On Thai - Cambodia, UNSC Defers to ASEAN's Natalegawa, UN Replacement?

UNITED NATIONS, February 8 -- Despite a request from Cambodia's prime minister Hun Sen for a UN Security Council meeting on the fighting with Thailand, the Council on Monday did not schedule a meeting, deferring instead to the mediation of Indonesia's foreign minister Marty Natalegawa, for ASEAN.

Inner City Press, which reported before the Council's consultations on the matter that two countries wanted to hold a meeting, is now told that in the consultations, Russia spoke in favor of having a meeting, saying this is what the Council is for.

As Russian Permanent Representative Vitaly Churkin left the Council on Monday, Inner City Press asked him about the Council having a meeting on Cambodia's request. We are not against it, he replied.

Inner City Press then asked the Council's president Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti if Hun Sen's public request that the UN establish a buffer zone around the Preah Vihear temple.

No, she answered, that request had not been made to the Council. Meanwhile, Thailand's prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has said he will call UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday.

Natalegawa was previously Indonesia's permanent representative to the UN, and knows the system well. His successor on January 31 told Inner City Press that ASEAN led by Indonesia is trying to get Western sanctions on Myanmar lifted, while getting Myanmar to agree to an ASEAN envoy to that country.

Some expect Natalegawa to be able to keep the Thai - Cambodia issue off of the Council's formal agenda, by the withdrawal of Cambodia's request just as a similar request was withdrawn in 2008, when Viet Nam was president of the Council. But for now the fighting has continued.

A buzz at the UN this week concerns the open dissatisfaction with Ban by several countries, including veto-wielding Security Council member Russia. If Ban were denied a second term, as the US denied one to Boutros-Boutros Ghali, the next five or ten years would be seen as belonging to the Asia group, just as Kofi Annan replaced Boutros for the African group.

What higher profile and more adept replacement could there be from the Asia group, some say, than Natalegawa? Watch this site.

On Thai - Cambodia, UN Moves for Monday Council Meeting, With ASEAN

 

UN's Ban & Marty Natalegawa: UN replacement?

UNITED NATIONS, February 8 -- A day after the UN Security Council did not act on Cambodia's request for a Council meeting, late Tuesday agreement emerged to hold the requested meeting on Monday, February 14.

To make clear that the UN is deferring to the regional group ASEAN, its mediator between Thailand and Cambodia Marty Natalegawa will be invited to come and speak.

Meanwhile Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the Press on Tuesday that he had spoken with the prime ministers of Thailand and Cambodia. Some wonder why Ban isn't mediating, or even asked to mediate, under UN Charter Article 99.

Natalegawa was previously Indonesia's Permanent Representative to the UN, and some now mentioned him for higher, even the highest, UN position.

Footnote: also in Council consultations Tuesday, discussion was had of a Council trip to the Middle East. Watch this site.

U.S. demands immediate end to Egypt's emergency law

 

President Barack Obama addresses the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, February 7, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Jim Young

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday set out four steps Cairo must take to end Egypt's crisis, telling its ally to stop harassing protesters and immediately repeal an emergency law allowing detention without charge.

The Obama administration appears worried President Hosni Mubarak's government will not make meaningful changes in the largest Arab nation, a strategic U.S. partner due to its peace treaty with Israel and control of the Suez Canal.

The steps, conveyed by Vice President Joe Biden to Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman, appeared to rebuff the former intelligence chief who is negotiating with opposition figures seeking Mubarak's immediate departure after 30 years in power.

Suleiman was quoted on Sunday as suggesting Egypt was not ready for democracy and a government statement said the emergency law would be lifted "according to the security conditions" -- a phrase giving the authorities wide latitude.


As Egyptians staged one of their biggest anti-Mubarak protests yet, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs described Suleiman's comments about democracy as "unhelpful."

Mubarak, under pressure from more than two weeks of unprecedented demonstrations, has said he will not seek re-election in September but has refused to resign.

After Biden spoke to Suleiman by telephone on Tuesday, the White House issued a statement listing four steps the United States wants Egypt to take:

-- "Restraining the Ministry of Interior's conduct by immediately ending the arrests, harassment, beating, and detention of journalists, and political and civil society activists, and by allowing freedom of assembly and expression;

-- "immediately rescinding the emergency law;

-- "broadening participation in the national dialogue to include a wide range of opposition members; and,

-- "inviting the opposition as a partner in jointly developing a roadmap and timetable for transition."

'IRREVERSIBLE PROGRESS'

Biden stressed U.S. support "for an orderly transition in Egypt that is prompt, meaningful, peaceful, and legitimate" and urged "immediate, irreversible progress that responds to the aspirations of the Egyptian people," the statement said.

Even as Washington voiced its criticism, Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised Egypt's military for its restraint.

The armed forces -- long the backbone of Egypt's government -- have behaved in "an exemplary fashion" by standing largely on the sidelines during the uprising, he said.


"I would say that they have made a contribution to the evolution of democracy and what we're seeing in Egypt," Gates told a news conference.

The praise for the military, which gets about $1.3 billion in U.S. aid every year, appeared designed to buttress U.S. ties with a power broker whose role is expected to be key to whatever political order emerges in Egypt.

U.S. officials do not believe the military was responsible for widespread violence against protesters last week, including men on horseback who rode into Cairo's Tahrir Square brandishing whips, although the army failed to stop it.

The U.S. decision to support the transition effort under Suleiman and to stop short of calling for Mubarak's resignation has angered many demonstrators.

An influential group of U.S. analysts said Washington risked condoning "an inadequate and possibly fraudulent transition."

"The process that is unfolding now has many of the attributes of a smokescreen," the Working Group on Egypt, which includes a number of prominent think tank analysts and rights activists, said in letters this week to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

(Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa and Patricia Zengerle; writing by Andrew Quinn; editing by John O'Callaghan and Mohammad Zargham)