By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 10 --
When last
November 19
Serbian Prime
Minister Ivica
Dacic came to
speak with the
media after
the UN
Security
Council
session about
Kosovo, only
three
journalists
asked
questions.
(Inner
City Press
asked why the
OSCE had taken
the ballot
boxes away,
and to where.
Dacic said
this will be
raised in
Brussels, as
it casts doubt
on the
results.)
On
Monday
February 10,
things got
even more
marginal.
Kosovo Prime
Minister Thaci
came out of
the Council
but declined
to speak at
the stakeout.
Why should he?
Dacic came out
ready to go to
the stakeout,
but was
diverted. By
the time he
made it to the
UNTV stakeout,
only one media
asked
questions
there: Inner
City Press.
How can that
be? What is
happening to
the UN, on
this issue and
others? The Free UN Coalition for Access opposes
the dying off
or
privatization
of the
Security
Council
stakeout.
This time
Inner City
Press asked
about returns
of Serbs to
Kosovo, and
about the
status of
investigations
into the
harvesting of
organs
reported on by
Dick Marty.
Through an
interpreter,
whose
translation
may not have
made it onto
UNTV, Dacic
said the
difficulty of
returns after
15 years
showed the
problem. He
said the organ
investigation
must be
pursued. But
will it be?
The two are
speaking with
the EU's Cathy
Ashton, as
they did at
the Munich
Security
Conference.
The big issues
like the
Middle East,
North Korea
and Iran have
moved away
from the UN;
even this one,
with a
whimper, is
fading away.
Back on
November 19
the third
questioner
asked about
discrimination
in Serbia.
Dacic asked
him, where are
you from?
From
here, he
replied.
America. Then
he added,
Kosovo
television RTV
21. Kosovo
national
television.
Dacic
smiled, and
soon said, I
am here to
answer
questions, not
to hear
speeches or
your opinion.
The stakeout
was over.
A
larger crowd
gathered, to
discuss after
the fact if
this is
permissible.
The Free UN
Coalition for
Access has
questioned it.
In the past,
the UN let
France limit a
press
conference in
the UN
briefing room
to "French
journalists"
-- even making
one journalist
for a
pro-Western
newspaper in
Lebanon show
her passport.
More
recently, the
UN
affirmatively
let France
mark many of
the seats in
the new
briefing room
"Reserved" for
French
traveling
journalists.
Perhaps most
outrageously,
the UN has let
its Under
Secretary for
Peacekeeping
Operations
Herve Ladsous
openly refuse
to answer any
answer from
Inner City
Press. Video
compilation
here; UK
coverage
here. And
so it goes at
the UN. Watch
this site.
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