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Russia
Chides UN on NATO, Ban and Japan, Sri
Lanka Not on Agenda
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, May 4 --
The UN should have been more "careful" of
NATO, Russian Ambassador and incoming Security Council president Vitaly
Churkin
told the Press on Monday. In light of NATO's military exercises in
Georgia,
Inner City Press asked Ambassador Churkin if Russia had gotten
satisfaction
from its complaint about Secretary General Ban Ki-moon signing a joint
declaration of cooperation with his counter-part at NATO.
Churkin responded
that NATO is already characterizing it as an agreement between the
organizations, and that it should have been disclosed to member states
before
it was signed. "We at the Russian delegation, we are strong believers
in transparency in the work of the United Nations," Churkin said, as
he begins a month
of increased diplomacy and interactions with the press as Council
president. Video here,
from Minute 26:09.
Russia's main focus for the month is a May 11
session on the Middle
East. Not wanting to invite the new Israeli foreign minister, now Arab
and
Muslim nations' ministers will be be invited. Churkin would not say who
would
attend for the U.S..
Inner City Press asked why Sri Lanka, the bloodiest
shooting war of the
year, is not even in the month's footnotes, and asked Ambassador
Churkin to
explain his country's blocking of a request for a Sri Lanka meeting
inside the
Council chamber or consultations room. Video here,
from Minuyte 10:19.
Ambassador
Churkin said Russia agreed to the informal
sessions held in the UN's basement. He emphasized that the Sri Lankan
government is fighting a "tough and difficult enemy... officially
branded in many quarters as a terrorist organization." This is how some
describe the Middle East, but Monday this
follow-up wasn't asked.
Vitaly Churkin at stake-out, Ban Ki-moon's
entry not shown (see below)
As
he often does, Ambassador Churkin deflected questions outside the scope
of the UN and Security Council, telling reporters to go ask in
Washington. The month's meetings between with Nepal on May 5,
and the elusive Terje
Roed-Larsen on May 7. As one diplomat told Inner City Press on Monday
morning,
it looks to be an easy month, with the Council away from New York in
Africa for
the week between May 14 and 21. There are no meetings or consultations
on the
program of work for that week.
A source in the presidency highlighted to Inner City
Press the May 26
debate on the Resolution 1373 committee, noting that soon Permanent
Representatives of countries which have not filed the required
reporters will
be "summoned" to appear before the committee, where lower level
bureaucrats will grill them. Should be fun.
Footnote: While the
Council
conferred on the program of word, a Security Officer rushed out to the
Council
entrance where Inner City Press was the only media representative. Ban
Ki-moon
arrived, with Kim Won-soo and two aides. He stopped and shook hands and
went
into the Council, past the consultation room to the back. The question
arose:
what was Ban doing?
Earlier, a diplomat of a Permanent Five member told
Inner City Press,
when asked why Sri Lanka was not even a footnote on the month's program
of
work, that "a footnote might not be necessary, watch this space." And
so for a moment it seemed possible, if not likely, that Ban was
invoking
Article 99 of the UN Charter and putting it on the Council's agenda.
A Ban advisor in the hall shrugged when asked and
said, "swine flu."
The mystery grew. Half an hour later, a Council diplomat emerged and
told Inner
City Press Ban had met bilaterally with Japan. On what?
The possibilities
seemed to be North Korea, the race for IAEA director, or perhaps -- as
a
Permanent Five member's political director suggested -- the situation
in Nepal.
Ban's spokesperson's office, when asked by Inner City Press, did not
say what
it was about, only that Ban "has an office there." Ban's Daily
Schedule was not updated. Transparency, indeed...
Click here
for an Inner City Press YouTube channel 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
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[at] innercitypress.com
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