By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, October 30 -- The evening before the UN Security Council's interactive dialogue on the African Union's request that the Council defer the Kenya cases of the International Criminal Court, two groups huddled in rooms next to each other, planning the morrow's action.
French and UK Permanent Representatives Araud and Lyall Grant arrived, but were unable to get into their P5 clubhouse, along with US Ambassador Jeff de Laurentis and representatives of Australia, Luxembourg, Guatemala. Inner City Press photos here, here and here.
Some joked this was a form of Security Council reform, at least of Working Methods, of a kind unlikely to be seen for while.
Finally UN Security was summoned - nothing had been scheduled - and they were let in.
Next door in the Security Council's suite ministers from Ethiopia, Uganda and elsewhere waited. Several came out and spoke exclusively with Inner City Press. Not to defer, they said, would threaten peace and security. Kenyan troops in in Somalia. There was the mall attack.
One said it would be "like putting Bush and Cheney in front of the ICC right after 9/11." Some might not have minded that - but it would never happen. The US is not a member of the Rome Statute of the ICC, and the US has a veto on the Security Council.
How can the West say no? Watch this site.
