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At UN, Rudd Downplays Timor
Shoot-Out
Flap, Internal Investigation May Never Be Released
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, March 29 -- Days
after
Timor L'Este president Jose Ramos-Horta criticized both UN Police and
Australian troops for inaction while he was shot and almost killed,
Australian
prime minister Kevin Rudd emerged Saturday from a meeting with UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and, in summarizing the topics discussed,
did not
mention East Timor. He listed Darfur, Afghanistan, climate change and
Australia's bid for a Security Council seat in 2013. Inner City Press
asked for
his response to Ramos-Horta's statements,
including that "Australian
troops only act upon requests from the United Nations."
Rudd responded, not on the
chain of command question, but that "the UN has underway its own
internal
investigation of the security arrangements concerning him at the time."
But
will that UN investigation ever be made public? Inner City Press on
Friday asked
Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson, and drew a prepared "if-asked" response,
then an evasion on whether the report will be made public. Video here
from Minute 14:12, transcript below.
Rudd walks toward the UN's music stand microphone on
March 29
Inner City Press:
President [Ramos-]
Horta of East Timor, now that he’s recuperating in Australia, has again
raised
this issue that he believes that the UN police didn’t come to his aid
and
obstructed those who tried to help him. He said it on Australian
television. So the UN at the time said it was looking into
it. What
has the UN concluded about its actions on the day of the attack?
Spokesperson: Let me
first say
that we don't respond to statements made by leaders of Timor-Leste,
whom we
respect greatly. The comments attributed to President Ramos-Horta
are
taken seriously and would be investigated in the context of an internal
review
exercise of dealing with the incident. However, we would state
also that
trilateral coordination forum that brings together ISF, UN and
Timor-Leste,
under the leadership of Timor-Leste, is the mechanism that coordinates
responses in such cases. An immediate meeting of that triangular
coordination forum was held under the chairmanship of the Prime
Minister within
a few hours of the attacks, and appropriate decisions were taken and
implemented at that time. That’s all I can say, really, at this
point.
Inner City Press: I
just
have one follow up to that. By saying it’s an internal review,
does that
mean that whenever the conclusions are reached they will be announced
publicly?
Spokesperson: It’s going
to be an
internal review within UNMIT.
Inner City
Press: Right, but
then there’ll be an external result, they’ll say, here’s what we found,
we
found that we did the right thing or we found we didn’t?
Spokesperson: I don’t
know at
this point, I cannot tell you at this point. It was to be done in
coordination with the Timor-Leste Government, of course.
We'll
see.
Footnote:
Kevin Rudd on Saturday named as Australia's competitors for the UN
Security
Council seat in 2013 Luxembourg and Finland. Based the current campaign
being
run by Turkey, Rudd might want to start buying
some soccer balls -- click here
for that.
* * *
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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