ICP Asks IOM Swing of Australia's Manus & Cambodia, Rohingya in Bangladesh & FDLR in DR Congo

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 18 -- When International Organization for Migration director William Lacy Swing took questions at the UN on International Migrants Day, December 18, Inner City Press asked him about IOM's work for Australia, in Manus Island, Nauru and prospectively in Cambodia -- and also with Bangladesh about or on the Rohingya.

Swing insisted that IOM is not involved in involuntary repatriations, but that once the deed is done, they will assist. Inner City Press asked, doesn't that enable and embolden countries to violate international refugee and humanitarian law?

Innner City Press pointed out that in Manus, there were riots in February that killed at least one asylum seeker from Iran, Reza Barati ; the private military contractor G4S was involved in the violence in Manus.

Now Australia wants to use Cambodia, and IOM is scoping it out. Swing told Inner City Press that no final decision has been made. We'll continue to follow this.

Inner City Press also asked Swing, who previously headed the UN peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo when it was called MONUC, to comment on the continued existence of the Hutu FDLR militia, with deadlines for “neutralization” repeatedly put back, now to January 2.

Swing declined to comment on the Congo. Previously, Inner City Press asked him about UN Peacekeepers there using old ammunition, to the detriment (to be diplomatic) of the Congolese. Things have gotten worse with the UN in the Congo, under peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, video compilation here.

But the UN podium is not one from which Ladsous will be held to account. In fact, yesterday Ban Ki-moon was clearly given questions in advance for his “press conference.” Inner City Press, just before Swing's appearance, asked spokesman Stephane Dujarric about it - that's another story, watch this site.

   

On Syria, UN Security Council Meeting Canceled in Race of Texts, Of "Kindergarten" and Singing Ambassadors

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 10 -- In a news cycle hungry for anything on Syria, the scheduling of a 4 pm consultation of the UN Security Council was given big play. 

  On the UK's Sky News, for example, it was called an emergency meeting that might somehow in one fell swoop nail down one of the various proposals on chemical weapons in Syria.

  But then the consultations were canceled. It was by an e-mail from the Russian mission, which had requested the meeting in the first place. Security Council sources tell Inner City Press that the idea was to propose a statement, to pre-empt France's loud plan for a Security Council resolution. 

  It would have made the Council look like a kindergarten, one Council member said. Now that race has been put on hold -- another Council member said, in deference to Obama's speech tonight.

   But it's the UN Secretariat that seems most obsequious to the US. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is eager to serve the US. Only last night, in the middle of all this, he gave a speech in honor of US Ambassador Samantha Power. (Some wonder, since Ban golfs with the Permanent Representatives of the UK, San Marino and South Korea, if Power might hit the links.)

  There is also the question of how UN Peacekeeping could secure anything, much less chemical weapons, in a war zone.

  Inner City Press asked about UN Peacekeeping planning for this at the day's noon briefing. But as of 4 pm, no answer had been provided. 

  And in the Security Council, rather than a meeting about Syria, there was a meeting about the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on which we will have more. Watch this site.

Footnote: the US' list of 33 countries supporting its joint statement on Syria includes Kosovo, which is not a UN member state. But the UN is just "hocus pocus," as Obama put it after the G-20. 

  Two of the countries on the list of 33 are set to sing at the UN on Tuesday night: Canada and Romania. The US does not have Nauru or Cape Verde (or any African Union member) on the list yet, and fellow singer Costa Rica is all about peace (and now releasing all animals from zoos). Watch this site.

   

As Climate Change Refugees Flee Carteret Islands, No UN Help Nor Somalia / Kenay Law of the Sea Answer

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 10 -- The UN made much of World Oceans Day, even as three shades of sea were projected on the Empire State Building in New York. But what is the UN doing for people fleeing rising water in the Carteret Islands? Nothing, or nothing yet, Inner City Press was told Monday at the UN.

  There was a press conference including the UN's Senior Legal Adviser on the Law of the Sea Annebeth Rosenboom and an anthropologist, Dr Jenny Newell. Inner City Press asked each of them a question; Newell responded briefing on Nauru but then mentioned the Carteret Islands, people leaving without government support on supply ships.

  Australia does not accept them, does not accept climate change refugees. So Inner City Press asked what the UN is going to help, since it talks so much about these issues, climate change and refugees. The answer was a conference in Samoa -- next year. How many desperate supply ships from now is that?

  On the Somali government's statement last week "calling 'null and void' the Memorandum of Understanding between the TFG Minister of International Cooperation and Kenyan Minister of Foreign Affairs signed in Nairobi on April 7, 2009," the UN's Senior Legal Adviser on the Law of the Sea Annebeth Rosenboom would say only that every "note verbale" is put on the UN's website.

  Inner City Press has closely covered the issue, including a previous statement by the UN -- after being involved in the MOU - that is was "not actionable." Inner City Press asked if last week's Somali government statement is deemed as note verbale. No, is the answer. We hope to have more on this.

