UN General Assembly Debate Schedule Has Ukraine & Egypt, Mugabe & Sri Lanka, Abbas & Kiir: A September to Remember?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- When UN General Assembly week begins on September 24, US President Barack Obama will speak second after Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, as before. But according to the scheduled Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access are today putting online here, then things get more interesting.

The head of state of Morocco, presumably the King, is scheduled for that same first morning, along with France's Francois Hollande and Argentina's Cristina Kirchner. That afternoon starts with Evo Morales of Bolivia, which has just declared Israel a terrorist state.

Thursday, September 25 has the head of state of Iran, presumbly Hassan Rouhani, and then back to back Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine and President Sisi of Egypt. That afternoon has for example Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka, as well as Joseph Kabila of the DRC and Erdogan of Turkey.

On Friday, September 26, the head of state of the State of Palestine, Mahmood Abbas, is on the schedule; in the afternoon there's Haiti, Venezuela, Serbia and Nepal.

Saturday, deep into the General Debate, Russia and China go back to back represented by ministers, as is Security Council member Australia. The afternoon has Salva Kiir of South Sudan but from Burundi, the Vice President.

Monday, September 29 has the Deputy Prime Minister of Syria and ministers from Thailand and Bahrain. The afternoon has Malaysia.

The final day, September 30, has the Head of Government of Israel and a minister from Sudan in the morning; in the afternoon a minister of North Korea or the Democratic People Republic of Korea as well as Myanmar. And then it's over, or should be. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Cuba Cites Malvinas, Hugo and Hiroshima Before Samantha Power, AU and Press Access Limited

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 6 -- The first speaker in the UN Security Council on Tuesday was Cuba's foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, who eulogized Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, cited Argentina's sovereignty over the Malvinas Island, and mentioned Hiroshima.

  Argentine President Cristina Kirchner thanked US Deputy Permanent Representative Rosemary DiCarlo for chairing the Council in July, and welcomed as new US Permanent Representative Samantha Power.

  Given what Power said during her Senate confirmation, including citing the Venezuela of Chavez and now Maduro as a regime, one wondered how she would respond in this, her first Security Council meeting.

  Ethiopia's Permanent Representative Tekeda Alemu, speaking for the African Union, said that the support package and compensation for the AU's AMISOM mission in Somalia should be the same as for UN Peacekeeping missions. 

  For MONUSCO in Eastern Congo, UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous (replaced at Tuesday's session by Edmond Mulet)  is spending 10 million Euros a year on a drone, Selex ES Falco, which previously crashed in Pakistan and Wales. Some note Ladsous' drone could view and film up to 10 kilometers into Uganda and Rwanda.

  Before the meeting, Rwanda's Permanent Representative Gasana chatted with Samantha Power, who devoted much of her book "A Problem from Hell" to the UN's, US' and France's inaction during the Rwanda genocide.

  One wondered if US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki's July 23 statement on external support to M23, seemingly scripted by Human Rights Watch and sussed out by a planted questions from Voice of America, which is run by the US State Department with John Kerry on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, would come up, or the Congolese foreign minister's July 24 statement that all rebellions in the Great Lakes bear the same "genetic signature," on which the US Mission to the UN never commented.

  It's been asked: did the minister mean that former rebel Joseph Kabila bears the same genetic signature?

  The UN, when also asked by Inner City Press, said it had no comment on the "genetic signature" citation in the Council.

For Tuesday's Security Council meeting, for the first time the Press was banned from using the southern entrance and exit of the Council stakeout (still without a media work table), a limitation nowhere to be found in the so-called Media Access Guidelines the UN Department of Public Information agreed to with its UNCA. 

  The limitation of access has been raised by the new Free UN Coalition for Access, both to UN Media Access and Liaison Unit and its supervisor, so far without response.Libertad de prensa! Watch this site.

   

UN in August: Cuban Ship Inspection Pushed Back from 5th to 12th, Argentina & Malvinas in UNSC on August 6 - & CELAC?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- For the UN inspection in Panama of the ship bound from Cuba to North Korea, August 5 was supposed to be the date. 

 But it has taken longer than expected to unload all of the sugar. And Panama's president has made it a point to pose for photos with every old MiG engine taken out. So now it's August 12.

  Outside the UN Security Council Thursday morning, Inner City Press asked South Korea's Permanent Representative Kim Sook about the delay, and about the head of the UN team, Martin Udin.

  He replied that Udin was the UK Ambassador to Korea, and therefore knows what North Korea is like. He noted that Cuba has pledged to cooperate with the Security Council and added, let's see.

  Also in front of the Security Council Thursday morning, Inner City Press learned more about incoming Council president Argentina's August 6 high level session on "cooperation with regional organizations."

  President Cristina Kirchner will attended - and Malvinas (or Falkland) Islands will be on the agenda. Foreign minsters including of Venezuela and Ecuador are slated to attend. Cuba has been mentioned, then mentioned as not yet confirmed.

  One might link these two stories, the Cuban ship in Panama and the Security Council on August 6. But sources tell Inner City Press a question has arising about the CELAC grouping being among the "regional organizations" on August 6. Watch this site.

Footnote: Into the bilateral meetings with new UNSC President Argentina, after Togo, France ran in. A question is pending, from the Free UN Coalition for Access since it is a transparency policy question, whether France thinks UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous should disclose which Congolese Army units they support, and who won Ladsous' drone contract. The question pends elsewhere, too. Watch this site.