UN
Banned Its
Eritrea Report
after
Ethiopian
Zerihoun Talks
to Some SC
Members
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 28 -- Two
days after
Inner City
Press noted,
reported
and asked the
UN about the
removal from
the Internet
of the "Report
of the
Secretary
General on
Eritrea,"
S/2012/412,
Security
Council
sources told
Inner City
Press why it
was taken
down.
Wednesday
Inner City
Press
exclusively published
the June 8
report
which "the
Secretariat"
confirmed
would not be
put online
again.
On Thursday
multiple
Security
Council
sources quoted
Ethiopian
UN official
Taye-Brook
Zerihoun
as saying the
report came
down after
consultations
with Council
members.
This
immediately
gave rise to
questions by
Council
members who
had not been
consulted.
They agreed in
the abstract
that the UN
Secretariat
has the
ability to
take down its
own reports,
even if it
injures the
UN's
credibility.
But, they
said, the
Secretariat
cannot do so
after
consulting
with some but
not all
Council
members.
Given the role
of the US and
Ambassador
Susan Rice in
the passage of
the Eritrea
sanctions on
December 2011
and the
difficulty for
that country's
president
Isaias Afwerki
to address the
Council before
the sanctions
resolution was
finalized "in
blue," Inner
City Press
waited to ask
Ambassador
Rice.
When she left
the Council's
session on
Sudan and
South Sudan,
Inner City
Press asked
Ambassador
Rice about any
US role in the
taking down of
the Eritrea
report.
Rice said
without
breaking
stride, "What
are you
talking about
Matt?"
Then Inner
City Press
went to the
day's noon
briefing and
asked about
what Council
members quoted
Zerihoun
as saying. Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
repeated the
answer he'd
given the day
previous,
adding "I'm
not privy" to
what's said in
Council
consultations.
Previously,
the
Spokesperson's
office was
allowed in,
and present
at, Council
consultations.
Under Ban they
were thrown
out, after
what some
Council
members called
a weak
response from
Ban's then
chief of staff
Vijay Nambiar.
"Would
Malcorra do
better?" one
mused.
Again,
we
are
publishing the
June 8 report
which "the
Secretariat"
has confirmed
will not be
put online
again.
As
circulated,
Ban Ki-moon's
report for
example quoted
Eritrean
President
Isaias
Afwerki
telling Ban in
September 2011
that "the
border issue
with Ethiopia
was a 'closed
chapter' and
that there was
'nothing to
negotiate.'"
See, Paragraph
17.
It
recited Ban's
July 24, 2011
meeting with
"Eritrean
Foreign
Minister and
Political
Adviser to the
Eritrean
President" on
Somalia,
Sudan,
South Sudan
and Darfur. (See Inner City
Press video
of Yemane
Ghebreab at
that time,
here on
Inner City
Press' YouTube
channel with
28,000 views
and counting.)
The
June
8, 2012
report recited
Eritrea's
objections
to Security
Council
manuevers in
late November
and early
December 2011,
exclusively
reported by
Inner
City Press,
which even
after protest
would only
have allowed
Isaias
Afwerki,
President of a
country facing
unprecedented
sanctions, to
speak to the
Council AFTER
the resolution
was put in
blue and
finalized for
a vote.
But
now all of
that has been
taken off
line, as if it
never existed.
A diplomat
from
one of
Eritrea's
neighbors
explained to
Inner City
Press that the
June 8 report
just "wasn't
right," that
it was not
like
other
sanctions
reports and
not what his
country has in
mind.
This
was the
approach taken
when
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
Herve
Ladsous
changed and
watered down
the most
recent Western
Sahara
report. As
many noted,
but only Inner
City Press
explicitly
emphasized,
Ladsous is the
fourth French
chief of DPKO
in a row,
whose previous
job was to
serve
discredited
French foreign
minister
Michele
Aliot-Marie
including
arranging her
flights on
planes of
cronies of
Tunisian
dictator Ben
Ali.
Since
then, Ladsous
refuses to
answer
Inner City
Press' questions;
Big
Five media
have moved to
expel
Inner City
Press, now led
by US
government
owned Voice of
America asking
the UN to
review
Inner City
Press' accreditation
status.
But
who -- not
which
countries,
which is
obvious, but
which UN
official
beyond Ban
Ki-moon -- is
responsible
for taking off
line the
Eritrea
report, and
what will
happen and be
issued next?
Again,
we are
publishing the
June 8 report
which "the
Secretariat"
has
confirmed will
not be put
online again.
Watch this
site.
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