New York, Sep 28 2009 4:10PM
Any action taken against the Brazilian embassy in Honduras where ousted Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya has taken shelter would be a disaster, the top United Nations political official said today.
"I must say the situation there took a seriously bad turn with the threats on the Brazilian embassy," Under-Secretary-General B. Lynn Pascoe told a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York, referring to published reports that the de facto government has given the embassy 10 days to decide whether to grant Mr. Zelaya asylum or hand him over.
"It's a very serious problem for all of us. It would be a disaster if any action were taken to violate international law on the inviolability of the embassies. We're also concerned to see the worsening situation as the de facto government has been turning up the screws internally, closing media outlets and also taking state of emergency measures against the population.
"We're very concerned about all of that and have been trying to work with others to see whether we can move that process forward," he added, reiterating UN readiness to provide whatever help it can to resolve the crisis and its full support for the efforts of Costa Rican President Óscar Arias Sánchez to mediate the crisis.
On Friday the Security Council stressed the need to ensure the security of the Brazilian Embassy where Mr. Zelaya turned up last week after being ousted by the military in June.
Giving an overview of the "unprecedented" week-long diplomacy and talks on dozens of world crises on the sidelines of the annual high-level debate of the General Assembly, Mr. Pascoe called it the most intensive effort on peace and security issues that he has seen at the UN in the three years he has been here.
He cited progress in some areas, noting that talks with representatives of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) over its nuclear programme had been "more positive, much more fruitful" than in recent weeks.
"In my view it was an extraordinary week in terms of doing exactly what the UN is supposed to do… pushed front and centre of the discussion the most serious international events of the day and I think the UN really served that function," he said.
He noted that Mr. Ban himself held over 75 bilateral meetings with national leaders beyond the multilateral meetings he attended, such as the Security Council session on nuclear disarmament and the Quartet session on Middle East peace.
"I think one thing that is very interesting to me about this process is this is a time when people come not really so much, some of them perhaps, to be seen but mostly to really coordinate positions, to talk about what's going on, to talk about where we're headed in the future," he said.
Sep 28 2009 4:10PM
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