Arms Trade Treaty Dies, "Branch Sawed Off in DC in Election Year"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 -- The Arms Trade Treaty died Friday at the UN; a group of 90 some nations expressed disappointment at non-agreement on what they called a text with the "overwhelming support of the international community."

  The West African states in ECOWAS didn't join in this statement due to its use of the word "overwhelming." They did not support even the rejected text, because it gave in too much to the United States in not fully covering ammunition.

  The US had asked for more time, but to be fair, so did other countries. Still, a well-placed negotiator told Inner City Press that "the US team here in New York were working toward signing on, but they were on a branch that got sawed off in Washington."

  The largest question asked: who decided to have this negotiation take place during a US election year?

  As the final speeches were being given, the Press was barred from the room. 

  What began with a lot of energy -- well, with a fight about seating Palestine -- ended behind closed doors, only to be referred to the UN General Assembly's First Committee in October. There is could die again, or go outside the UN "like Ottawa," one source said, predicting the US would not sign on there either. 

 "They won't sign on anywhere," he said. And so it goes at the UN.

Update: and after the failure of the ATT, and hasty interviews in the hall, back in the Conference Room they turned off the lights at six pm, with the room still half full. 

"They could take it to Ottawa," a delegate who'd opposed the ATT told Inner City Press.

On Arms Trade Treaty, Japan Pressed Out of Statement of 71, Of Koreas & Occupying Powers

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 20 -- For the Arms Trade Treaty, the deadline is now one week away. The UN official who is staffing the talks has said to have a treaty by Friday, July 27, agreement would have to be reached by Wednesday, July 25.

  In this context during a July 20 open meeting covered by Inner City Press a statement by 71 countries was read out by Malawi. It focused on "backbone concepts" to "prevent authorization of transfer of conventional arms where there is a substantial risk that those weapons would be, inter alia:

- used for, or facilitate, serious violations of international law, including international humanitarian law and human rights law,

- having a destabilizing effect or exacerbating existing conflicts,

- diverted to unauthorized end users."

  The back story to these backbone concepts is that initial co-authors of the Treaty such as Australia -- which is running for a seat on the UN Security Council -- and the UK are not on the statement.

  Multiple sources tell Inner City Press that they pressured Japan to drop OFF of the statement, a decision made by Japan's head of delegation but disagreed with by other Japanese diplomats.

  Meanwhile, Japan and South Korea both opposed the ATT covering "transfers," wanting it limited to "exports." They cite the difficulty of assessing trans-shipments as their reason. South Korea and Japan on these have the same position as Iran.

  Iran joined in a proposal by Cuba to change the criterion of "violations of international law, including international humanitarian law and human rights law" to a reference to violations of the UN Charter, and to prohibit arms transfers to "occupying powers," with an eye on Israel, cited as a top twenty arms exporter and importer.

 South Korea also wanted to modify the reference to international law to include reference to arms embargoes under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter -- clearly, to get at North Korea / DPRK. 

  This Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which the chair referred to as Democratic Republic of Korea, spoke out against the "excessive production and export" of weapons.

  The US, which is opposing including ammunition, reported intoned that "weapons can be good." France spoke, against without reference to or explanation of its airdropping of weapons into the Nafusa Mountains of Libya. Watch this site.

As Small Arms Summary is Downgraded, Another "Deflating Friday" at UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 23 -- "Another deflating Friday at the UN." That's what New Zealand's representative called the end of the week's Small Arms meeting at the UN.

The chair, Nigeria's Joy Ogwu, prepared a summary of the week's discussion, including references to border control and "additional issues" -- which the US was said to understand as "ammunition," and to oppose.

It was the UN "Program of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects," and an issue was whether to freeze the "Program of Action" in place, not allowing it to deal with new issues, or to allow it to extend into ammo and other issues.

It took place not longer after the deadly explosion of an ammunition dump in Congo - Brazzaville.

The summary referred, for example, to "reinforcing inter-agency cooperation to address the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons across borders" -- can you say, Fast and Furious? -- and "enabling peace operations to further contribute to the tracing, safe storage and disposal of illicit small arms."

But in the final hour Ogwu's summary was converted from an annex to the Report to a mere "Conference Room Paper."

A new Paragraph 8 ter was begrudgingly agreed to, qualifying that "the Chair's summary... does not represent a full record of the issues discussed during the week.. and does not prejudge the outcome document of the Conference." So what was the point of the week?

And so after 5 pm on Friday, the New Zealand rep raised his flag and read out loud a statement he has prepared earlier in the day, premised on Ogwu's summary being annexed to the Report. After he read it, it said part was no longer true, that "the last hour" had been deflating. Only the last hour?

This comes five weeks after a similar Friday at the UN on the Arms Trade Treaty, click here for that Inner City Press story.

Meanwhile on this Friday March 23 the Fifth Committee "resumed session" budget negotiations when into overtime, with 5th Committee chairman Tommo Monthe telling Inner City Press they'd re-assess program at 8 pm, including on scales of assessment and Capital Master Plan cost overruns. Watch this site.