As Diplomats View German Expressionism, Etching of War Chide UN Council

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 11 -- German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle has arrived in New York and Tuesday will chair the UN Security Council for a session on children and armed conflict.

The night before he hosted most Council ambassadors and a range of UN personalities at the Museum of Modern Art, where a show on German Expressionism features grisly pictures of the First World War and after.

Britain's Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant chatted downstairs with Afghan Ambassador Tanin. Up on sixth floor, Westerwelle worked the crowd.

Rwanda's Permanent Representative spoke with him in perfect German; his wife explained to Inner City Press that the Kinyarwanda language has many German words, since before Belgium it was a German colony.

Westerwelle said that Germany can now be an honest broker and “teacher” in Africa -- where Angela Merkel is headed, starting with Angola -- since it does not have the same history as others on the Continent.

France's Gerard Araud was in attendance, as was his Moroccan counterpart. South Africa's able charge d'affaires noted that depending on which countries get elected, his will preside over the Council in either January or February. But due to the alphabet, they will get only one Presidency in their two years. And they hope the institution is reformed before they get elected again.

Germany, which also wants a permanent seat, has highlighted children and armed conflict in its month. Late last Friday, India and Colombia were still critiquing the draft resolution.

Monday India's Permanent Representative Hardeep Singh Puri told Inner City Press his country opposes “mandate creep” on children and armed conflict, just as it opposes “mission creep” in Libya.

India, which will follow Germany as Council President in August, has proved outspoken on the Council, for example joining Russia and South Africa in questioning France parachuting arms into Libya. Others vying for permanent seats are playing it more cautious. Whether it will make a difference remains to be seen.

In attendance Monday night was the UN's expert on the Responsibility to Protect, Edward Luck. Inner City Press asked him about Tuesday's GA session: is it an attack on the mandate? No, he said, he thinks it will be productive. Will Libya be discussed? One assumes so.

The show of Expressionists featured 50 works by Otto Dix, depicting death and destruction in World War I in which he served as a gunner. To see Security Council ambassadors glancing at such works, as they vote on Libya, was more than a little ironic.

There were also pictures by George Grosz, of prostitution and corruption, and Kathe Kollwitz on widows left by war. The show is recommended -- at MOMA as well as at the UN and its Security Council.

Westerwelle will take questions from the press on Tuesday morning at the stakeout, and meet Ban Ki-moon in the afternoon. Watch this site.

With Euro Tanking On Reports of Greece Turning to IMF, of Half Answers, on Dodd Bill and Sri Lanka

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/imf2greece031810.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 18, updated -- As Angela Merkel speaks darkly about ejecting from the Euro zone non compliant countries like Greece, that country's renewed threat of turning for help to the International Monetary Fund has the market selling off the Euro.

Near the end of the IMF's fortnightly press briefing on Thursday morning, spokesperson Caroline Atkinson, beyond saying the IMF has not had a request for financial assistance, declined to describe various aspects of Greece's relations with the IMF. Her boss, Dominique Strauss Kahn, previously bragged that the IMF would "intervene" in Greece upon request.

France's finance minister Lagarde, belatedly added to the UN's climate finance group after Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was confronted with the fact he'd named men to all 19 positions on the panel, has said the EU can still be Greece's interlocutor and helper, not the IMF.

Her president Sarkozy has a personal motive to oppose IMF help to Greece: Strauss Kahn is polling ahead of him for the next French election.

Inner City Press submitted to the IMF during its briefing, but without answer yet, questions about financial reform and the Fund's apparently stalled consideration of a third tranche to Sri Lanka. It was mostly Greece on Thursday, with few answers from the IMF.

Update: later these two answers came in from the IMF:

Re Senator Dodd’s bill, overall, we support the thrust toward comprehensive reforms that would address the gaps in financial regulation illustrated by the crisis. Strong and prompt implementation would both help to secure financial stability going forward.

Re Sri Lanka, not much update. As you know, staff will visit Colombo after the parliamentary elections and the formation of the new cabinet, to discuss with the government its plan for a 2010 budget.

Best regards,
Yoshiko Kamata
Media Relations, IMF

And see, www.innercitypress.com/imf2greece031810.html

At UN, Merkel's Economic Proposal Absent, Dreams of UN Credibility, Benon Sevan

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unga1merkel021309.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 13 -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed a UN Economic Security Council while at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos. But at the UN on February 11, when Inner City Press asked the president of the UN's Economic and Social Council, Sylvie Lucas of Luxembourg, about Merkel's proposal, Ms. Lucas said the idea has not been raised to the UN and is "not necessarily a very well defined idea." Video here, from Minute 36:27.

Inner City Press also asked Ms. Lucas, Luxembourg's Ambassador, how ECOSOC's talk-fest on the global financial crisis lines up and works with the process started by President of the General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, headlined by economist Joseph Stiglitz. Ms. Lucas' lengthy response, replete with high-level meetings, interactive dialogues and other UN buzz words, appeared to mean that the two processes are not fully coordinated. Video here, from Minute 31:02. Then on February 13, d'Escoto's spokesman said the processes are coordinated, in ways he'll explain next week.

A key d'Escoto staffer this week told Inner City Press that the hook d'Escoto has is the "legitimacy" of the General Assembly, or perhaps of the UN. By way of analogy, he told the story of a respected lawyer jurist, whose client balked at the high price tag of his opinion memo. The lawyer flipped to the last page and tore off the signature. There, he said, now I will give it to you for free. The point, the PGA staffer said, is that it is the name that is important, not the content. The G-20 need us, he said.

Believers in the UN name, in the primacy of the so-called GA-192 over groups like the G-20, should then be more concerned about that which inevitably makes the UN look bad. This week, for example, the UN's own Administrative Tribunal said the UN must pay the legal fees of Benon Sevan, formerly head of the UN Oil for Food Program for Iraq, who when charged with bribery fled to Cyprus, which refuses to extradite him. Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson if Ban had any comments on the case, any regrets about using UN money to pay the fees of an official formerly charged with corruption. He has no comment, the spokesperson said. Perhaps because it is not on the Security Council's agenda, the excuse given for Ban not calling for a cease fire in Sri Lanka? Click here for that.

Ms. Lucas was asked about a sentiment bubbling up from the ECOSOC subsidiary Commission on Social Development meeting in the basement, that the bailouts of banks in the developed world should some how be related to financial for development. Jamaica expressed it strongly in the CSD, more recently a "senior UN official" was quoted as saying a push will be made at the upcoming G-20 meeting. We'll see.

Footnote: when asked about the Merkel proposal, Ms. Lucas encouraged Inner City Press to "see that with my German colleague." That same day, the German Mission to the UN was holding a session on financing the UN, which excluded a number of reporters who actively but critically cover the issue. Two days later, Germany's Ambassador made what is becoming a rare appearance at or outside the Security Council, singing the praises of an Abkhazia resolution which the Georgians, right after Germany spoke, described as a slow slide toward loss of territorial integrity. What where is the Merkel proposal? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unga1merkel021309.html