As UK Takes UN Security Council Helm of August, Inner City Press Asks of Libya and Burundi, For Dutch MH17 Letter

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 4, updated -- When UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant took questions on August 4 on the program of work for his month as Security Council president, Inner City Press asked him about Libya, including the relation between UK envoy Jonathan Powell and UN envoy Tarek Mitri, and about the UN missions in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Video here.

  Libya is on the month's schedule, but only on August 27. With the US and now UK having out their diplomats and citizens, will the topic be moved up? Lyall Grant said that Libyan Prime Minister al-Thinni had been trying to reach him, perhaps about just that.

  (In Washington al-Thinni was thanking US President Barack Obama for his help with the Libyan oil tanker; in his remarks the UN was not mentioned.)

  Inner City Press asked about allegations by rights defender Mbonimpa and others in Burundi that the ruling party has been training its youth wing in camps in the DRC, specifically in Kaliba Ondes.

  Lyall Grant said that the BNUB mission is the topic and that can be asked about then. Inner City Press will, and also on August 7 when MONUSCO is discussed, with outgoing UN Great Lakes envoy Mary Robinson and the UK's Mark Simmonds.

  Inner City Press had asked by Twitter about Gaza, why no action. Lyall Grant said that the Arab Group would be meeting on August 4, to ask them if they want Council action. Why wouldn't they?

Last week Inner City Press reported on - and put online - North Korea's letter requesting a UN Security Council meeting about the US - South Korean joint military exercises. Lyall Grant said that no Council member had requested such a meeting.

  On Ukraine, Lyall Grant said that the Netherlands on August 1 -- the first day of his presidency of the Council - had submitted a letter about its memorandum of understanding with Kyiv to access the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17. Inner City Press has requested a copy of the letter. Watch this site.

Footnote: Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Lyall Grant for the briefing and offered hopes that he will do question and answer stakeouts after each closed consultations. He came close to that during his last presidency - but since then the standard has been raised, for example by Luxembourg and Nigeria. Here's hoping.

On August 4 the UK opened an exhibition about World War 1 poetry in the UN lobby (Inner City Press photos here andhere) and there will be an abridged presentation of Shakespeare's Hamlet in the ECOSOC chamber later on August 4. 

Update: In the pre-play press conference, Inner City Press asked if they would go to Palestine, or Western Sahara. The former, perhaps; the latter, not answered. But they have been to Kosovo.

  The Council will go on a trip, but Lyall Grant asked the media not to report to where, or when. We'll have more on this.

From the UK Mission's transcript:

Q: Matthew Lee, Inner City Press. On behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access, thanks for the briefing and here’s hoping for stakeouts after closed consultations and Q and A. You did it before I'm sure. Let’s do it again. I wanted to ask you about Libya. Seems like, there has been a lot of deterioration of the security there and I know that the UK, as  other countries have, have pulled out. So I wanted to know, it’s on the agenda but sort of at the end of the month. Is there any thought of moving it up or having something. I wanted to know also what, it’s unclear sort of what the Mission is doing now that a lot of its staff has left. Mr. Mitry and I know there is the UK envoy Jonathan Powell. What is the relationship between these various envoys and the UN’s Mission. And just very quickly on Burundi I wanted to ask. There is this issue that has come up where human rights defenders in Burundi have alleged that the ruling party is training its youth wing across the border in the DRC. So it seems like you have MONUSCO on the agenda and you have BINUB. What is the intermission cooperation on something like this where people in one country are alleging something across the border? Do you think that MONUSCO should go and check it out? It doesn’t seem that they have done so today. Is that the kind of thing as President with both items on your agenda.  What do you think of it?

Amb Lyall Grant: On Libya. We do as I say have an event that we particularly scheduled for the 27th of August. But I understand that the Libyan Prime Minister who is in Washington for the US Africa Summit is trying to get a hold of me, so it’s possible that he will want to initiate something in the Security Council. I am only speculating there but nothing is scheduled at the moment in advance of that. That does not mean there is not any activity going on and in my national capacity I can say that, as you mentioned, Jonathan Powell is very active, his US opposite number is very active. They are coordinating with Mr. Mitry who is still in the job. And a number of other international envoys trying to bring about a ceasefire which would allow a national dialogue to take place similar to the sort of national dialogues we have seen in places such as Tunisia and Yemen. So they are being extremely active, they are planning further visits in the course of this month to Libya but of course if the Security Council can play a role  well we as the presidency of the Security Council will facilitate that. On Burundi, we have a Burundi briefing Wednesday afternoon, so I guess that will be the time to take up that issue.

   

UK Positions on Somalialand, Press Freedom, Mau Mau, Echoes & Tweets

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 6 -- The UK is very concerned about Somalia. How else to explain their Africa Minister Mark Simmonds arriving in New York to chair a Somalia meeting of the UN Security Council under the UK's presidency, just as the UK's Nicholas Kay takes over the UN mission in Mogadishu?

  We say Mogadishu because it remain unclear, at least to us, what the UK's stance is on Somalialand, its former colony. The UN system handed over its airspace to Mogadishu as well, despite the impact on flights which could have but were not replaced by the EU-funded "Humanitarian Air Service."

  Somaliland couldn't even get their letter to the Security Council circulated to the 15 members earlier this year. Even news of the letter was tightly controlled. But has that become the UK way?

  As we've inquired into since May, and reported on each day this month, the UK is literally presiding over the roll-back in (new) media access to the Security Council from what existed not only during the Council's renovation relocation but also before it. 

  Before, there was a media worktable right by the Council's entrance and journalists could work there with laptops and speak to diplomats and UN officials like Kay now in as they met in and out of the Council.

Now there is a rule, agreed to by the old UN Correspondents Association executive committee largely dominated by UK favorite Reuters as wells the BBC which for now provides:

"f. The Security Council stakeout area, including the Turkish Lounge, is not to be used as a permanent workspace for the media."

Even a small fold-able table set up by the new Free UN Coalition for Access on June 3, the first working day of the UK presidency, was seized and taken away. Very funny.

  Then when Inner City Press for FUNCA asked UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant if he supported continued media workspace at the Council and if so what he would do about it, Lyall Grant said this is a matter for the UN Department of Public Information and "the journalists" -- it's becoming clear which journalists. Even the UK's transcript of Lyall Grant's press conference mis-represents the questions. Is always easier to dodge a question other than the one asked. Compare transcript to UN web cast video, from Minute 17:32.

Who is responsible? In other news, the UK apologizes for Mau Mau torture - but says it is not liable.

So coming full circle, what will be the UK's position on press freedom in Somalia, say? They want to be close to the new government, and so operate with kid gloves.

Even when, despite their position on blog-style new media reporting at the Security Council, their diplomats respond on social media, as UK ambassador to Jordan Peter Millett did yesterday, they speak in grand principles which are not tied down and applied what's actually in front of them, like Jordon blocking over 200 web sites. We are, as noted, experimenting. Watch this site.