Amid
UN
Speeches
Diplomats Cut
Deals,
Officials
Lobby &
Run
from Press
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 21
-- While
speeches
droned on in
the General
Assembly
Wednesday,
real and
mysterious UN
business took
place next
door in the
North Lawn
building.
Jacob Zuma,
for example,
appeared
for bilateral
meetings
surrounded by
his foreign
minister,
Permanent
Representative
and others.
The Permanent
Representatives
of Austria
and the Arab
League met
over one of
the marble
tables of the
Vienna
Cafe.
Senior
UN system
staffers came
in from the
field:
Miroslav Jenca
from the UN
center
for preventive
diplomacy in
Central Asia
based in
Turkmenistan,
telling Inner
City Press
he's hear to
meet with
leaders of
countries
in the region;
Office of
Drugs and
Crime chief
Yuri Fedotov,
chatting
with Finland's
Ambassador to
the Caribbean,
waiting for
meetings that
kept getting
delayed.
More
mysterious
was the
appearance of
Lamberto
Zannier,
formerly the
head of the UN
Mission in
Kosovo but now
heading the
OSCE. He moved
with a group
with D for
Diplomat
passes, first
toward the
office of the
ACABQ,
then back to
the Vienna
Cafe. The OSCE
has told
Turkmenistan
to
lighten up on
the press.
Maybe Zannier
should talk to
Jenca, while
each is
waiting for
other
meetings.
At UN Sept 21,
Jenca &
companion,
Obama speech
not seen
The
head of UNDP
Helen Clark,
who has
refused
repeated
requests to
hold a press
conference,
showed up in
the Vienna
Cafe with an
entourage. An
investigative
journalist
politely
approached her
to ask a
question.
"Running,"
Clark said,
walking
briskly away.
Later
Inner City
Press
approached
previous top
UN lawyer
Nicolas
Michel, whose
successor
Patricia
O'Brien
refuses to
hold press
conferences,
saying
it is
inappropriate
for the UN's
legal adviser.
Inner City
Press
asked Michel,
about whom it
has previously
reported, if
the press
conferences he
gave about the
Hariri
tribunal in
Lebanon and
other
issues ever
hurt his work.
He declined to
comment,
though
gracefully.
And so it goes
at the UN.
, 
in