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Pillay
Slams Ukraine
Hate Speech, Ban
Silent When Poroshenko
Said
"Parasites"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
4 -- UN High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights Navi
Pillay on
Ukraine on
July 4
belatedly
noted that "there
has been
strong hate
speech from
all sides."
But on July 1
after Petro
Poroshenko said,
"we are
fighting to
free our land
from dirt and
parasites,"
and Inner City
Press asked UN
spokesman Stephane
Dujarric
about it,
Dujarric had
no comment.
Given the echo
of Rwanda and
the term
"cockroaches"
(inyenzi), why
didn't the UN
Secretariat
then condemn Poroshenko's
reference to
parasites?
Apparently for
this UN Ukraine
is different.
Dujarric said
he'd have a
statement soon.
Inner City
Press asked,
on the use of
the word
parasites?
No. When
Dujarric read
out the
statement,
taking no
questions on
it, it went
like this:
“The
Secretary
General is
following with
grave concern
reports of
renewed
fighting in
Eastern
Ukraine. He is
extremely
disappointed
that the
unilateral
ceasefire
dec by
Ukrainian
President
Petro
Poroshenko
never achieved
the
momentum
needed to end
the violence.
He renews his
call on all
sides
in Ukraine not
to give up the
idea of a
function
ceasefire and
work
toward a
definitive
cessation of
violation
through a
continued
political and
diplomatic
process. The
Secretary
General
reiterates
that a
continuation
of hostilities
can only
exacerbate an
already
precarious
situation.
"He
strongly
condemns the
persistence
unlawful
violence at
hands of armed
militia groups
and enjoins
them
to lay down
their weapons
and express
their
grievances
peacefully and
in accordance
with
international
law.”
What about
parasites?
What about
killed journalists?
When Ukraine's
Ambassador
Yuriy Sergeyev
held a UN
press
conference on
June 20, Inner
City Press
asked him
about the
killing and
alleged
beating of
journalists,
among other
topics. Video
here
Later on June
20, Inner City
Press asked
Russian
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin
about
Sergeyev's
answers. UN
Video here,
from Minute
26:18.
Now on June
23, Ukraine's
Mission to the
UN has
responded, as
to the
journalists
with this:
"Lie:
Russian
'Zvezda'
correspondents
were bitten
and injured
before they
confessed to
the TV cameras
and apologized
for being
regularly
lying on the
real situation
in Eastern
Ukraine
Truth: 90% of
all Russian
so-called
journalists
working in
Ukraine are
instructed by
their Kremlin
patrons to
produce
anti-Ukrainian
fake TV
pictures only
for internal
Russian
consumption.
No physical or
moral violence
was used
against two
'Zvezvda'
correspondents."
Beyond the
dispute about
the
journalists
being beaten
-- or "bitten"
as the
response has
it -- there is
a problem with
this logic,
combated by
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
This is the
same type of
accusation
that Egypt is
using against
the Al Jazeera
journalists:
that they are
agents.
It is the same
logic that
outgoing French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
used on April
15, 2014, when
he told a
Lebanese
reporter, "You
are not a
journalist,
you are an
agent." In
that case, the
UN's in-house
United
Nations
Correspondents
Association
Executive
Committee
continues to
"drag its
feet" in
offering a
defense for
its
dues-paying
member from
Lebanon. We
will have more
on this.
* * *
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