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STORY: UN / D’ESCOTO
TRT: 3.24
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 17 MACRH 2009, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
RECENT, 2009 - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
17 MARCH 2009, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press conference
3. Wide shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, UN General Assembly President:
“What I was struck by in this meeting of ECO [Economic Cooperation Organization], in the tenth summit of the economic organization, was the great respect that all the neighbors of Iran had for Iran. The recognition that everyone gives to Iran for helping, for being such a positive help to alleviate the plight of the Afghan refugees -of whom at this time there might be more than, maybe some three and a half million people- the legal refugees and the illegal, but they all get according to Islamic ideas of how you treat a foreigner, they get opportunity for work, etc. So that was a very wonderful experience to see that, in contrast to that that we find sadly here.”
5. Cutaway, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, UN General Assembly President:
“It was unfortunate, unfortunate and I think it does a disservice to the people’s perception of international justice. It helps to deepen a perception that international justice is racist, because this is the third time that you have something from the ICC [International Criminal Court], and for the third time it has to do with Africa.”
7. Cutaway, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, UN General Assembly President:
“We in the ‘West’ are notorious for getting involved in things we don’t understand, and worse we don’t seem to be willing to want to understand, ‘shoot first and then find out’. You know that idea? If we don’t know who it is, if we don’t know if it’s a person, or if we don’t know if it’s a deer shoot and find out.”
9. Cutaway, photographer
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Karen Pierce, Deputy Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations:
“I think it’s important that people recognize that its judgments are not targeted against any one particular group. I have heard before that the court is being called racist and I’d just like to say that we repudiate that without qualification of the court’s considerations. Some three have been transferred by their own governments and the court is also looking at cases in Colombia, Afghanistan, and Georgia. So I hope that’s conclusive evidence that there it doesn’t have an agenda to target particular areas of the world. I think it’s important that all those of us who work in the multilateral system, and I’d include the President of the General Assembly in this, work to uphold international justice. It’s the foundation of modern society; it’s the foundation of the United Nations.”
11. Med shot, cameraman
General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann briefed journalists today (17 March) at the United Nations following his recent trips to Syria, Finland, China, Bahrain, Switzerland and Iran, where he attended the tenth Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).
D’Escoto said that while attending the ECO summit he was struck by the “great respect” that Iran’s neighbors had for that country. He maintained that the respect came from the way Iran assisted in helping “to alleviate the plight” of Afghan refugees, who he said numbered more than three and a half million people at the moment.
He contrasted this with Iran’s image in the Western world, where he said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was “demonized”.
Asked what he thought about the International Criminal Court’s recent indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, d’Escoto said that it “was unfortunate”. He added that it did “a disservice to the people’s perception of international justice” by deepening a perception that international justice was “racist”.
Miguel d’Escoto continued that the West was “notorious for getting involved in things we don’t understand”, or want to understand. He called this a culture of “‘shoot first and then find out’”.
Later in the day British Ambassador Karen Pierce told journalists that it was important that people recognized that the ICC’s judgments were not targeted against any particular group, pointing out that the court was also looking at cases in Colombia, Afghanistan, and Georgia. Pierce added that it was important that all those who worked in the multilateral system, including the President of the General Assembly, worked to uphold international justice, which was “the foundation of modern society; it’s the foundation of the United Nations”.
