On Annan to Damascus, Syrian "Thinks" He Can Get In, Ban Comparison: of Oil for Food and Kofi's Karma

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 23 -- In front of the UN Security Council on Thursday morning, Inner City Press asked Portugal's Permanent Representative Cabral what he'd think if former Secretary General Kofi Annan were named envoy to Syria. Cabral said Annan's "name's around, I like the idea but I'm not sure he would take it."

India's Permanent Representative Hardeep Singh Puri told the Press of Annan as envoy, "Why not? You need stature, and he has it."

Throughout the day, as a debate on Women, Peace and Security took place inside the Security Council, a range of diplomats weighed in with Inner City Press. Several of them noted how much lower profile the UN Secretariat has become under Ban Ki-moon.

"Kofi did Kenya," one of them said. "What's Ban got to show?"

At 6:10 pm, Ban's spokesperson's office issued a statement that Kofi Annan was, in fact, the joint UN - Arab League envoy.

Inner City Press asked Margot Wallstrom, Ban's sexual violence in conflict expert, about the appointment but she declined to comment.

When Syria's representative who spoke in the Security Council came out, Inner City Press asked if Annan would be allowed into Syria, "can he come in?"

"I think so," the Syrian said. There was a buzz, with some hearkening back to Annan trip to Iraq to see Saddam Hussein -- who later ended up dead by hanging. For Assad, bad karma? Or good Kofi?

A western diplomat told Inner City Press that Finland's Martti Ahtisaari was in consideration. "But after his Ahtisaari plan on Kosovo, the Russians wouldn't accept him," the diplomat concluded. Watch this site.

Footnote: while now Rwanda and Srbrenica are being raised, ironically the UN Oil for Food scandal was raised earlier Thursday to Inner City Press by a diplomat from the Sri Lanka mission, angry at Inner City Press' questions "leading to" their General Silva's exclusion from Ban's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations, by Annan's one time Deputy Louise Frechette.

The diplomat said, by what right does Fechette point the finger given her role in the UN Oil for Food scandal? For the record, Frechette intervened directly by phone to bar UN auditors from forwarding their investigations to the Security Council, as detailed on page 186 of the 219-page interim report Paul Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee released February 3, 2005. Kofi's in there too...

As Silva Barred from Advising UN, Kohona Says Frechette Had "No Authority"

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 23 -- Twenty seven days ago Inner City Press began asking the UN and then various countries' missions to the UN how they could accept as a member of the UN "Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations" General Shavendra Silva, whose Division 58 is repeatedly named in connection with war crimes in Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Panel of Experts report on Sri Lanka.

Then, on the afternoon of February 22 Silva was told by the Group's chair Louise Frechette that his participation is "not appropriate." While much reported, few noted the inaction and refusal to speak of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his head of Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, which continued even after Silva was barred.

At the UN's noon briefing on February 23, Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey if at least Ban had any comment on Silva and his barring, and whether Ban supports the decision of Louise Frechette.

Del Buey said, "the advice continues to be it is a member state decision." He said that Ban has "taken note" of the development, but it's a member state decision. Video here, from Minute 5:09.

Now as Inner City Press predicted, Sri Lanka is using Ban's passivity, which stands in contrast to, for example, his comments on the decisions of the "member states" on the Security Council.

Several Permanent Representatives of members of the Asia Group, where Sri Lanka got the SAG post after encouraging Saudi Arabia, Nepal and Fiji to drop out, told Inner City Press that Sri Lanka had written to them about Frechette's decision. "It's their side of the story," one of the representatives said.

Late in the afternoon of February 23, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative Palitha Kohona told Inner City Press, on the record, that "Frechette is outside mandate and has no authority" to bar Silva.

Inner City Press asked why, then, Silva had said not a word during the more than two hour meeting. He was under instructions, Kohona said.

Another Asia Group Deputy Permanent Representative told Inner City Press the Group will be ill-represented on the Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations, to which Asia countries are major troop contributors, if its representative can't speak, or "is a distraction."

Kohona maintains that Silva will represent the Asia Group, despite what other Asia Group representatives have said, some on the record and some on background.

The representative of a major Western member of the Security Council marveled to Inner City Press about the tenaciousness of Sri Lankan diplomacy, saying it sprung from "rear guard lobbying for more than twenty years."

Another told Inner City Press that Sri Lanka had been trying to "make a trade" of pulling Silva back in exchange for changed positions at the upcoming Human Rights Council session in Geneva. "That's unacceptable," the representative said. We'll see.

Kohona spoke Thursday afternoon on Sexual Violence in Conflict, praising the UN envoy on the topic, Margot Wallstrom. Only five hours earlier, when Wallstrom came to the stakeout, Inner City Press asked what she thought of Silva as an adviser, and what had to date happened. Video here, from Minute 6:19.

Wallstrom said there "should be consequences" for "atrocities," and that "I understand that this is what has happened, that he has now been banned from this group. Exactly how that has happened, I do not have all the detailed information.... I think that was probably the right thing to do... I think it is important to make statements and clearly position yourself on these issues."

