At
UN,
Ban Censors
His Own
Eritrea
Report, "Not
What We Had in
Mind"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 26 --
Earlier this
month the
"Report of the
Secretary
General on
Eritrea" was
circulated and
was put on the
UN Security
Council's web
site, dated
June 8,
assigned
symbol
S/2012/412.
Then,
as Inner
City Press
exclusively
reported on
June 15, there
were rumblings
that
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon would
change his
44-paragraph
Eritrea
report, like
"the
two
versions of
the last
report on
Western Sahara
were watered
down
to drop
allegations
against
Morocco of
limiting
freedom of
movement
of the
peacekeepers.
"Inner
City
Press
exclusively
learned on
Friday that a
similar
amateurish
post-publication
is taking
place on the
forthcoming
report on
Eritrea. The
report already
has a number
(S/2012/412)
and has been
on
the UN's ODS
Official
Document
Service.
"But
unlike
the Western
Sahara
watering down,
in this case
it's a matter
of watering UP
-- Ethiopia
and others are
said to want
the report to
be more
damning of
Asmara. And so
it goes at the
UN."
Now,
Inner City
Press can
report that
while "Report
of the
Secretary-General
on
Eritrea,
S/2012/412, 8
June 2012" is
still LISTED
on the
Security
Council's web
site, the
S/2012/412
link has done
dead,
leading to a message
on the UN's
ODS Official
Document
Service that
"There is no
document
matching your
request / Pas
de reponse a
votre demande."
Well,
no document
anyMORE. As
circulated,
Ban Ki-moon's
report for
example quoted
Eritrean
President
Isaias Afwerki
telling Ban in
September 2011
that
"the border
issue with
Ethiopia was a
'closed
chapter' and
that
there was
'nothing to
negotiate.'"
See, Paragraph
17.
It
recited Ban's
July 24, 2011
meeting with
"Eritrean
Foreign
Minister and
Political
Adviser to the
Eritrean
President" on
Somalia,
Sudan,
South Sudan
and Darfur. (See Inner City
Press video
of Yemane
Ghebreab at
that time,
here on
Inner City
Press' YouTube
channel with
28,000 views
and counting.)
The
June 8, 2012
report recited
Eritrea's
objections to
Security
Council
manuevers in
late November
and early
December 2011,
exclusively
reported by
Inner
City Press,
which even
after protest
would only
have allowed
Isaias
Afwerki,
President of a
country facing
unprecedented
sanctions, to
speak to the
Council AFTER
the resolution
was put in
blue and
finalized for
a vote.
But
now all of
that has been
taken off
line, as if it
never existed.
A diplomat
from
one of
Eritrea's
neighbors
explained to
Inner City
Press that the
June 8 report
just "wasn't
right," that
it was not
like
other
sanctions
reports and
not what his
country has in
mind.
This
was the
approach taken
when
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
Herve
Ladsous
changed and
watered down
the most
recent Western
Sahara
report.
As many noted,
but only Inner
City Press
explicitly
emphasized,
Ladsous is the
fourth French
chief of DPKO
in a row,
whose previous
job was to
serve
discredited
French foreign
minister
Michele
Aliot-Marie
including
arranging her
flights on
planes of
cronies of
Tunisian
dictator Ben
Ali.
Since then, Ladsous
refuses to
answer
Inner City
Press' questions;
Big
Five media
have moved to
expel
Inner City
Press, now led
by US
government
owned Voice of
America asking
the UN to
review
Inner City
Press' accreditation
status.
But
who -- not
which
countries,
which is
obvious, but
which UN
official
beyond Ban
Ki-moon -- is
responsible
for taking off
line the
Eritrea
report, and
what will
happen and be
issued next?
Watch this
site.
, 
