The online
“Highlights”
of the UN's
March 28 noon
briefing
contain
responses
supposedly
delivered at
the briefing
to questions
Inner City
Press had been
asking all
week.
These
were three
questions about
UN
peackeepers'
failure to
protect
internally
displaced
people in
Darfur, about
former ruler
Bozize's
fleeing from
the Central
African
Republic,
and the UN's
hand-over of
de-mining to
the Sri Lankan
military.
The
“Highlights”
state that
“the
Spokesperson
said.” But he
didn't, at
least not at
the briefing.
Inner City
Press was able
to ask only
one question,
and it
concerned Ladsous'
stonewalling
on his long
delayed action
on 126 rapes
in Minova by
the Congolese
Army, which he
supports.
The
question Inner
City Press
actually
asked, and
Spokesman
Martin
Nesirky's
actual
response, were
barely
included in
the
“Highlights”
-- in favor of
responses that
were not given
in the
briefing. This
is the UN.
Here's
from the UN's
transcript of
the March 28
noon briefing.
But here's
from the UN's
“Highlights”
of the same
noon briefing,
with nothing
on which FARDC
units did
the rapes in
Minova, but
instead
responses that
were not given
at the
briefing:
U.N.
NOT INVOLVED
IN
TRANSPORTING
FRANCOIS
BOZIZE FROM
CENTRAL
AFRICAN
REPUBLIC
Asked
a
few times this
week
whether the UN
Mission in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo
(MONUSCO) or
the UN Refugee
Agency (UNHCR)
were involved
in
transporting
Francois
Bozizé or his
family members
from the
Central
African
Republic, the
Spokesperson
said that the
answer is no;
neither were
involved in
transporting
anyone from
the Bozizé
family.
Also
asked
about an
incident in
which
internally
displaced
people (IDPs)
were taken
away by armed
men in Darfur,
and the role
of the
UN-African
Union Mission,
UNAMID, in
that incident,
the
Spokesperson
said that the
matter is
being
investigated.
And
asked about
Sri Lanka’s
Ministry of
Defense taking
over demining
activities in
northern Sri
Lanka, Nesirky
said that the
handing over
of mine action
management and
activities to
the Ministry
of Defense is
not a recent
initiative. It
was planned
last year and
the handover
has always
been the
ultimate
objective.
There
are problems
which each of
these answers,
also e-mailed
out on
Thursday
afternoon, which
we'll try to
get into this
week (Nesirky
will be away
for the week
with Ban
Ki-moon in
Andorra, San
Marino, etc.).
But the
biggest
problem is:
none of these
answers in the
“Highlights”
of the
briefing were
actually GIVEN
during the
briefing. And
a main
question
asked, on
March 25 and
26, who the UN
let into Inner
City Press'
office without
notice or
consent, who
took photos
and who they
gave them to,
has yet to be
answered. Video here.
This is
today's UN.
Watch this
site.
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