By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 12, updated -- During what was billed as a “debate” on Children and Armed Conflict in the UN Security Council on Tuesday, countries like Colombia and India criticized the way the concept is being carried out by the UN.
Colombia's foreign minister Maria Angela Holguin called “unacceptable” the UN's attempts to talk to the FARC rebels without the consent of her government. India's Permanent Representative Hardeep Singh Puri complained, for the second day in a row, about the UN's “mandate creep.”
Afterward, Inner City Press asked about the critique and requested responses from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon through this spokesman, UNICEF and German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, in his capacity as Security Council president.
Typical of the UN, none wanted to directly respond. Westerwelle said he wouldn't comment on what other countries said, emphasizing only that the resolution passed.
Ban Ki-moon came to the stakeout and read a statement but took no questions. His spokesman Martin Nesirky said Ban had an urgent 11:45 telephone call.
At the noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Nesirky for Ban's response to the critique, and to those who feel that the decisions of which countries to put on the CAAC Annex is arbitrary, excluding for example Pakistan despite the armed conflict and child recruitment admitted by Ban's previous envoy Jean-Maurice Ripert.
On the former, Nesirky replie that "the most important thing to emphasize here is that the Security Council has been consistently focused on this topic, underscoring the importance that the international community attaches to dealing with the question of children and armed conflict."
On the latter, Nesirky told Inner City Press to asked Ban's CAAC expert, Radhika Coomaraswamy. She had come out of the Council ready to do a stakeout, but was told there were not enough journalists. Later she told Inner City Press among other things that her office needs now to do the political work, explain how her Office works. Inner City Press asked, will you come out to speak after Myanmar's speech? She replied, and speak to you?
Update: when the session ended at 5:45 pm, Ms. Coomaraswamy and her team emerged. They indicted, again, that Colombia's fear is unfounded, that they would not speak to a rebel group without the government's consent. One wonders why Colombia wasn't answered, on the record, during what was called the debate?
UNICEF's Tony Lake came out and Inner City Press asked him about the critique by India and Colombia. “I'm running late,” he said, indicating he would have answered “if ten minutes earlier.” But after Inner City Press immediately e-mailed the questions to four separate UNICEF spokespeople, still there was no answer two hours later.
Footnote: Alongside the debate, the Permanent Representative of Syria was told that Westervelle political party in 1999, the FDP, was distantly associated with a slogan, "Kinder Statt Inder" -- children not Indians. It was a reference to the granting of information technology visa to Indians.
