UN
Debate Ends
With Whimper,
Kashmir to
Nagorno-Karabakh,
Circus Leaving
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 1 --
The week-long
UN General
Debate, which
began
with Barack Obama as
second speaker
Tuesday twice
citing KFC
but not
once Sudan,
Haiti or
Congo, ended
with a whimper
and not a bang
on
Monday night.
Monday
in the morning
Syria and Sri
Lanka spoke of
double
standards.
By the
afternoon it
was Palau
talking of
sharks,
Portugal
saying we are
"impotent
witnesses" to
what Canada's
John Baird
called the
"crimson tide"
in Syria.
In
the UN Media
Center, which
had been
standing room
only during
Obama's
speech, a
dozen scribes
remained. But
the UN
couldn't wait
to the end
to throw them
out. "After
Venezuela
we're shutting
it down and
calling
security,"
Inner City
Press was
told. And so
it closed,
even as
Dominica gave
its speech.
Over
in a photo
booth above
the GA Hall,
Inner City
Press watched
the
final 10
rights of
reply play
out.
Pakistan's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
said Jammu and
Kashmir are
not an
integral part
of
India; the
Indian
political
coordinator
insisted that
they were.
Azerbaijan's
Permanent
Representative
said Armenia
had abused its
right to
speak,
and left the
hall before
the Armenian
duo's second
reply.
Eritrea
downplayed
its 2008
skirmish with
Djibouti; Iran
defended its
right
to peaceful
nuclear use.
In the end,
new President
of the General
Assembly Vuk
Jeremic of
Serbia offered
up a summary,
smiling as he
said how many
spoke of
territorial
integrity. One
thought of
Kosovo,
which does not
have a seat.
Nor does
Somaliland,
nor the
apparently
soon to be
re-conquered
Azawad in
northern Mali.
Much
of the week's
action took
place outside
the UN, for
example at the
Waldorf
Astoria where
the Friends of
Syria met on
Friday. In the
side
hallways of
the lobby,
European and
African
diplomats
talked in a
hush about the
M23 rebels,
then went
their separate
ways. Deals
were
cut, then
diplomats cut
out. Only the
bitterness
remained, the
backwash of
conflicts, the
rights of
reply. But it
will continue.
Watch this
site.
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