By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 16 -- Not only in Egypt but also Mali, how are coups and coup leaders dealt with in the UN?
After Malian coup leader Amadou Sanogo was rewarded this week with a promotion to General, Inner City Press on August 15 asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey:
Inner City Press: Since the election that took place, Captain [Amadou Haya] Sanogo, who was the coup leader, whose coup precipitated all of the recent action there, has been promoted three steps up in the army to become a general, and I wondered, given that he’s widely described as a coup leader, does the UN, either Mr. [Bert] Koenders or anybody, have any comment on the promotion to this level of the army of the leader of the coup?
Deputy Spokesperson Del Buey: Well, we’ll have to check. I don’t have anything on it. We just got the report this morning, so we’ll check on that.
But 28 hours later, there was no comment at all. So when this month's UN Security Council president Maria Cristina Perceval of Argentina came out Friday to read a Council press statement about the election, Inner City Press asked her about Sanogo.
Speaking in her national capacity, she replied on camera that Argentina is inquiring, not to stigmatize, if Sanogo now respects human rights and international humanitarian law.
Well, that's something -- it's more than Ban Ki-moon's Secretariat or envoy Koenders said, or colonizer of Mali, France.
Click here for video of Ambassador Perceval; here for video of Argentine President Fernandez Kirchner, speaking August 6 about the UNSC veto, here.
Just before Perceval read the Security Council's statement, the Council's Permanent Members met next door in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. UK Deputy Permanent Representative Parham chaired the very short meeting, transferring the presidency to France.
US Deputy Permanent Representative Rosemary DiCarlo was there, as was Chinese Deputy Permanent Representative Wang. Parham said, the program of work looks light. You might say: there are no more trustees, at least legally.
After Perceval's stakeout, she went to a meeting of the Council's Sudan sanctions committee. Inner City Press noted the report of Sudan, paid by Qatar, transferring weapons to rebels in Syria.
Perceval indicated she'd read it. But why was the Sudan sanctions committee meeting not in the day's UN Journal? The Free UN Coalition for Access, @FUNCA_info, has asked. Watch this site.
Update: FUNCA has learned that the information about the UNSC's Sudan sanctions meeting was given to the UN Journal "too late."
Perceval indicated she'd read it. But why was the Sudan sanctions committee meeting not in the day's UN Journal? The Free UN Coalition for Access, @FUNCA_info, has asked. Watch this site.
Update: FUNCA has learned that the information about the UNSC's Sudan sanctions meeting was given to the UN Journal "too late."
