http://innercitypress.com/usun5eritrea113011.html
Eritrea Rep Says Ethiopia Offers Help Jean Ping second AU Term As
Trade for Gabon's push for Sanctions
By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, November 30 -- Amid widespread questioning in the UN
Security Council of the push to vote today on new Eritrea sanctions,
with the US having blocked a request from Eritrean President Isaias
Afwerki to talk to the Council, Gabon midday on Wednesday again said
it would call for a vote later that day.
Sources tell Inner City Press that Russia has threatened to veto.
Inner City Press has obtained a copy of the November 29 letter to the
Council from Eritrea's UN Ambassador Araya Desta, and asked Desta
about it. "It is the third letter," Desta told Inner City Press.
The letter says, "It has come to my attention that the delebation of
Gabon intends to table the draft resolution on Eritrea for action
tomorrow... I appeal to your Excellency that H.E. Mr. Isaias Afwerki,
President of the State of Eritrea, be given the audience to address
the [UNSC] before any action is taken on the draft resolution."
Desta speaking exclusively to Inner City Press went further: "What
does Gabon know about Eritrea? Where it is? They don't even know the
location of Eritrea." Significantly, larger African member of the
Council South Africa is known to oppose voting on Wednesday on the
proposed sanctions.
Desta told Inner City Press, "It is crazy to penalize the Eritrean
people in order to get a second term for Jean Ping as commissioner of
the African Union." He mused, "Meles [Zenawi] tells him, I'll help you
get a second term, if you help" put more sanctions on Eritrea.
Inner City Press asked Desta why he thought the US was being so
adamant. Desta said "my President has write two or three letters" to
President Obama, "my foreign minister met with them."
Some have alluded to the US "using" Ethiopia to fight Islamists in
Somalia, first the Islamic Courts and now Al Shabaab, including it's
said from drone bases in Ethiopia.
(c) UN Photo
Ping, TFG President, Ban Ki-moon and Kim-won soo, SC due process not shown
To be less US-focused, Eritrea clearly has enemies among other
neighbors: Djibouti, for example, often buzzes around the Security
Council. But the idea that a head of state should on request be
allowed to address the Security Council before such sanctions are
voted on seems to be widely held. Watch this site.
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Received on Wed Nov 30 2011 - 15:57:22 EST