|
Mugabe Mobbed at UN, Nigeria Not Adverse to
Sanctions on His Zim
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
September 25 -- Robert Mugabe,
following his speech to the General Assembly against "colonial
powers" abuse of Security Council sanctions, was to be found in a small TV
studio on the UN's third floor. The major networks, from CNN to BBC
and Al
Arabiya, waited outside in the hall to throw questions when he left.
The scrum
grew larger and larger. "We have an incident," one UN minder
whispered into a cell phone. There were Fire Department of New York
personnel
in the lobby, but none came up to the third floor.
Mugabe on
his way out stopped to call BBC's correspondent a "witch." BBC had
asked to interview Mugabe, got as far as offering five minutes without
any
edits, but Mugabe said no. ABC got no response at all.
Mugabe with PGA d'Escoto, BBC's witchcraft
not shown
At the
other end of the floor, to much less fanfare, Nigeria's foreign
minister Ojo
Maduekwe spoke to a dozen reporters. He said that Nigeria was open to
imposing
sanctions on Zimbabwe, that sanctions are not a "Western tool." Inner
City Press asked for Nigeria's view of invoking Article 16 of the
International
Criminal Court's Rome statute to freeze the prosecution of Sudan's
president
Omar Al-Bashir. Ojo Maduekwe said Nigeria is not for impunity, but that
a 12
month freeze would be better for peace.
Ojo
Maduekwe was asked about the US
presidential race, which he called "interesting." He declined to say
whom he favored. Various heads of state were asked this question, most
often by
CNN; few answered. Spain's
Jose Luis Zapatero,
responding to a snub, told Inner City Press to convey his regards to
John McCain.
Click here
for that story.
Watch this site, and this Sept. 18 (UN) debate.
* * *
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 -
|
