UN's Murky Approach to Holocaust Events Disclaims Serbia's But Lists It, Israel UNlisted, Smale Silent

By Matthew Russell Lee, Periscope here

UNITED NATIONS, January 26 – In today's UN, Holocaust remembrance is politicized, and the Department of Public Information which makes decisions is not transparent, does not answer Press questions. On January 25 Inner City Press went to cover a Serbia-sponsored event about the Jasenovac extermination camp, complete with a long speech by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, Periscope here.

While there was a disclaimer sign, a representative of DPI's Holocaust Outreach unit was there. The event was listed (as "invitation only") on DPI's list of events in the UN Visitors Lobby - but an Israeli-mission sponsored event set for January 31 wasn't listed. Questions to DPI chief Alison Smale, on access and complaints by whistleblowers of malfeasance in DPI, have gone unanswered. 

At the UN's January 26 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked, UN video, transcript here: 

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about an event that took place in the delegates' entrance last night, sponsored by the Serbian Mission.  It was about a… a concentration camp and it's reported that Croatia wrote directly to António Guterres to try to get it cancelled, given the presentation, and I wanted to know, what can you say about that, I guess?  There seems to be a lot of controversy about it, and I did notice… note some staff of the… I guess, the Holocaust Unit of DPI [Department of Public Information] present.  What was the relationship between the UN and the event?  And do you have any comment on the… the event? Deputy Spokesman:  I don't have any comment on the event.  As you know, different Member States can use the building to hold different events, and that is their right. Inner City Press: But maybe it's related, because I guess I want to understand this.  There's… there's a separate story about an Israeli singer, Benayoun, who had sought to… yeah, who had sought to come.  There was a lot of controversy.  Somebody wrote to António Guterres to say, "Don't have him."  Alison Smale wrote back and said, "He's not invited."  Turns out he is coming, but the event that he'll be at, which is sponsored by the Israeli Mission, is not on the UN's schedule of Holocaust events, it says.  So what's the relation… I guess what I'm meaning is, even if these events have nothing to do with the UN, including the ones that have been held elsewhere in the GA Lobby, who decides which… which events get listed on the… on the list of UN Holocaust week events and which are not?  Is that a political decision?  Who decides that? 

