While
US
Drafted UNSC
Statement on
Journalists
Killed in
Mali, Why
Doesn't UK on
Somalia?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 4 --
After
journalists
Ghislaine
Dupont and
Claude
Verlon were
killed in
Mali, the UN
Security
Council
quickly
approved
and issued a
press
statement
strongly
condemning the
assassinations.
The
Free UN
Coalition for
Access deplored
the murders
too. But in
the
spirit of
journalism,
Inner City
Press asked:
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?
By
the Security
Council on
Monday
morning, Inner
City Press
learned
more. First,
that perhaps
seeing the
conflict of
interest,
France the
former
colonial power
in and "pen
holder" on
Mali did not
circulate the
statement.
"The United
States did it,
which was
strange,"a
Council member
told Inner
City Press,
adding that it
seems France
asked the US
to do it in
its stead.
Another
source
agreed that it
is strange,
now, that when
journalists
are
killed in
Somalia, the
UK as pen
holder (or the
US in its
stead) does
not circulate
any draft
press
statements.
"Maybe
it's more
sensitive in
Somalia," the
source said,
going on to
acknowledge
the "politics"
of such
statements.
The
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
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?
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
is set to
visit this
month for the
Commonwealth
Heads of
Government
Meeting? Has
he yet seen
"No
Fire Zone"?
Footnote:
Surprise
grows,
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
now is there.
Ban is listed
on a press
release about
the World Bank
allocating
$1.5
billion to the
Sahel. But
still nothing
on the killing
of the
journalists.
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.
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