Asma
Jahangir's
Place in Sri
Lanka Probe
Recalled, She
Criticized
Attempts to
Silence In
& By the
UN, RIP
By Matthew
Russell Lee, photo
here.
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 11 --
In the hours
following the
death of Asma
Jahangir,
tributes and
memorials have
been published
but some
aspects of her
interactions
with and at
the UN have
not been
touched. In
2014 she was
named, by
then-leaving
UN Human
Rights
Commissioner
Navi Pillay,
to a panel on
war crimes in
Sri Lanka,
here along
with attempts
within the UN
to cover up
the crimes and
the housing of
Sri Lanka's
figure Palitha
Kohona:
With
Navi Pillay slated to leave as UN High
Commissioner on Human Rights on August 31,
on June 25 she made an announcement about
the HRC Panel on Sri Lanka...Some in the
UN even tried to censor
Sri Lanka coverage, here. Here's
from Pillay announcement:
"Three
distinguished experts have agreed to
advise and support the team set up to
conduct a comprehensive investigation of
alleged human rights violations in Sri
Lanka, as mandated by the Human Rights
Council in March:
Ms Asma Jahangir, former President of
Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association
and of the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan, previous holder of several
Human Rights Council mandates and member
of a recent fact-finding body into
Israeli settlements."
It was about a past financial
relationship between Kohona and
the president of the UN
Correspondents Association, who
then agreed to an UNCA screening
of a Rajapaksa government movie
denying war crimes that UNCA
tried to censor.
Jahangir
opposed these
things. As
Inner City
Press
reported,
Jahangir was
in the running
to succeed
Pillay - but
Prince Zeid of
Jordan, now
himself to
leave, was
handed the
post. Who will
follow Zeid?
(Jahangir had
also been in
the running in
2012 for the
UN's Children
and Armed
Conflict post,
here).
In October
2017 Inner
City Press
asked Jahangir
about a
stand-off
between
representatives
of Syria and
Saudi Arabia
during her
presentation
on Iran to the
UN's Third
Committee.
Alamy photo here.
She called
it
“disappointing,”
see here along
with account
of censorship
in the UN, in
the midst of
this
chronology: During
the UN Third
(Human Rights)
Committee's
presentation
on Iran by
Special
Rapporteur
Asma Jahangir
on October 25,
Saudi Arabia
complained
that Syria was
talking about
it, and not
Iran. When the
chair of the
committee
asked Syria to
"focus" on
Iran, the
Syrian
representative
began to
contest if
Saudi Arabia
had
appropriately
made a point
of order.
Things grew
heated and
soon the
Syrian
representative
had his
microphone cut
off - leading
him,
predictable,
to speak
louder - and
face a threat
that UN
security would
be called.
Finally the
meeting was
suspended for
ten minutes.
Inner City
Press, which
due to UN
censorship had
to get a UN
minder to
reach the
meeting it was
covering on
the second
floor, could
due to the
same
restrictions
not get down
to the Third
Committee
right away.
When it did, this Periscope
video from the
photo booth
shows the
scene. On
October 26,
Inner City
Press asked
Asma Jahangir
what she
thought of
what happened.
She said she
was
"disappointed,"
that the UN is
a "house of
diplomacy."
Well, the UN
is willing to
physically
remove the
investigative
Press and
throw its
files out onto
First Avenue,
here. When UN
Special
Rapporteur
David A. Kaye
held a short
press
conference at
the UN on
October 25, he
called for the
UN to
institute an
access to
information
policy. Inner
City Press
asked him to
specify what
the UN
Secretariat of
Antonio
Guterres can
and should do
on its own,
without
waiting for or
blaming the
General
Assembly.
Inner City
Press also
asked him
about the UN
new October 20 threat to
review its
accreditation,
including for
ill-defined
violations on
an unspecified
date on the
UN's 38th
floor. Video here.
Rest in peace.
Today's UN of
Antonio Guterres, who just met
with ICC indictee Omar al
Bashir, and his Deputy Amina
J. Mohammed who has refused
Press questions
on her rosewood signatures
and now the refoulement of 47
people to Cameroon from "her"
Nigeria, has become a place of
corruption and censorship. On
January 30 as Inner City Press
sought to complete its
reporting for the day on
Guterres' Bashir meeting and
Mohammed's Cameroon no-answer,
it had a problem. It was
invited to the month's UN
Security Council president's
end of presidency reception,
6:30 to 8:30 - but with its
accreditation reduced by
censorship, it could not get
back into the UN after 7 pm,
to the already delayed UN
video. It ran to at least
enter the reception - but the
elevator led to a jammed
packed third floor, diplomats
lined up to shake the outgoing
UNSC president's hand. Inner
City Press turn to turn tail
back to the UN, passing on its
way favored, pro-UN
correspondents under no such
restriction. Periscope here.
Inner City Press has written
about this to the head of the
UN Department of Public
Information Alison
Smale, in Sepember
2017 - no answer but a new threat - and this
month, when Smale's DPI
it handing out full access
passes to no-show state media.
No answer at all: pure
censorship, for corruption.
Smale's DPI diverted funds
allocated for Kiswahili,
her staff say, now saying they
are targeted for retaliation.
This is today's UN. Amid UN
bribery scandals, failures in
countries from Cameroon to
Yemen and declining
transparency, today's UN does
not even pretend to have
content neutral rules about
which media get full access
and which are confined to
minders or escorts to cover
the General Assembly.
Inner City Press,
which while it pursue the
story of Macau-based
businessman Ng Lap Seng's
bribery of President of the
General Assembly John Ashe was
evicted by the UN Department
of Public Information from its
office, is STILL confined to
minders as it pursues the new
UN bribery scandal, of Patrick
Ho and Cheikh Gadio
allegedly bribing President of
the General Assembly Sam
Kutesa, and Chad's Idriss
Deby, for CEFC China Energy.
Last week Inner
City Press asked UN DPI where
it is on the list to be
restored to (its) office, and
regain full office - and was
told it is not even on the
list, there is no public list,
the UN can exclude,
permanently, whomever it
wants. This is censorship.
***
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