As
Gambari's
Grilled by AJE
on ICP Mansion
Scoop, AJA
Votes
Against Press
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 4 -- Five
months after
Inner City
Press exclusively
reported
on the
$600,000 UN
envoy Ibrahim
Gambari spent
to build
himself a
mansion in
Darfur,
now Al Jazeera
has asked him
about it,
citing
the UN's
confirmation
to Inner City
Press. Video
here, from
Minute 14:25.
Gambari's
answers
are at odds
with what
UNAMID
whistleblowers
have told
Inner City
Press. Gambari
calls it a
"representation
house" meant
for
guests. But
sources say
only Gambari
says there,
with five
(Nigerian)
staff members.
Gambari
does say
that the World
Food Program
has been
cutting
rations in
Darfur, which
has elsewhere
been denied.
When asked
about the
contradiction
of a
UN envoy in a
mansion while
internally
displaced
people live in
huddled,
inhuman
conditions,
Gambari
doesn't
directly
respond,
instead saying
that for a
time he stayed
in a
container.
As
Inner
City Press exclusively
reported on
May 11 of this
year, Gambari
came to New
York and
turned in his
resignation,
as well as
skipping
nearly all of
the UN envoys'
retreat at the
suburban
Greentree
Estate.
Where will
Gambari go
next?
Another
Nigerian
long time UN
Department of
Political
Affairs
staffer has
landed on
this feet, we
are glad to
report. After
being unfairly
blocked
inside DPA,
Oseloka Henry
Obaze has been
appointed
Secretary to
the
State
Government
(SSG) by
Governor Peter
Obi of Anambra
State,
Nigeria. We
wish him well.
On
the
other hand,
while Al
Jazeera
English
correctly
credited Inner
City Press for
its Casa
Gambari scoop,
in New York Al
Jazeera Arabic
staffer
Marcelle
Hopkins has
repeated voted
to investigate
and oust
Inner City
Press,
including for
complaining at
others'
uncredited use
of Inner City
Press scoops,
most recently
at a July
3 meeting in
which due
process was
entirely
ignored.
Do the two
sides of Al
Jazeera not
know what the
other is
doing? Watch
this site.
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