On 13 September 2016, Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, issued a verbal “démarche” to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Mr. Churkin angrily protested at two speeches by Jordanian Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN commissioner on human rights. Mr. Churkin specifically “condemned the fact that Zeid mentioned Trump”. (eg, AP, Fox, Telegraph)
On 17 September 2016, Vitaly Churkin and Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, clashed hard on “Syrian government atrocities: airstrikes against hospitals and schools, cordons around cities that caused starvation, and use of chemical weapons against civilian targets”. Vitaly Churkin said that Power’s angry words were “demagoguery of the highest order.” (eg, UN-1, UN-2, VOA).
On 30 September 2016, Russia lodged a formal complaint with the U.N. over condemnations of Donald Trump and some European politicians by the UN commissioner on human rights. This intervention stresses the unusual links between Donald Trump and the Kremlin. (AP)
On 7 October 2016, Vitaly Churkin told AP that “Prince Zeid is overstepping his limits from time to time and we’re unhappy about it. He criticized a number of heads of state, government. He should stick to his file, which is important enough.”
After some research, I noticed the following speeches by Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein:
– Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights: summary of all speeches and document links;
– The Guardian, 6 September 2016: full transcript of a 5 September 2016 gala dinner speech that “drew a standing ovation” (eg, DailyMail, EuroNews, OHCHR video);
– the 15 April 2016 full transcript of the Klatsky Human Rights lecture at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Cleveland, entitled “The road to violence” (eg, CWRU, Reuters).
The two speeches by Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the U.N. commissioner on human rights, denounced “demagogues” and were specifically targeted at Donald Trump (USA) and Geert Wilders (NL) and several other populist leaders in Europe, like Nigel Farage (UK), Robert Fico (Sk), Norbert Hofer (AT), Viktor Orban (HU), Marine Le Pen (FR), and Milos Zeman (CZ).
Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein clearly did criticise European “heads of state, government” and also some American and European extremist politicians running for office. The U.N. complaint by Russia underlines the continuing Russian interference in forthcoming general elections in Europe and USA (eg, CNN, Fox, Guardian, HP, Politico, TIME, WP).
There is another serious issue. It’s again an example of reverse psychology and projection in politics. More and more, extremist politicians blame other, moderate, politicians in order to cover-up their own wrongdoings. By protecting an extreme demagogue like Donald Trump, Russia is also protecting its own “demagoguery of the highest order”.
Neil Young – Words (Between The Lines Of Age) – 1972
artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
If I was a junkman
selling you cars,
Washing your windows
and shining your stars,
Thinking your mind
was my own in a dream
What would you wonder
and how would it seem?
Living in castles
a bit at a time
The King started laughing
and talking in rhyme.
Singing words, words
between the lines of age.
Words, words
between the lines of age.
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