At
AU
Bash, Bashing
Ban Ki-moon
for Excluding
Africans, None
on Board
of Examination
of Press
Either
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 2 -- In a
night's
respite from
growing UN
grumbles of
neglect of
Africa, the
African Union
hosted a big
reception by
the
East River on
June 1.
There was food
from among
others
Burundi,
Senegal and
Mali, no sign
of Azawad,
though the AU
Peace and
Security
Council is
coming to New
York on June
13 to discuss
Mali.
There was at
least for a
time
an open bar,
with ginger
juice
promising
revitalization.
Among
the crowd,
Ambassadors
complained to
Inner City
Press that
even Ban
Ki-moon's
near final job
announcement
did not
include any
Africans:
the
Department of
Economic and
Social Affairs
was given, as
expected, to
China, just as
the Department
of Political
Affair is
slated for an
American,
Jeffrey
Feltman.
The
post of
Assistant at
DESA went to
Pakistan, and
the Department
of Public
Information to
an Austrian.
"So I guess
all we'll get
is
DGACM," a
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press,
referring to
the Department
of General
Assembly and
Conference
Management.
This is
expected to be
the Senegalese
current
Registrar
of the
International
Criminal
Tribunal for
Rwanda, Mr.
Dieng, as
Inner City
Press has
exclusively
reported since
May 1.
The
UN's mercurial
relationship
with Rwanda
also came up.
"Sometimes
Rwanda is held
up at the
model African
country," a
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press.
"Then suddenly
they are
accused of
still helping
rebels in
Eastern Congo
and they are
called
the bad
guy.... Rwanda
is like the
UN's flavor of
the month." He
mentioned a
kind of candy,
filled with
chile.
Cameroon
recently
celebrated its
national day,
in this same
UN cafeteria
space and then
in the
literally
leafy northern
suburb of New
Rochelle.
There too the
complaints
were
of exclusive,
with one well
placed source
saying that in
today's UN,
of Ban and
Susana
Malcorra, "you
have to be
from Argentina
or
the World Food
Program to get
a job."
There
was almost
no Western
corporate
press presence
at these
African
receptions; at
a
stakeout by US
Ambassador
Susan Rice
earlier in the
week ostensibly
on
Sudan, the
correspondents
of Reuters and
Al-Arabiya
were called
on, only to
ask about
Syria.
(Speaking of a
flavor of the
month, one
wag thought.)
Both
of these
correspondents
have
re-reported
Inner City
Press
exclusives
without
giving any
credit, the
latter on an
African
(Union) story,
the
resignation of
Ibrahim
Gambari from
UNAMID in
Darfur, which
Inner City
Press reported
ten days ago.
Friday
afternoon
found both
of these
correspondents,
with other big
media, pushing
forward to
name over the
Press'
objections a
five person
Board of
Examination
to
investigate
Inner City
Press with an
eye to
expelling it.
There are
no African
journalists on
the UN
Correspondents
Association
Board of
Examination,
nor on its
Executive
Committee. The
exclusion is
everywhere.
But Friday was
a party, and
a good one,
organized by
the wives of
the African
Union
countries'
Permanent
Representatives,
as one of them
pointed out to
Inner City
Press. To
better days.
, 
