Dust-Up
of
UN Security
With Turkish
Delegation
Leads to
Hospitalization
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 23,
updated
-- While
Mahmoud Abbas
and Benyamin
Netanyahu
traded
speeches about
Palestinian
statehood on
Friday, a
diplomatic
incident
occurred on
the fourth
floor of the
General
Assembly Hall.
Sources
tell
Inner City
Press that the
Turkish
delegation
literally had
a
run-in with
security in
the UN, in
which the
Turkish prime
minister
Erdogan was
touched. Then,
a male
security
official was
injured and
taken to
the hospital,
another
officer also
assaulted and
injured. Several
sources spoke
of a door
broken in the
UN earlier in
the week,
attributing it
to Turkey.
Inner
City Press
observed
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
chief of staff
Vijay Nambiar
break in to a
rare run,
accompanied by
UN Safety and
Security chief
Gregory Starr,
out of the
North Lawn
building and
on to First
Avenue
in the rain, crossing
it toward
Turkey's
Mission to the
UN.
Later
a senior UN
official told
Inner City
Press bitterly
that "Turkey
is throwing
its weight
around,"
linking the
incident to
Turkey's
anger,
including at
the UN, about
the Palmer
(and Uribe)
report about
the
Gaza flotilla
incident in
which eight
Turkish
citizens were
killed.
Greg Starr and
Ban Ki-moon,
Nambiar and
dust-up not
shown
The source
asked, "A new
muscular
foreign policy
-- even inside
the UN
building?"
By
the same
token,
why lay hands
even
inadvertently
on a country's
prime
minister?
After multiple
Inner City
Press sources
told it about
the incident
early Friday
afternoon,
Inner City
Press
asked
the Office of
the
Spokesperson
for the
Secretary
General for
its version
and was told
they were
waiting for
their "line"
on it.
Update:
Inner City
Press, having
Friday
afternoon
published far
and away the
first story
about the
incident, was
told that it
would be given
the UN "line"
as soon as it
was available
- but even
sixty hours
later has
received
nothing from
the UN
spokespeople
or senior
spinning
officials.
Watch this
site.
* *
*
At
UN,
Deby On TNC's
"Hypocrisy, "
400,000
Chadians
"Blocked" in
Libya, "No
Prisoners in
Chad"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 19
-- Chad's
President
Idriss Deby
told Inner
City Press on
Monday that
there remain
400,000
Chadian's
"blocked"
inside Libya.
He
said the vast
majority had
gone to Libya
to work. Some
had been
recruited to
fight but by
both sides, he
insisted,
Gaddafi and
the National
Transitional
Council.
He said that
going forward
the
international
community
should help
reconcile all
Libyans,
"including
those who
worked with
Gaddafi." Video here, 1st part
of interview.
Deby
accused the
leaders of the
"New Libya,"
the National
Transitional
Council, of
hypocrisy as
many of them
previously
worked with
Gaddafi. He
said there
should be
greater
African Union
involvement in
the New Libya,
and chafed at
Inner City
Press'
statement that
South Africa
has led on
that issue,
and on that of
African
migrants.
"There
are other
African
countries on
the Security
Council," he
said, naming
Gabon and then
Nigeria.
Inner
City Press
asked Deby for
his view of
developments
in Sudan. Deby
spoke of
Southern
Kordofan and
"Nil Bleu,"
Blue Nile,
then said that
much remains
to be solved
between North
and South
Sudan.
On
this, Inner
City Press
asked Deby to
respond to reports
that the
publication
N'Djamena
Bi-Hebdo was
told not to
compare South
Sudan to
Southern Chad:
"In
the
October 14 to
17 edition of
the local
newspaper
N'Djamena
Bi-Hebdo, the
publishers
included an
article
comparing
southern Sudan
with southern
Chad. The
prime minister
called the
article
'dangerous'
and asked the
HCC to act on
the matter. On
October 19,
the HCC met
with
journalists
and warned
N'Djamena
Bi-Hebdo in
particular and
all media
houses in
general to
"observe
ethics rules"
by not
printing
articles that
risked
inciting
hatred,
violence, or
separatist
sentiment."
Deby
said he didn't
know about the
case. He said
"come to Chad"
to see the
freedom of the
press, and
also said that
"there are no
political
prisons in
Chad." Inner
City Press
began to ask
of one example
-- Ibni
Oumar Mahamat
Saleh --
but Deby
didn't answer
on it.
Deby and the
author, smiles
on Libya,
other answers
not show
The
interview was
over, and
Inner City
Press left the
Plaza Hotel.
Deby will
speak before
the General
Assembly on
Friday, after
meeting with
Ban Ki-moon
the day
before. "Mais
vous savez de
tout,"
Deby said. Not
as much as
we'd like to.
Watch this
site.
, 
