By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1colnoko111009.html
UNITED NATIONS, November 10, updated -- A war of words between Venezuela and Colombia is on the radar of the UN Security Council, with contacts begun with the Colombian side. But the actual exchange of fire between South and North Korean ships "has not been raised in the Council," this month's President Thomas Mayr-Harting told Inner City Press on Tuesday. Video here, from Minute 3:37.
The Security Council ostensibly deals with threats to international peace and security. Shooting between ships, involving a country which has ostentatiously tested what it calls nuclear missiles, would seem to be a bigger threat than the most recent spat between Hugo Chavez and Alvaro Uribe.
But just as the UN's approach to war crimes in selective, the range of conflicts which never make it to the Council versus some countries no longer in armed conflict which continue under a Council mandate and mission is striking.
Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's Associate spokesman Farhan Haq about the Korean shooting, and he read out a bland statement. Video here.
Inner City Press followed up asking if there is any thought to replacing Maurice Strong with a new UN envoy to North Korea. Apparently not, at least for now. But Venezuela and Guyana have a UN envoy / expert. Go figure.
Footnote: when Inner City Press asked Mayr-Harting if as Council president he had heard from Colombia, he said "we have been in formal contact". Reporters afterwards asked, "in formal or informal"? The latter seems more likely, but it sounded like the former. Go figure.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc1colnoko111009.html
