UNITED
NATIONS, April
23 -- The UN
Security
Council was on
a suburban
retreat
Tuesday in
Greentree, New
York, but
managed to
issue a Press
Statement
condemning the
car bombing of
the French
embassy in
Tripoli.
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon,
who along with
senior
staffers was
also on the
retreat, also
put out a
statement.
Ban's
statement,
strangely,
called
“on all
Libyans to
support their
Government's
efforts to
establish
strong and
effective
security
institutions.”
Should
the UN
Secretary
General be
telling the
citizens of
any country to
“support their
Government”?
Or is it
somehow
different, to
call
for support
for the
Government for
a particular
purpose?
Then
again, some of
the countries
that the UN
and Ban
Ki-moon
condemn are
if nothing
else engaged
in effort to
“establish
strong...
security
institutions.”
Is that always
a good thing?
Ban's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey was asked
to provide a
summary of
what Ban was
discussing
with the
Security
Council.
Del
Buey replied
that it is all
confidential
-- this
despite at
least one
Permanent Five
member of the
Council
tweeting his
country's
topic, Climate
Change,
and despite
the other
topic,
Peacekeeping,
being widely
known.
Given
the increasing
opacity of the
UN Secretariat
under Ban (and
even
worse, of UN
Peacekeeping
under Herve
Ladsous), it
was not
possible
to ask not
only about Bahrain
banning the
UN's special
rapporteur on
torture,
but also for
clarification
of Ban's
April 22
statement on
Nigeria.
Inner
City Press at
the April 22
noon briefing
asked about
the fighting
in
Baga in which
185 civilians
were
reportedly
killed.
Later on April
22, Ban issued
a statement
calling on “all
extremist
groups” to
stop their
attacks.
Now
it's reported
that the
militaries of
Chad and Niger
participated
along with
that of
Nigeria in the
assault on
Baga. Did Ban
know that?
Is there any
UN role in
this
trilateral
fight, which
scarred Baga
and
killed
civilians?
Will
the residents
of Baga be
called on “to
support their
Government's
efforts to
establish
strong and
effective
security
institutions”?
Watch this
site.
, 
