By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, December 7, updated -- Russia demanded that US Ambassador Susan Rice's statement Tuesday on Cote d'Ivoire, ostensibly as UN Security Council president, be “corrected in the record,” sources tell Inner City Press.
Russia has asked UN Secretariat to add its objection to the record on Tuesday's opening meeting. There is not much precedent for this; the "Verbatim" section must be consulted.
In closed door negotiations since Friday about the Ivorian crisis, Russia has argued that the Security Council should not set the precedent of being a certifier of elections results.
Meanwhile outside of the Security Council, Laurent Gbagbo-alligned Ivorian diplomats told Inner City Press that while UN envoy Y.J. Choi should now come back to the country for his “protection of civilians” - but not electoral -- mandate, they argued that “power sharing doesn't work.”
“Look at Zimbabwe,” one of them told Inner City Press. But in this scenario, is Gbagbo playing Robert Mugabe?
At a separate press conference at the UN Tuesday morning about the International Criminal Court, it was recalled that Cote d'Ivoire was mentioned as a target of ICC investigation and prosecution back in 2004. Now there are mentions again. Watch this site.
Update of 12:50 pm -- At the UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky what the procedure would be to act on Russia's request that “the Secretariat” somehow “correct” Susan Rice's statement. Nesirky declined to answer, saying he wasn't in the consultation -- his office has been barred from consultation since the Council moved to it current basement venue earlier this year -- and instead urged Inner City Press to ask the US, as Council President for December.
Inner City Press has since been told that it is the US' position that there is no procedure or precedent to “correct” statements such as that of Ambassador Rice, which was that the presence of Cote d'Ivoire diplomats in the Council's open session in no way implied that they were recognized as legitimate representatives of that country at this time.
Thought: It was an indirect and procedural way of asserting the position that Laurent Gbagbo is no longer the legitimate head of state of Cote d'Ivoire. One can understand why Russia would object, while understanding why Rice would make such a point “for the record.” Will the record in fact be corrected, as Russia requested?
The Council -- at what level is not clear -- will reconvene at 3 pm, to consider a statement confirmed to that of ECOWAS. Watch this site.
