Amid Gadhafi's Crackdown, UN Council to Consult, Formal Meeting Uncertain

By Matthew Russell Lee
February 21, 2011
http://www.innercitypress.com/sc1libya022111.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 21 -- Amid the killing and bombing in Libya, there was buzz at the UN during the holiday Monday about Ibrahim Al Dabashi, until now the country's Deputy Permanent Representative, calling on Colonel Moammar Gadhafi to step down, and asking the Brazilian President of the UN Security Council for February to hold an emergency meeting. 

It was reported that the Security Council “will” meet formally Tuesday on the situation in Libya and “will make a decision” about imposing a no-fly zone over Libya.

But this may not be the case. The Security Council's schedule already included a meeting Tuesday morning, about Timor Leste. Sunday night it was announced that the Council will hold consultations on Libya at 9 am on Tuesday. But, it has been multiply confirmed to Inner City Press, this is to decide how to proceed on Dabashi's letter. 

But it is possible that the issue will be raised whether Al Dabashi's letter is in fact the type of request from a member state which requires, at least over time, the Council to meet.

Even when Cambodia asked the Council to meet on its cross border conflict with Thailand, it took the Council a week to hold a formal meeting -- and then they referred the matter back to the regional organization ASEAN.
The Council has not held a formal meeting on Tunisia or Egypt. In part this is because a number of Council members do not want to set the precedent of the Council meeting about repression within a country -- for example, theirs or their allies'.

Many say this is not how the UN Security Council should operate. But until now, it is how the Council has in fact worked -- or not worked.

With reports of Gadhafi importing mercenaries to attack the protesters, this could be raised at the Security Council, given how the UN raised it recently about Cote d'Ivoire's defiant leader Laurent Gbagbo.

Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General could request a formal meeting of the Council, under Article 99 of the UN Charter. But Ban Ki-moon will apparently be traveling to Hollywood in California on Tuesday.

Inner City Press wrote to Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky, and his deputy Farhan Haq, on the morning of Sunday February 20 asking

In the wake of the gunning down of 46 democracy protesters in Libya’s second largest city, Benghazi, by security forces under the command of Colonel Gadafi, is the UN reassessing its relationship with Col Gadhafi’s daughter, Aicha, who the UN has designated a “Goodwill Ambassador?

Has the Secretary-General sought to use the UN’s special relationship with its Goodwill Ambassador Dr Aicha Gadhafi to persuade her father not to use such excessive force against peaceful demonstrators?

A full day and a half later, no response at all from the UN. Inner City Press also asked Ban's spokesman Nesirky “in this context, the Secretary-General's planned trip to California to meet and greet 'the entertainment industry,' how much is this trip costing, and is it funded by the Regular Budget of the UN -- and if not, what is the funding source?” Again, no answer.

In the interim, sources inform Inner City Press that that Gadhafi's daughter Aicha has a UN Laissez Passez travel document that runs through 2013. Watch this site.