UN-led
talks like the
(real) UN
Security
Council urged
in Yemen on
February 6?
Back
on January 23
Inner City
Press asked UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric, UN
transcript
here:
Inner
City Press I
wanted a quick
kind of a
factual check
which is
there's
reports that a
UN facility in
Libya has been
fired out,
last hour,
which has been
in Libyan
news. Do
you have
anything on
that?
Spokesman
Dujarric:
No. I
will check.
But
twenty hours
later, nothing
from Dujarric
or the UN in
New York.
Instead, the
UN Support
Mission in
Libya released
this statement
by envoy
Bernardino
Leon:
Statement
by SRSG
Bernardino
Leon regarding
shooting
incident
outside a UN
office in
Tripoli
24 January
2015 - At
11:30 am on 23
January 2015,
unidentified
gunmen opened
fire from a
passing car at
members of the
Diplomatic
Police on
guard duty
outside the
office of
United Nations
Development
Programme
(UNDP) in
Tripoli,
Libya.
One of the
policemen was
severely
wounded and
later died in
hospital. The
Diplomatic
Police are
investigating
to determine
the
circumstances
and the
motives behind
this drive by
shooting.
UN staff were
not involved
in the
incident.
The United
Nations
condemns this
shooting
incident and
offers its
condolences to
the Diplomatic
Police. The
United Nations
calls on the
police to
thoroughly
investigate
this incident.
So they
emphasize that
"UN staff were
not involved
in the
incident." But
the UN has
been targeted
before. We'll
have more on
this.
And on this:
earlier in the
week, after
Inner City
Press asked
Dujarric for
the fifth time
about UN
Peacekeepers
shooting
at
demonstrators
in Haiti, the
answer
was only given
24 hours
later, in the
noon briefing,
by Dujarric's
deputy Farhan
Haq. Inner
City Press
asked to be
informed when
answers to its
questions come
in.
Now this, on
Libya. Did
UNSMIL not
tell the
Spokesman's
Office? Did
the
Spokesman's
Office not
ask? Or was
the plan to
withhold the
information
until the next
noon briefing,
on January 26?
Why? Again,
we'll have
more on this.
Leon, as Inner
City Press
exclusively
reported, was
installed as
head of UNSMIL
after
then-head
Tarek Mitri
declined to
make the UN
mission a mere
appendage of
European / UK
diplomacy. Is
it working?
UNSMIL's
former deputy
Ismail Ould
Cheikh Ahmed
of Mauritania
has been moved
to head
UNMEER, the
UN's Ebola
mission.
Sources in
Yemen say Ould
Cheikh Ahmed
was the UN's
“designated
security
official” when
a UNICEF
staffer was
taken hostage
while
traveling to
the Sana'a
airport
without the
required (and
needed)
security
detail. Some
say Ould
Cheikh Ahmed
was
distracted, in
Yemen and
later in
Libya, by side
business
interests.
But a check of
Ban Ki-moon's
Public
Disclosure
website, where
his officials
are supposed
to make
rudimentary
disclosure of
the finances
and outside
business
interests,
does not even
list Ismail
Ould Cheikh
Ahmed (while
numerous other
Deputy SRSGs
are listed).
His is not in
the most
recent
database, for
2013 - and may
escape any
disclosure by
become an
Under
Secretary
General with a
mere nine
month stint at
UNMEER. Then
what? We'll
stay on this.
When the UN
Security
Council met
about Mali on
January 6, it
was Malian
Foreign
Minister
Abdoulaye
Diop, and not
UN
Peacekeeping
official Herve
Ladsous, who
distributed
his speech and
came to take
Press
questions.
(Ladsous has a
policy
against it,
here and here.)
Inner City
Press asked
Diop about the
Mali talks in
Algiers, and
about the
impact of
Libya. On the
latter, Diop
said that “in
2012 the Mali
crisis started
when the war
started in
Libya and many
Malian
elements who
were part of
the Libyan
army decided
to come back
home with the
arms and
ammunition.
This started
the
destabilization
of Mali.”
Diop added,
"In the
southern part
of Libya there
is a group
that has
declared
allegiance to
the Islamic
State.” (When
asked to name
the group he
could not or
would not.)
The Libya
talks have
been
indefinitely
postponed. A
Greek ship
near Derna was
bombed --
Inner City
Press on
January 5
asked UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric by
whom; he said
the UN does
not
know.
The Free
UN Coalition
for Access
has asked
UN
Peacekeeping
why the
speeches of
Ladsous,
unlike other
UN officials,
are not made
available.
With
Libya
descending
into chaos,
when the UN
Security
Council met
about the
country on
November 11 it
was to hear
from the
International
Criminal Court
prosecutor Fatou
Bensouda.
Bensouda said
“the continued
failure of the
Government of
Libya to
surrender Saif
A1-Islam
Gaddafi to the
custody of the
International
Criminal Court
is a matter of
great concern
to my Office
and the
Court... I
will assess my
options,
including
whether to
apply for a
review of the
judges'
decision
upholding
Libya's
request that
the case
against
Al-Senussi be
tried in
Libya.”
After her
briefing,
Bensouda to
not hold a
question and
answer
stakeout;
Inner City
Press caught
up with her in
the hall and
asked if she
had been given
the entire UN
"cover up"
report on
Darfur, or
only part of
it.
Bensouda said
she had gotten
only the
summary, and
only the day
before.
Moments later
the President
of the
Security
Council for
November, Gary
Quinlan of
Australia,
reiterated
that efforts
are afoot for
the Security
Council to
"take up" the
report on
Darfur.
