|
At UN, Film about Sergio de Mello Throws
Light on Somalia and Algiers, With Balkans Issues Missing
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City
Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, March 24 -- The denizens
of the top floor of the UN descended en masse to the basement
auditorium on Monday to watch a documentary about Sergio Vieira de
Mello, culminating in his death in a truck bombing attack on the UN in
Iraq in 2003. Simone Duarte's film, "En Route to Baghdad," includes
archival footage of de Mello in his native Brazil, studying at the
Sorbonne in Paris in 1968, then taking on a series of assignments for
the UN, in Mozambique, East Timor and Iraq. His time in the Balkans,
when some took to calling him "Serbio" due to his perceived
friendliness with Slobodan Milosevic, is strangely absent from the
film. Given the ongoing controversy about the UN's approach to Kosovo's
unilateral declaration of independence this year, those in the Dag
Hammarskjold Library auditorium's front row may have appreciated this
omission.
Just before the film's 1:15 beginning,
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his entourage arrived. There was
deputy chief of staff Kim Won-soo and chief of staff Vijay Nambiar, and
in the midst of the pack, Israel's Ambassador Dan Gillerman.
Photographers told Inner City Press that Gillerman greeted Ban in the
hall, speaking with him briefly on his way in. After the film, Inner
City Press asked Amb. Gillerman for his review. "Too many talking
heads," he said.
The film is
narrated mostly by UN personalities who knew Sergio: Deputy Envoy
McNamara, staffer Jonathan Prentice, Economic Liaison Officer Carolina
Larriera.
Former U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke insists, on camera, that he
was responsible for de Mello goin to Timor L'Este. Jorge Ramos-Horta
says de Mello stood out from the usual "faceless UN bureaucrats." King
Sihanouk of Cambodia appears briefly, interviewed by the filmmakers in
his palace in North Korea.
The specifics of de Mello's death in the truck
bombing of the UN offices in the Canal Hotel in Baghdad are glazed
over. McNamara says, if you're going to help with elections, you can do
it from an armored car. The point is made, by Kofi Annan, that
sometimes the UN should say "no," if its personnel can't be kept safe
on an assignment. How this relates to the December 11, 2007 deadly
bombing of UN premises in Algiers, and the currently proposed expansion
in Iraq, is not clear. So far, Ban Ki-moon's UN has said "yes" to
Iraq, but "no" and now "maybe" to the situation in Somalia. The
current Secretary-General spoke before the film, but not after.
That was left for the Ambassador he came in with, Israel's Dan
Gillerman, who said, "Not enough Sergio." Not enough, indeed.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
|
