There are “many” changes in the revised draft resolution authorizing an advance mission of up to 30 observers to monitor the Syria ceasefire, U.S. envoy Susan Rice said on Friday. Earlier Russia put forward its own shorter text, with Amb. Vitaly Churkin saying the West/Arab draft was too detailed and did not make demands of the opposition. A vote is scheduled for 11am tomorrow, Sat. April 14 (which, coincidentally, is also Syria U.N. envoy Bashar Jaafari’s birthday) on the draft sponsored by the U.S. Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Colombia and Morocco.

U.N.-Arab League joint envoy Kofi Annan told the Security Council that the Syrian foreign minister sent him a letter on April 1 stating his government will immediately begin withdrawing troops from populations centers, cease use of heavy weapons, and stop forward deployment, and this will be completed by April 10, US envoy Susan Rice said today.  Annan’s deputy, Nassar al-Qidwa, is seeking commitments from the opposition that it will cease operations 48 hours later, she said. This would satisfy point 2 of Annan’s six-point plan (below).

1) commit to work with the Envoy in an inclusive Syrian-led political process to address the legitimate aspirations and concerns of the Syrian people, and, to this end, commit to appoint an empowered interlocutor when invited to do so by the Envoy;

2) commit to stop the fighting and achieve urgently an effective United Nations supervised cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties to protect civilians and stabilize the country.

a. To this end, the Syrian government should immediately cease troop movements towards, and end the use of heavy weapons in, population centres, and begin pullback of military concentrations in and around population centres.

b. As these actions are being taken on the ground, the Syrian government should work with the Envoy to bring about a sustained cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties with an effective United Nations supervision mechanism.

c. Similar commitments would be sought by the Envoy from the opposition and all relevant elements to stop the fighting and work with him to bring about a sustained cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties with an effective United Nations supervision mechanism;

3) ensure timely provision of humanitarian assistance to all areas affected by the fighting, and to this end, as immediate steps, to accept and implement a daily two hour humanitarian pause and to coordinate exact time and modalities of the daily pause through an efficient mechanism, including at local level.

4) intensify the pace and scale of release of arbitrarily detained persons, including especially vulnerable categories of persons, and persons involved in peaceful political activities, provide without delay through appropriate channels a list of all places in which such persons are being detained, immediately begin organising access to such locations and through appropriate channels respond promptly to all written requests for information, access or release regarding such persons;

5) ensure freedom of movement throughout the country for journalists and a non-discriminatory visa policy for them;

6) respect freedom of association and the right to demonstrate peacefully as legally guaranteed.

I’m enjoying this account by Meyers and Brysac of their travels to five multi-diverse societies in France, Germany, India, Russia and the United States in search of “how and why diversity succeeds.”

I’ve started with their section on Queens, New York (where I live), the largest of NYC’s five boroughs and where 2.3 million people speak 132 languages. I was particularly struck by an interview with Borough President Helen Marshall, who recounted a fine example of politics (with a small ‘p’) at its best.

She tells of an incident in the early 1990s (a time of heightened ethnic tension in the city) when a manager at a Korean-owned and all-Korean employee C-Town supermarket in Elmhurst was accused of assaulting a young African-American boy he accused of taking money from a change tin on the counter.

Although a boycott of the store was planned, Marshall, then a state assemblywoman, and a few more community leaders decided to intervene and negotiate with the store owner to resolve the crisis. The owner explained that in Korean culture, if a child was misbehaving, adults felt it their responsibility to reprimand the child (irrespective of their relationship to the child. [I don’t know enough about Korean culture to verify but surely it doesn’t involve assault]).

The end result was that the boycott was shelved and the owner of the store apologized, admitted his employee over-reacted, and agreed to add workers who were fluent in English as well as to hire an African-American manager.

I’m unaware if the employee accused of assaulting the boy was charged (if he did assault him, he should have been) but the intervention by Marshall and others to mediate resulted in a resolution that met the demands of the community and prevented the situation from escalating.

My story for GlobalPost on botched deal to buy smuggled Congolese deal, how it cost a Texas oilman $30mln, and ultimately profited a warlord wanted by the International Criminal Court for recruiting children.