On Referring Gaza to the ICC, New UN Rapporteur Wibisono Tells Inner City Press He Doubts There Are Nine "Yes" Votes on UNSC

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 29 -- When the UN's new Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Makarim Wibisono, held a UN press conference on October 29, Inner City Press asked him if he is calling for referral of the situation to the International Criminal Court, as his follow Indonesian UN Rapporteur Marsuki Darusman is, with regard to North Korea.

   The question is about the mandate and scope of rapporteurs. Darusman at the end of his October 28 press conference discussed in the briefing room with scribes how a pending General Assembly resolution might be modified in exchange for him getting into North Korea, video here.

    Wibisono replied that the first step would be for the Palestinian parties -- that would be, Hamas and Fatah -- to unite and decide to apply to join the ICC.

   But, Inner City Press pointed out, North Korea is not a member of the ICC. Darusman is calling for the situation to be sent to the UN Security Council for a vote on referring it to the ICC.

   Wibisono's answer to the follow up did not mention the expected veto(es) - which could well be applicable to North Korea, but hasn't dissuaded Darusman or Japan or the European Union -- but instead said he doubted there are nine “Yes” votes in the Security Council to refer the situation in Gaza to the ICC.

   Would that remain the same after January 1, with Venezuela, Malaysia and Angola coming onto the Security Council, along with New Zealand and Spain? Watch this site.

   As the Palestine debate of the UN Security Council went on in the Council chamber on October 21, Inner City Press conferred with a range of Council sources about the pending draft resolution to set a time frame to end Israel's occupation.

Negotiations were held on the draft last week but only at the “expert” level, not of Permanent Representatives of the Council's 15 members. Supporters of the current draft, according to Inner City Press' sources, include China and Russia, Argentina and Chile, Chad and it was assumed Nigeria, although sources say Nigeria in consultations said they didn't yet have instructions.

France was described as more excited by the draft than either the US or the UK, as not have a problem with a time frame to end the Occupation but wanting unstated changes to the draft. France did not put forth amendments, a source told Inner City Press, guessing that France didn't want to “embarrass” the US Administration before the November mid-term elections.

The UK was described as less enthusiastic, but as somehow “softened” by the recent vote in Parliament favoring recognizing Palestine as a state.

Talk turned to the new members of the Security Council coming in on January 1, with Malaysia instead of South Korea seen as a shift in favor of Palestine as a state. (This reporter's Security Council elections coverage is collected here.) Angola and Venezuela are seen as supportive and “even Spain,” as one source put it to Inner City Press. But what about New Zealand? We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

   

On Sri Lanka, UN Official Bangura "Worried" About Rapes, Raised to Palitha Kohona, Darusman Cited Cambodia as Slow Justice

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 24 -- Amid reports of rapes in Sri Lanka targeted at Tamils, Inner City Press on April 24 asked the UN's Zainab Bangura, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, what if anything the UN is doing about it. Video here from Minute 15:15.

  Bangura replied that she is "concerned, worried" and has spoken with Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative, Palitha Kohona, about it, urging him that Sri Lanka designate a "focal person" on the issue.

  Inner City Press asked about a report authored by Yasmin Sooka, who previously served on one of the UN's panels looking at war crimes in Sri Lanka. Bangura said Yasmin will be in New York "next week" and they will meet.

  Last week, Inner City Press asked yet another former UN panelist on Sri Lanka, Marzuki Darusman, if he thought the UN's response to his report had been successful. Darusmancited the example of Cambodia, for the proposition that justice can take a long time. But how long?

  The UN can't even keep track of its own statements. On alleged rapes by UN peacekeepers in Mali, the UN told Inner City Press in January that the investigation was finished. Then on April 23, the UN's Mali envoy Bert Koenders said it won't be finished for two or three weeks, but predicted or pretold that the UN peacekeepers will be cleared. 

  Bangura, when Inner City Press asked, didn't know which was true, or any update on the rape charges against UN peacekeepers themselves.

  Combined with the UN's refusal to be accountable for, or even acknowledge service of legal papers on Ban Ki-moon about, bringing cholera to Haiti, how can the UN effectively push for accountability by anyone else? We'll see. Watch this site.

   

On Sri Lanka, When ICP Asks Darusman Of His Report, He Cites Cambodia; On North Korea

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 17 -- Arguing for a referral to the International Criminal Court of North Korea on April 17 was Marzuki Darusman, who previously chaired a three member panel at the UN about war crimes in Sri Lanka. 

  On that report, which the UN released only in redacted form, little was done in the first instance. After inaction by the Rajapaksa government, a vote was held on March 27 at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva calling for another investigation - one that the Rajapaksa government says it will not cooperate with, may prosecute witnesses to.

  Inner City Press asked Darusman if he felt his report on Sri Lanka, before this North Korea report he did on a panel with Australia's Michael Kirby, was successful. Darusman responded that in Cambodia, justice took a long time, but that each step moved things along.

  By contrast to this week's Arria formula meetings of members of the Security Council on Syria and North Korea with full evidentiary presentations of photographs and witnesses, the Security Council did very little on Sri Lanka.

