UN
Has No Answers
on Kyiv
Copters &
Journalists,
Sri
Lanka,
Burundi, Late
on Libya
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, May
19 -- After a
weekend of
mayhem, from
Libya to northern
Mali,
Syria to Ukraine,
one expected
the UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric to
have answers
on Monday, May
19.
But
on Libya, when
Inner City
Press asked,
Dujarric had
no answer even
though the UN
has a mission
there.
On
Ukraine, Inner
City Press
asked for the
fifth time
about the Kyiv
authorities
being depicted
using “UN”
marked
helicopters,
and now
the detention
and abuse of
journalists
from LifeNews
which ran the
footage.
Dujarric
said
he had nothing
on this
either. On the
journalist
question, he
didn't even
mouth some
generality
about
commitment to
freedom of the
press.
The Free
UN Coalition
for Access
has noted this
UN
Secretariat's
selective
invocation of
the right to
information,
and
cozy
relationship
with a scan
correspondents'
association
which has
dragged its
feet even on
the case of a
dues-paying
member to whom
French
ambassador
Gerard Araud
said, on
camera, “you
are not a
journalist,
you are an
agent.”
On
Burundi,
Inner City
Press asked
about the
arrest of a
human rights
defender
for saying on
radio what was
contained in a
UN cable, that
the ruling
CNDD party is
arming and
training its
youth wing
- and
adding that
the training
in happening
in Uvira in
South Kivu,
Eastern
DRC which the
UN has a UN
Peacekeeping
mission run by
Herve Ladsous.
Dujarric
had
nothing on
this either,
even on if the
UN received
letters
calling for a
probe of the
cable directed
to Ban Ki-moon
by NGOs and
the opposition
political
parties. This
is called a
cover-up.
Finally
on
Sri Lanka,
after a report
issued over
the weekend
casting new
light
on Ban adviser
Vijay
Nambiar's role
as
surrendering
rebels were
killed in May
2009,
Dujarric had
nothing on
that either.
Afterward
an
observer asked
Inner City
Press if this
was the norm,
four
questions and
no answers,
and asked why
by contrast
Dujarric
entertained
repeated but
pointless
follow-up
questions from
the
head
of the
aforesaid
correspondents'
association.
That's why
it's called
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
But should
these
questions be
answered?
Watch this
site.
Update:
after
publication of
the above, a
hard-copy
press release
by the UN
Support
Mission in
Libya was
placed in the
UN
Spokesperson's
office, not
emailed out,
nor even
announced by
email. Talk
about a soft
launch...
, 