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, the United Nations itself, including its Department of Public Information, has a programme of Holocaust events, and those are listed as such.  Of course, Member States are free to organize their own events, but many of them will not be on the UN program.  Those are events organized by Member States. Inner City Press: DPI reviews the events in advance and says this one will be listed on our programme, and this one won't? Deputy Spokesman:  DPI has an office that deals with the remembrance of the Holocaust and they deal specifically with that. Inner City Press:  So they decided that the Serbian one was too controversial?  Or how did it work? Deputy Spokesman:  No, the Serbian one is organized by Member States.  Meetings organized by Member States are separate.  You know, there are meetings that are part of the Holocaust commemoration that's organized by DPI, and then there are other ones that are organized by Member States. Inner City Press:  But there's a sign down in the GA that lists the week's events, and some of them are sponsored by missions.  Do you see what I mean?  It's not like there are UN events and mission events. Deputy Spokesman:  Those would have been agreed to beforehand." So the Serbian event was "agreed beforehand" with the UN, since it is listed, but the Israel event is not? On January 29, US Ambassador Nikki Haley is taking the UN Security Council members down to Washington, including to the Holocaust Museum. We'll have more on this. When UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres goes to the PyeongChang Olympics next month, his real dream is to get an invite to the north, to Pyongyang, UN sources exclusively tell Inner City Press. Having failed on other diplomatic initiatives like Cyprus in his first year atop the UN, Guterres is "desperate" for some high profile drama, the sources say. The UN's acceptance of a "Junior Professional Officer" who is the son of a high official of Kim John Un's Workers Party -- whom Inner City Press in October exclusively identified as Kim Joo Song, here -- was meant to built the connections to get Guterres into the country. But isn't it the US that Kim Jong Un wants to negotiate with? We'll have more on this. When the UN's Committee on Relations with the Host Country met on January 17, the representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea read a three-page statement condemning the US for issuing his Mission to the UN's tax-exempt card in the name "North Korea" and not Democratic People's Republic of Korea. He said, "We presumed it would be only a kind of technical mistake by the U.S. side, and returned the card back to the U.S. mission, while requesting them to correct that serious mistake." The statement, which Inner City Press has exclusively obtained immediately after the meeting (photos here, full PDF of letter via Patreon, here) continued that the U.S. mission replied, "It seems to be a glitch in our database, we'll reach out to our office in DC." That was on December 13, the statement said, continuing: "on 14th December there was an explanation from the U.S. mission informing that, quoted as 'Our DC office has indicated that all country / mission names on OFM credentials for Democratic People's Republic of Korea indicate North Korea which is the conventional short abbreviation. The short name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is North Korea, so the tax card will remain the same." The statement concluded by condemning "such reckless political hostile policy" and demanded an apology. Watch this site. Throughout 2016 New Zealand documentary maker Gaylene Preston and her crew staked out the UN Security Council along with Inner City Press, awaiting the results of the straw polls to elected Ban Ki-moon's sucessor as UN Secretary General. Preston's focus was Helen Clark, the former New Zealand prime minister then in her second term as Administrator of the UN Development Program. Preston would ask Inner City Press after each poll, What about Helen Clark's chances? Suffice it to say Clark never caught fire as a candidate. Inner City Press told Preston, as did many other interviewees in her documentary “My Year with Helen,” that it might be sexism. But it might be power too - including Samantha Power, the US Ambassador who spoke publicly about gender equality and then in secret cast a ballot Discouraging Helen Clark, and praised Antonio Guterres for his energy (yet to be seen). Samantha Power's hypocrisy is called out in Preston's film, in which New Zealand's Ambassador complains that fully four members of the Council claimed to be the single “No Opinion” vote that Clark received. There was a private screening of My Year With Helen on December 4 at NYU's King Juan Carlos Center, attended by a range of UN staff, a New Zealand designer of a website for the country's proposal new flag, and Ban Ki-moon's archivist, among others. After the screening there was a short Q&A session. Inner City Press used that to point out that Guterres has yet to criticize any of the Permanent Five members of the Council who did not block him as the US, France and China blocked Clark, with Russia casting a “No Opinion.” And that Guterres picked a male from among France's three candidates to head UN Peacekeeping which they own, and accepted males from the UK and Russia for “their” top positions. Then over New Zealand wine the talk turned to the new corruption at the UN, which is extensive, and the upcoming dubious Wall Street fundraiser of the UN Correspondents Association, for which some in attendance had been shaken down, as one put it, for $1200.  The UN needed and needs to be shaken up, and hasn't been. But the film is good, and should be screened not in the UN Censorship Alliance but directly in the UN Security Council, on the roll-down movie screen on which failed envoys like Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed are projected. “My Year With Helen” is well worth seeing.

UN Checks on Peacekeeper Equipment Looted by Syria Rebels, Video Shows Philippines Flak Jacked, Official Tells ICP of Abandoned Posts

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 23 -- Eleven days after avideo went on YouTube of an injured Syrian rebel writhing in a blue UN flak jacket, UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky said of UN blue helmets being looted, "We are aware of those reports and that seems to be the case."

  Afterward, the UN said the UNDOF mission is checking, but it takes time because some Troop Contributing Countries have left and have to be asked if all their equipment went with them.

  It's true that troops from Austria and Croatia have left -- but in the YouTube video, here, the flak jacket is marked not only UN but also "Philippines." Despite kidnappings by the Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigade, Philippines troops are still in UNDOF.

  So whose flak jacket is that? Watch this site.

