On
Syria,
Guehenno Says
Halt was June
15, Ban Claims
June
16, Mystery
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 27,
updated --
Twelve days
after Inner
City Press
obtained and
exclusively
published the
June 15 notice
to the UN
Security
Council
that the UN
mission in
Syria had
limited its
mobile
operations as
of
6 pm that day,
Damascus time,
the
incongruities
have been
multiplied
by further
reporting and
a statement in
Geneva by Kofi
Annan deputy
Jean-Marie
Guehenno.
At
10 pm on June
15 Inner City
Press
published the
notice. At 6
am June 16 it
sent
questions to
Kofi Annan's
spokesman
Ahmad Fawzi,
then to Ban
Ki-moon
spokespeople.
Fawzi answered
that because
of the second
round (to
Ban's team),
he need not
answer, and
mission chief
General Robert
Mood would be
making an
announcement.
Then
on June 18,
Inner City
Press was told
that Mood's
Saturday
announcement
was the
official one.
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
associate
spokesman
Farhan Haq
told Inner
City Press, "I
wouldn’t
comment about
the notice to
the Security
Council. The
official
announcement,
like
I said, was
the one that
General Mood
made on
Saturday."
Then
Inner City
Press
published eye
witness
accounts from
the Hotel Dama
Rose in
Damascus, that
General Robert
Mood in the
lounge on the
night of June
15 didn't say
the mission
had limited
its mobile
activities and
the
Mission
including "the
Moroccan" in
fact went out
on patrol
on the morning
on June 16.
On
June 25, Ban's
chief
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
declined to
explain the
discrepancy:
Inner
City
Press: On
Syria, I
wanted to go,
go back to
this sequence
of
events of
June, the June
15th
notification
of the
Security
Council
and then June
16th
announcement
by, by General
Mood. I have
spoken
to people that
were at the
Damaroza
Hotel, and
they say that,
that,
that as of
Friday night
there was no,
no word among
the Mission,
including at
the highest
levels, that
there was any
secession of
mobile
activities and
in fact on
Saturday
morning that,
that patrols
did go out and
three cars
returned with
their windows
smashed. So
this seems to,
if true, it
seems to
reflect that,
that the
notice
given to the
Security
Council wasn’t
conveyed, much
less
originating
from General
Mood and that
it originated
from DPKO and
Mr. Ladsous.
So I would
like to know,
I have been
as.., just, I
want
to get a
straight
confirmation
or denial if I
can today
whether
UNSMIS patrols
went out on
Saturday and
when Mr.
General Robert
Mood
became aware
of the notice
to the
Security
Council.
Spokesperson:
Thanks for the
question,
Matthew, and I
will ask my
colleagues if
they have
anything
further on
that... I
think we have
spoken quite
clearly so far
on what the
sequence of
events was.
Inner
City
Press: Right,
and Mr. Mood
said that he
made the
statement…
Spokesperson:
What’s your
next question;
I think we
are,
otherwise, we
go round
in circles.
But
even before
Inner City
Press
publishes the
additional eye
witness
accounts from
Damascus on
June 15 and 16
it is
assembling, it
is NOT a
circle: it
is a
contradiction.
In
Geneva at the
Human Rights
Council on
June 27,
Annan's deputy
Guehenno told
the
HRC:
"On
15
June the
Mission in
Syria
temporarily
suspended its
operations in
light of the
violence,
obstacles to
monitoring
access, and
direct
targeting of
its personnel
and assets."
So
while in New
York they
repeatedly
insist that
the June 16
announcement
was the
official one,
now Guehenno
uses, like his
successor atop
DPKO, the
June 15
notification.
Does this,
even as
mis-transcribed
by the UN
from the June
25 noon
briefing,
"reflect that,
that the
notice
given to the
Security
Council wasn’t
conveyed, much
less
originating
from General
Mood and that
it originated
from DPKO and
Mr. Ladsous"?
Watch this
site.
Update:
as this went
to press,
Annan's
spokesman said
he'd invited
to June 30 in
Geneva
the UNSC P-5,
Turkey,
EU, Arab
League, Iraq,
Kuwait &
Qatar. Wag
wondered:
where's Iran?
, 
