Australia's SC Month Has 7 Stakeouts, Darfur to December With Afghanistan, Syria Aid

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 26 -- When Australian Ambassador Gary Quinlan began his second and last Presidency of the UN Security Council, he said he it was his plan to hold question and answer media stakeouts after Council closed-door consultation.

  November began with a flurry of such stakeouts: November 4, 12 minutes; two on November 5, of nine and 11 minutes; November 10, a full twenty minutes; andNovember 12, four minutes.

Then things fell off a bit, with nothing between a three minute “quickie” on November 18 and an appreciated 19 session, ranging from Syria to Darfur, on November 25, the evening of Australia's End of Presidency reception.

Quinlan's total of seven stakeouts, according to the UN Television website, equals that of Argentina, tops South Korea's three, but is dwarfed for example by fellow Commonwealth member United Kingdom's month of 17 stakeouts.

It has been pointed out to the Free UN Coalition for Access that the number of stakeouts it not entirely up to the Presidency, but rather depends on the news of the month. 

 While true, each Press Statement offers the chance to read the statement out on camera -- in which medium it is presumably more effective, unlike a Press Statement on Darfur rapes which the UN Spokesperson's office never emailed out -- to take questions.

In terms of substance, several issues seemed to slip past November into December -- the program of work of which, as Inner City Press reported with redactions to protect privacy, the Australian mission mistakenly emailed to other Council members with an ill-conceived comment about the Chadians, president for December, (not) understanding Christmas. 

  We all make mistakes, and the Australian mission and Quinlan himself quickly owned up to it, setting them apart from some other Council powers.

  Two Darfur issues, for example, bounced around but are ultimately slipping over into Chad's month: Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's report into allegation of cover-up in the UNAMID mission, and UNAMID's related November 9 whitewash of rapes, and community-military relations, in Tabit. 

  Quinlan to his credit circulated to all other Council members a petition from Darfur groups on this topic (click here for that), and twice said that on the cover-up report, the question is finding the right briefer(s). We'll see.

  Quinlan presided, not without humor, over the head-banging exercise of repeated votes with the same results on candidates for judgeship at the International Court of Justice; he covered Ebola in public, and Burkina Faso behind closed doors.

  Australia is interested, along with Luxembourg which like Australia leaves the Council on December 31, and Jordan which does not, in getting a new resolution on humanitarian access in Syria. Australia as pen-holder on Afghanistan also wants a resolution on new security arrangements, which we hear might be more problematic than anticipated. But we'll leave such clashes for another day, or article.

  At Australia's End of Presidency reception on November 25, a classical guitarist played, UN officials, journalists and diplomats mingled, including a recently re-appeared correspondent and the diplomat he rented out of his apartments to. This is mentioned, like the Free UN Coalition for Access push for stakeouts, including byreclusive Under Secretaries General, as a matter of press access and against censorship. That too is a fight for another day, or hour. Watch this site.

   

With Australia Atop UN Security Council, Of Sanctions Experts & Trainers Iraq, Balance Questioned, Access Vowed: OzPrez Begins

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 4 -- When Australian Ambassador Gary Quinlan got the UN Security Council program of work agreed to for his month as Council president on November 4, an item was added to that afternoon's schedule at this request: Burkina Faso.

  Inner City Press, staking-out the Council meeting, heard that Burkina Faso and the ouster of Blaise Compaore would be addressed that afternoon, and reported it - but not who had requested it. Since France has “held the pen” on its other former colonies from Mali to Central African Republic, some assumed they'd made the request. But, in perhaps a good sign, it was Australia.

  After the day's UN noon briefing, Quinlan and at least three members of his team came to brief the press. Quinlan gave a more detailed than usual opening statement, far from uninteresting, and then the questions -- and to some, the problems -- began.

  The first question was set aside for the old UN Correspondents Association, a former Reuters reporter who asked about “The Ukraine.” Next came France 24, then Agence France Presse and a US state media. 

  At that point Inner City Press, on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, noted that the correspondent for Al Mayadeen, with a different perspective, stood up and walked out. Was it a message?

  Seems so: the next was Associated Press and then Newsweek / Israel Radio, with questions about the Golan Heights and North Korea. Inner City Press, called on next, thanked Quinlan for FUNCA and asked that he hold Q&A stakeouts after each closed consultation. (He said, to his credit, that's the plan.)

  Inner City Press asked the legal basis for airstrikes on Syria and if international law wouldn't be better served by seeking Security Council approval. Quinlan said no member of the Council has brought it up, and that his own country is acting in Iraq under a request from that country's government, and is sending a couple hundred trainers.

