UNITED
NATIONS, May
16 -- A week
ago the UN
refused to
confirm to
Inner City
Press that
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon would
travel to
Mozambique,
even though
UNICEF
announced it.
Inner
City Press: I
wanted to ask
if you can
confirm that
the
Secretary-General
was traveling
to Mozambique.
The reason I
ask, I
know you
sometimes say,
or you often
say that
travel…
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky: No,
probably
always.
Inner
City Press:
But in this
case, UNICEF
and, and other
UN agencies
are
the source of
the report, so
I am thinking
maybe, either
do they not
follow that
policy or is
that-
Spokesperson:
Well,
typically, as
you know, the
Secretary-General’s
travels are
announced by
me or by
others at
Headquarters.
And so, if and
when we
have an
announcement
to make, we
will make it,
okay?
Today,
Ban's Deputy
Spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey finally
confirmed the
Mozambique
trip, from May
20 to 22.
But when Inner
City Press
asked
him about
Ban's trip to
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo,
which
the MONUSCO
peacekeeping
mission has
already
announced, Del
Buey
refused to
confirm it. Video
here, from
Minute 8:40.
What
possibly
can be
achieved by
this lack of
transparency,
this secrecy
for secrecy's
sake?
Inner
City Press is
informed that
Ban and World
Bank president
Jim Kim will
also travel to
Rwanda. One
assumes that
the World Bank
will confirm
it. Could Ban
learn from
them?
Last
year, Inner
City Press was
threatened
when it
reported that
reclusive
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous would
travel to
Damascus,
even
though it was
a Security
Council
Permanent
Representative,
from a
Permanent Five
member no
less, who had
said it.
The
level of pomp
and faux secrecy
at the UN has
been on the
increase.
But is
anything more
being
accomplished?
Watch this
site.
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