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Missing
Persons
Meeting of
UNSC Had
Burundi &
Sri Lanka,
Renditions
& DPRK
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 27 --
With “Missing
Persons” the
topic of the
UN Security
Council's
Arria formula
meeting held
in UN
Conference
Room 3 on
January 27,
Inner City
Press expected
the
disappeared in
countries such
as Sri Lanka
and Burundi to
be brought up.
But the
meeting, while
called “open
to the press,”
was not on UN
Webcast or in-house
TV.
So Inner City
Press went
down and broadcast
it live on
Periscope,
here, in
the spirit of
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access:
open the UN.
UN High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights Zeid brought
up disappearance
in Burundi;
the deputy
representative
of New Zealand
said that
(mass) graves
in Burundi
should be
preserved.
US
Ambassador
Samantha Power
focused on the
disappeared in
Sri Lanka and
Mexico. On the
former she
cited a mother
in Jaffna
whose daughter
was taken away
by men in
military garb.
One wondered
why there is
so much praise
of new
president
Sirisena even
as he bans
“foreign” or
international
involvement in
looking into
war crimes
including
disappearances.
Japan
brought up its
abductees in
North Korea.
Malaysia cited
“rendition” -
there was no
reply - and
Senegal said
it has had or
prosecuted no
cases of
enforced
disappearances,
citing
Casamance.
France bought
up Syria.
Ukraine
cited Donbas;
Russia replied
that the
meeting went
beyond the
mandate of the
Security
Council,
consider not
only missing
people in
conflicts but
also migrants
and others,
politicized.
There
was little
time for the
178 member
states not on
the Security
Council, much
less for the
impacted
public. Inner
City Press'
Periscope
stream
triggered a
sample
question about
Burundi, on
whether the
responsible
government
could be
trusted to
preserve (its
mass) graves.
Luxembourg
spoke, then
Italy
emphasized
that those
missing on its
territory are
not Italians.
Cyprus was
asked,
apologetically
by the chair,
the UK's
Matthew
Rycroft, to
say a final
line. Still on
the list were
Belgium,
Serbia and
Chile -- and
last of which
was until
recently on
the Council.
Still it was
interesting:
the Periscope,
at least for
the next 23
hours, is
here.
* * *
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reports
are
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News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
Press at UN
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