As France's FM Fabius Announces UNSC Schedule Even Before Bilaterals, What of Somalia PM Voted Out, & Journalists Murdered There?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 2 -- As France takes over presidency of the UN Security Council for December, before it has even held the traditional bilateral consultations with the other 14 members of the Council later today, foreign minister Laurent Fabius has already made public announcements about the program of work not yet agreed to.

  Fabius said France has four priorities, set forth below. But he has also announced the date and topic of debate not yet agreed to. No other Security Council presidency, including by the four other Permanent members, has done this.

  On December 18, France says the Security Council "will" have a debate about drug trafficking particularly in West Africa and the Sahel. This comes amid reports from Ghana that French ally Alassane Outtara's government in Ivory Coast has set hit-men to kill or kidnap supporters of former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo. Inner City Press will have more on this.

  Citing the murder of two French journalists in Mali, which the Security Council nearly immediately denounced in a Press Statement, Fabius says that the Security Council on December 13 will debate the protection of journalists. 

  While laudable, Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access question why the Council has not issued any press statements about the murder of other journalists for example in Somalia.

  In Mogadishu, the parliament has now voted out Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Saaid, with fully 184 of 250 parliamentary voters present against him. What will the French presidency of the Security Council do? Somalia is NOT among France's priorities for the month.

France's priorities, according to Fabius, are former French colony the Central African Republic, and Syria, which France declared Ahmad al Jarba the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

  We will have more on both of these topics as well. But it is noted: Fabius made date-specific announcements about the Security Council's program of work for December even before the French Mission to the UN holds bilateral consultations with the Council's other 14 members. Faux pas? Watch this site.  
  

South Korean Ambassador Tells Inner City Press “UN Command” Was Formed by UNSC, EU on NSA, Bilateral Blues and FUNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 1 -- Monday morning Inner City Press asked South Korea's Permanent Representative Kim Sook alone in front of the UN Security Council to respond to the June 21 call by his North Korean counterpart Sin Son-ho to dismantle the UN Command.

  Kim Sook exclusively told Inner City Press that Sin Son-ho “doesn't understand the history.” He said that the Security Council approved the UN Command on July 7, 1950, in Resolution 84.

  If they want to dismantle it, they should ask the Security Council, he said with a smile.

  Inner City Press asked ask Kim Sook if they thought the General Assembly had any role or weight on the issue.

  No, Kim Sook said. He asked Inner City Press what it thought of the argument. Honestly, the UN Command is at least unique: it seems to never be reviewed by the Security Council.

  Kim Sook said it has been raised in UNSC consultations, and no one has challenged it, “until now.”

  But isn't a press conference and a legal argument preferable to the alternative?

Of NSA and EU

  Inner City Press asked the earlier visitors to the new US presidency in the Security Council, an EU Ambassador, about reports the US National Security Agency spied on the EU at the UN.

“I wouldn't have thought it was worth it,” the EU member ambassador replied with a smile. The @EUatUN directed Inner City Press to a statement that Lady Ashton is awaiting US confirmation.

  Footnote: these Security Council bilaterals are the type of meeting that the UN Department of Public Information and its UN Censorship Alliance tried to ban the coverage of, saying journalists should not be at the stakeout when there are not formal meetings. The new Free UN Coalition for Access fought back, and now faces dis-accreditation threats for merely hanging a FUNCA sign. This is Ban's UN.