UN
in
Kosovo Accused of Coverup of Organ Trade & Press Beating, Silent
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 27 -- Accused of covering
up the harvest and sale
of organs of prisoners of war in Kosovo,
the UN has had nothing to
say for the past 11 days. Nor has it commented on reports of the
beating of a journalist directly in front of its UNMIK headquarters
in Pristina for the past five days.
On
December 27,
the UN simply ignored the organ question altogether. Back on December
16, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's acting
Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq:
Inner
City
Press: I wanted to know if the UN system or UNMIK [United
Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] has any response to
this Council of Europe report saying that Kosovo’s Prime Minister
[Hashim] Thaci was involved in an organ-trading ring — and that the
UN knew that, that’s one of the allegations.
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson Haq: We are aware of the report; we’ve seen
the reports coming out from the Council of Europe and are studying
what they have to say. At this stage, there is nothing further to
say by way of response, but obviously we’ll continue to study it
and may have a response down the line.
Ten
days later,
with the UN not having said anything even as the charges grew more
specific, Inner City Press asked Haq and Ban's main spokesman Martin
Nesirky, who unilaterally canceled all noon press briefings for this
week, the following question in writing:
Please
comment
on reports of Serbia's request for an ICTY investigation of
Soren Jessen Petersen for contempt of court during his time with
UNMIK, see
http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/un-covered-organ-trafficking-report-says-serbia
The
question was
submitted on December 26, with a deadline of 12:30 pm on December 27.
But an hour before that deadline, Haq responded only that "UNHQ is
closed on Monday."
Petersen in UN Security Council, organ trade and answers not shown
At
11:30 am on December 27, Ban's Haq sent this:
From:
Farhan
Haq [at] un.org
To: Inner City Press, Martin Nesirky [at]
un.org
Date: Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 11:32 AM
Re: Press Qs on Cote
d'Ivoire, Darfur, Sri Lanka and Kosovo (and old questions...
reiterated re [26] days ago
UNHQ
is
closed on Monday. Thanks.
But
has UNMIK in Kosovo been closed for the past ten or five days? Given
the ten
days of non response to the December 16 question, and the five days
of non response to the December 23 question about the beaten
reporter, the snow (job) is the issue. On December 23, Inner City
Press had asked Haq:
Inner
City
Press: there is a case in Kosovo of a journalist that was beaten
right in front of the UNMIK [United Nations Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo] headquarters. A regional press group has put out
call saying that, you know, this is a… that attacks on journalists
must cease in Kosovo. But I am wondering, particularly given [that]
it happened in front of UNMIK, whether UNMIK has had anything to say
about that?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson Haq: I am not aware of any recent communications
by UNMIK, but we can check with them.
Apparently,
in the
five days after, Haq never did check with UNMIK. Watch this site.
* * *
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