Update: Inner City Press is informed by a senior UN official that UNDOF is checking on equipment left behind when the peacekeepers abandoned posts in the UNDOF Area.

  

For UN in Haiti, US Choses DynCorp, Despite Scandal in Bosnia, Whistleblower

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 10 -- The military contractorDynCorp, charged with child sex abuse while working with the UN in Bosnia in 1999, has just been selected by the US State Department to work for $46.8 million with the UN in Haiti.

  The timing is, to put it mildly, ironic and Balkanized. DynCorp was exposed by, and retaliated against,whistleblower Kathryn Bolkovac, recently interviewed at the UN by Inner City Press.

  On both April 8 and April 9, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson about the continuing lack of whistleblower protections at the UN, exemplified by the recent case of James Wasserstrom who was retaliated against for exposing corruption at the UN in Kosovo.

  In another Balkan connection, Wednesday the President of the General Assembly, former Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic, hosted a debate on international tribunals including that for the Former Yugoslavia. Inner City Press photo here.

  As the meeting began, the Permanent Representative of Croatia told Inner City Press that the US Mission to the UN had informed him the night before that it would boycott Jeremic's debate

  But why is the US State Department using DynCorp for Haiti, where the UN mission MINUSTAH is already embroiled in multiple sexual abuse scandals, including by Uruguay peacekeepers against a Haitian boy and the repatriation of peacekeepers from Sri Lanka? We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

As UN Attacked in Golan, It Has No Answers on Croatians Fleeing

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 6, updated -- Amid reports and YouTube video of an attack on UNDOF Peacekeepers in Golan, the UN at Wednesday's noon briefing rebuffs questions from the press.

Inner City Press asked for a description of the UN's knowledge and dealings with the Al-Yarmouk Brigade, shown as taking credit. Deputy Spokesman Eduardo Del Buey said he had nothing on that.

Update of 1:37 pm -- Inner City Press put the same question to UN Security Council President Vitaly Churkin, if it was Yarmouk and if they demanded that the Syrian Army leave the village of Jamla.

 Churkin said there were demands made about the situation "on the ground;" in his national capacity he said countries with influence on the armed Syrian opposition should tell them to release the twenty peacekeepers.

Two days earlier on March 4 Inner City Press asked Del Buey about insecurity in UNDOF:

Inner City Press: Eduardo, I want to ask you about Syria, or UNDOF, more particularly, Croatia has announced that it wants to withdraw 100 of its soldiers that it has in UNDOF, saying that it has become unsafe after reports of Syrian rebels getting weapons from the Balkans, including Croatia. What’s the plan? From DPKO’s (Department of Peacekeeping Operations) perspective, how fast is Croatia pulling out and does it have some plan? What countries is it asking to replace these soldiers in UNDOF?

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, to date we have had no formal word from the Croatian authorities that they are planning to do that, so it remains hypothetical.

  Is it still hypothetical? And what countries, now, would step in to replace the Croatians? There were no answers at Wednesday's UN noon briefing.

  Running back to the UN Security Council, Inner City Press spotted the unscheduled arrival of the head of DPKO, Herve Ladsous. He was last seen to the side of the Security Council stakeout at 5 pm on Tuesday. 

 Ladsous left as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon answered the second of what were to be two questions (on Hugo Chavez). So he didn't hear, nor of course answer, the third question from Inner City Press about his inaction on the 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, his partners.

  Now, reportedly, the Al-Yarmouk Brigades accuse the UN Peacekeepers of "helping government forces to redeploy in areas that was under rebels' control.”

  Inner City Press has asked the Syrian Mission about the village of Jamla; to Del Buey at noon Inner City Press asked about a new March 6 letter the Syrian Mission told Inner City Press it filed with the Security Council and Ban. Del Buey said he would check - for now, we'll put the letter online here. Watch this site.

Footnote: Ladsous' predecessor Alain Le Roy, in circumstances where UN Peacekeepers were attacked, would invariably speak to the Press. Ladsous does not - who is served?

