By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 26 -- Throughout Colombia's month as president of the UN Security Council, diplomats have streamed in and out of the Council chamber for small servings of hot or iced coffee in light brown cups emblazoned with the Juan Valdez image.
The Colombian presidency cannot end, some have joked, twitching. But end it must.
Monday night a the Upper East Side townhouse where Permanent Representative Nestor Osorio lives the end of presidency reception was held, complete with lobster and avocado canapes and music featuring indigenous flutes, a Colombian former child television star and reknown classical guitarist Nilko Andreas and his usual soprano partner Angelica de la Riva, who sadly did not sing.
In the second floor's front room, a mixture of Security Council and Latin America group diplomats mingled exchanging tidbits of information, on Council topics ranging from Syria to Western Sahara (click here and here respectively for those stories.)
In the General Assembly the European Union, it seems, is pushing for action in early May on its request for “special rights in the GA,” as one delegate put it.
The Caribbean regional group CARICOM is said to still be opposed. A European Union leader complained to Inner City Press that the EU doesn't know “what bothers Caricom.” Another developing world diplomat, from Asia, seemed to know: the EU's request to have its representatives including Catherine Ashton speak before member states in the GA. Ah, protocol.
“Caricom's been hard to reach,” the Asian diplomat conceded. “They've been traveling, and they are small delegations to begin with.”
Another Caricom issue, or exclusion, was raised regarding Haiti. To replace current UN envoy Edmond Mulet, a diplomat from Caricom was in the running but rejected. One of the Ambassadors most involved asked Inner City Press, does it have to ONLY be a Latin American?
That is what Osorio has said. Monday night he was gracious, greeting Ambassadors as they came up to the second story, among them the Permanent Representatives of Turkey, Japan, South Africa, Nigeria, Mexico, Venezuela and Morocco. There was a representative of Palestine, but not Polisario.
From the UN Secretariat's Department of Political Affairs, Lynn Pascoe and new Security Council Affairs chief Mosves Abelian were seen there, but neither Secretary General Ban Ki-moon nor his advisors Vijay Nambiar or Kim Won-soo. Ban and Kim, to be fair, were earlier attending a malaria event in the GA entrance.
China's Li Baodong appeared to be the only Permanent Representative of the Permanent Five Security Council members in attendance.
From the “host country” the US, Numbers Two and Three were there -- Susan Rice, not present, nevertheless e-mailed out two statements, one on malaria and another on Sri Lanka which unlike many of the diplomats queried on the topic by Inner City Press at the reception did not expresss surprise at Ban Ki-moon's cover letter saying he “is advised” that he cannot order any investigation without the consent of Sri Lanka or a vote by member states.
Click here for Sri Lanka story and report, here for podcast done Monday night after the Colombian reception.
Russia's new jovial Deputy Permanent Representative was there; another diplomat recounted that he served in Burkina Faso when it was still Upper Volta.
Talk turned to Djibril Bassole, the mediator of teh Darfur process in Doha, returning on an emergency basis to become the Burkinabe foreign minister, something on which Inner City Press has asked the Secretariat and on which we'll have more.
The UK's Deputy and spokesman were there, but France's did not appear to be, despite France taking up the Council presidency in May. Ironically earlier on Monday in the Secretariat, French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud had met with Ban on just this topic. That is, unlike some other P-5 Perm Rep, both here in New York, but not at Osorio's. Mais c'est gauche, one frag quipped in a fragment. Watch this site.
Literal Footnote redux: to update our April 6 note about the Colombian Mission's intrepid spokeswoman's foot having been run over that a Turkish diplomatic car, she was up and about and greeting Monday night, joking to Inner City Press that she is going to send the medical bill... to Turkey.
