At
UN, Decline in
War Deaths
Proclaimed,
But Drug War,
Boko Haram,
Ideology
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
3 -- Hours
before a third
UN Security
Council
meeting
on Ukraine,
the Director
of the Human
Security
Research Project
Andrew Mack
held a press
conference
about the
new
"Human
Security
Report."
Under a slide
headed, "A
Huge
Decline in War
Deaths,"
he distinguished
the rising
death
counts in the
"war on drugs"
in Mexico and
Central
America.
Inner
City Press,
after thanking
Mack on behalf
of the new Free UN
Coalition for
Access,
asked Mack how
accurate death
counts are,
given the lack
of clarify in
Syria,
including in
light of the
contractor the
UN chose to
count.
The
UN has now
stopped
counting,
though Qatar
at the Human
Rights Council
earlier on
Monday used a
figure of
150,000; eight
days ago NBC's
David Gregory
said one
million have
been killed,
before
correcting
himself and
saying this
included those
displaced.
Mack
said he feels
most data is
credible,
citing the
previous Iraq
Death
count. To
Inner City
Press' follow
up, Mack
explained that
beyond
counting those
with bullets
in them, to include
deaths from
sickness one
would have to
have and use
baseline
statistics for
comparison.
Inner
City Press
asked Mack
about Boko
Haram in
Nigeria. Mack
said the
top five
"wars" involve
"Islamic
radicals" and
then Western
intervention
to confront
them. He said
Al Qaeda "has
no popular
support" and
can only
overthrow
"pathetic"
states like
Mali.
But
what about
Ukraine? The
Security
Council is set
to meet at
3:30 pm.
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
Not
only at the
"Human
Security
Report" press
conference,
but recently
for Bolivia's
vice
president, the
old United
Nations
Correspondents
Association
didn't even
send any
of its 15
executive
committee
members. On
Ukraine on
Saturday, the
UN
automatically
gave its first
question at a
press
conference
held on
ten minutes
notice to
the UNCA,
which for more
than a year
has meant, to
CBS via Pamela
Falk.
The UN
knows
the politics
of the
questions it
will receive
that way,
and
apparently
likes it.
UNCA's
descent
into censorship
should
preclude
them getting
any automatic
first
questions.
Once that is
resolved,
thanks can be
unbranded, as
they should
be.
, 
