With Kouchner at UN, No Africa in Questions, Airport Diplomacy and France

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unair1kouchner120709.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 7 -- French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner swept through the UN on Monday, meeting with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and then briefly taking questions from the press. While he said he and Mr. Ban discussed both Sudan and Guinea, neither was addressed in Kouchner's remarks nor in the questions taken by his staff.

Rather, he faced repeated questions on whether France considers Jerusalem occupied territory. Kouchner replied that Jerusalem should be the "capital of two states." Afterwards, still relatively new French Ambassador to the UN Gerard Araud asked Kouchner to clarify, since reporters hadn't understood him to affirm Jerusalem as occupied territory. Of course it is, Kouchner said and headed for the door.

Inner City Press asked him, "What about Gambari for Darfur," a shorthand way to ask if France supports Ibrahim Gambari as the UN's and African Union's envoy for Darfur. Yes we discussed that, Kouchner answered. "But what about what some call his weak record in Myanmar?" But Kouchner was gone.

Out in the hall, reporters asked France's spokesman if there was any more time for questions. He has a plane in one hour and thirty five minute, the spokesman answered. Could Ambassador Araud stay and answer? The spokesman shook his head. Araud was going with Kouchner.

Another French UN official told Inner City Press that one reason Araud's predecessor Jean Maurice Ripert lost his job was he was late to the airport to pick up President Nicolas Sarkozy. Maybe that explains both diplomats heading for the airport.

On Guinea, the question would have been whether France agrees with ECOWAS' call for the military junta to step down. Dictator Moussa Dadis Camara was shot and taken for surgery to Morocco. Another question might have been what if anything France is doing for Western Sahara human rights activist Ms. Haidar. France has long opposed the UN's mission in Western Sahara having any human rights component.

Yet another would be why France announced an embassy in Kyrgyzstan only days after that country barred a human rights activist from Tajikistan, click here for that. What ever happened to les droits de l'homme?

Footnote: Prior to his briefing Q&A with the media, Kouchner stood beside Ban Ki-moon before two microphones in Ban's 38th floor suite: a "press encounter" with no press allowed to be present. Earlier on Monday, Ban's new spokesman Martin Nesirky was asked why Ban wouldn't take questions. He said he would find out, as well as providing answers including about Gambari. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unair1kouchner120709.html