On
Cote
d'Ivoire, UN's Allegations Were Not "Read Out" on March 18, Only a Call
to 1 Media, UN Stonewalls
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 21 -- Weeks after the UN
belatedly apologized for
announcing that Cote d'Ivoire's defiant leader Laurent Gbagbo was
illegally importing attack helicopters from Belarus , the Office of
the Spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the Press on
the night of March 18 that another statement on Cote d'Ivoire had
been “read out” by the Deputy Permanent Representative of China,
the president of the Security Council for March.
Inner
City Press
has been closely covering
the Security Council all Friday afternoon,
including when Ban's spokeperson's Office announced that there would
be a stakeout and statement read about Cote d'Ivoire, then when both
were canceled. Inner City Press remained at the UN until 9 pm,
hearing no announcement to the contrary. Then at 9:50 pm Ban's
Spokesperson's Office sent the Press:
Please
find below the press elements read out by Mr. Wang Min, Ambassador
and Deputy Permanent Representative of China :
Elements
for
the press by the Security Council on the situation in Côte
d’Ivoire
*
The members of the Security Council express their indignation at the
UNOCI reports over brutal attacks against unarmed civilians
alledgedly committed by the Ivorian Defense and security forces
(FDSCI) at a market in Abobo yesterday [etc].
This
seemed
strange, since the stakeout with UN TV for the statement to be read
was canceled. (Coucnil members told Inner City Press there was
dissatisfaction, particularly after Ban Ki-moon's mis-speaking about
the Belarus helicopters, with his statement's, then the draft's, use
of the word “allegedly”).
That that
same night, Inner City Press
asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky, as well as his Deputy, to
explain:
Subject:
Press
questions re Cote d'Ivoire [etc]
From: Matthew R. Lee [at]
innercitypress.com
Date: Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 11:00 PM
To:
Martin Nesirky, Farhan Haq
Hello.
These
are questions on deadline, having just received from your
Office “press elements read out by Mr. Wang Min, Ambassador and
Deputy Permanent Representative of China," sent by your Office
at 9:50 pm --
I
was
at the Security Council from 3:45 to past six o'clock, when the
UN TV stakeout announced for a Council statement on Cote d'Ivoire was
canceled, including by a MALU email. Thereafter I was working and
would have heard any squawk. And so questions:
Was
this
statement actually “read out” by the Council presidency?
Is
so,
why was no notice given, resulting it in being unable to ask any
questions?
If
it
wasn't read out, why did your Office say it was?
But
Ban's
spokesmen Nesirky and Haq did not answer.
Ban and Nesirky, basic answers not shown
As their
office continued
sending out press releases, Inner City Press reiterated the Cote
d'Ivoire questions on March 19; again, no answer.
Coming
in to the UN
on March 21, more than 60 hours after Ban's Spokesperson's Office's
announcement that the Cote d'Ivoire statement had been read out, that
Office made a public address system announcement that the Chinese DPR
would be making some presentation to the press at 11:30 am. No topic
was listed.
At
the Security
Council stakeout, it turned that only now was the Cote d'Ivoire
statement being read out -- the DPR had to explain that the word
“yesterday” meant, in fact, four days ago.
Inner
City Press
asked if there had been a stakeout late on Friday: no, was the
answer. Inner City Press reported this on Twitter:
the “text was
NOT read out, Chinese Mission tells Press. Still no answer from
OSSG.” Inner City Press was told that only one media organization,
Chinese, had been called on Friday night.
Back
at the UN noon
briefing, Inner City Press asked Nesirky to explain -- as had been
requested more than 60 hours previously by email -- and if in the
last three days the UN Mission had been able to move past
“allegedly.” Nesirky said he had nothing on that second part of
the question.
On
the first, he
(tw?) insisted that Inner City Press had just gotten the answer from
the Chinese spokesman. (On another question about compliance with UN
rules and Charter, he told Inner City Press to “ask Jordan. This
seems to be the new strategy to not answer questions about the UN:
tell journalists to ask a particular member state.
But
it was Ban's
Spokesperson's Office which put out a mass email on March 18 that the
Cote d'Ivoire statement had been “read out.” Inner City Press
asked if Ban's office defines a phone call to one media, from China,
to be a “read out” of a Security Council statement. Nesirky would
not answer, saying again and again, you spoke with the Chinese
spokesman. Yes, we did.
Only
last week, Nesirky acknowledged that his Office made an error in
emailing out a Ban Ki-moon statement estimating that one half of rubble
in Haiti will be addressed by the end of 2011, and then issuing an
"amended" statement dropping the estimate. Unless Ban's Spokesperson's
Office defines a single phone call to Chinese media as a "read out" --
an argument Inner City Press repeatedly but unsuccesfully invited
Nesirky to make -- another error was made. Why not acknowledge it?
