By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 4 --
When UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon held
six photo-ops
and meetings
with new
Ambassadors to
the UN on
September 4,
the shortest
meeting at a
mere eight
minutes was
with Burundi's
Albert
Shingiro.
To
Inner City
Press, which
throughout
this year has
here and elsewhere
covered
the UN's
belated
inquiry into
complaints to
Ban that
Burundi's
ruling party
was arming its
youth wing,
and then the
expulsion of a
UN staffer
from the
country, that
the meeting
with Burundi
would be
shortest
seemed
strange.
Shouldn't Ban
have something
to say or ask
about?
With
France's new
Ambassador Francois
Delattre,
by contrast,
Ban met for 19
minutes.
Delattre
was
accompanied by
his spouse, so
that might be
some
explanation.
But Ban met
with both
Boguslaw Winid
of Poland and
Laura Elena
Flores Herrera
of Panama for
12 minutes; Costa
Rica's Juan
Carlos Mendoza
Garcia
also had a
longer meeting
than Burundi.
Why?
With
Egypt's new
Ambassador Amr
Abde-latif
Aboulatta,
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
wonders
whether the
plight of
jailed
journalists,
including but
not limited to
#FreeAJstaff,
was raised.
Ban's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric was
spotted on the
38th
floor at the
end of the
photo ops, but
was not
present during
the meetings.
Instead it was
Ban's outgoing
Assistant
Secretary
General for
Political
Affairs Oscar
Fernandez
Taranco (he is
only shifting
to
Peacebuilding,
under Ban's
so-called Five
Year rule of
mobility). So
what could be
discussed for
19 minutes
with Gerard
Araud's
successor
Francois
Delattre, from
whom we hope
to hear more
soon, or for
eight minutes
with Burundi's
Albert
Shingiro?
At the
September 4 UN
noon briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
Dujarric's
deputy Farhan
Haq:
Inner
City
Press: in
Burundi, a
coalition of
opposition
parties wrote
to the
Secretary-General
in February
with the
allegation
that the
ruling party
was arming its
youth wing.
And I know
there have
been
developments
since then,
but the new
development
is that the
head of the
opposition
parties is
being… faces
five years in
jail for
having written
a letter to
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon
about these
troubling
obligations.
And I wanted
to know what —
almost in the
context of
kind of
witness
protection or
whistleblower
rights — what
is the UN's
response to
someone facing
jail time for
raising an
allegation
like this to
the
Secretary-General?
Deputy
Spokesman
Haq: I will
check on that
and we will
try to get
back to you.
Five
hours later,
including
after Ban's
meeting with
Burundi's
Albert
Shingiro,
there was no
answer. Watch
this
video -
and watch this
site.
, 