Still nothing
from the
Security
Council on the
car bomb
attack near
envoy
Bernardino
Leon. The UK
mentioned the
attack -- and
tellingly
their own
Jonathan
Powell --
during the ICC
meeting. But
where is a
UNSC Press
Statement on
the attack?
For days after
a bombing
in Libya near
UN envoy
Bernardino
Leon,
which came
after Libya
Dawn in
Tripoli called
him not
impartial and
persona non
grata, still
the UN in New
York had
not put out
any statement
at all.
Instead, UN
Department of
Political
Affairs' new
spokesman
merely selectively
emailed to
some Western
media. No
statement;
nothing on the
UNSMIL
mission's web
site. To new
Free UN
Coalition for
Access, this
is a new low
in UN (non)
communications.
Back
on November 4
when the UN
Security
Council met
about Libya
behind closed
doors, the
Press outside
at the
stakeout was
repeatedly
told that Leon
would come and
take questions
at the
stakeout.
This
is what the
replaced Tarek
Mitri did,
each time he
briefed the
Security
Council. With
Leon being
criticized
inside Libya
it would seem
he'd have all
the more
reason to
speak.
But he did
not. When he
came out he
barely broke
stride --
Inner City
Press took
a photograph,
blurred --
while saying
the new
Security
Council Gary
Quinlan of
Australia
would speak
later. When
Quinlan did,
it was a bland
"Press
Elements."
Still the
scribes
churned it. At
8:15 pm Agence
France Presse
bragged that
it had
"obtained" a
French-drafted
request to put
Ansar
al-Sharia,
Benghazi and
Derna, on the
Al Qaeda
sanctions
list.
"A
copy of the
French-led
request to the
Al-Qaeda
sanctions
committee was
obtained by
AFP." Wonder
how...
Reuters issued
a breathless
report with
unnamed
diplomats at
8:19 pm. Both
have tried to
get smaller
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN
- see
documents
obtained under
the Freedom of
Information
Act, here
and here
- and this
request by
Reuters to
censor one of
its complaints
to the UN from
Google's
Search.
Back on August
27 amid
airstrikes in
Libya, when
outgoing UN
envoy Tarek
Mitri briefed
the UN
Security
Council, the
airstrikes
weren't even
mentioned in
his more than
six page
prepared text
distributed by
the UN.
Inside the
Council
chamber,
improvising
but only a
little bit,
Mitri
mentioned the
strikes, but
not who did
them. Back on
August 19 and
once again
since, Inner
City Press
asked the UN
if it knew
anything about
who was behind
them:
Inner
City Press:
Who did the
air
strikes?
General
Haftar?
What's the UN,
either Mr.
León or Mr.
Mitri or
whoever is
currently in
charge,
what's their
sense of who's
doing air
strikes in
Tripoli?
Spokesman
Dujarric:
I don't… I
think we
reported back
with the
Mission
yesterday, if
there's
anything more
I'll share it
with you.
But in the
days since,
the UN has
said nothing.
Now the Libyan
Dawn
group
has taken over
the Tripoli
airport
despite the
airstrikes and
alleged that
the strikes
have the
involvement of
Haftar's (or
Hiftar's)
supporters,
Egypt and the
United Arab
Emirates. What
does the UN --
or now
Bernardino
Leon -- know
and say about
that? Watch
this site.
On
Leon: To try
to counter
Libya's
lawless power
struggle, the
UN engaged in
one of its
own.
And unlike
most of the member states
that make up
the UN, and
most other inter-governmental
organizations,
this
UN does not
answer
questions,
at least not
directly.
After Inner
City Press
repeated asked
about it,
including at
the UN's noon
briefings on
August 11 and
13, on August
14 the UN said
Bernardino
Leon will take
over as its
Libya envoy on
September 1.
When Inner
City Press
asked if that
is really
Leon's
starting day,
given that
he's said
he'll go to
Tripoli as
early as next
week
representing
the UN, Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
said Leon is
merely
"familiarizing"
himself with
the work he
will be, and
Mitri remains
in place until
September 1.
Really?
Ignoring the
previous
questions and
the
power-play,
wire services
like Reuters
merely retyped
("reported")
the UN's
August 14
announcement
that Leon will
start
September 1.
And now?
Back
on August 1,
Inner City
Press exclusively
reported
that UN envoy
to Libya Tarek
Mitri was
being "pushed
out" of the
post,
including by
UK envoy to
Libya Jonathan
Powell, and
cited his
brother Lord
Powell's
extensive
business in
Libya through
Magna
Holdings.
The UK
mission,
usually
responsive,
did not
provide
comment on
written Press
questions on
this; at UN
Ambassador
Mark Lyall
Grant's August
4 press
conference
Inner City
Press asked
about Powell's
and Mitri's
relationship,
without
direct answer,
see here.
Then the UK's
Ambassador to
Libya Michael
Aron has announced,
on Twitter no
less,
that Mitri is
out and Ban
Ki-moon has
installed a
new UN envoy,
former
Zapatero
diplomat
Bernardino
Leon Gross.
The UN, at
least at its
August 8 noon
briefing and
in emails
since, has not
announce
anything about
replacing
Mitri, much
less by whom.
Ban Ki-moon's
office said
that for
August 9 and
10,
"Spokesperson
on call:
Mr. Farhan
Haq." So Inner
City Press
wrote to Farhan
Haq, as
well as to
lead spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric: