By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 31 --
Even with five
hours left in
Pakistan's UN
Security
Council
presidency for
January, the
jokes and
chick pea
dishes flowed
Thursday night
on 65th Street
at the
country's End
of
Presidency
reception.
The
second floor
ballroom with
its high
ceilings was
packed and
noisy.
Downstairs the
coat racks
collapsed.
Guests ranged
from, as they
say,
from DPRK and
DPKO -- from
Sing Son Ho of
North Korea to
Herve
Ladsous the UN
Peacekeeping.
The
former
jovially lined
up for food,
even as South
Korean
Permanent
Representative
(and
February's
Council
president) Kim
Sook prepared
to speak. The
latter droned
around, as one
wag remarked.
Drones
were
in fact a
theme of the
evening. It
emerged that
the
compromised
reached that
led to Masood
Khan's January
22 letter was
that Ladsous
can ONLY use
drones in the
Democratic
Republic of
Congo.
But more
than one
diplomat,
noting the
publication by
Inner City
Press of
Ladsous'
procurement
for West
Africa in
November 2012
before he had
any approval,
predicted he
would try to
use drones
there.
Israel's
bombing
of Syria and
the expected
response was
also a hot
topic.
Syria's Bashar
Ja'afari
was in fine
form,
greeting all
and sundry. Photo
here. But
what would the
response to
the bombing
be?
Once
Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson
arrived the
speeches
started.
First Masood
Khan, quoting
Virginia Woolf
and then
thanking each
member of his
team, by name.
Khan spoke of
7 pm
stakeouts, to
which Inner
City
Press can
attest. There
was more than
one, every
Friday night
it
seemed. And those
who most try
to control the
press corps,
while being spoonfed in the hall by and defending
Ladsous,
were rarely
there.
Khan then gave
the floor to
February's
president Kim
Sook of
South Korea,
who said
with only one
month so far
on the
Council, they
would do
the best then
can. Their
thematic
debate will be
on protection
of
civilians.
Some wonder,
what will
North Korean
do?
Then
Jan Eliasson
spoke, trying
as always to
represent both
member states
(since he was
President of
the General
Assembly) and
the
Secretariat.
Some wondered,
where is Ban
Ki-moon, if
the Kuwait
pledging
conference for
Syria ended a
day and a half
ago? He's
back, another
said. The UN
Staff Union is
still trying
to put a price
on all this
travel.
The
topic of
pledges not
being
fulfilled came
up: a Pakistan
pledge
conference in
Geneva was not
fully
fulfilled;
some wonder if
for
Syria and Mali
it will be the
same.
Why not
require ten
percent down
at the time of
pledging, like
at auctions of
art? Why not
indeed.
Watch this
site.
