After
UN
Report Details
60 NATO
Killings in
Libya, Ban
Ki-moon Has No
Comment, No
Count of Pibor
Dead
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 5 --
More than two
months after
UN Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon
said that in
Libya NATO had
entirely
complied with
the UN
Security
Council
resolutions
and
international
law, last week
the
UN's own
International
Commission of
Inquiry
quietly issued
a report
including 60
killings of
civilians by
NATO. Click
here to view.
In
a single
incident "in
the town of
Majer on 8
August 2011...
the
Commission
found NATO
bombs killed
34 civilians
and injured
38. After
the initial
airstrike
killed 16, a
group of
rescuers
arrived and
were
hit by a
subsequent
attack,
killing 18."
The
report was
put
online on the
website of the
UN Human
Rights
Commission,
and NATO
chief
Rasmussen was
asked and
answered
about it on
Monday. Later
on
March 5, Inner
City Pres
asked Ban's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo del
Buey about the
report, how it
related to
Ban's earlier
statements on
NATO and
international
humanitarian
law.
"It
only came
on out
Friday," del
Buey replied,
"give us
time." How
much time?
Inner
City Press
asked asked
del Buey if,
after two
months, the UN
finally had an
estimate of
how many
people were
killed in
Pibor in South
Sudan when
the UN arrived
late due to
operating
without
military
helicopters
from
mid-November
onward. Del
Buey had
nothing on
that, either.
(c) UN Photo
Del Buey,
answers not
shown -
inserted in
transcript
without email?
While
afterward
other UN
officials
cautioned that
the UN's lack
of answers
might be
attributable
to laziness
and
incompetence,
it seems that
this UN
makes
political
decisions on,
for example,
when to count
the dead. In
Pibor, where
it bears some
responsibility,
it will not
count, or
delays the
count.
In Sri Lanka
in 2009, the
UN actively
cover-up
casualty
figures, until
they were
leaked and
published by
Inner City
Press.
Meanwhile the
UN is loud
about
broadcasting
casualty
figures
in places it
has it has no
access to. And
so it goes in
Ban Ki-moon's
UN.
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