UNSC members demand meeting on Ethiopia expulsions
The United States and five European states on Monday called for a new UN Security Council meeting to be held in public to discuss the case of seven UN officials who were expelled by Ethiopia, amid concerns it could set a precedent for other crises, diplomatic sources told AFP.
After an urgent session held behind closed doors on Friday, the proposed new session would be held in the middle of this week, perhaps on Wednesday, the sources said.
It is up to the Kenyan presidency of the council to fix the date of the meeting in which Ethiopia will participate, unlike the last session held behind closed doors.
The call for a new meeting was made by three non-permanent members of the Council - Ireland, Estonia, Norway - and three permanent members, the United States, Britain and France, a diplomat said.
The expulsion last week of the seven UN officials, declared persona non grata after Ethiopia accused them of “meddling” in its internal affairs, sent shockwaves through the UN, where a decision on such a scale is extremely rare.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ruled the measure illegal and in violation of the UN Charter.
But one ambassador from a country on the Security Council, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the body must “listen to the Ethiopian version” of events.
Martin Griffiths, the UN UnderSecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told the Council on Friday that the allegations against the UN staffers were “false,” but when asked which ones he was unable to specify, the ambassador said.
“We cannot condemn or speculate without knowing” what the UN workers were accused of, the ambassador added.
He said the issue now was “resolving this problem, stabilizing the situation, restoring confidence between the UN system, the humanitarian community and the Ethiopian government.”
“If we do not clear up the situation in Ethiopia, it could create a snowball effect” and a precedent for other very delicate situations such as in Myanmar or Afghanistan, he said, noting that “many members Council have expressed these fears” since the end of last week.
Farhan Haq, the UN spokesman who was asked during a press briefing whether the world body would move swiftly to replace the seven expelled staffers, merely commented that “they should be allowed to go about their work without injuries,” stressing that the officials “were fit for the job.