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At UN, d'Escoto Calls Quotes He Disagrees With a
Crime, Israel Cancels Meeting
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 15 -- The UN General
Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann on Monday accused Israel's
Ambassador Gabriela Shalev, and seemingly the Jerusalem Post, of
slander to the
extend of being a "criminal act." D'Escoto through his affable
spokesman
Enrique Yeves denied Ambassador Shalev's statement that he had tried to
block
Israel from speaking at a human rights event last week.
The Jerusalem
Post
reported that Shalev said d'Escoto "initially decided to limit
speeches by
regional representatives after learning that Israel would represent
Western
Europe at the podium." Inner City Press had heard the theory last week,
and asked Yeves about it. Yeves denied it, and Inner City Press did not
report
it. Who knew, however, that quoting
Israel's Ambassador could give rise to charges of slander and of crime?
At Monday's
noon briefing, Inner City Press repeatedly asked Yeves which statement
exacted
was characterized as criminal. We deny it, Yeves said. Video here.
Yes, but that's
different from calling it a crime. Who
was being accused remains unclear.
D'Escoto
was on more solid ground, most observers concluded, in criticizing
Israel's
blocking of UN envoy Richard Falk. This questions wasn't even asked,
much less
answeded, at the press conference of the Middle East Quartet.
PGA d'Escoto Brockmann, threats criminal and of death not shown
Yeves also
reported that d'Escoto was subject to death threats on the Internet.
"Aren't we all," snarked one journalist. Earlier on Monday, d'Escoto
leaned closed to U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff,
who spoke
in loud Spanish into d'Escoto "good ear." Inner City Press asked
Yeves for a read-out, but was told that the encounter was not heated,
but
rather included discussion of the meeting d'Escoto had requested with
Gabriela
Shalev of Israel's Mission.
But this
meeting, mentioned as the conclusion of d'Escoto's statement, was
cancelled
later on Monday. As with Richard Falk,
these
questions weren't even asked, much less answered, at the press
conference of
the Middle East Quartet.
Footnote: A fire
alarm rang out as the UN Security
Council met, preparing for the Quartet meeting including Condoleezza
Rice of
the U.S., Sergey Lavrov of Russia, and the UK's David Milliband.
Ambassadors
were evacuated, while journalists ran the other way, toward the Council
chamber. Reporters joked about the shoes thrown at George Bush over the
weekend. They mused that security scrutiny
of the
press might get more tight. At the time of the fire drill, however, no
one
thought they might be criminally charged for their articles.
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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