UN's
Ban Meets
Burundi
Minister Who
Excused
Killings, AI
Then Toasts
Scribes
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
14
-- When
you go to the
UN's 38th
floor these
days, you
might meet a
government
official who
justified the
killing of
unarmed
civilians,
having a photo
op with
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon.
So
it was on
April 14, when
Burundi's
Minister of
the Interior
Edouard
Nduwimana held
a meeting with
Ban, his chief
of staff and
Department of
Political
Affairs
officials.
Inner City
Press went to
the photo op
and
tweeted out a
photo.
Moments
later Inner
City Press was
made aware
that Nduwimana
in March 2013
visited the
Businde hill
where police
had just
killed nine
people, mostly
women and
child. On
video - YouTube here, from Minute
1:41 -
Nduwimana told
the mourners
and survivors,
Now you have
the martyrs
you wanted.
Eighty minutes
before Ban's
meeting with
Nduwimana, he
met with
Amnesty
International.
Unlike some
other rights
groups who
crave access,
Amnesty
authorized
Inner City
Press, when it
asked, to
report that
the topics
covered were
"the Human
Rights Up
Front
Initiative,
regarding
which several
country
situations
were
discussed, and
the Post-2015
agenda." It is
appreciated.
While Inner
City Press was
asked if
having a
"criminal" in
the UN is
rare, the
reality is
that, for
example, Sri
Lanka's
Shavendra
Silva, named
in Ban's own
report on war
crimes in that
country, was
allowed to
become a UN
Senior Adviser
on
Peacekeeping
Operations,
run by Herve
Ladsous.
Later
on April 14, a
mere 95
minutes later
to be exact,
Ban was to
raise a
champagne or
Prosecco toast
to the UN
Censorship
Alliance,
which hosts
Shavendra
Silva's and
Palitha
Kohona's
screening of
their
government's
war crimes
denial film,
"Lies Agreed
To."
The then
and now
president of
UNCA had been
Kohona's
landlord in
the past.
When Inner
City Press in
writing called
this a
conflict of
interest,
first the move
was to try to
get Inner City
Press thown
out of UNCA --
it quit and
co-founded the
new Free UN
Coalition for
Access, FUNCA
-- then out of
the UN as a
whole. This is
today's UN,
and its
Censorship
Alliance.
, 
