After
UN
Slips Briefing
In During
Rwanda FM
Speech, FUNCA
Fights, Flexibility
Shown
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
25, updated --
The UN, it
seems, does
not want to
answer or even
take
questions.
Thursday it
started its
noon briefing
right as
Rwanda's
foreign
minister was
criticizing UN
Peacekeeping
in a
Security
Council
speech.
When
Inner City
Press
nevertheless
ran to the
briefing room
at 12:03 pm,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey
was still in
the room but
said, "It's
over."
To
address the
decrease in
information,
and the UN
partnering with
Gulf
& Western
media like Reuters'
UN bureau
and AFP
trying
to get the
investigative
Press thrown
out
of the UN,
Inner City
Press
co-founded the
Free
UN Coalition
for
Access for
just this.
And
so on behalf
of FUNCA,
Inner City
Press asked
Del Buey and
then his
Associate
Farhan Haq to
re-start the
briefing and
take
questions, it
being only
12:05 pm.
We
started and
it's over, was
the answer.
But
Ban's
Spokesperson's
Office has
delayed its
"noon"
briefing
up to twenty
minutes to
accomodate
some
countries, for
example then
US Ambassador
Susan Rice.
They couldn't
wait three
minutes while
the
foreign
minister of a
country the UN
failed --
Rwanda --
delivered a
detailed
critique?
The
next answer
was that there
was a lack of
UN Television
channels. The
UN Department
of Public
Information
recently spent
a lot of money
for
a supposed
upgrade, now
listing a
dozen
channels. So
it seems one
would have
been
available.
There
was no answer
on this -- the
person in
charge is away
-- but to
their
credit Del
Buey and Haq
took up
position
behind the
Spokesperson's
Office's front
counter, like
in a fast food
restaurant,
and said
"fire away."
After
thanking them
for FUNCA,
Inner City
Press asked
about reported
and
photographed
gunship
helicopter attacks by the
Congolese Army
on Rumangabo
and Kavodo
but
there was
still no
answer. Did
the UN Mission
under Herve
Ladsous
even go there?
No answer.
Again
to be fair,
when Inner
City Press
asked if the
EU resolution
on
Hezbollah
changes
anything for
the UNIFIL
mission, they
answered by
citing an
answer from UN
envoy Plumbly.
They had only
one copy, and
Inner City
Press -- or
was it FUNCA?
-- let another
journalist
have
it, with the
promise by the
Spokesperson's
Office that
another would
be e-mailed.
But it was an
answer.
Update:
this came in:
QUESTION:
Following the
European
decision to
add
Hizbullah’s
military wing
on the
European
terror list,
do you fear
for the UNIFIL
troops?
SCL DEREK
PLUMBLY:
I don’t think
so. The United
Nations is the
United
Nations. The
United Nations
is made up of
all States and
UNIFIL
includes
troops from
over 30
states. I
believe
everyone in
Lebanon and in
the region is
benefiting
from the
security and
stability that
derives from
the presence
of UNIFIL
troops in the
south.
On
the possible
naming as
deputy chief
of the UN
pension fund
of a
person named
by the UN's
own Office of
Internal
Oversight
Services as
engaged in
financial
irregularities,
it was said
that language
is
being put
together.
On
South Sudan
they admitted
that the UN no
longer speaks
with the
ministers
fired by Salva
Kiir, but
seemed to
claim that
services were
not impacted.
How could that
be? Watch this
site.
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