Killing
of Journalists
in Mali
Condemned by
UNSC,
Nation-Specifics
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 3 --
In Mali,
journalists Ghislaine
Dupont and
Claude
Verlon
have been
killed. The UN
Security
Council
approved and
issued a press
statement
strongly
condemning the
assassinations,
full
text below.
The Free
UN Coalition
for Access
deplores
the murders
too. But in
the spirit of
journalism,
one must ask:
why didn't the
Security
Council
condemn or
even note the
killing of
eight
journalists so
far this year
in Somalia, in
which there is
also a UN
support
peacekeeping
mission,
AMISOM?
For
each countries
on the
Security
Council's
agenda, as
both Mali and
Somalia are,
one Council
member,
usually one of
the Permanent
Five
"holds the
pen" and
drafts
statements to
be approved by
the
other 14
members
through a
silence or
"non
objection"
procedure.
France,
the
former
colonial power
in Mali, holds
the pen on the
issue, and
has also
nominated the
last four chiefs
of UN
Peacekeeping.
The
Security
Council press
statement on
the killing of
Ghislaine
Dupont and
Claude Verlon
in
Northern Mali
uses the words
France or
French three
times,
including
concluding
that "the
members of the
Security
Council
reiterated
their full
support for
the United
Nations
Multidimensional
Integrated
Stabilization
Mission in
Mali (MINUSMA)
and French
forces who
support
it."
Actually,
it
was the French
army which
went in first,
in Operation
Serval; the
UN's MINUSMA
went in later,
to support the
French. For
the new
Operation
Hydra in the
North, as
noted by Inner
City Press,
the UN
says that
MINUSMA is not
involved.
The
French-drafted
Security
Council
statement
begins: "The
members
of the
Security
Council
strongly
condemned the
kidnapping and
assassination
of two French
journalists in
Kidal, Mali on
2 November
2013."
Journalistically
one
must ask: why
does this Security
Council
statement list
the
nationality of
the reporters
killed? While
condemning
their killing,
couldn't the
identification
of journalists
with a
particular
country and
its foreign
and military
policies be a
problem?
Also,
why didn't the
Security
Council
condemn the
killing of
eight
journalists in
Somalia
so far this
year? Why
hasn't it said
more, as
just one
example, of
the killing of
Congolese
journalist
Floribert
Chebeya for
which the
Congolese
government, as
on the 135
rapes in
Minova by its
own troops,
has assigned
no
accountability?
(Ghislaine
Dupont herself
was thrown out
of the DR
Congo in 2006
for reporting
on the inadequacies
of the Joseph
Kabila
government,
may she rest
in peace.
Tribute here;
Verlon tribute
here.)
Outside
of
Africa, why
has the
Security
Council said
nothing of the
many
killings and disappearances
of journalists
in Sri Lanka,
where UK
prime minister
David Cameron,
and a
delegation
from Australia,
are set to
visit this
month for the
Commonwealth
Heads of
Government
Meeting?
Footnote:
Some
were
surprised,
alongside the
above, that
the UN
Security
Council which
must procure
15 approvals
or at least 15
non-objections
through
silence was
able to issue
a statement on
the killing of
Ghislaine
Dupont and
Claude Verlon
before UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon,
who held a
press
conference
about Mali on
November 1 and
is
headed there
this week.
Inner
City Press
asked Ban's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
on November 1
if
Ban (and the
World Bank's
Jim Kim) will
be going to
northern Mali
and
Kidal; this
question was
not answered.
Watch this
site.
The
UNSC's press
statement on
Dupont and
Verlon:
, 
