At
UN
Despite Ban's
Claims, Doubts
on Yemen,
Haiti, Sri
Lanka,
Buckpass on S.
Sudan
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 19 --
Touting the
rule of law at
the UN on
Thursday,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
claimed to
oppose
amnesties and
support
international
prosecutions,
saying that
people want
accountability
and
transparency.
But
after Ban
spoke with
Yemen
strongman Ali
Saleh on
November 23,
Inner City
Press
asked
him if he had
raised to
Saleh his push
for the
immunity he is
now in the
process of
obtaining. Ban
replied that
"I have not
discussed in
detail on that
matter."
If he opposed
amnesties,
that was the
time to say
it.
Likewise
in
international
prosecutions,
since his
visit to Sri
Lankan
internment
camps in May
2009, when
children at
gunpoint sung
to him, Ban
has
done little to
push for
prosecutions
on the many
reports of war
crimes by Sri
Lankan
authorities,
including some
at the Sri
Lankan
mission to the
UN.
In
fact, at a
meeting with
Sri Lankan
president
Mahinda
Rajapaksa, Ban
openly
criticized his
own staff
rather than
the alleged
crimes of
those he
was meeting
with.
On
accountability,
Ban's
UN does not
practice it.
Faced with a
detailed claim
that the
UN's
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
introduced
cholera to
Haiti, Ban and
his officials
and spokesman
have repeated
refused to
answer
questions
about the
claim, saying
the matter is
with Ban's
chief lawyer
Patricia
O'Brien, who
refuses to
speak with the
press.
Transparency?
(c)
UN Photo
Ban and
spokesman,
answers on
cholera claim
etc not shown
Ban
is good at
reading
speeches that
are full of
holes, and
then not
taking
questions
about them. On
January
18, while many
media
organizations
"went dark" to
protest
prospective
Internet
censorship
legislation
in the US
Congress, Ban gave a
speech
whitewashing
his
and the UN's
failure to
speak loudly
and arrange
for
alternative
helicopters in
South Sudan
after being
told in mid
November that
the
Russian
helicopters
would not fly.
After
the
bloodbath
occurred in
Pibor and the
UN was unable
to bring
"lethal
assets to
dissuade"
attack, and
then refused
to even
estimate
those killed,
Ban has now
shifted all
the blame to
the Russians
for
saying, from
mid November
on, that they
would not fly.
As
Inner City
Press quoted
in its January
11 story, "Maybe
when asked to
come and help
civilians,
[the Russians]
should have,"
one Security
Council member
told Inner
City Press.
"But they
weren't
required to
and it's [the
UN's] fault
that they
didn't have an
agreement with
the Russians.
Now they're
trying to
blame it on
them." Click here for Ban's
January 18
"Responsibility
to Protect"
speech.
And so it goes
at Ban's UN.
Footnote:
if
this UN does
not have a
rule of law,
it does have
protocol. On
January 13
Inner City
Press asked
the
spokeswoman
for the
President
of the General
Assembly if
there would be
a minute of
silence to
Guinea
Bissau's
deceased
president, as
there had been
for Kim
Jong-Il
of the
Democratic
People's
Republic of
Korea. She
answered, and
Inner
City Press
that day
reported, that
Guinea Bissau
had not made
any
request. Today
as an update
the follow has
arrived:
"Dear
Matthew,
In follow-up
to your
question on
above matter,
the mission
of Guinea
Bissau has
requested 2
days ago a
minute of
silence in the
GA in memory
of HE
President
Malam Bacai
Sanha.
Accordingly a
minute
of silence is
planned at the
plenary on
January 25th."
Well
alright then.
Ban's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
has by
contrast
refused to
provide
even initial
answers, much
less updates,
on Yemen, web
censorship,
even who pays
for Ban's
travel.
Watch this
site.
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