
of presidency
reception,
unlike the
Permanent
Representatives
of such
Council
members as
China, Bosnia,
Gabon, Lebanon
and the UK,
among others.
In Wau,
Hardeep in
center, Araud
in shades, a
study in
contrasts
India's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
introduced
Inner City
Press to the
diplomat
who'd filled
the position
in the early
1980s, Vinay
Verma, who
recounted
tales of a
"bipolar
world" which
is now
"shifting
to the East."
Verma
remembered
meeting Warren
Christopher at
the old US
Mission, where
out of
protocol
Christopher
came down to
the street to
greet him and
showed
family
photographs
upstairs. He
told of a US
Ambassador to
Nicaragua
just after the
Sandinista
revolution,
who was so
diplomatic
with
Daniel Ortega
et al.
that Jesse
Helms blocked
him for his
next
assignment, in
Morocco. He
spoke of
buying the
land under the
Indian
Mission, and
the apartment
where he lived
and the new
DPR now lives.
In
the early 80s,
he said, India
as the head of
the Non
Aligned
Movement was
courted by
both the
Soviet Union
and the US, on
Security
Council issues
ranging
from Namibia
and apartheid
to, as now,
Israel and
Palestine.
On
that, Inner
City Press
polled some
Security
Council
ambassadors
about the
upcoming vote
or votes on
Palestine in
late
September.
Most said that
to grant
Palestine
Observer State
status in the
General
Assembly
would be a
no-brainer.
But it seems
that more than
just the US
would
balk at a
request for
full UN
membership in
the Security
Council. More
on this soon
-- for now,
here's hoping
that future
presidents of
the Security
Council later
this year and
next take and
answer as many
questions as
Hardeep Singh
Puri did in
this just past
August.
* * *
On
Libya,
As UN's Martin
Calls Ongoing
NATO Role a
"Factual
Statement,"
Military
Dreams Shot
Down
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 30 --
While the 200
UN Military
Observers
envisioned
in Ian
Martin's
leaked August
22 report to
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
were ruled out
on August 30
by the UK and
Russian
Ambassadors
and Martin
himself as not
requested by
the Libyans,
Martin told
the
Press that
NATO's
continuing
role is just
"a factual
statement."
Inner
City Press,
which
exclusively
obtained and
published Martin's 10
page plan for
Libya,
asked him
three
questions,
first about
his line that
"the
Security
Council's
'protection of
civilians'
mandate
implemented by
NATO does not
end with the
fall of the
Qadhafi
government
and,
therefore,
NATO would
continue to
have some
responsibilities."
"That's
just a
factual
statement,"
Martin said.
But unless one
is entirely
embedded on
the Western /
NATO side of
the debate, it
is in fact a
contested and
controversial
statement to
say NATO will
continue to
have
responsibilities
in Libya.
Chinese
Ambassador
Li Baodong,
for example,
on Tuesday
told Inner
City Press
that
post-conflict
"should be the
end of NATO's
mission."
He also said
that the
African Union,
which unlike
NATO is not
mentioned in
Martin's 10
page
report, should
play a role in
post conflict
Libya.
Inner
City Press
asked Martin
about the AU
not being in
his report.
Martin replied
that Ban
Ki-moon is
headed to
Paris for the
September 1
meeting and
hopes to there
meet with the
chairman of
the African
Commission.
(Then Ban will
proceed to,
among other
stops,
Kiribati and
the
Marshall
Islands.)
Ban & Ian
Martin -
ongoing NATO
role is "just
a factual
statement"?
While
Martin was
meeting behind
closed doors
in the
Security
Council,
Russian
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin
emerged and
Inner City
Press asked
him
about the
military
observers
concept in
Martin's
August 22
plan: "up
to 200
UNMOs... 50
UNMOs able to
redeploy
immediately
from other
missions."
Churkin
said that
"the Libyans
don't see a
need for
military
observers,"
but
said to ask
Ian Martin.
Moments
later
Inner City
Press put the
same question
to UK
Ambassador
Mark Lyall
Grant, who
paused and
said that the
NTC, the
National
Transitional
Council, is
"not
suggesting"
military
observers.
Ian
Martin, when
asked by Inner
City Press,
said that the
plan of
military
observers
was premised
on there being
a ceasefire,
which has not
occurred. But
his plan was
dated and
signed on
August 22,
when the
rebels were
already in
Tripoli. Now
there is the
standoff in
Sirte -- watch
this
site.
, 