Quinlan has scheduled a briefing and, he hopes, adoption of a “technical” resolution on sanctions for November 25. Inner City Press asked him about the “regime change” letter by Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group expert Dinesh Mahtani, which it exclusively published and which led to Mahtani's resignation. Mahtani's letter, here, referred twice to Australia.

Quinlan said the training and qualification of experts will be discussed and addressed, and that impartiality “must be a given.” We'll have more on this.

  The briefing continued with Voice of America - a second US state media, both under the US Broadcasting Board of Governors; perhaps for that reason after the former ReutersUN reporter was called on, the current stood in the back with a member of the Australian mission delegation. 

  Then, described as the last question, came Al Jazeera, saying it “heard” that Burkina Faso would be addressed in the Council and asking when). The briefing was set to end -- when there was a (polite) rebellion.

A reporter from Armenian media said she had her hand raised the whole time, and asked about Ukraine. Quinlan to his credit decided to stay and answer. Here's hoping its a harbinger of the coming Security Council month, at least in terms of accessibility to the media. Watch this site.

   

Despite Drones & UN as Combatant, DR Congo Is But a Footnote For September in UN Security Council, Australian Presidency

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 4 -- The UN has taken an unprecedented turn in the Eastern Congo, deploying attack helicopters and, under Herve Ladsous, drones, turning its troops into combatants, parties to an armed conflict.

  But in the UN Security Council provisional program of work distributed Wednesday by the incoming Australian presidency, "DRC" is only a footnote.

  On Wednesday afternoon Inner City Press asked Australia's Permanent Representative Gary Quinlan why that is, if there shouldn't be more oversight of what Quinland called the MONUSCO mission's "forward leaning" approach.

  Inner City Press asked about the Council's last MONUSCO press statement on the issue of combatants (see here, and here for France's refusal to answer), and if MONUSCO should be attacking the M23 group in areas assigned to it in the Kampala deal under which it withdrew from Goma.

Quinlan responded that "we may want to suggest it go on agenda, once the diplomatic process is sorted in next couple days." UN envoy Mary Robinson is there -- click here for Inner City Press' exclusive interview with Rwanda's Permanent Representative Eugene-Richard Gasana -- among with envoys from the EU, African Union and Russ Feingold of the US. But what about Ladsous' drones?

  Quinlan said, "this question of do people become combatants, the issue is legally unresolved. You might address it, Matthew, to DPKO and at the Legal Office." 

  Inner City Press did ask Patricia O'Brien of the Legal Office, and she made it clear the Intervention Brigade, and perhaps all of MONUSCO, are parties to the armed conflict.But apparently Ladsous is arguing differently, and having the UN Secretariat stonewall for him. Watch this site.

   

On UN Syria Report, Australia Says Security Council Will Get It, It Is Being Sped Up by Ban: Race for Relevance

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 4 -- Questions about the UN's forthcoming report on chemical weapons in Syria were raised Wednesday to the incoming president of the UN Security Council, Gary Quinlan of Australia.

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that UN member states should share their evidence with his team, led by Ake Sellstrom. (Inner City Press has twice asked, and it seems that the US has NOT shared the evidence it showed Senators behind closed doors.)

  Inner City Press asked Quilan if as Security Council president in the month the UN report will be finished he wants there to be a Security Council process on the report, or if it will simultaneously go to all 193 UN member states while, it appears, the UN goes forward disregarding the UN report.

  Quinlan answered that "on the Sellstrom report all I can say is the expectation of the Council is it will come to Council as soon as possible after it is complete." 

   He said the Secretary General "has indicated the UN has been using a number of creative ways to expedite the scientific analysis, using more people and laboratories."

  Quinland said, there is "confidentiality associated with that," but that Ban has a "sense of urgency" -- which we have been dubbing the Race for Relevance.

Referring to the meeting Inner City Press covered yesterday afternoon, Quinlan said there was a briefing "yesterday as you know by Kane to the group of member states who signed the letter" requesting the investigation of the August 21 use of chemical weapons. He said Australia was among the requesters, and "that group has a high level of interest to get the report."

  The meeting with Kane was not listed in the UN Journal, and the sign outside Conference Room 6 said briefing by the High Representative for Disarmament. But as Inner City Press' YouTube showed, Syria's Bashar Ja'afari was inside.

  In fact, it may be that any member state could attend -- and that any member state can get the Sellstrom report. (A Permanent Representative who is part of the ACT group on Security Council report told Inner City Press, yes, all 193.)

  We'll see. When called on, Inner City Press thanked Quinlan for the briefing and on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info requested that he does question and answer stakeout after each closed-door consultation of the Council in his month. Watch this site.