By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, February 21, updated -- Two days before the London Conference on Somalia, the UK Mission to the UN put "into blue" the draft resolution on increased support to the AMISOM mission there. As sent out, the blue or "final" resolution twice referred to the "letter from the President of the Security Council of x February 2012 (S/2012/xx) to the Secretary-General."
Sources told Inner City Press that there was a disagreement about maritime matters in this letter, that "the Europeans don't want to spend money," but that the disagreements were put off due to the need to vote on the resolution on Wednesday, the eve of the London Conference.
Inner City Press asked UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant about this criticism about "the Europeans not wanting to spend money," and he directly responded. He told Inner City Press, "There is no letter now, it's an annex to the resolution, it doesn't have any reference to the maritime."
On the financial argument, he said "the maritime is not about money, it's just four Kenyan boats. The crew is funded, the petrol is funded. The ancillary costs of the boats, repairs and maintenance won't be covered by this."
The larger question, of the "Responsibility While Protecting" issues raised for example by attempts to blockade Kismayo port, have yet to be addressed. Watch this site.
Update: after publication of the article above, a new blue AMISOM draft was circulated, with references to the letter dropped, and an Annex. African Permanent Representative told Inner City Press that the country most interested in not spending money was France...
