As
UN
Withholds
Torture Info
on US, Ukraine
& Burundi,
Whom Does It
Serve?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 28 --
How
incompetent
and elitist is
today's UN?
Well, when the
UN in Geneva
on November 24
purported to
promote its
Committee
Against
Torture
concluding
remarks on
eight
countries, it
said embargoed
copies would
be given to
its
“UNOG-based
press
corps” -- that
is, media that
can afford to
have a
correspondent
at
the UN in
Geneva.
Among
the eight
countries are
the US, to
which the
family of Michael
Brown,
killed by
policeman
Darren Wilson
in Ferguson,
Missouri, went
to
testify;
Ukraine, about
which the UN
has already
been less than
transparent;
Australia and
Burundi, where
the UN is seen
to have
covered
up a memo
about the
ruling parties
arming its
youth wing.
Inner
City Press
immediate
wrote and
asked that the
embargoed
reports not
be so
restricted in
distribution.
Note for
example that
the UN in
Nairobi does
not restrict
its embargoed
reports to
media with
reporters in
the Kenyan
capital. So
why should the
UN in Geneva?
The
new
Free UN
Coalition for
Access
made this
point about
disparate
treatment, the
UN in Geneva
and its lead
spokesman in
New York,
Stephane
Dujarric.
But
despite
multiple
requests to
UNOG's Liz
Throssell, the
UN
maintained its
position,
and said that
Inner City
Press could
just look at
the UN website
at
the embargo
time, 8 am in
New York. But
the reports
weren't on
this
page, for
example as to
the USA, even
an hour later.
That's where
the incompetence
comes in. These
things can
happen of
course - but
that's why UN
Geneva should
not deny
repeated
requests for
UN accredited
media for embargoed
reports that
they have. Not
only UN Nairobi,
but others in
the UN system
distributed
embargoed
material to
media all over
the world.
What's wrong
with UN
Geneva? And
UNHQ in New
York?
Corporate
media was
already
reporting on
the concluding
remarks, based
on the
embargoed
copies they
got. And
from the UN,
now including
chair of the
Committee
Against
Torture
Claudio
Grossman, no
explanation,
no answer
after more
than 12 hours
to the
question of
for example
which
Burundian
media have a
correspondent
at the UN in
Geneva and
thus access to
these
embargoed
/ otherwise
not available
reports.
And
so we ask, how
incompetent
and elitist,
to leave it at
that, is this
UN? And whom
does it serve?
We'll have
more on this.
Watch this
site.
, 
