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UN Dodges Gypsy Questions as Camps in Naples Burn
in Seeming Blind-Spot
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
May 19 -- Gypsies and immigrants were attacked last week in
Naples and elsewhere in Italy, and apparently no part of the UN system
had
anything to say about it. On May 16 at the UN's noon briefing, Inner
City Press
asked about " reports of mass arrests and also
violence against
immigrants in Italy, and in Naples, there was mob violence, and the
Government
has started deporting people very quickly.
Has anyone in the UN system had anything to say
about this?"
Ban
Ki-moon's Spokesperson Michele Montas replied, "No, not yet." But as
Friday ended, there was still no comment. Over the weekend, the
Spokesperson
was quoted by UN News that Ban would go to Myanmar, then the
Spokesperson's
office demanded that UN News Service take down the article. Still no
word on the
burning of homes around Naples, nor the mass deportations. Nor on
Monday. What
gives?
The
UN has been the venue of talks about the rights of gypsies, Roma and
Sinti.
Inner City Press has interviewed top officials of the UN's refugee
agency, who
said they are constantly monitoring and speaking out on attacks on
immigrants.
Why nothing on this one?
Roma in
UN's Plemetina camp in Kosovo - where are they now?
A
month after Ban Ki-moon became Secretary-General, a group of Roma and
Sinti came to the UN, including the Association of Roma in Poland,
the Kiev-based International Charitable Organization of Roma Women
Fund, the Budapest-based European Roma Rights Center, the Council of
NGOs of the Slovak Romani Communities, and the Committee for the
Compensation for the Romani Holocaust.
Inner City Press asked what they would like the UN to do, and what they
knew of Ban Ki-moon's position. Video
here. In response, Romani Rose summarized
the petition and requests the delegation was delivering, along with a
book describing the "horrifying" refugee camps for Roma, including
Plemetina, run by the UN in the Mitrovica region of Kosovo. The next
day, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokeswoman for his position
on the Roma petition. She said she couldn't yet say, they haven't
received it. Video
here.
Is it still somehow
missing?
Or
could the UN be running scared, of criticizing certain countries?
Italy's
Berlusconi
government has already bristled at a critique from Spain. Still,
the
UN Secretariat routinely expresses concern and calls for restraint. Why not here?
* * *
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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