  Ironically, while Michael Kirby's Australia was one of the three requesters of the April 17 Arria formula meeting on Norht Korea, it has a quite different position on Sri Lanka, even giving boats to the Rajapaksa government. Does Australia respect Darusman's views? Has the Australia government asked Darusman about Sri Lanka?

  By contrast, the Security Council held a fomal public meeting this week on human rights in... Ukraine. Navi Pillay's deputy and prospective replacement Ivan Simonovic recounted deaths in the three digits. One delegate exiting the North Korea Arria on April 17 made the contrast, and referred to the story of the child who complained too much, like the boy who cried wolf. 

 So Ukraine human rights is a topic for a formal meeting of the Security Council, but Sri Lanka wasn't and won't be? Watch this site.

   

On North Korea UN Report, Voice of America Mistakes ICJ for ICC, Darusman Quiet After Sri Lanka Failure, Censors' Self-Promotion

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 17, updated thrice -- On North Korea there was little question which way the UN Commission of Inquiry would come out at its February 17 press conference in Geneva.

  But in the hour before it began, US state media Voice of America reported that "China has said it will block the report from reaching the International Court of Justice." 

  Update: after publication of this article, VoA made the correction, but never noted that the article had been changed. The original is here.

   The error was obvious, or should have been to VoA or its Broadcasting Board of Governors: the report urges referral to the International Criminal Court -- of which the United States is not a member.

  When CoI chair Michael Kirby began the press conference, the UN gave the first question to Voice of America. Kirby rambled on, including among North Korea's many sins that there is no contact between professional organizations in North and South Korea. Is that a human rights violation?

   Citing the "cult of personality," Kirby said that Kim Jong-un is followed around by scribes with "little books to take note" of everything he says. (Also on February 17, Voice of America breathlessly announced that "VOA correspondent Scott Stearns, who is traveling with Kerry, said the secretarywants the international community to use a break in the talks to figure out how best to pursue a political solution.")

  After Kirby let it be known that in Australia his mother was a member of the Communist Party, he referred to his fellow panel member Marzuki Darusman as being present. Darusman answered no questions until Reuters' contrast with Syria and Darfur. Darusman previously worked on a panel about Sri Lanka, which has yet to lead to any accountability.

Footnote: By contrast to the censors' circus at the UN in New York, there was no branding of the press conference by ACUNA there, unlike the United Nations Correspondents Association insistence to say its name even when briefed, like last week, by the spokesperson of the President of the General Assembly. (Only after that did the new Free UN Coalition for Access do so - it opposes censorship.)

  During the webcast Democratic People's Republic of Korea press conference, UNCA president Pamela Falk of CBS sent out tweets with minimal information but containing, as promotion, the name of UNCA. Cult of personality? 

Update II: More than three hours later a CBS story issued, concluding that Ban Kimoon "has not yet issued a statement but will probably have a response, according to his pokesman [sic] Martin Nesirky." This is called insider, with questions and answer withheld even from other UNCA members, and of course from the public, and no hard questions, click here for that.

Update III: by 10 pm in New York, Ban Ki-moon had NOT sent out any comment; the CBS site without noting it deleted the quote from Ban's spokesperson and added as if the same thing South Korea's ambassador Oh Joon. When things are removed, they should be noted; when UNCA under Falk, backed away from taking the Samsung TV from Oh Joon's mission, they should have explained why. Then again, they didn't even distribute Ban's Q&A to their own members. Watch this site.

   

South Korea Ban DPRK Tweets, But UN Kirby Calls It Vibrant, As Censors Speak from Holy Seat

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 29 -- With "human rights in the DPRK" the topic, the UN press briefing room was almost full Tuesday afternoon. But the UN's "Mister North Korea"(previously "Mister Sri Lanka") Marzuki Darusman was not present, having to return to his native Indonesia.

Rather, the briefing was by Michael Kirby and Sonja Biserko of the Commission of Inquiry. Inner City Press asked Kirby about South Korea's National Security Act which prohibits even re-tweeting information from North Korea.

  Kirby defended South Korea as a "vibrant" state where even even this type of law is not really enforced. He apparently took this to be a question akin to one he recounted from China, about human rights in Canada. He said Australia too has issues on economic migrant on which the UN would speak forthrightly.

  Well, no. Inner City Press specifically asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office for any Ban comment on Australia's out-sourcing of asylum seekers, on which Ban had taken a blue-washing call from Kevin Rudd. No Ban comment ever emerged on that -- or, it seems, on South Korea's National Security Act.

  Kirby has a very high impression of the UN -- he said the world has only gotten better since the formation of the UN in 1945, and that "no organ" of the UN would get involved in regime change. Apparently he never heard of Libya.

  The UN moderator gave the first question to the UN Censorship Alliance, UNCA, which sent a person who lost election to the board. Kirby answered, on camera, that he had sat in UNCA seat (and been thrown out), that he didn't know there was a "holy seat."

  The second question went to an UNCA board member -- what can be done to North Korea? -- and so it proceeded. When Inner City Press was called on, fifth, it thanked Kirby on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info and told him as guest he should sit where he likes, that there are not or should not be any holy seats in the UN press briefing room.

  The UN moderator made sure to give the first UNCA questioner the last question too, seemingly so she could say, "speaking again from holy seat with its little sign." Little indeed. Watch this site.