By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 10 -- It's been three days on Syria and chemical weapons at the UN. On July 8, Syria's Bashar Ja'afari invited UN official Angela Kane and prober Ake Sellstrom to Damascus for talks, citing 281 containers of rebel chemical weapons just found.
On July 9, Russia's Vitaly Churkin told the press he'd given an 80 page analysis to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, of rebel use of chemical weapons at Khan al-Asal in March.
And now on July 10, in a statement issued three hours after a meeting of which no independent photographing much less coverage was allowed, the UN says Kane and Sellstrom have agreed to go to Syria, to get on the road to Damascus. All in three days.
On Tuesday after Churkin's lengthy stakeout -- Inner City Press asked him about the evidence of Russian state television reporter Anastasia Popova -- at the day's noon briefing Inner City Press asked:
Inner City Press: I wanted to know about this 80-page presentation that Russia says it made to, to the Secretary-General. Do you have any comment on it? How does it affect he invitation from Syria? Is it the biggest submission that he has received to date and when will it be given to Mr. Sellström?
Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Well, I don’t think that Ambassador [Vitaly] Churkin made an 80-page presentation. What he did was to hand over a document of that length. And needless to say, given that it is a weighty and quite technical document, that is being studied. And of course, it is then for my colleagues in the Office for Disarmament Affairs to analyse and to then provide guidance and advice to the Secretary-General. That document, that information was only handed over just very, very recently. Ambassador Churkin came to the stakeout directly from the meeting with the Secretary-General; therefore, I think you would not expect us to have an immediate detailed comment. The Secretary-General has stated repeatedly that he takes seriously all credible allegations. And of course, there is a technical mission headed by Dr. Aka Sellström. And that mission has the job to look into all credible allegations. And so therefore, when material is provided by Member States, then it is looked at extremely carefully.
Inner City Press: this among the most detailed presentations so far that had been turned in to either the Secretariat or the team? Can you characterize that?
Spokesperson: No, I can’t, really, no.
Similarly on July 8 when asked by Inner City Press, Nesirky declined to provide specifics on how much of Popova's presentation had been given to Sellstrom by Angela Kane's team. But at 7 pm on Wednesday, the UN announced in pertinent part:
“Professor Sellström provided an oral update on the Mission’s off-site activities, which included the analysis of information received from Member States and fact-finding activities in a neighboring country. The High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Ms. Angela Kane, and Professor Sellström, have agreed to accept the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic’s invitation to visit Damascus with a view to completing the consultations on the modalities of cooperation required for the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic.”
That would be the UNMIAUCWSAR -- quite an acronym. And what will it accomplish? Watch this site.
