By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 28 -- On November 23 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the press Yemen's Ali Saleh was stepping back from power and said he would come to New York for medical treatment.
Inner City Press asked Ban about the issue of immunity, included in the Gulf Cooperation Council agreement. Ban said he hadn't "discussed that matter in detail" with Saleh.
On November 28 after the Security Council president, Portuguese Ambassador Cabral, read a Council press statement welcoming the deal but also mentioning accountability, Inner City Press asked Cabral how to square the Council statement with many public reports that Saleh and his family are getting immunity. Video here, from Minute 3:55.
Cabral said, "This is the position of the SC. It's not the first time we have stated that violence, human rights violations and those responsible for them should be held accountable."
Later it was explained to Inner City Press that the actually document signed by Saleh was more detailed than the GCC agreement and tries to "go beyond" the GCC deal, saying for example that going forward Yemen will implement such things as UN Human Rights Council calls for investigations.
Does Saleh understand and accept that? On Saturday he returned to Yemen and declared an amnesty for all except those who attacked him.
Why did Saleh not come to New York? Some say the US has blocked him. Some in Yemen say that Saleh "knows he can't travel." Others say that Ban Ki-moon was never supposed to make public this part of what Saleh told him, one even saying, perhaps jokingly, that Ban violated "medical privacy" by doing so. We'll see.
Tawakkol Karman, meanwhile, was traveling on Monday, to The Hague to petition the ICC to take action against Saleh; Inner City Press has been sent and puts up this video link, here.
