UN
Banned Its Own
Eritrea
Report, Now
ICP Publishes
It
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 27 -- The
day after
Inner City
Press noted,
reported
and asked the
UN about the
removal from
the Internet
of the "Report
of the
Secretary
General on
Eritrea,"
S/2012/412,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
confirmed that
Ban's
Secretariat
was
responsible
for taking the
report down.
We
are
publishing the
June 8 report
which "the
Secretariat"
has confirmed
will not be
put online
again.
Inner
City Press
asked who it
was in the
Secretariat
that prepared
the report,
that
"the
Secretariat"
took down, and
asked for
confirmation
that countries
such as
Ethiopia and
the United
States
complained
about the
report.
Nesirky would
not answer
either
question,
except
to say that
when the
report was
looked at
"again," it
was
concluded that
it was "not an
adequate
response" to
Resolution
2023.
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."
Then
on the
morning of
June 26 Inner
City Press
reported that
while the "Report of the
Secretary-General
on Eritrea,
S/2012/412, 8
June 2012" was
still LISTED
on the
Security
Council's web
site, the
S/2012/412
link had gone
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."
On
June 26 at the
UN noon
briefing Inner
City Press
asked about
Inner
City
Press: the
report of the
Secretary-General
on Eritrea,
that was
actually,
dated 8 June,
that was put
on the
Security
Council’s
website. It
was available
there, on
that, I heard,
starting
around
15 June, there
were some
concerns
raised by
other
neighbours of
Eritrea about
the report.
And this
morning I
learned and
confirmed
that the
report’s gone
from the
website. Still
listed there,
but
the link is
now dead. And
the document
is not
available. And
I
wondered, can
you explain
what happened
to the report?
And what’s,
is it being
changed? At
whose behest?
Why did they,
why was it
taken offline
so
unceremoniously?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Thanks for the
question. But
Matthew, I
don’t have
anything on
that at the
moment. But
I’m hoping to
have something
a
little bit
later.
Twenty
four hours
later, Nesirky
read out his
statement that
when looked at
"again..
the
Secretariat"
decided the
report was
"not an
adequate
response" to
Resolution
2023.
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?
For
now, we
are
publishing the
June 8 report
which "the
Secretariat"
has
confirmed will
not be put
online again.
Watch this
site.
, 
