UN's
Silence on
Sudan Rapes
Led to Xmas
PNG, Belated
Coverage
Mystifies
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 26, more
here –
After Inner
City Press
received a
leaked copy of
Sudan UN
Development
Program
Country
Director
Yvonne Helle's
December 24
e-mail saying
she had been
ordered to
leave the
country, it reported
it and
asked UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric about
it at the UN's
noon briefing
on December
24. Story
here, video from UN noon briefing here.
Tellingly,
Dujarric had
no comment on
Helle being
thrown out of
Sudan, just as
the UN had
been silent on
the similar
ouster of the
UNPFA
country
director in
Sudan in April,
and a UN
aid officer
from Darfur in
the Fall, as
reported
by Inner City
Press.
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon at his
December
17 press
conference
rejected a
Press question
about the
cover up of
rapes in
Darfur by UN
Peacekeeping
under Herve
Ladsous, and
declined the
same question,
also from
Inner City
Press, at his
three-question
stakeout on
December 22.
(Two of the
picked
questions were
about North
Korea.)
Then on
December 25,
after Inner
City Press first
reported that
UN Resident
Coordinator
Ali Al Za'tari,
who had
docilely
accepted the
ouster of
Helle and of
the UNFPA
before that,
was himself
being thrown
out, Dujarric
at 1:32 pm
finally sent
Inner City
Press an e-mail
answering its
question from
noon on
December 24,
and written
questions
after that.
The UN had
“filed a
protest”
(Agence France
Presse, a defender
of Ladsous,
said this
quote was
“said to AFP.”
Note that
Inner City
Press has put
in questions
to UNFPA and
OCHA. We'lll
have more on
these.)
But this is
how the way
things work
gets
mystified:
coverage
belatedly
began, Ban
Ki-moon Stands
Up to Sudan.
Does he? Why
not comment on
the first
ouster order
by Sudan? Why
exclude then
dodge
questions
about the
cover up of
the Darfur
rapes by UN
Peacekeeping
under Herve
Ladsous?
As noted
late
yesterday, the
New York Times
piece from
40,000 feet
about Darfur
misleads by
casting UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous as one
of the good
guys, and
omitting
mention of 132
non-governmental
organizations
and Sudan
experts having
written to Ban
to urge
him to fire
Ladsous for
under-performance
in Sudan, here.
But worse than
the NYT is Reuters,
which after
arriving late
to and without
given any
credit for the
story quotes
Ladsous that
the UN will
remain in
Darfur.
Really?
(Reuters UN
bureau chief
has said he
has a policy
of not
crediting
Inner City
Press, then censored
from Search
his “for the
record”
anti-Press
complaint to
the UN, here
via EFF's
ChillingEffects.org).
For the
record,
publications
such as Sudan
Tribune
and Radio
Tamazuj
credit Inner
City Press, here and here.
But it is
beyond
appropriation
– the timing
is important.
Al Jazeera,
for example, “reports”
that “A UN
spokesperson,
who spoke on
condition of
anoymity
because he was
not authorised
to speak to
the media,*
said Ali
Zaatari and
Yvonne Helle
were ordered
to leave on
Thursday.”
That's NOT
what happened.
Helle was
ordered out on
Wednesday,
December 24;
the UN said
nothing, even
when Inner
City Press
asked Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman, on
UNTV, about
it. So then on
December 25 a
higher UN
official was
thrown out.
* -
What kind of
spokesperson
is "not
authorized to
speak to the
media"?
The UN's own
cover ups and
silences are
part of the
story. Watch
this site.
, 