Update: here's a transcript of what Del Buey read out at noon:

"The UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has reported that, earlier today, approximately 30 armed fighters stopped and detained a group of around 20 peacekeepers within the Area of Limitation, east of the B-Line.

The UN observers were on a regular supply mission and were stopped near Observation Post 58, which had sustained damage and was evacuated this past weekend following heavy combat in close proximity, at Jamla. The Mission is dispatching a team to assess the situation and attempt a resolution."

At UN, Brammertz Blames All Bosnia for Foca Prison Break, Rwandan Responses

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 7 -- When prosecutor Serge Brammertz spoke Wednesday at the UN, far fewer journalists covered him than when he was with the Special Tribunal on Lebanon. At this this point, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is not perceives as being as newsy.

But Brammertz in his statement to the Security Council said of Bosnia - Herzogovina that "the case of Radovan Stankovic is symptomatic of broader problems... He escaped from prison in Foca more than four years ago, yet very little has been done to return him to custody. We struggle to understand why the authorities in Bosnia and Herzogovina appear unconcerned."

Balkan sources point out that just as Bosnia has a three way presidency that at times paralyzes its decision making on such matters as Palestine's application to join the UN, it is also divided ethnically on the ground. "Consider where Foca is," a source said rhetorically. "So why did Brammertz condemn the country as a whole?"

This split in Bosnia has led, for example, to trips to Banja Luca by Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, and a little noticed letter from the Serbian third of the government attacking a statement given in the Security Council. So Council members know about the split: why did Brammertz ignore it?

(Note: Council members may know of the split in Bosnia; French Deputy Permanent Representative Briens also put in his testimony a reference to the jail break from Foca. But he did not blame Bosnia as a whole.)

When Brammertz emerged from the Council, Inner City Press asked him. Brammertz said that Stankowitz probably shouldn't have been sent to a prison in Foca, that it may have been "easy" for him to escape.

Croatia's Permanent Representative spoke late and criticized and "refused" Brammertz statement that Croatian officials "glorify illegal war-time conduct and question the impartiality of the ICTY's judgements." Questioning is allowed, isn't it?

Inner City Press asked Brammertz. He said that for a prime minister at a political rally to greet a person convicted, and for people to question the qualifications of particular ICTY staffers is not acceptable.

Asked by a Serbian journalist about Serbia joining the EU, he said the Tribunal's preconditions have been met; "if there are other" preconditions, that's another issue. He declined to speak about Kosovo.

Regarding Rwanda, Inner City Press on December 6 asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky

Inner City Press: there was a Rwandan journalist, Charles Ingabire, who was killed in Kampala about a week ago, and there are many human rights groups saying that it should be investigated. Some people feel that it has to do with things that he was writing about his native country, is the UN aware of this case, do they join this call that it should be investigated? I know that generally there is a line that journalists should be free to do their work, but this is a particular case that seems to be raising a lot of issues in the Great Lakes region, and I wonder if you have a comment on it.

Spokesperson Nesirky: I’d have to check. But certainly the point that you made is absolutely right. Journalists do need to be able to carry out their work without fear of persecution of whatever kind. That’s obviously an underlying principle. I obviously will check with UNESCO and others to see if they have anything further on that.

More than 24 hours later, Nesirky had not provided any comment. Meanwhile two diplomats entering the Security Council to listen to the Rwanda Tribunal statements, when asked by Inner City Press about the case, said that Charles Ingabire "was hardly known before he was killed, just Google him" and even suggested that government opponents might have done it.

That's adding insult to... murder. Watch this site.

In UN Council, Iran and Guinea But Not Yemen Discussed by Five New Members

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1newnonperm010510.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 5 -- In the UN's nearly empty building, 2010 dawned at the Security Council with January's president China serving breakfast and giving photo albums to the other Council members, five of them new this month.

