By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 10 --
As the UN
under
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon gets
pushed to the
margins of
issues like
Israel -
Palestine, the
nuclear
"files" on
Iran and North
Korea, and
even on the
Central
African
Republic, out
in the world
there is
mounting
criticism of
the UN.
Even in CAR,
the UN
defers to
forces with
undue
influence on
the country
for year,
notably former
colonial power
France;
the UN's
humanitarian
response has
been slammed
by Doctors
Without
Borders.
In
places where
the UN
actually is
relevant, just
for example,
many in Haiti
remain
outraged at
the UN
bringing
cholera then
refusing to
even accept
court papers.
The UN's
inaction and
worse as tens
of thousands
were
slaughtered in
2009, now
sanitized into
the "Rights Up
Front agenda,
has not led to
any
accountability.
One of the
perpetrators
became an
adviser to the
UN and to Ban
-- on
Peacekeeping.
Ban's
UN, including
in the way it
manages the
mostly
compliant
media, manages
to keep such
questions out,
or at least
keep them away
from Ban
Ki-moon.
On
January 10 Ban
Ki-moon held
his beginning
of the year
press
conference. He
brought up
"Rights Up
Front," twice
-- but none of
the questions
take were on
it. Rather,
Ban's acting
deputy
spokesman
automatically
gave the first
of only eight
questions to
the United
Nations
Correspondents
Association, a
group which
became in
Ban's time the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance,
seeking to get
the
investigative
Press expelled
citing its
reporting on
Sri Lanka and
conflict of
interest at
the UN.
(Haq
gave a
question to a
state media
which took the
lead in asking
for the
"review" of
Inner City
Press' accreditation,
click here for
that request
and e-mail
saying Reuters,
AFP
and, yes, "UNCA"
supported it.
There have
been no
reforms since;
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
has been
formed. Reuters
went on to
file a bad
faith Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act
complaint
to ban access
to a similar
communication
to the UN from
Google's
search, click
here for
that.)
In
Ban's January
10 press
conference
there followed
a series of
predictable
questions on
Syria.
Amazingly, the
entire
continents of
Latin America
(much less the
UN's impunity
for bringing
cholera to
Haiti) and
even Asia, did
not come up in
the questions
that Haq
selected.
Haq
appears to
view his job
as making Ban,
or perhaps the
wider UN, look
good. While
that's one way
to view the
spokesperson's
role, at least
twice Haq has
mis- or
under-spoken
then not gone
back to
correct it. He
told Inner
City Press in
a briefing
that the UN
*does* screen
deploying
peacekeepers
for cholera.
Haq never
corrected it,
but when Inner
City Press
raised it a
second time
having found
that this was
false, Haq
acknowledged
that what he'd
said was not,
in fact, the
case. But
the false
claim or
assurance
remains, even
on January 10,
2013, online
for example
here. This
is the UN.
Even
this week,
after Haq
declined to
confirm UN
layoff letters
Inner City
Press asked
about, having
seen, only
when Inner
City Press asked again
the next day
did Haq read
out a
statement
about Ban's
"digital" UN.
Then in
yesterday's closed door
Town Hall
meeting, Ban
was described
as
"heartbroken"
as he signed
the layoff
ordered on
December 31.
Secret
heartbreak,
apparently.
While
there are many
UN staff
working hard,
the UN will
not improve
while it
shields itself
from questions
and buys the
compliant
media. Even
this morning,
many in the
Great Lakes
are looking
for the UN to
explain and take
action on the
photographed
and videoed
participation
of UN vehicles
in Goma
celebrations
of the false
rumor of
Rwanda's Paul
Kagame's death.
To
say
a UN truck was
"taken over"
does not
explain a
separate UN
four by four
in a video,
through here.
The
UN should have
to answer
these question
-- but the UN
won't even take
the
questions.
Watch this
site.
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