From
UN's
Yemen
“Humanitarian”
Meeting, Press
Was Banned, Now Lowcock
Speaks
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Periscope;
Video
UNITED NATIONS,
September 28 – 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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