By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un1fijimad092609.html
UNITED NATIONS, September 26 -- The day after Madagascar's de facto leader Andry Rajoelina was barred from speaking in the General Assembly, Fiji's coup leader Josaia Bainimarama was slated, without objection, to speak. It is not, then, that coup leaders are rejected by the UN. It all turns on who opposed the coup, and with what energy.
Australia and New Zealand have spoken against the Fiji coup. On September 22, Inner City Press asked Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd if he had made any headway in getting the UN to stop using and paying the government for Fijian peacekeepers until democracy is restored. Video here. We have made ourselves clear, Rudd answered. But the UN continues using Fijians in Iraq.
Meanwhile, even for a November election in Honduras which presumably would put the country back on the democratic path, the UN has cut its technical assistance. On September 24, Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Michele Montas whether the UN will similar not assist elections by the militiary government in Myanmar. Transcript and other UN GA footnotes below. The same question applies to Fiji and Madagascar.
From the September 24 UN transcript:
Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about yesterday’s announcement about suspending technical assistance to the election in Honduras. I guess it’s a comparative question. What standard would the UN apply to providing electoral assistance for example, in Myanmar or even in Madagascar? Can you say a little bit more on why it was suspended at this time and what it would take to get it? There are countries like Spain that are sending their ambassadors back even the… so are [inaudible] country. What was the Secretary-General’s reasoning in this and what would it take to resume electoral assistance for an election?
Spokesperson: Yes, well, let’s first give you a little background. The electoral assistance project in Honduras was established in November 2007 for support in the lead-up to the general election planned for November 2009. So the implementation began in September 2008. It was way before the events that occurred in Honduras after that. The type of the assistance that is being provided, you know, it is assistance in training polling station staff, it’s assistance, for instance, on gender issues, an internal quick count project -- things of that sort. And they had already set up 41 polling stations; staffers, they had been hired, trained, they had been deployed. And so, all this has been put on hold. It’s a case by case issue, you know. In the specific case [of Honduras], as I said, it went back way back in November 2008. Why was it interrupted? I gave you the reason [earlier] in the statement we have.
Inner City Press: [inaudible] for example, Myanmar, it’s a military Government that’s setting up to have an election that many people say is not credible. But it seems that the UN is going to provide assistance. So I wanted to know what standard it is that the UN provides electoral assistance under.
Spokesperson: I think the best thing I can do for you is invite people from the electoral [Assistance Division of the Department of Political Affairs]; people who help on electoral issues to come here and talk to you. I think then they can give you [more accurate answers]…
Inner City Press: [inaudible] standard in the Secretary-General, who were they that made the decision to suspend this aid? Was it just the Secretary General’s decision…?
Spokesperson: Well, the Secretary-General made that decision on recommendations from his political department.
Would the UN not help an election in Fiji? Or in Madagascar? Watch this site.
Footnote: The General Debate has moved past the time of Presidents and down to ministers. Friday night as heads of state left Pittsburgh for their countries, the representative of the Solomon Islands used his GA speech to raise the issue of Taiwan. Azerbaijan's focused on Armenia's seizure, as he called it, of a fifth of his country, Nagorno-Karabakh. Still on the UN's second floor, where the Press had been promised renewed access, security officers apologetically barred the way.
Saturday morning began with Burundi saying it supports the African Union position that Ethiopia will take to Copenhagen -- reportedly, $67 billion a year in climate change reparations. The Prime Minister of Thailand said his country, a Kingdom, offers lessons from the financial crisis of 1997, that it avoided harm this time due to the King's philosophy of prudence. Slated for later were Albania, Fiji and Sri Lanka.
