Amid
Kyrgyz
Crackdown & Failure to Protect, Obama Meeting May Miss
Human Rights, OSCE Police Assistance Group
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 22 -- Three months after the pogroms in southern
Kyrgyzstan, US President Barack Obama is set to meet with Kyrgyz
interim leader Rosa Otunbayeva on Friday in New York.
It
is one of
President Obama's few bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the UN
General Debate, but when Inner City Press on Tuesday asked State
Department spokesman PJ Crowley whether the President will raise
issues of human rights and the protection of civilians, Crowley
responded only in terms of regional stability, which most took to
mean the maintenance of the US base in the country.
Meanwhile,
Otunbayeva's
government has refused to follow through the sign the
memorandum of understanding allowing the deployment of the
international Police Assistance Group of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe in advance of the October 10
parliamentary election.
Inner
City Press asked Crowley if Obama
would be raising this. Crowley said that he wouldn't speak for the
President in advance of the meeting.
Ethnic
Uzbek human
rights defender Azimjon Askarov only a week ago was sentenced to life
imprisonment for alleged involvement in the death of a police officer
in Bazar-Kurgan after a trial dominated by a second round of mob
violence. Inner City Press asked Crowley if the President would be
raising this case in the meeting. Again, there was no answer.
There
has still
been no outside investigation of the causes of the pogroms against
ethnic Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan. Rather, as of August the Kyrgyz
prosecutor's office said that of 243 people in detention, fully 214
were Uzbek. The UN, after mentioning the word accountability, has
done little to follow through. Will the US?
In Osh, ethnic Uzbek shock & awed, Obama concern not shown
In
the run up to
Obama's visit to the UN General Assembly, his advisor Samantha Power
and spokesman Ben Rhodes told the Press of his administration's and
Ambassador Susan Rice's many achievements on human rights at the UN.
In the case of Kyrgyzstan, the US had yet to do much. Will Obama's
bilateral meeting with Kyrgyz interim leader -- and former UN staff
member -- Rosa Otunbayeva change that? Watch this site.
Footnote:
Kyrgyz
leader Otunbayeva abruptly canceled her press conference set
for the UN on Tuesday at 2:30. An hour and a half later, Secretary
of State Clinton, after her meeting with the Middle East Quartet, was
scheduled to appear at a 4 pm press conference at the UN on the
topic. The presser was canceled, Inner City Press was told by the UN,
due to a power outage. But Clinton's name plate wasn't on the
rostrum, even before the lights went dim.
Crowley
said that
Clinton had planned to meet with Tony Blair. But as one reporter
pointed out, Blair's name plate WAS on the rostrum. More than a
little strange.
* * *
At
UN,
Evo
Morales Calls Colombia “US Candidate,” IMF Praise Out of
MDG Document
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September
21, updated -- With
Colombia running for a seat on the UN
Security Council, several leftist countries in Latin America have
been grumbling. Inner City Press asked Bolivian President Evo Morales
on Tuesday for his nation's view. After asking a second time, Morales
said Colombia “is a candidate of the United States.”
Earlier,
Inner
City
Press asked Morales about the International Monetary Fund,
criticism of which was proposed for the MDG Summit
outcome document
by Bolivia, Venezuela and others, but which was edited out.
Morales
replied
that
the IMF is guilty of “blackmail,” such as applying pressure
for privatization. In the press conference before Bolivia's,
Venezuela's Permanent Representative to the UN Jorge Valero told
Inner City Press that at least a portion of the document what would
have praised the IMF and World Bank had been removed.
Valero
declined
Inner
City Press' question about Colombia, saying that relations are
going better with the country and it is in the hands of Hugo Chavez.
Neither did he answer what had happened to the earlier prediction his
country would head the Group of 77 this year: Argentina has now
gotten the spot.
Evo Morales at UN, G-77, Argentina replacing
Venezuela not shown
Morales
was
asked
how the Obama administration has treated Bolivia. Badly, Morales
said, questioning how an African American could mistreat an
indigenous person, noting various forms of US aid that have been cut. [See response of P.J. Crowley of US, below.]
Inner
City
Press
had wanted to ask Morales for his views on immigration, but time did
not permit. His Ambassador to the UN Pablo Solon said he will speak
again later in this week. Watch this site.
Footnote:
Evo
Morales'
press conference as a head of state was rare this eye.
Earlier on Tuesday, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan was
replaced by his foreign minister, just as Hugo Chavez was replaced by
Ambassador Valero. But Rosa Otunbayeva of Kyrgyzstan, slated for a
2:30 press conference, canceled altogether. Another US candidate?
Barack Obama has having one of his few bilateral meetings with her,
on Friday. Watch this site.
Update
of
7 p.m. -- at a briefing across from the UN at the US Mission, Inner
City Press asked P.J. Crowley of the US State Department about what
Morales said, about aid and Colombia.
Crowley said that US aid to Bolivia has been "restructured"
based on conditions on the ground making Bolivia "ineligible" for U.S.
aid.
Crowley
did not answer on Colombia. But, in response to Inner City
Press' question of whom the US supports between Germany, Portugal and
Canada for the two Western European and Other Group seats on the
Security Council, Crowley said "I'm quite confident we will not"
describe "our deliberation on votes" for seats at the UN.
But the US has made much of seats it opposed Iran for, to
answer criticism of Iran gaining a seat on the Committee on that
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women....
* * *
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