By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, December 2 -- While military ruled Myanmar was on the November agenda of the UN Security Council, albeit in a footnote, it was removed from the agenda for December, during which the United States has the Council Presidency.
Early on December 2, Inner City Press was told that China had opposed the inclusion of Myanmar in the Program of Work, even as a footnote. It was agreed that, without giving the session a name, UN envoy Vijay Nambiar will brief the Council on his Thanksgiving weekend visit to the country on the afternoon of December 6, under “Any Other Business,” the Council's catch-all phrase.
When US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice came to brief the press on the month's agenda at 1 pm, the Program of Work distributed to journalist had in the footnotes between “Non-proliferation” and Somalia a blank spot, the length of the word “Myanmar.”
But on December 6, the Program listed only the tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Inner City Press asked Ambassador Rice along with questions on Sudan to confirm that there would in fact be a briefing on December 6, and whether the obviously deleted footnote had been Myanmar.
Ambassador Rice said that yes, Mister Nambiar will brief on December 6, and said that her copy of the Program of Work reflected that. She did not explain the missing footnote. Q&A here, from Minute 16:04.
Still she was more responsive than many in the press corps had expected. When her briefing was scheduled for 11:30, some UN correspondents speculated that it was so that no or few questions could be taken before the UN noon briefing.
As it turned out, Rice and the rest of the Council remained in session until 12:30, meeting “in real time” as one of them put it to Inner City Press on the crisis in Ivory Coast.
(On that, Inner City Press is told that the chairman of the elections commission contacted the US and France to ask for protection to get to the airport. When Inner City Press asked UN acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq about this, and why there seemed to be doubts not only about the chairman's safety but also about UNOCI, Haq said he would not answer.)
In Rice's briefing, Inner City Press asked about recent incidents in Sudan: the killing of students by the Sudanese authorities in South Darfur in connection with a meeting with joint UN mediator Bassole, and Khartoum's bombing of Northern Bahr al Ghazal state in South Sudan, which even UNMIS confirmed.
Rice said that all Council members get “sit-reps” from the UN, and can ask for more information. Inner City Press followed up, does UNAMID in Darfur under Ibrahim Gambari do enough to verify reports of attacks?
Rice answered diplomatically that since UNAMID is one of the largest UN missions and has protection of civilians in its mandate, she has to assume that when UNAMID doesn't go and check, there is some other impediment.
But would such impediments be Sudanese government prohibitions, or Gambari's proclivities?
Footnote: The Wikileaks scandals had to be asked about, and were. But they were initially asked about in a way that certainly pleased, if not was negotiated by, some surmised, the US Mission: did the leak hurt Ambassador Rice's work? To the same questioner, she said that she will go to the correspondents' association's dinner and fundraiser, but there better be good music. We'll see.
