By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, October 12 -- After Canada withdrew for the Security Council seat competition it spent time and money on, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon blamed the flame out on opposition leader Michael Ignatieff's statements. But in Inner City Press' reporting, no one had mentioned Ignatieff.
Rather, they spoke about Canada's defunding of UNRWA and, in Africa, its temporarily blocking of debt relief for the Democratic Republic of Congo in order to gain leverage for one of its mining companies in the DRC.
When Cannon went forward with his press conference scheduled for 1:15 on Tuesday, less than an hour after withdrawal, Inner City Press asked him to respond on UNRWA and the blocking of debt relief to the Congo, since he'd repeatedly said Canada would still to its “principled” foreign policy.
Cannon claimed that the UNRWA issues have been resolved, and that no one had raised the Congo issues to him. Apparently he never spoke to any DRC diplomats.
Cannon walked out of his press conference after that question, with a question about mistreatment of Tamils ringing in his ears.
Back in front of the General Assembly, Inner City Press asked South Africa's Foreign Minister if on Sudan her country will promote the African Union line that the indictments of Omar al Bashir by the International Criminal Court should be deferred for at least one year.
Yes, she said, that is our position. (India's Hardeep Singh Puri declined to state India's position, while telling Inner City Press that he knew Pakistan voted for India.) Inner City Press then asked UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who was in charge of the Darfur leg of the Council's trip to Sudan, what he thought of South Africa's position on Bashir. He answered that any resolution -- i.e. one to defer the indictments -- would require votes on the Council (on which the US, UK and France each have vetoes).
Inner City Press said, can I ask you another question about Darfur? But Lyall Grant walked off.
Footnote: India's Hardeep Singh Puri said that he knew that Pakistan had voted for India -- apparently, the ballot paper was shown -- and so the lone vote for Pakistan must have come from somewhere else. The same for Swaziland. But what explains the fall off in Canada's vote from first to second round? This reflects “capitals” controlling the first round vote, while New York based Permanent Representative have more freedom on the second and subsequent rounds. So Canada dropped out.
