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At UN, Myanmar Briefing Looms
While Mauritania, Uganda and Sudan Fall Off Agenda
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, September 3 --
The incoming president of the UN Security Council holds a briefing at
the
beginning of each month and the headline of the story, if one is
written, is
usually that "Africa dominates Council's workload for the month."
This month the president is himself an African, Burkina-Faso's Michel
Kafando.
Ironically on Wednesday he was more dismissive of African issues than
recent
presidents, like Belgium in
August or Vietnam
in July. Questioned by Inner City
Press, Kafando opined that the situation in now-military run Mauritania
is not
a threat to international peace and security, and that not enough
information
about the Lord's Resistance Army talks in Uganda is available to
justify a
briefing in September. Video here,
from Minute 36:43.
Kafando said that no one had asked for consideration
of the request by
International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo for an
arrest
warrant against Sudan's president Omar al Bashir. Video
here,
from Minute 10:23.
Michel Kafando at the UN, writing his name in the book
Kafando grew more animated speaking about Tony Blair
and the Quartet,
and about Myanmar. On the former, he downplayed what other sources said
were
contentious
or at least surreal consultations about getting a briefing from
Blair; "it's only a matter of timing," he said.
The timing, too, for Ibrahim Gambari to
finally briefing the Council about his trip, finished ten days ago, to
Myanmar
appears to be drawing hear. Kafando said he would meet with Gambari
Wednesday
or Thursday and choose a date for briefing. Until that takes place,
neither
Gambari nor Ban Ki-moon (unlike General Assembly president Srgjan
Kerim) are
saying anything about Myanmar. Strange, very strange.
The inclusion of "African Peace and Security" as a
footnote on
the program of work did not refer to Zimbabwe, but rather to the
largely
forgotten Djibouti - Eritrea fight. Georgia was in the footnotes too,
though
Iran and non-proliferation were not. Asked about Pakistan, Kafando said
maybe
it could be considered in connection with Russia's moribund draft press
statement on civilian deaths in Afghanistan. Click here for
Inner City Press'
Q&A with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad on related topics.
Watch
this
site. And this (on
South Ossetia),
this, on
Russia-Georgia,
and
this --
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