Footnote: this was the first briefing in the UN's new Press Briefing Room. Despite questions that have arisen about the propriety of the UN automatically giving the first question to members of the UN Correspondents Association who pay money for the privilege, UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS took the first question, "on behalf of UNCA."

  So Inner City Press thanked the panelists on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, and tried to push Ms Rosenboom to offer some answer on her and the UN's role on the Law of the Sea, with respect to the deal with Kenya about Somalia the UN brokered. 

  To say that a background briefing last week was the place to ask this question -- background meaning not quoting anyone by name -- is not sufficient. FUNCA will be pushing on this.

On Palestine, US Pressure Gets Pacific Abstentions, Scorn at Slovenia, ICC Games

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 29, updated Nov 30 -- When finally the UN resolution on Palestine as an Observer State came to a vote, it passed with 138 in favor, 41 abstentions and only nine against. 

  Inner City Press had predicted ten negative votes, even days before the vote. But things change.

  Ultimately the negative nine were the US, Palau, Micronesia, Marshall Islands. Panama, Nauru, Canada, Israel and the Czech Republic. Sources in the EU tell Inner City Press that the Czechs were flirting with abstention, but fell back to no.

  There were 138 votes in favor, and 41 abstentions. List here.

  A well placed European Permanent Representative, speaking exclusively to Inner City Press, expressed particular scorn for Slovenia, which after almost voting Yes, ending up abstaining.

   He told Inner City Press the Slovenian mission at the UN in New York pushed for a Yes vote, but couldn't get the capital to agree. And not having an Ambassador here, he said, was a problem.

  US pressure didn't get even ten "no" votes. But many Pacific Island states abstained. And, it was noted, Liberia did not show up. But neither did Ukraine, nor Madagascar. Two of these three accounted for small gap between Palestinian Mission's internal projection of 140, and the final 138 Yes votes.

  After the vote, Inner City Press asked UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant about his statement about abstaining because he could not get assurances such as Palestine not rushing to the International Criminal Court.

   Doesn't this cheapen the ICC and make it look like a political chip to be played?

   Lyall Grant gamely answered that the assurances sought were in order to permit the peace process.

   Inner City Press asked the Ambassador of Sudan, which introduced Palestine's resolution as this month's head of the Arab Group and whose president Omar al Bashir is under ICC indictment for genocide, about the UK's position. 

  He replied that it is strange that a country that is a member of the ICC would ask another not to take a case there.

  Indonesia's Foreign Minister, when asked by Inner City Press if the blockage of Palestine from UN membership by the US veto in the Security Council militates for reform said, the rules are the rules. But for how long? One wanted to ask him about the Rohingya in Myanmar. Next time.

   When Palestine's Rial Malki came to speak, Inner City Press asked him about the ICC. He said that if Israel doesn't continue with settlements and aggression, then Palestine won't go to the ICC. And if they do? Watch this site.

One wag joked that perhaps Hamas, for Gaza, could go to ICC.

Footnote: more transient insights remain on Inner City Press' Twitter feed, here.

Update: ... where you'll find this Inner City Press photograph in GA November 30, State of Palestine:

Objectors to G77 on Palestine Swell to Micronesia, Guatemala, Nauru & Barbados

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, September 30 -- On the hot issue of Palestine, while the Group of 77 has come out with a pro-Palestinian Paragraph 108 to its declaration, as Inner City Press exclusively reported on September 29, this has triggered "reservations" from Paragraph 108 from such countries as current Security Council member Colombia, financial powerhouse Singapore, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Panama and the Bahamas.

Now the list of those distancing themselves from the pro-Palestinian position includes the small island states of Nauru, Micronesia and Barbados according to sources in the GRULAC Latin American and Caribbean grouping, and Guatemala, slated through an October 21 election to join in 2012 the Security Council, whose Committee on Admission of New Members was meeting Friday about Palestine.

While the Palestinian Observer mission is publicly dismissive of these reservation, the inclusion of prospective Security Council member Guatemala cannot be helpful. Some in the GRULAC were surprised.

Colombia, which already distanced itself not only from the G77 but also Non-Aligned Movement pro-Palestinian statements, is slated to host a visit by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas within ten days -- to what end is not clear.

There appear to be other reservations as well. Watch this site.

How an initial G-77 memo about reservations was phrased:

To : Permanent Missions of the Member States of the Group of 77 and China

Attn.: Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Committee delegates

From : Office of the Chairman

Date : 28 September 2011

In continuation of its last circular of 26 September 2011, the Chair wishes to provide delegations with copies of Notes that it has received from the Permanent Missions of Colombia, the Republic of Cameroon and the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire which are hereby circulated upon their request regarding paragraph 108 of the Declaration adopted by the Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting of Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 on 23 September 2011 at UN Headquarters in New York.

Watch this site.