|
At UN, Serbia
Complains of UNMIK Budget Cuts, Russia Speaks of Law
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 16 -- In a rare mix at the UN of the work of the Security
Council and the Budget Committee, Serbia has put onto the Council's
April 16 agenda “the fact that the UN Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo budget proposal for the next financial year
provides for extensive cuts.”
In an April
15 letter to Council
president Claude Heller of Mexico, not made public until this
article
and upload,
Serbia argues that the proposed budget cuts would
jeopardize UNMIK's ability to carry out the work Serbia and Russia
say its has under Council Resolution 1244 (1999), and criticizes UN
Envoy Lamberto Zannier for failing to sign the laws adopted by the
Assembly of
Kosovo. Such signing would not, it seems, require money.
UNMIK's Zannier, under Russian eyes, signing
of Kosovo laws not shown
Kosovo
and its
supporters, of course, disagree. Kosovo loudly said that it no longer
needs UNMIK. Earlier this week, the Kosovar delegation walked out of
a meeting of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) held
in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, because it was told that the
law required it to be represented by UNMIK, or under the name of
UNMIK and not Kosovo. (The Serbian letter refers by name to CEFTA). The
incident in Montenegro sparked something of a name-plate war,
less gruesome than the renewed reports that the Kosovo Liberation
Army took and traded in organs during the war, charges that EULEX now
says there is not enough evidence to investigate.
Nothing
so messy
is on the Council's Thursday agenda. A Western diplomat told a
handful of reporters that it involved a budget matter. Inner City
Press later asked Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin if this was
accurate. No, he said, it is about respect for the Security Council
and its resolutions, about respect for international law. Could it
also be about the name-plate? And how will the Council deal with a
complaint about one of its Mission's budgets? Watch this site.
Click here
for a new YouTube video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
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
UN
Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's
mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
|
, 
