ICP
Asks Saudi PR
About
Anonymous Investigations,
Egypt Of Its
Role in Yemen
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photos,
Video
UNITED NATIONS,
October 6 – On Yemen, the
day after the UN's Children and
Armed Conflict annexes formally
came out, here,
Saudi Arabia's Ambassador
Abdallah Y. Al-Mouallimi came to
take questions along with among
others Egypt's Ambassador Amr
Abdellatif Aboulatta. Inner City
Press asked how the UN could
rely on the Coalition's
investigations, which refuse to
say which country did which
bombing, and asked Egypt of its
role. Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta
said all Egypt has is ships off
Yemen's coast; Al-Mouallimi
said it
doesn't matter
which country
did which bombing.
(Accountability,
if there is
any, appears
to be
confidential.)
Inner City
Press asked
about bombings
that the
Coalition has
not even subjects
to this
anonymous
investigation
mechanism. Al-Mouallimi
said the
process is or
can be
complaint
driven. We'll
see.
Photos here.
Not present, even for Egypt's
ambassador, was the Egyptian
state media Akhbar al Yom to
which the UN is trying to give
Inner City Press' office,
restricting it and its coverage.
Earlier in the day, the UN's
representative on the issue
Virginia Gamba held a press
conference, and Inner City Press
asked about Yemen and Cameroon.
The Saudi Arabia led Coalition
bombing Yemen is listed, but in
a new section of those who "have
put in place measures during the
reporting period aimed at
improving the protection of
children." Inner
City Press
asked Gamba
why she was
praising the Coalition's
self-investigations, which are
published for only a small
percentae of attacks and don't,
for example, identify which
Coalition member did the
bombing. Inner City Press also
asked why Nigeria but not
Cameroon is in the annex, given
not only Boko Haram's use of
child suicide bombers in
Cameroon but also the Cameroon
government's attack on children
in the Anglophone areas. Gamba
said that she is aware of
increased Cameroon issues and is
considering a "regional"
approach; she is preparing the
report on 2017. Asked why her
report on 2016 came out only now
she said there was a full month
without a representative.
Typically great UN planning, and
attempt to placate the Saudis.
Will that be enough for Saudi,
whose Ambassador Abdallah Y.
Al-Mouallimi has scheduled a
press conference for October 6
at 1 pm? Others put on what
Inner City Press is calling
Guterres' "good child killers"
list are the Afghan National
Police (who killed UN Security
hero Louis Maxwell), the Somali
National Army, the DR Congo's
FARDC Army and others. There are
a few slight changes between
draft and final: anglicization
to "Army of Islam" in Syria, for
example. In DR Congo, it is now
simply Nyartura, not Mayi Mayi
Nyatura. But how will Saudi
Arabia, and then Guterres,
react? Guterres will leave town
on Saturday. Storms ahead? Sources
close to UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres saying, "the
Saudis won't even talk to me
anymore," in connection with the
current plan of including the
Saudi-led Coalition in the
Children and Armed Conflict
annex in a section for those
child killers who "have put in
place measures during the
reporting period to improve the
protection of children." The
sources also focus on the UN
Department of Political Affairs
holdover chief Jeffrey Feltman,
who last time conveyed the fatwa
threat to then Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon. This time, Inner
City Press is informed, Feltman
faces a move to belatedly
replace him, coming (the
request, now yet the execution)
this week. We'll have more on
this. When a Yemen meeting
during the UN General Assembly
week was held at 8 am on
September 22, new UN Relief
Chief Mark Lowcock introduced as
speakers the foreign ministers
of Sweden and the Netherlands,
representatives of Japan and the
UAE, and the UN's envoy Ismael
Ould Cheikh Ahmed. While billed
as a humanitarian meeting, the
UAE spoke without irony about
outside interference. (Yemen's
representative spoke in Arabic;
Inner City Press streamed
Periscope video).
On September 28, Inner City
Press asked Lowcock whether he
thought the meeting had a
sufficiently humanitarian
character. He pointed to his
concluding statements, which
Inner City Press had not heard
(see below), saying that the
focus should be on humanitarian
access, and later lamenting the
continuing failure to deploy
cranes. The reason Inner City
Press was unable to get these
views, and others, on September
22 is, in a phrase, UN
censorship. To get to the
meeting, held in UN Conference
Room 5, Inner City Press unlike
other no-show reporters like
Egypt's Akhbar al Yom was
required to get a UN escort or
minder, who told Inner City
Press it could not ask questions
or speak with anyone. This
despite UN OCHA staff telling
Inner City Press it could wait
outside and speak to people as
they left. So the UN's
retaliatory eviction of Inner
City Press 19 months ago for
covering the now conflicted UN
corruption by Macau based
businessman Ng Lap Seng through
then PGA John Ashe now results
in it, unlike the Saudi and
pro-Saudi media in the meeting,
being unable to speak to the
participants. This has been
raised, so far without any
response, to Lowcock's fellow
Brit, the head of DPI Alison
Smale, here.
This is today's UN. We hope to
report more on Lowcock's views,
including hoping that OCHA
releases transcripts of what
Lowcock says. While Canada joins
The Netherlands at the UN in
Geneva in calling for an
investigation of possible war
crimes in Yemen including the
Saudi-led coalition's killing of
civilians, Canada has continued
a $15 billion arms deal with
Saudi Arabia. When Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
held a press conference at the
UN on September 21, Inner City
Press went early, intending to
ask him to explain this
incongruity or seeming
hypocrisy. Trudeau's spokesman
announced that the questioners
had been “pre-determined,” but
did not explain how. So in a
lull after what the spokesman
called the last question - would
Trudeau be a mediator on
Venezuela - Inner City Press
asked about Canadian arms sales
to Saudi while calling for a
probe. At first Trudeau said he
was happy to answer the
question. Then he said no, he
would not reward “bad behavior,”
and instead reached out for
question in French about day
care. (Inner City Press notes
that pre-determining questioners
is bad behavior. Apparently the
CBC journalist who was given the
first question agreed to it; the
organization only the day before
sent an Egyptian state media
correspondent as the lone “pooler”
in Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' meeting with General
Sisi.) Eearlier on September 21
when UK minister Alistair Burt
came in front of the UN Security
Council to speak about
accountability for Daesh in
Iraq, Inner City Press deferred
to a timely question about the
referendum in Kurdistan. Then
during lull - identical to
that in which it put its
question to Trudeau - Inner City
Press asked Burt about his
quote, about accountability for
the bombing of civilians in
Yemen by the Saudi-led Coalition
with UK bombs, that "Our view is
that it is for the Coalition
itself, in the first instance,
to conduct such investigations.
They have the best insight into
their own military procedures
and will be able to conduct the
most thorough and conclusive
investigations.” Inner City
Press asked how he can say this,
given that the Saudis have
investigated less than five
percent of the killings. Video here.
Burt's answer focused on the
peace process - what peace
process? At least Burt answered,
and did not like Trudeau try to
call merely asking the question
in a lull "bad behavior" - we'll
have more on this.
***
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