On
Syria, Of Aid
Access &
Nusra, UN Hot
& Cold on
Press
Harassment As
Access Shrinks
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 20, updated
-- When
the Middle
East
consultations
of the UN
Security
Council broke
up Tuesday
early
afternoon, no
one came to
speak before
the UNTV
camera at the
stakeout.
Inner
City Press
asked a range
of attendees
of the closed
door meeting
and
learned that
when Council
member South
Korea asked UN
briefer Oscar
Fernandez-Taranco how many foreign An Nusra fighters there are in
Syria, he
answered with
a range: for
six thousand
to forty
thousand.
Quite a range,
that.
There
was talk of
Australia,
next month's
Council
president, and
Luxembourg
proposing a
draft
resolution on
humanitarian
issues, the wish-list
grandly
presented by
Baroness
Valerie Amos
the head of
the UN Office
for the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs.
Still,
the
journalists
penned into
the Security
Council
stakeout
wanted and
needed more.
At the day's
UN noon
briefing,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
seemed
defensive
about questions
why UN
representative
Lakhdar
Brahimi is NOT
attending the
Russian and US
talks
in The Hague.
The key word
is
"bilateral,"
he said.
Inner
City Press asked
Nesirky about
the arrest in
Egypt of the
Muslim
Brotherhood's
Mohamed Badie,
a seemingly
civil case
against
Mohamed
Al Baradei,
and attacks on
journalists.
Nesirky said
he didn't
have anything
on the case
against Al
Baradei --
reported in Al
Ahram this
morning
-- and that
those arrested
should be
released or
tried
transparently.
On
Egypt, Nesirky
told Inner
City Press
that the UN
and Secretary
General
believe
journalists
should not be
harassed. Then
Inner
City Press
asked if the
Secretary
General or UN
had any
comment on
the controversial
detention
by the UK of
journalist
Glenn
Greenwald's
partner David
Miranda.
"No,"
Nesirky said.
Back
at the
stakeout,
journalist
were not been
allowed into
space
previously
allocated to
and used by
then, between
the Security
Council
entrance steps
and the
so-called
Turkish
Lounge. With a
UN
Security guard
standing in
the space,
Inner City
Press on
behalf of
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access asked
for a ruling.
The response
came back from
the head of
the UN Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit: no, you
cannot enter.
So
the question
was sent
through @FUNCA_info
to MALU's
supervisor
Stephane
Dujarric, then
by e-mail
above and
below him in
the UN
Department of
Public
Information.
Watch this
site.