As
Saudis Pledge
for Syria, UN
Silent on
Sanctions,
Crackdowns on
Media
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 30 --
Saudi Arabia
and other
countries
which are
arming the
rebels in
Syria on
Wednesday
announced
pledges for
humanitarian
aid, with $300
million each
from Kuwait,
the UAE and
the
Saudis.
UN
humanitarian
official John
Ging, when
asked by Inner
City Press
about
the current
impact of
sanctions on
humanitarian
activities in
Syria,
acknowledged
that the
sanctions are
a problem,
noting their
causing
shortages not
only of
medicine but
also of fuel.
So,
Inner City
Press asked
Ging, will the
UN be raising
the impact of
sanctions at
the meeting in
Kuwait?
Ging
said that
would be up to
the
"participants,"
seeming to
mean the
donors
themselves.
But the UN
didn't leave
it up to
donors
to come up
with the $1.5
billion
estimate. And
isn't the UN
supposed
to lead? To
identify a
problem, even
if one
powerful
donors would
rather ignore,
and raise the
issue? We'll
see.
UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon met
with the Gulf
leaders, with
nary a
word in the
read-outs
about their
crackdown on
online
dissent,
consistent as noted
yesterday with
the UN's South
Asia silence.
Meanwhile
the
reporting on
the pledge
conference has
been strange
to say the
least. A Reuters
piece,
also linking
in Lakhdar
Brahimi's
briefing to
the Security
Council in New
York, relies
along entirely
on the Kuwait
News Agency,
though three
separate
Reuters
credits are
given, "Sylvia
Westall,
William
Maclean and
Lisa
Shumaker."
The nameless
from New York
squib from the
UN is from a
piece that
asserted that
"the
opposition,
backed by the
United
States and
much of
Europe, has
made plain
that Assad can
play no role
in a future
Syrian
government."
Shouldn't that
say that the
opposition has
"made plain"
THEIR POSITION
that Assad
"can
play no role
in a future
Syrian
government"?
Watch this
site.
, 
