Kim
Sook Says M23
& Addis
Can Be Linked,
Must Digest
Sudan
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 4 --
Much of the UN
Security
Council's work
is
behind closed
doors in
consultations,
and it often
falls to the
month's
Council
president to
summarize what
is discussed.
February's
president
Kim Sook of
South Korea
held his press
conference on
the
Program of
Work on
Monday, and
Inner City
Press asked
him about
consultations
this week on
the Sudans and
Eastern Congo.
Video
here, from
Minute 15:30.
On
Sudan
sanctions,
Inner City
Press asked if
any progress
has been made
in getting the
Expert Schbley
into the
country. Sudan
says he is
"blacklisted"
for work
"against
Sudan" while
working on the
Somalia and
Eritrea
sanctions
committee.
Kim
Sook replied
that the
session will
be a briefing,
with some
weeks
then to digest
it. The Group
of Experts is
slated, on the
Program of
Work, to have
its mandate
renewed on
February 13.
We'll be
there.
Inner
City Press
asked about
the relation
between the
M23 talks in
Kampala
and the failed
talks on
"peace
enforcement"
in Addis
Ababa,
which an
involved
diplomat told
Inner City
Press was
"blown up"
not only by
the UN's
failure to
consult, but
also by its
anonymous
briefing to
embedded
journalists
saying it
would be
signed.
Kim
Sook replied
that while the
two issues can
technically be
addressed
separately or
"microscopically,"
on the ground
things are
mixed. He said
that either
topic or both
can be brought
up by any
Council
member.
The
two briefers
will be
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
chief of staff
and Personal
Envoy Susana
Malcorra and
head of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve
Ladsous.
Malcorra is
hard-driving,
for example defending
the
redaction of
information
from Charles
Petrie's
report to Ban
about
Sri Lanka.
Ladsous
on
the other hand
refuses to
answer Press
questions,
apparently
insulted that
he was asked
about the
relation
between his
long
service of the
French foreign
ministry and
his new
Peacekeeping
position.
Many
in the UN
system get
asked similar
questions --
for example
the
American
Jeffrey
Feltman when
he came to the
UN from the US
State
Department,
and also Ban
Ki-moon on
issues
impacting the
Korean
peninsula.
But
both of these
officials have
answered that
question,
however
tersely,
while
continuing to
answer other
questions
about their
work.
Ladsous
is
different - he
simply refuses
to answer
other
question, even
going
so far as to
order his
spokesman to
seize the UNTV
stakeout
microphone to
avoid a
question from
Inner City
Press about
126 rapes
in Minova by
the Congolese
Army, video
here.
Kim
Sook will be
at that
stakeout a lot
this coming
month.
On Monday,
Inner City
Press on
behalf of the
new Free UN
Coalition for
Access
thanked him in
advance for
his stakeouts,
expressing a
hope that
these occur
after most or
all informal
consultations,
as was the
case
in January
under the
Presidency of
Masood Khan of
Pakistan.
We'll
see.
The first,
"traditional"
question (video
here, from
Minute 7:55) was
about North
Korea, with
the questioner
predicting a
nuclear test
"in the next
few days if
not sooner."
What could be
sooner than
that? We'll
cover it, as
we did the January
resolution,
here.
Watch this
site.
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