At
UN,
Correa of
Ecuador Mocks
Union City
Mayor, Says US
Business
Intact
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 23
-- When
Ecuadorian
President
Rafael Correa
held
a stakeout at
the UN on
Friday night,
most of the
questions were
taken in
advance, about
the
pay-to-not-drill
environmental
project
Correa was
promoting.
Inner City
Press did not
pre-register
any
question or
itself, but
rather sought
to ask the old
fashioned way.
As
the last
question at
the stakeout,
Inner City
Press asked
Correa about
his
relations with
the United
States, and
more locally
with Union
City,
which barred
him from
appearing in a
high school.
Correa mocked
the
mayor "whose
name I don't
know."
Inner
City Press
said, "Brian
Stack." Correa
repeated the
name, then
sarcastically
said he would
hire him as a
publicist,
since banning
the talk gave
rise to more
stories,
including in
Ecuador.
Still
it is rare
from the UN
General
Assembly to
cause any
local ripples
beyond
traffic, so
that question
had to be
asked.
Correa at UN
on Sept 23,
Union City not
shown
As
to the United
States, Correa
said that
while he had
expelled the
US Ambassador
and
the US
followed suit,
now new envoy
had been
nominated, and
even
during the
standoff
commercial
relations
continued
"almost
intact." Now
these
relations
including
payments
through UNDP
not
to drill.
We'll see.
* * *
At
UN,
Deby On TNC's
"Hypocrisy, "
400,000
Chadians
"Blocked" in
Libya, "No
Prisoners in
Chad"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 19
-- Chad's
President
Idriss Deby
told Inner
City Press on
Monday that
there remain
400,000
Chadian's
"blocked"
inside Libya.
He
said the vast
majority had
gone to Libya
to work. Some
had been
recruited to
fight but by
both sides, he
insisted,
Gaddafi and
the National
Transitional
Council.
He said that
going forward
the
international
community
should help
reconcile all
Libyans,
"including
those who
worked with
Gaddafi." Video here, 1st part
of interview.
Deby
accused the
leaders of the
"New Libya,"
the National
Transitional
Council, of
hypocrisy as
many of them
previously
worked with
Gaddafi. He
said there
should be
greater
African Union
involvement in
the New Libya,
and chafed at
Inner City
Press'
statement that
South Africa
has led on
that issue,
and on that of
African
migrants.
"There
are other
African
countries on
the Security
Council," he
said, naming
Gabon and then
Nigeria.
Inner
City Press
asked Deby for
his view of
developments
in Sudan. Deby
spoke of
Southern
Kordofan and
"Nil Bleu,"
Blue Nile,
then said that
much remains
to be solved
between North
and South
Sudan.
On
this, Inner
City Press
asked Deby to
respond to reports
that the
publication
N'Djamena
Bi-Hebdo was
told not to
compare South
Sudan to
Southern Chad:
"In
the
October 14 to
17 edition of
the local
newspaper
N'Djamena
Bi-Hebdo, the
publishers
included an
article
comparing
southern Sudan
with southern
Chad. The
prime minister
called the
article
'dangerous'
and asked the
HCC to act on
the matter. On
October 19,
the HCC met
with
journalists
and warned
N'Djamena
Bi-Hebdo in
particular and
all media
houses in
general to
"observe
ethics rules"
by not
printing
articles that
risked
inciting
hatred,
violence, or
separatist
sentiment."
Deby
said he didn't
know about the
case. He said
"come to Chad"
to see the
freedom of the
press, and
also said that
"there are no
political
prisons in
Chad." Inner
City Press
began to ask
of one example
-- Ibni
Oumar Mahamat
Saleh --
but Deby
didn't answer
on it.
Deby and the
author, smiles
on Libya,
other answers
not show
The
interview was
over, and
Inner City
Press left the
Plaza Hotel.
Deby will
speak before
the General
Assembly on
Friday, after
meeting with
Ban Ki-moon
the day
before. "Mais
vous savez de
tout,"
Deby said. Not
as much as
we'd like to.
Watch this
site.
, 
