Amid
Azeri
Food, Talk of
Council's Low
Graduation
Rate, Surprise
at Attack
on Press
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 30 -- With
one day left
in
Azerbaijan's
month atop the
UN Security
Council, rice
and fish and
thin meat pies
were served
eight floors
above First
Avenue across
from the UN in
the Turkish
Center.
Ambassadors
went over the
day's and
Sunday's
sessions on
Syria.
One
Permanent
Representative
mused to Inner
City Press
that the long
stakeouts
after
Wednesday's
session had
been
unnecessary:
"We said it
all
in
consultations."
There was much
praise for
General Robert
Mood for being
factual, and
substantially
less for UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous.
"For
the
money he
makes," one
diplomat said,
"he should
just learn
to take
questions like
Le Roy and
Guehenno used
to do." Not
only his performance
at Tuesday's
noon briefing
but his
failure to do
a stakeout
after 11
Pakistani
peacekeepers
were injured
in the Congo
was derided.
"That's his job,"
the
representative
of a
troop
contributing
country said.
Recently
Inner
City Press
quoted a
"South Asian
representative"
about how
cheap France
is being in
the Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations.
There was much
guessing who
had dare say que
l'empereur
does not have
clothes. Inner
City Press has
asked Ban
Ki-moon's
Office of the
Spokesman a
question about
this and will
be
writing soon.
There
was talk of
the incoming
head of Ban's
Department of
Political
Affairs,
Jeffrey
Feltman,
including some
praise for
Inner City
Press' March
28 scoop
the uncredited
use of which
has
reverberated.
"It's a tough
job," a
Western Deputy
Permanent
Representative
said.
Talk turned to
the
West Africa
trip many of
the
Ambassadors
had been on.
"Cote
d'Ivoire is so
much better,"
a prominent
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press.
But what about
Duekoue and
accountability?
There is that.
Of
Liberia and
the new
Swedish
Special
Representative
there, a well
placed
diplomat
said THAT is
why Margot
Wallstrom is
returning to
Sweden: to
take
that place and
get back into
politics. Hila
Jilani's name
was bandied
as a
replacement;
the
man-bites-dog
possibility of
a man, Patrick
Cammaert,
taking over
the Sexual
Violence in
Conflict post
was a
source of
amusement,
attributed to
UN Women
wanting to
"dominate
that field."
More
philosophical,
the question
arose of
whether the
Security
Council no
longer
graduates the
countries on
its agenda,
but just holds
on to
them for
years. The
topics arose
when Inner
City Press was
chided for
not going on
the West
Africa trip,
as it had gone
on trips to
Sudan,
Chad Congo,
Djibouti and
also Sri Lanka
with Ban
Ki-moon.
But
Liberia and
Sierra Leone
are called
peaceful, was
the retort.
When will they
graduate?
When's the
last time the
Council really
graduated a
country?
The
Permanent
Representative
dug into the
past:
Mozambique,
Angola, El
Salvador.
Yeah - and
since?
Elsewhere in
the city there
were Norwegian
diplomats
bidding
farewell, and
good ones,
too. But the
Council came
first: it had
to.
Repeatedly
Inner
City Press was
asked about
"that fight
against you"
headlined by
reporters from
five big media
circulating to
all UN
correspondents
Wednesday
morning a
screed against
the Press.
One
diplomat
adopted the
name for them,
the "P5 plus
1" -- they are
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters,
Timothy
Witcher of
Agence France
Presse,
Flavia
Krause-Jackson
of Bloomberg,
Talal Al-Haj
of Al-Arabia
and
Margaret
Besheer of
Voice of
America, plus
UNCA president
Giampaolo
Pioli.
"It's
almost
like
the P5," the
diplomat
continued,
"with Agence
FRANCE
Presse,
Reuters for
the UK... But
then you have
two from
America, and
none from
China or
Russia."
Inner
City Press
has proposed a
Russian
journalist as
one of its
three nominees
for
the "Board of
Examination"
that the P5+1
are demanding.
It
is equally
ironic that
these
diplomats,
many from
countries not
known
for freedom of
the press,
expressed more
commitment to
letting the
Press do its
work than the
big
journalists
who signed the
letter.
"A
lot of UN
officials
would want you
out," a
diplomat told
Inner City
Press,
"and also a
few missions,"
naming France.
"But other
journalists?
Maybe they're
doing it on
behalf of
someone else."
"The way to
fight it,"
Inner City
Press was
advised, "is
just to push
for
transparency
at every turn.
Why should it
be secret?"
At least of
those speaking
Wednesday
night the only
one on the
side of the
P5+1 was
another
journalist,
one known to
fall asleep in
the Dag
Hammaskjold
Library
Auditorium.
But unlike the
diplomats, the
sleeper has a
vote, and
asked for an
"off site
briefing" by
Inner City
Press, to
rebut an email
the P5+1 sent
out on UNCA's
list without
yet allowing
any reply or
dissent (this
right has
formally been
requested.)
The question
is, why can't
Ambassadors be
on the Board
of
Examination?
Especially
since UNCA's
Executive
Board has
recruited
Permanent
Representatives
as judges for
its prizes,
including the
Perm Rep of
Sri Lanka?
We
need your
information,
another
diplomat said,
urging Inner
City Press to
ask
for help if
needed. But a
media
shouldn't need
the support of
a
particular
member state
to be treated
fairly at the
UN. And as one
major
Permanent
Representative
opined
Wednesday
night, maybe
this
fight will
hurt the
indicters more
than the
defendant.
"They
look
terrible," he
said. But it
is a waste of
time.
A diplomat who
was shown a
denunciation
the P5+1 /
UNCA Executive
Board mass
e-mailed to
all UNCA
members
without giving
Inner City
Press the
opportunity to
use the UNCA
e-mail list
later said,
it's like a
purge, for
things you
published.
What'll they
do next:
remove your
image from old
photographs
with UNCA?
Inner City
Press has
asked for the
second time to
respond or
dissent on the
same "Party
controlled"
e-mail
channel; watch
this
site.
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