By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un64ga4m092909.html
UNITED NATIONS, September 29 -- The UN's General Debate ended with a whimper on Tuesday afternoon, with a final speech by the Observer of the Holy See, then two rounds of bickering by Eritrea and Djibouti. The former, speaking in English, accused the major powers of seeking to dominate regions by manufacturing crises and then "managing" them through the Security Council.
It has previously noted that Djibouti has military bases of both the U.S. and France, being used to train the army of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, whom the Al Shabaab insurgent and others call illegitimate invaders.
Djibouti replied that Eritrea, in its short existence, has started wars with Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia and now Djibouti. It characterized Eritrea as being full of "defiance and denial." There was a further round of back and forth, leading to some frowning by President of the General Assembly Ali Treki, who was waiting to give his wrap up speech.
Inner City Press has previously covered Saturday night's fights between Iran and the UAE, and Serbia and Albania. Surprisingly, the perennial issue of Japanese abductees in North Korea didn't give rise to a right of reply back and forth as in previous years. At Tuesday morning's press conference, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon:
Inner City Press: Japan had raised to you the issue of the abductees, but then in the readout of your meeting with the DPRK, it didn’t seem that the issue came up. Could you explain if that is the case?
S-G Ban: This abductee issue of Japan has been a long pending issue. I have made my points clear on many occasions, that this should also be resolved within a bilateral context. We said yesterday that the relationship with Japan, which is one of the important participants of the six-party talks, as well as one of the important regional countries, it would be desirable to engage in bilateral talks to improve their bilateral relations.
Inner City Press also asked Mr. Ban about Sri Lanka, but that's another story. Watch this site.
Footnote / analysis: in the absence of world leadership, this General Debate was a playground for crackpots and dictators who crush their opponents while giving speeches about climate change. The item of the Debate, as Inner City Press has coined it, might be a solar powered cattle prod.
