By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 18 -- In
the run up to
the Guinea
Bissau
resolution's
adoption 15-0
in the UN
Security
Council on
Friday
afternoon,
there
was much talk
about
authorizing an
international
peacekeeping
force
to replace the
Angolan
MISSANG force
and about
"political
splits."
But
in the
Security
Council
chamber after
the vote, only
three
countries
spoke:
Portugal, Togo
and Morocco.
Togo
after voting
yes complained
that the
Operative
Paragraph 2 in
the final text
was
different than
the one that
had been
circulated
that morning.
(Afterward, a
number of
delegations
told Inner
City Press
this
mystified
them, since
the final
negotiations
in the morning
focused
exclusively on
Operative
Paragraph 1).
Inner
City Press
asked
Portuguese
Permanent
Representative
Cabral about
this, and
Togo's second
critique, of
the inclusion
of the word
"illicit"
before "drug
trafficking"
(this also
mystified
other
members.)
Cabral
said the
Togolese
objections
were
"technical"
but that he
respected
them. He said
the main thing
is for the
international
community to
work together.
On
that, Inner
City Press
asked Cabral
is Portugal
agrees with
the ECOWAS
twelve
month plan. He
replied that
the previous
legitimate
government
should be
restored. But
ECOWAS'
Nigerian
representative
has already
said, the
former
president and
prime minister
cannot return.
So
isn't the coup
being
rewarded?
Before
the vote, a
non-Western
Council member
grumbled about
"sanctions on
a poor
country," and
Inner City
Press tweeted
this snark
along, as part
of the story.
It was quickly
pointed out
from the
Western side
that
it is "only a
travel ban on
five
individuals."
That's for
now. The
Security
Council is
traveling to
West Africa
next week, not
to Bissau but
will meet
ECOWAS in Cote
d'Ivoire.
Watch this
site.
