On
S.
Sudan, Hilde
Johnson's
Praise of Kiir
& UN
Headline Echo
on
Wire
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 26 --
When the
Special
Representative
of UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon in
South Sudan
Hilde Johnson
took me
media
questions by
video link on
December 26,
she quoted and
praised
President
Salva Kiir for
his pledges on
accountability.
Johnson
said,
"I welcome
President
Kiir’s
statement of
24 December
calling for
arrest of
anyone
involved in
atrocities and
that he would
hold them
accountable.
We are
expecting
action to
follow."
The
irony of this,
given Kiir's
reported role,
seems obvious.
But in the
two hours that
followed,
Reuters ran
almost exactly
the same
headline
as the
in-house UN
News Center:
"U.N. hopes
for South
Sudan
reinforcements
within 48
hours"
(Reuters) and
"UN hopes to
have
peacekeeping
reinforcements
in strife-torn
South Sudan
within 48
hours" (UN
News Center).
(Might
these be from
Bangladesh?
From which
mission and
how would a
transfer
impact the
UN's pledges
in Cote
d'Ivoire and
the Democratic
Republic
of the Congo?
The UN
Spokesperson
has not
answered that
question in
123 hours.)
Reuters
ended
its "analysis"
or stenography
of the UN
video link
session with
Johnson's
quote praising
Kiir, without
any analysis
much
less noting
the irony:
"She
welcomed
Kiir's stated
determination
to look into
the
allegations,
while saying
that "we
expect action
to follow."
What
would this be
-- a
self-arrest,
the ultimate
selfie?
, 
