In his briefing to the UN Security Council on Tuesday April 24, Kofi Annan noted the important impact that the UN Observer Mission was having on the ground even though there had only been a few UN observers deployed thus far. (1) He reported that there had been a marked decrease in the level of violence since the April 12 cease fire in Syria. “Without comprehensive monitoring of the situation,” he said, “it is difficult to assess the level of violence, but the available reports suggest that, taken as a whole the level of violence has decreased across the period since 12 April….” (Kofi Annan Briefing, Para 7 )

He noted that the importance of having observers was not only to “see what is going on.” More significantly, he pointed out that “their presence has the potential to change the political dynamics.” (Kofi Annan Briefing, Para 21)

His goal is… weiter lesen

I-Security Council Authorizes UN Observer Mission

At a stakeout for journalists on Saturday after the vote on Security Council Resolution 2043, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin explained that the text was carefully worded to signal all, including the opposition, to refrain from violence and to support the implementation of Special Envoy Kofi Annan’s 6 point plan. This resolution (S/2012/2043) provides the authorization for up to 300 UN observers to be sent to Syria for a period of up to 90 days. (1) The resolution states that the “mandate of the Mission shall be to monitor a cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties and support the full implementation of the Envoy’s six-point proposal.”

Differences about some of the provisions of the resolution had been resolved by changes made to the draft resolution in a 3-1/2 hour consultation held by Security Council members on Friday evening. Ambassador… weiter lesen

The Presidency of the General Assembly at the United Nations this year is held by the former Ambassador from Qatar, Nassir Abdulaziz al Nasser. On Thursday, April 5, the President (PGA) held an informal plenary meeting of the General Assembly. Often an informal meeting is called when the meeting will be closed to the press and the public. But in this situation, the spokesperson for the PGA sent journalists email inviting them to the meeting and informing them “Please be advised this will be an OPEN meeting on UNTV and webcast.” (Email to journalists from Nihal Saad, April 4)

The meeting was to hear a report via a live satellite link from Mr Kofi Annan, the UN Envoy for Syria, about the progress of his six point peace plan for Syria. The meeting was called to order and was webcast for journalists and the public.

After Mr. Annan’s live… weiter lesen

Save Gangjeong Village

In honor of the memory of the uprising on JeJu Island on April 3, 1948 known as 4.3, several people held a silent performance in the Columbus Circle area of New York City. The purpose of the demonstration was to inform the public about the struggle in the Jeju Island village of Gangjeong against the building of a naval base. Holding up signs about the struggle on Jeju, the demonstrators attracted interest from people walking by.

Several people wanted to learn about the Jeju situation and took the leaflet being handed out. Some stopped to talk to learn more about what was happening with Gangjeong Village.

The leaflet explained that on March 21, 2012 Samsung used 1.5 tons of explosives to blow up a rock formation called Gureombi as part of the excavation process to build a naval base on an area designed as a world heritage site… weiter lesen