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Bombed in Gaza, UN is Banquished,
White Phosphorous at its Door
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
January 15 -- In the wake of
Israel's bombing of the UN compound in Gaza City, the European
Commission
demanded an investigation, while strangely UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon
asked only for an explanation. While local official say that Israel
used white
phosphorous weapons for the attack, Ban at his press conference did not
mention
this.
Previously,
after Israel's deadly bombing of the UNRWA school and
shelter, Ban said only that this was unacceptable; well-placed UN
officials from
Ban's own office expressed surprise that Ban didn't say and do more.
Now it has
happened again. Ban, who has expressed "anguish" about the situation
in Gaza, has made the UN Banquished.
Ironically,
the UN's humanitarian coordinator John Holmes has for days dodged
requests for
the UN to confirm or deny its knowledge of white phosphorous use by
Israel in
Gaza. We are not chemists, he has in essence said. Now that it has hit
the UN's
own compound, the litmus test is here.
UN Secretary-General waves from Tel Aviv: Banquished
Of Ban's
decision not to visit Gaza, UNRWA's John Ging unlike many UN staff
interviewed
by Inner City Press said that "It is not essential that he come here
physically to Gaza." Some long-time UN staff recall dangerous visits in
the region by Kofi Annan, and even Kurt Waldheim. It may not be
essential, they
say, but it would have been important.
Footnote: Following Inner
City Press' January 13 report
that the UN was blocking intra-net access to the website of the Free
Gaza
Movement, the next day the UN reversed course and allowed access --
without
explanation, of course. Could it be like increased Internet access
during last
Summer's Olympics?
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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