By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, December 4 -- In the evolving plan to destroy chemical weapons from Syria, who will assess and ensure environmental safety? Inner City Press asked official Sigrid Kaag on Wednesday and her answer, at least as to assessment, was UNEP, the UN Environmental Program.
Kaag acknowledged that complaints -- she called them "concerns" -- have arisen due to a lack of information. She said there are plans for a public education component, apparently to consist of telling the public that many for the resulting chemicals are in fact shipped all over the world with no one knowing about them.
(The hijacking in Mexico this week of a truck full of radioactive Cobalt 60 hardly gives comfort.)
Earlier, while Kaag was still briefing the Security Council, UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant emerged and told the press that she had described a UN staff member killed in Syria the previous day.
Inner City Press asked both December's Council president Gerard Araud and Kaag about this death. Kaag said it was a national staff member, but did not provide further detail. Earlier this year when Inner City Press asked UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos a question, she replied that more than a dozen UN staffers had been killed. A question is, by the government or the armed opposition?
To Araud, the French Ambassador to the UN, Inner City Press asked if France has contributed any money to the UN or Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons trust funds. (No French contributions are listed in Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's November 27 letter to the Council on the topic; Inner City Press continues to wonder if these letters are the only reporting there will be for the UN Trust Fund.)
Araud's reply cited France's moral and political support; then he referred to technical assistance. So, no. No money at all. Nor have the Gulf countries so vocal about Syria contributed, Kaag made clear. And so it goes at the UN. Watch this site.
