By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 4 -- When Russian Permanent Representative Vitaly Churkin took questions Monday about his upcoming month as President of the UN Security Council, Inner City Press asked him about Syria, Sudan and South Sudan.
After deadly car bombing in Damascus also impacted the Russian embassy there, Churkin circulated a draft press statement, the same as is routinely adopted by the Council after such attacks. The US proposed an additional paragraph about the Assad government.
Monday Churkin told Inner City Press this was a “killer” amendment, that the US had broken solidarity by proposing it.
Inner City Press asked about the now biweekly Council sessions on Sudan and South Sudan. Churkin said they might be “excessive,” but this month Thabo Mbeki of the High Level Panel will be invited to one of the two sessions, set for March 12 and 27.
Of the four Russian pilots killed when South Sudan shot down a helicopter in December, Inner City Press asked about the status of the investigation, and what the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) had told the pilots about the danger in the area.
Churkin said he will meet with UNMISS chief Hilde Johnson on March 6, and has asked for a report from UNMISS before the Council's March 21 session on the Mission. There are other questions too, he said, about what the Mission is accomplishing.
Of Russia's thematic debate on Afghanistan, Churkin was asked if “the Soviets” had invited the Taliban. Well, no. Churkin declined to answer a question if Russia was trying to undermine language in the Commission on the Status of Women by seeking exemptions for tradition and culture.
Churkin quipped that it was clear the journalist does not respect tradition and culture, but declined to answer further.
Inner City Press began by thanking Churkin for the briefing on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, and hoping to hear from him -- or, of course, Deputy Pankin -- at the stakeout throughout the month. The UN Department of Public Information, or at least one official under pressure, has tried to call into question FUNCA's right to press the UN for reforms. But as an analogy, FUNCA can be viewed as the CSTO to the others' NATO. Watch this site.