One of the five outgoing countries pointedly asked, at the Council retreat for the new members, what is the function of the ten non-permanent members, other than to legitimize the decisions of the Permanent Five?

Croatia, to pick one example, accomplished nearly nothing during its two year stint. (Perhaps explanatory, its Permanent Representative left in scandal, diverting Mission funds for gambling in Las Vegas.)

Of the incoming members, many are watching Brazil, given its rising power and the outspokenness of President Lula. In late 2009, Brazil wrote a letter to the Council about the safety of its embassy in Honduras, into which the deposed Manuel Zelaya took refuge.

A Council source told Inner City Press on Tuesday morning that this will have to be reviewed, along with other outstanding items from 2009.

Amid the clanking of breakfast dishes, various Council members spun the Press on their topics of interest. A Presidential Statement is in the works about the September massacres in Guinea, a "hot issues, on the hot burner," the PRST's drafter gushed.

On Iran, a well placed Council member said the country's failure to be responsive to the Sanctions Committees letter was helping to build the case for further sanctions. "If there's no regime change before then," quipped another member.

The critical outgoing member has questioned why the Council's Committees are only chaired by non-permanent members. Is it a mark of respect, or of the P-5 trying not to dominate? Or, because the work is large administrative and conducted by lower level bureaucrats, is chairing the committees beneath the P-5 Permanent Representatives?

Of these five, only four were seen on Tuesday. Missing was the U.S.'s Susan Rice. The U.S. has, some say, thus staked out a position above the over Permanent Four. Now in 2010, will the U.S. which says it wants to use the UN be raising the issue of Yemen? Watch this site.

Also on the U.S. Mission, at the UN barely a word has been said about the flame out in scandal and withdrawal of the nomination of former Goldman Sachs executive Jide J. Zeitlin to head the Mission's UN reform efforts. Who's next?

Media footnote: while the Council is usually off-limits to the UN press corps, on Tuesday morning the bureau chief of China's state owned Xinhua came smiling out of the breakfast. With human rights issues like Myanmar, Iran, Sudan and Guinea on the Council's agenda, some wonder how China can be an honest broker. We'l be covering this, and secondarily any honest brokering with the press.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc1newnonperm010510.html

The UN on Protection of Civilians Dost Protest Too Much, 62 Speakers But What of Congo, Sri Lanka and Sudan?

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1protciv111109.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 11, updated below -- To protect civilians should go without saying for the United Nations, given its rhetoric. Speech after speech will be given at a debate on the topic in the Security Council on November 11, covered below. But a decade and a half after the UN pulled out during the Rwanda genocide, and stood by during the slaughter in Srebrenica, the UN is still at odds with itself on levels large and small.

In the Congo for example despite a relatively small recent change, the peacekeeping mission under the charge of Alan Doss has provided support to Army units now known to have raped and killed civilians.

Even its own local staff, the UN is not protecting. This week, former MONUC staffer John Dimandja wrote to the Secretary General that his disarmament work for the UN with militias in Ituri put him and his family at risk and needs to leave the region. The UN focused on his desperate reference to stepping in front of the S-G's limousine, called the police and told Dimandja to stay away. Click here and here for Inner City Press' two exclusive stories; a third is in the works.

The Congo mission was created and is ostensibly overseen by the Security Council. But when Inner City Press asked a Council diplomat about Dimandja's plight, the answer was, "We don't really deal with that."

And this month's earnest Security Council president Thomas Mayr-Harting of Austria, which oversees today's debate, said he had not heard about Doctors without Borders days-old public statement that its vaccination drive in rebel controlled areas of Eastern Congo was used as "bait" by the Army to attack civilians.

The UN Mission in Sudan has said it cannot protect civilians from the Lord's Resistance Army; Darfur speaks for itself. These are the UN's largest peacekeeping forces. Then there are conflicts in which the Security Council declines to put on its agenda, such as the slaughter of tens of thousands of Sri Lankans, nearly all Tamils, earlier this year. China and Russia opposed discussing the matter, but the U.S., France, UK and others went along.

