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In Gaza, UN's Ban Meets Staff, Ging Sings for
Supper, Holmes to Strip
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
January 20 -- As its Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon showed up in Gaza, the UN's call for an
"independent
investigation" of Israel's bombings of its facilities morphed
into a
"demand [for] an Israeli investigation." Inner City Press asked the
UN's John Holmes and John Ging what lay behind this new phrasing. Ging said he wasn't sure; Holmes pointed out
that the UN has always called for Israel to look into what it did. But
he
agreed that an Israeli investigation would, by definition, not have the
independence originally called for. Video here,
from Minute 23:55.
Inner City
Press sources in Gaza say that Ban was only "allowed" to travel to
and from the UN Relief and Works Agency compound. They also disagree
with John
Ging's seemingly forced statement that UNRWA staff "unanimously" were
inspired by Ban, who Ging also called "articulate." One source scoffed
that Ging's January 20 briefing smacked of video footage of American
pilots
downed in Vietnam. Holmes congratulated Ging for finally putting on a
tie in
honor of the Secretary General. That's
not all he put on, one wage added.
Holmes will
be traveling to Gaza. Inner City Press asked if he is coordinating with
the
European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid
Louis Michel, who
announced the day previously that he will be in Gaza on January 25 and
26.
Holmes said he hadn't been aware that Michel would be in Gaza, but that
the UN
and EU coordinate closely. He said the EU will not have a "rival"
reconstruction and humanitarian aid program. He also said that both he
and Ban
Ki-moon have spoken with Quartet envoy -- and JPMorgan Chase consultant
-- Tony
Blair several times in the past few days. We'll see.
Inner City
Press asked who will remove or defuse the unexploded ordnance in the
Strip. Ging said the first step is to identify locations; Holmes' trip
will address who will clean it up. Elsewhere, such work is coordinated
by the obscure UN Office of Project Services, all of executives are
currently in the UN Headquarters basement to convince their Executive
Board to allow them to give promotions to themselves, click here
for that.
UN's Ban in front of torched UNRWA warehouse, independence of
investigation not shown
What was
billed as a closed meet of the UN's "High Level" group on Gaza was to
meet with John Holmes at 3:30 p.m. in basement Conference Room 5,
usually
reserved for budget committee wrangling. At 3:30 Holmes was nowhere to
be seen,
while the room filled with junior level staffers from the missions of
primarily
European Union countries. Holmes came with two staffers at 3:37, first
approaching rooms meeting on Nepal and Somalia before being directed to
where
the youthful Europeans awaited. "High level," Inner City Press joked.
"Numerous," Holmes replied, seemingly in reference to the low
turn-out at the morning press conference. The doors closed.
Footnotes: As
Holmes began, outside in what's
called the Vienna Cafe, Iran's Ambassador sat at a table watching the
Obama
parade down Constitution Avenue. He had walked off the podium of
Conference
Room 2, where he and Iran preside over the Executive Board of the UN
Development Program. Also floating
through the basement was the UN's top lawyer, in search of the elusive
Conference Room 9, where the Department of Peacekeeping Operations has
been
being doing some type of leadership training or induction. She
committed to
look into the status of the Secretary General's Bulletin benefiting
Jan
Mattsson at UNOPS, which Inner City Press reported on yesterday. We'll have more on all this.
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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