On
Syria as on
Darfur Rapes
Covered Up by
UN, HRW Goes
With Censors
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 24 --
When the UN's
Syria
Commission of
Inquiry took
questions
about their
report on
February 20,
it was at the
UN Security Council
stakeout.
Inner City
Press asked
the Kurds, the
Free Syrian
Army and the
Coalition's
airstrikes, video here and see below. At
least it was a
UN stakeout,
just as Chair
Pinheiro has previously
taken
questions in
the UN Press
Briefing Room.
But others
play a
different game
inside the
UN.
As we noted
on February 11,
Human Rights
Watch in reporting
on the Tabit
rapes in
Darfur did not
even mention
the head of UN
Peacekeeping,
whose UNAMID
mission
covered up the
rapes on November
9, and who
previously
stonewalled on
rapes by the
DR Congo Army
in Minova.
Why not hold a
regular press
conference, in
the UN's Room
S-237? Many
NGOs do it.
But HRW likes
to cavort with
the censors.
Recently Inner
City Press
noted that HRW
was meeting
with the US
State
Department's
Nisha Biswal,
and publicly
asked whether
HRW would be
raising the
violence and
now censorship
in Bangladesh.
No answer.
Same thing on
HRW's Ken
Roth's
meetings with
Ban Ki-moon.
HRW
also only
sends out its
reports and
even canned
quotes only to
friendly
journalists.
So we link
here to the
CoI's report
(here).)
Of
this report,
back on
February 11,
Inner City
Press asked
the
Commissioners
if, beyond the
Government,
Nusra and ISIS
they cataloged
abuses by the
Kurds, Free
Syrian Army or
even
Coalition.
It
was Vitit
Muntarbhorn
who answered
for the other
Commissioners,
saying, We
cover all
sides: the
authorities,
their
colleagues so
to speak, the
non-state
armed groups
in their
variety, we
cover the
Kurds as well.
One recurrent
issues is the
use of child
soldiers
particularly
under ISIS.
The
other
Commissioners,
all present,
are Paulo
Sérgio
Pinheiro
(Chair), Karen
Koning AbuZayd
and Carla del
Ponte. Given
her history
with Kosovo,
one wanted to
ask her about
the new organ
trafficking
allegations
against ISIS
in Iraq. But
the rule was,
Syria only.
Similarly, the
UN's monthly
report on
humanitarian
access in
Syria was not
placed as
before in the
UN
Spokesperson's
Office for
all, but only
to some.