Instead of calling for a vote, they contented themselves with non-binding non-meetings in the UN's basement. The Council has not revisited the situation in Sri Lanka since May, despite hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians being locked up in monsoon flooded camps.

So it is difficult not to think, in hearing these lofty UN speeches about protection of civilians, that "thou dost protest too much." We will review the days events below as the happen. Watch this space.

Update of 10:01 a.m. -- at the stakeout in front of the Security Council, correspondents are told that there will be 62 speakers in the "debate" on the protection of civilians. There is groaning. For the Secretariat, Ban Ki-moon, John Holmes and Alain Le Roy -- who strides in smiling -- will be there, as well as the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Former French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert comes to schmooze the press -- it's too early in his mandate for a briefing, he says, adding that sometimes the UN is constrained by member states. As he leaves, a Middle Eastern reporter quips, "The UN salary seems to be suiting him well."

As the Costa Rican Ambassador walks in, a reporter shouts, "Any problems with white powder?" The reference is to the anthrax scare, which started with three Missions to the UN and has proceeded from there. There are other countries with other white powders...

Update of 10:30 a.m. -- Austria's foreign minister mechanically thanks Ban Ki-moon for his "most interesting" speech. Now top UN humanitarian John Holmes is up. He mentions Yemen -- but apparently not Sri Lanka. He asks, have we narrowed the gap between rhetoric and action? Apparently not.

Update of 10:36 a.m. -- Holmes says "we need flexibility" to engage with armed groups (that is, non state actors), in order to protect humanitarian workers. It's a good point. But one wonders why Holmes is, for example, so reluctant to admit that the supposed investigation of the killing of 17 Action Contre La Faim workers led nowhere, with its advisory committee quitting due to its lack of credibility. Apparently, if a member state criticizes the UN or OCHA strenuously and persistently enough, the UN's message changes or goes silent. There's always another conflict, with less oversight, to move on to....

Update of 10:40 a.m. -- Sudan's deputy permanent representative groans and says, seventy speakers now! And Sudan is 53rd. We are ready for our election, he tells Inner City Press, then shakes his head at the UN's electoral snafus in Afghanistan. It's a shame, he says, entirely without irony.

Update of 10:44 a.m. -- and now, one expects the last Sudanese Mission update of the day, Sudan's Ambassador comes over to make, again, his double standard point. He said, those speechifying today, many voted against or abstained on endorsing the Goldstone report on Gaza. Now they talk about protection of civilians. He laughs and ambles into the Council.

Update of 10:49 a.m. -- the Deputy High Commisioner for Human Rights, after touching on the Goldstone report, which she says has been transmitted to the Security Council, which is not entirely clear, and on Eastern Congo, turns to Darfur. Next to her the Libyan Deputy looks glum. She does it quick, and moves on to Kabul.

Update of 10:58 a.m. -- as the minister of Croatia reads his speech, Inner City Press is told that even the word "UN" now makes people mad in Croatia, since their most recent Ambassador to the UN "misappropriated" national funds. They didn't call him "the gambler" for nothing...

Update of 11:14 a.m. -- during the UK's speech, at the stakeout it is asked if this is the country's new Ambassador. No, Minister Taylor is a woman, and Mark Lyall Grant is man, who is yet to be seen at the stakeout. Yesterday, Deputy PR Parham told Inner City Press he was not aware of any plan to keep British troops in Afghanistan "out of harm's way" pending the UK elections...

Update of 11:20 a.m. -- As France's Araud speechifies, he uses four examples: Sudan, Gaza, Sri Lanka and Guinea. Before this can sink in, a correspondent notes that Araud got a lot of laughs yesterday morning, referring to the letters from Dallas containing white powder: "Don't mess with Texas," he quipped. Now he's speaking on the Congo.

