Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un9298muse092908.html
UNITED NATIONS, September 29 -- Monday at the UN was a case of triple witching. Last week Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe called a correspondent here "a witch," then said that he was joking. But Monday marked the end of the General Debate, the end of Burkina Faso's presidency of the Security Council, and to some, the end of waiting to see if a financial bailout bill would pass the U.S. Congress.
In reverse order, mid-afternoon found Jan Grauls, the Ambassador of Security Council member Belgium, watching U.S. television about the vote in Congress. Amazing, he said. He asked Inner City Press if the House of Representative could simply re-vote on the bill. Yes, he was told, like the Security Council the Congress is master of its own procedure. But it would be hard to vote again on a vetoed resolution, he said. Hard but not illegal. He added that former Belgian bank Belgolaise, which had been active in the Congo, was swallowed by the just bailed-out Fortis, which he personally avoids.
Down at the Council stakeout, Burkina Faso's Michel Kafando read the final press statement of his Presidency, about the bombing in Tripoli. Afterwards Inner City Press asked him both if the case will be referred to the Hariri Tribunal, and to summarize his month at the top of the Council. No and satisfied, he answered, noting that of the problems before the Council in September, none had been vetoed.
Later, at the Burkinabe reception replete with Italian cold cuts and sushi, one of his staffers added that they were lucky to come between the Georgian war and the upcoming fight about invoking Article 16 of the Rome Statute to potentially freeze the International Criminal Court's prosecution of Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir.
The reception began even as the final speeches of the General Debate were made. Djibouti, it appears, never did speak. One of the last was Somduth Soborun of Mauritius, who incongruously said "Mauritius severely condemns the decision of Myanmar's military junta to prolong the house arrest of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi." Given African Union position, Inner City Press asked him about it afterwards. "We supported Nelson Mandela," he said. "So how can we not similarly support Aung San Suu Kyi?"
One Security Council Ambassador who reportedly got criticized by his boss is France's Jean-Maurice Ripert, who told Inner City Press that Serbia's request for a General Assembly resolution for an International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the legality of Kosovo's independence causes "turbulence." When Inner City Pres asked Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic about this quote, Jeremic scoffed that in the Balkan, they know what real turbulence is, and this isn't it. French President Nicolas Sarkozy apparently agrees, and according to well-placed sources told Ripert he is not authorized to speak this way on the issue.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/un9298muse092908.html
