At
UN, Ban to
Meet HRW's
Roth, Position
on Haiti
Cholera &
Drones Not
Shown
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 1 – UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon has been
on the
road for more
than a week.
He
met with the
ruling
families of
the United
Arab Emirates
(but didn't
raise their
banning of a
professor
who's a critic
of Bahrain)
and
Qatar (but
didn't raise
the sentencing
to 15 years in
prison of a
poet who dared
criticize
them).
On
Monday March 4
Ban's New York
scheduled
resumes, and
guess who's on
it? Ken Roth
of Human
Rights Watch,
who back in
May 2011
refused to
provide the
Press with
even a summary
of what issues
he and HRW
were
RAISING in
their meeting
with Ban
Ki-moon.
Inner
City Press
asked Roth's
UN lobbyist
Philippe
Bolopion, then
and again
in December
2012, if only
big money
donors get
this
information
from
HRW, without
substantive
response.
Bolopion
told Inner
City Press,
copying Ken
Roth, that "to
preserve our
ability to
have frank
discussions
with UN
officials and
advance our
advocacy
goals, we
don't
typically
communicate on
the content of
discussions we
have with
them."
So
what WILL Roth
raise to Ban
on Monday? One
assumes, from
Roth's
prolific
tweets, that
he will urge
Ban to call
for a complete
cut off
in dealings
with Rwanda
because of the
M23 rebels.
Inner
City Press has
repeated asked
Roth
and other HRW
big wigs to
state
their position
on UN
Peacekeeping
boss Herve
Ladsous' move
to use
drones,
without
response.
Would that be
on the agenda?
When
HRW retweeted
Reed Brody on
Haiti's
Duvalier
finally facing
some of
his victims in
court, Inner
City Press
asked for
HRW's and
Roth's
position on Ban
Ki-moon's
terse
dismissal
after 15
months of the
claims for the
UN bringing
cholera into
Haiti.
Again,
no response
from HRW.
Might that at
least be on
the agenda?
They
won't answer
Inner City
Press for
whatever
reason. But
perhaps others
will ask, or
they will
simply say,
before and
after the
meeting.
Watch this
site.
, 