Update of 11:23 a.m. -- okay, more seriously, it is explained to Inner City Press that the inclusion of language about humanitarian access in the resolution is something that can be pointed to in the future. But how much more access will it lead to?

Update of 11:26 a.m. -- as the Austrian minister thanks "Excellency Araud" and hands it off to Russia's Vitaly Churkin, Ban Ki-moon is still in the room, dutifully checking off on a paper in front of him. France, done. Russia, now. Four minutes until the Austrians' stakeout is scheduled. But the text of the Austrian minister's opening statement is not available. Churkin is denouncing one sided approaches, and saying that private security companies, too, are subject to international humanitarian law.

Update of 11:33 a.m. -- First Holmes leaves, grim faced, then the smiling Alain Le Roy. Then Ban Ki-moon and Vijay Nambiar, flanked by security. Mr. Ban waves. The Austrian stakeout can't be far behind.

Update of 11:53 a.m. -- Inner City Press asked Austria's minister three questions, and will report on the answers, probably in a separate piece -- after the day's UN noon briefing.

Update of 3:45 p.m. -- the separate piece on Austria's minister's answers is now online here...

Update of 8:11 p.m. -- Iran, thankfully, says it will summarize its more lengthy prepared remarks. The Georgians are hanging around, to see if Russia asks to reply to what they've said. The Council President tells Inner City Press that no one has yet requested the "right of reply." Remaining speakers: Rwanda, Pakistan and the "Sovereign Military Order of Malta." We'll see.

Update of 8:21 p.m. -- Iran says Israel's ship hijacking was just a "distraction" from the Goldstone report. Pakistan is apparently a no show, or spoke earlier. Malta is up, Holmes still in his chair. Has he prepared a response to all the comments?

Update of 8:31 p.m. -- Holmes is delivering a fast reply, which we'll review later. But here comes U.S. versus Venezuela! And it's a wrap!

Update of 8:36 p.m. -- Holmes on his way out tells Inner City Press he's going to Sri Lanka on Sunday, through Tuesday. It's announced, c'est fini.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc1protciv111109.html

At UN's Gaza Meeting, Croatia Corrects CNN Report They Leave the Council on Jan. 1

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1nocroatia123108.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 31 -- As the UN Security Council's New Year's Eve meeting about Gaza proceeds and the resolution introduced by Libya circulates, two representatives of Croatia's, the Council president for December, emerged from the chamber and approached Inner City Press. We need your help, they said. CNN just reported that Croatia is leaving the Council tonight. But we have another year. We need to get it corrected.

Inner City Press escorted them up to CNN's office. Both of them showed Blackberries full of queries about Croatia's future on the Council. "Half of Europe is watching," one of them said.

Up in CNN, long-time correspondent Richard Roth was diplomatic.* He said if he was allowed to be more at the UN, the reference would not have happened. He promised to correct it.

* - his show Diplomatic License is much missed at the UN

On the way down, the Croatians confirmed to Inner City Press that if the meeting goes until midnight, it would have to be suspended, and the five Council members which unlike Croatia are actually leaving: Italy, Indonesia, Panama, Belgium and South Africa. Then the five new members would have to seated: Austria, Turkey, Mexico, Japan and Uganda. The change makes the Libyan introduced resolution harder to pass, even disregarding the anticipated use(s) of the veto.

The Croatians also confirmed to Inner City Press that they had finessed the Arab Group's December 30 request that the Council's President Neven Jurica write a letter to Israel on behalf of the Council demanding a cessation of air strikes. Instead, Jurica formally handed the Ambassador of Israel and the Permanent Observer of Palestine copies of the three-paragraph press statement he had read out at 2 a.m. on December 28. We could have screwed that one up, one of the Croatians in essence said. There are four more hours to do so, Inner City Press noted. Two hundred minutes, the Croatian corrected. CNN's correction is still awaited, and if seen will be reported on this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc1nocroatia123108.html