Ian Kelly, the Obama Administration's appointed ambassador to OSCE, was passed out of Committee in the Senate last week on February 24, but to date has not yet been passed out of the Senate. Still, this looks like "a sure thing. There is division at the water coolers as to whether being the former spokesman for the U.S. State Department in fact means you have political influence -- or is a sign that your seat had to be freed up to position someone with more influence. But...no matter. That's Washington.
Now the Ambassador-designate is on his way to Vienna hopefully where his extensive hands-on knowledge of the region and language ability will be refreshing after a series of envoys who did not have those backgrounds -- as long as he combines that stranovedeniye with the same sort of forceful advocacy that in fact we did see from our last two U.S. ambassadors.
The U.S. meanwhile is stepping up the diplomacy on OSCE (statement below the fold), notably today on bad things in Belarus -- the Permanent Council is exactly where these conversations need to be had. Belarus has backslid and arrested civic activists for peaceful demonstrations and distribution of literature, and persecuted the Union of Poles -- and this indeed has to be said, after all the "normalization" backing and filling isn't working.
More, please. These Obama Administration appointments are so excruciatingly slow. Obama was inaugurated January 20, 2009 -- and here it is more than a year later, and key appointments to the strategic OSCE countries and multilateral institutions are lagging badly.
There's still no ambassador for gas-rich Turkmenistan, nestled between Iran and Afghanistan, newly friendly to China (picking up a $4 billion soft gas pipeline loan) and Iran (buying more gas and building a railway) and repelling Russia's Gazprom -- but we have no envoy in sight -- not even in the confirmation pipeline, apparently. We seem to prefer to deal with this particular stan with a series of energy envoys and military attaches. An ambassador -- proof of attention and a higher level than a charge d'affaires -- has simply got to be sent out there to keep the Internet center and educational programs open, if nothing more (the Turkmen government blocked students wishing to study abroad at the American University in Bishkek and only restored some of them to the AU in Bulgaria.).
And where's that ambassador for Baku? Matthew Bryza was widely rumoured to be on tap, but for reasons of Georgian complications his nomination is stalled. So where does this stand today? Another energy-rich strategic nation also situated between Iran and Turkey -- and we can't find somebody to go out there at the proper level?
Then there's the UN Human Rights Committee, where ebay mogul John Donahue's wife Eileen Donahue, a Silicon Valley bundler for the Obama campaign but also a perfectly credible scholar on human rights and international affairs in her own right, is also stalled. Amb. Betty King, formerly at the U.S. Mission to the UN, has been confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to Geneva, so that stall is over, thank God. But we need a separate ambassador for the HRC now that the U.S. has become a member again, and there are many challenges, including the awful "defamation of religions" gambit posted by the Organizatino of Islamic Conference countries, spear-headed by Egypt, which would like to incorporate into international law the idea that you cannot criticize any religion -- notably state religions intertwined with states -- for fear of committing "defamation" or "discrimination".
Recently I told that twittering White House camera crew guy who was broadcasting his geolocation on C Street to pick me up a coffee and donut -- and a scoop of better foreign policy including some appointments of ambassadors. Sadly, he was only able to get me the virtual coffee with a Twitpic. And here we all are.
United States Mission to the OSCE
Statement on Freedom of Assembly in Belarus
As delivered by Political Counselor Casey Christensen
to the Permanent Council, Vienna
February 25, 2010
On numerous occasions, the United States has taken the floor to address serious and specific concerns regarding the fundamental freedom of assembly and association in various OSCE countries. As we all know, this fundamental freedom is outlined succinctly in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and many specific OSCE commitments. The most notable of the latter come from Copenhagen 1990, which the Chairmanship and the Government of Denmark will celebrate with a special event this summer. Specifically, all participating States committed at Copenhagen that “everyone will have the right of peaceful assembly and demonstration,” and this “...right of association will be guaranteed ...including the right to form, join and participate effectively in non-governmental organizations....”
Likewise at Copenhagen, participating States committed that, “Persons belonging to national minorities have the right freely to express, preserve and develop their ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious identity, and to maintain and develop their culture in all its aspects.”
It is for these reasons that we must voice our concern over recent, very troubling developments in Belarus. This is not an attempt to politicize the situation, as some participating States might suggest. We must point out that participating States likewise expressed their commitment at Copenhagen to “respect the right of everyone, individually or in association with others, to seek, receive, and impart freely views and information on human rights and fundamental freedoms.” This is one step, in accordance with our OSCE commitments, we are taking today.
For a few months, we had observed incidences that we hoped showed positive Belarusian government reaction to peaceful assembly and association. Monthly solidarity demonstrations were allowed to occur without interference and without incident. Unfortunately, the recent treatment of demonstrators has reversed the more positive approach. On February 8, 14, and 16, peaceful demonstrations were forcefully disrupted by Belarusian security forces, many of whom refused to identify themselves, and demonstrators were harassed, man-handled, arrested and detained. Moreover, there were deliberate attempts to block media coverage of the actions, in violation of Belarusian law.
At the same time, there appears to have been increasing action by the Government of Belarus to systematically marginalize and repress selected portions of the Polish minority in Belarus, most recently in Ivieniets outside of Minsk. This has raised serious concern in the United States, as it has in Europe. We hope that the Belarusian government will take a constructive approach to reaching a fair and lasting solution to this issue.
We note that the Government of Belarus has failed to abolish criminal code provisions that penalize activities by unregistered organizations, contrary to its commitments to the OSCE. We continue to urge the Government of Belarus to review these laws and their implementation to ensure they are in compliance with OSCE commitments regarding the
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