Footnote:
also
on the night of March 18, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman
Nesirky
Relatedly,
esp
since you (Mr. Nesirky) were at the March 17 noon briefing with
the Humanitarian Coordinator for Cote d'Ivoire and heard him answer
that restrictions result in the denial of medicine to Ivorians,
please for the Secretariat look at the UN press release at
http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2011/110317_Guest.doc.htm
If
necessary,
here is the video of the March 17 press conference
http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2011/03/16219.html
How
for
the UN Secretariat do you explain the omission of any reference
to Ivorians lacking medicine due to restrictions on ships, and please
state what you will do to have this UN (mis) statement corrected?
There
has been no
answer on that. None.
* * *
On
Cote
d'Ivoire, Ban's “Allegations” Stall UNSC Statement,
Reliability Questioned, Medicine Shortage Covered Up by UN
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 18 -- At 5 pm on Friday at the UN in New York, the
Office of the Spokesperson announced that on Cote d'Ivoire there
would be a Security Council press statement read out in 15 minutes. A
UN TV camera was set up.
Inner
City Press
had been in front of the Council, reporting on an unrelated meeting
about Kenya and the International Criminal Court and was told by
diplomats there were problems with the Cote d'Ivoire statement.
“The Secretary
General says 'allegedly,'” a Security Council member told Inner
City Press. “With what he claimed last time about helicopters
from
Belarus coming into Cote d'Ivoire, we can't act on this type of
information.”
Minutes
later, the
UN TV camera before which the Council president would have read out a
Press Statement was disassembled. It is canceled, Inner City Press
was told.
While
Ban
Ki-moon's head of Peacekeeping Alain
Leroy publicly apologized for
what he called the “mistake” of the allegation that defiant
Ivorian leader Laurent Gbagbo was bringing in attack helicopters from
Belarus, his UN's objectivity is being called into question.
Ban's
head of
Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos, when asked
by Inner City Press if
she is concerned about sanctions on Cote d'Ivoire hurting civilians
including people who can't get money out of closed banks and can't
get pharmaceuticals said those are not the complaints she has been
hearing.
But
on March 17,
when Inner City Press asked
the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator for
Cote d'Ivoire Ndolamb Ngokwey about the impact of sanctions, he
admitted that the central pharmaceutical depository has no medicine,
because ships can't come in to the port. He said he's trying to
advocate “locally,” to embassy in Cote d'Ivoire about this. But
Amos and Ban are not telling the Security Council about it.
Strikingly,
even
with this admission the UN's
press release of the March 17 press
conference with Ndolamb Ngokwey did not include Inner City Press's
question or Ndolamb Ngokwey's answer about pharmaceuticals. Click
here
for UN press release, but here
for actual
video.
Ban & Choi Young-jin, public financial disclosure not shown
On
March 18, Inner
City Press asked
Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky:
Inner
City
Press: In Côte d’Ivoire; I mean, obviously there is this
market attack which is, you now, quite bad, but there, I also, I
wanted to ask, I don’t know if the UN had said anything about,
Human Rights Watch has documented what they say are killings by the
pro-Ouattara forces as well, in this village of Anonkoua-Kouté.
They say that, you know, some 60 pro-Ouattara fighters killed nine
civilians. And I, you know, obviously, the Gbagbo Government there
says that the UN has, is, that its reporting is very partial,
etcetera. So, I am just wondering, has the UN system had anything to
say about this, you know, whatever, misdeed, at a minimum on the
other side and where have they said that?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Human rights are fundamental and are for everybody. The
mission in Côte d’Ivoire of the United Nations has as its mandate
to protect all civilians in an impartial way. And that also includes
monitoring human rights abuses from wherever they may emanate. And I
know that my colleagues there would certainly look into any
allegation from whichever quarter. And if I have any further
details, then clearly I would let you know.
Inner
City
Press: That would be great. Especially, you know, if they’d
said anything in the past because it seems like it was a widely, at
least alleged, thing there.
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
As I say, we need to be very clear that human rights are
universal and that any attack from whichever side, any provocation
from whichever side needs to be looked at.
Later
the
Spokesperson's Office added to its transcript this:
[The
Spokesperson
later said that in the statement just issued by his
Office, the Secretary-General had warned the concerned Ivorian
parties to bring the violence and related human rights violations to
an end without further delay. The Secretary-General also urged the
Security Council to take further measures with regard to the Ivorian
individuals who are instigating, orchestrating and committing the
violence. The Spokesperson also noted that in a report released at
the end of February, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi
Pillay, had documented human rights violations by both the forces
loyal to Mr. Gbagbo and by the Forces Nouvelles.]
The
Spokesman,
Martin Nesirky, didn't say, or email, any of this to Inner City
Press, just the referenced statement, expressing Ban's shock at “the
firing of mortars, allegedly from a military camp of forces loyal to
Mr. Gbagbo” -- with the word “allegedly” which, in the wake of
Ban's error on the Belarus helicopters, led to the shooting down of
the proposed Security Council press statement on Friday afternoon.
And so it goes at this UN. Watch this site.
* * *
, 