Kohona back to camera, Silva shakes Ban, "member states made me do it" (c) MRLee

Watch this site. Already, a Sri Lankan diplomat has complained to Inner City Press, by what right does Fechette point the finger given her role in the UN Oil for Food scandal? Forthe record, Frechette intervened directly by phone to bar UN auditors from forwarding their investigations to the Security Council, as detailed on page 186 of the 219-page interim report Paul Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee released February 3, 2005....

Draft on Attacks on Israel Diplomats Stalled as Silence Broken, Info Sharing

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 23, updated 4:17 pm -- Seven days ago now, Israel's ambassador Ron Prosor complained that the UN "Security Council should have condemned these attacks immediately. Israel expects it to issue a clear condemnation today."

On Wednesday evening Inner City Press reported that a draft statement circulated by Togo as Council President had been put under silence procedure ending Thursday at noon.

Now we can report that "silence has been broken," according to multiple Council sources. India, for example, wants the text to make clear that not only should member states help Israel investigate but also India, which should be given any information found about the attack in New Delhi.

Others said that the events in Bangkok and Tblisi shouldn't yet be called terrorist attacks. The Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan noted to Inner City Press that there had been a plot in his country, it was stopped early and is not in the statement.

The sponsor of the statement told the Press that Russia, which broke silence, and the United States are meeting bilaterally to see if a revised text can be put under a new silence procedure.

Update of 3:12 pm: a new draft, not naming particular countries to cooperate with, was put under silence under 3 pm. Now a well placed Council sources tells Inner City Press no one silence, "so it's done."

Update of 4:17 pm: the final press statement was e-mailed out; it included only the New Delhi and Tblisi attacks, with Bangkok being omitted. Why did Togo, as President, not go and read it at the stakeout, which Togo has not gone all month? Apparently Israel so much wanted it released, it stayed after its Women, Peace and Security speech until the statement was sent out. Hands on.

In other regional news, at the UN's Thursday noon briefing, Inner City Press asked about criticism and attacks on UNRWA in Tyre, for neglecting to provide a hospital referral to a Lebanese woman who died. The Office of the Spokesperson, typically, "had nothing."

There still remains surprise as the "weakness" of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon response, a "mere" note to correspondents. Sources in the Executive Office of the Secretary General indicated that this is because "nobody died." Ban has issued stronger statements, the complaint goes, in cases in which no one was actually killed. Now Ban has set off on a trip not only to London but also Zambia and Angola.

Ambassador Prosor came to the Security Council on Tuesday afternoon; Israel was on the list of speakers in the all day debate on crime and the Sahel. He assigned blame -- saying that Hezbollah is active in West Africa. And now... the start and stop Togolese solution. Watch this site.

UN Women, Peace & Security Statement Stalls on Mandate Creep

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 23 -- As the Women, Peace and Security debate of the UN Security Council entered its resumed afternoon session with fully 32 more speakers to go, the draft Presidential Statement had still not been agreed to.

The UK criticized the delay, while a number of other Security Council delegations said the draft tried to expand too far the mandate of UN's Sexual Violence in Conflict expert, Margot Wallstrom.

These countries, which raised the same issues regarding the Children and Armed Conflict mandate of outgoing expert Radhika Coomaraswamy, say the work should focus on situation of armed conflict, which can be defined, and not extend to "areas of concern."

Wallstrom, on the other hand, told Inner City Press that the work of her unit needs to remain "relevant" to deal with new situations. In her speech to the Security Council she raised, among others, Libya (abduction of women), Syria (sexual abuse of imprisoned men), developments in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The third speaker, Amina Megheirbi of the NGO Working Group on WP&S, also brought up Sri Lanka. The country has been ever more in the news at the UN since it tried to get General Shavendra Silva, named in the UN Panel of Experts Report, made a member of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations.

Inner City Press for twenty six days questioned Ban, and his head of peacekeeping Herve Ladsous, about Silva as adviser, only to be told that neither had any position, it was entirely up to member states.

Even now when belatedly the chairperson of the SAG Louise Frechette barred Silva from the Group, twice outside the WP&S session Herve Ladsous refused to comment in any way on whether Silva should have been a UN adviser on peacekeeping.

Meanwhile inside the Council, Ladsous pontificated about accountability, even about vetting Congolese armed groups for rights violations. Why then no position on an alleged war criminal as an adviser on UN peacekeeping?

Wallstrom, to her credit, answered Inner City Press' question on Silva, click here to view.

As it hit 4 pm, still the PRST had not been agreed to. One speaker told Inner City Press he took out of his speech a line regretting the failure to agree, thinking that a deal would be made. At 4:06 pm, Italy's Permanent Representative said he hoped an agreement could be reached. Watch this site.

Footnote: Radhika Coomaraswamy told Inner City Press she will stay at the UN to the summer, then will teach at NYU. It's said the staff in her office don't yet know who will replace it, even what the process will be. Meanwhile there's talk of the creation of a new position, a sort of Special Representative on climate change investing, with one Kevin Parker's name being circulated. We'll see.