As
Cote
d'Ivoire Kept
Out of UN
Libya Meeting,
UN Discloses
Deaths
at Briefing
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 20
-- Outside the
UN's high
level meeting
on Libya
on Tuesday,
the Permanent
Representative
of Cote
d'Ivoire
Yousoufou
Bamba paced
around. He
asked Inner
City Press,
how can I get
my
delegation
into the
meeting room?
Cote
d'Ivoire
along with
Libya is
claimed by
France and
others are a
major UN good
news story of
the year.
French
President
Nicolas
Sarkozy,
apparently
to take
another
pressure off,
urged that the
controversy
around
Palestine
seeking UN
membership not
overshadow
what had been
accomplished
-- by his
government, he
meant -- in
Libya. He also
mentioned Cote
d'Ivoire.
But
Cote
d'Ivoire's
Permanent
Representative
and delegation
weren't even
allowed into
the room.
Similarly,
only
after Inner
City Press ran
to the Dag
Hammarskjold
Auditorium and
asked did
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
offer UN
confirmation
that 18 people
were killed in
Cote d'Ivoire
in
a cross border
incursion from
Liberia.
(Nesirky
called it
Libya --
perhaps
there's Libya
on the brain.)
Inner
City Press
asked if the
killers are,
in fact,
staying in UN
refugee camps
in
Liberia, as
happened for
example on
Rwanda's
border with
the DR
Congo. Nesirky
said of his
if-asked
statement,
This is all I
have.
Nesirky
said that
there will be
no noon
briefing on
Wednesday "for
obvious
reasons."
Inner City
Press asked
what the
reasons were.
Nesirky
said he
anticipated
the question,
but others
feel that all
the news
tomorrow will
be the
speeches in
the General
Assembly.
Ban and Bamba,
access to
Libya meeting
and info not
shown
But
if Ban's UN
only discloses
certain deaths
when asked,
they shouldn't
cancel their
one a day
briefings, as
they have been
trying for
some time.
They
have a new
full time
Deputy
Spokesman. Is
a ten minute
briefing to
day, to take
if not answer
questions, too
much to ask?
Watch this
site.
* * *
At
UN,
Deby On TNC's
"Hypocrisy, "
400,000
Chadians
"Blocked" in
Libya, "No
Prisoners in
Chad"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 19
-- Chad's
President
Idriss Deby
told Inner
City
Press on
Monday that
there remain
400,000
Chadian's
"blocked"
inside Libya.
He
said the vast
majority had
gone to Libya
to work.
Some had been
recruited to
fight but by
both sides, he
insisted,
Gaddafi and
the National
Transitional
Council.
He said that
going forward
the
international
community
should help
reconcile all
Libyans,
"including
those who
worked with
Gaddafi." Video here, 1st part
of interview.
Deby
accused the
leaders of the
"New Libya,"
the National
Transitional
Council, of
hypocrisy as
many of them
previously
worked with
Gaddafi.
He said there
should be
greater
African Union
involvement in
the New
Libya, and
chafed at
Inner City
Press'
statement that
South Africa
has led on
that issue,
and on that of
African
migrants.
"There
are
other African
countries on
the Security
Council," he
said,
naming Gabon
and then
Nigeria.
Inner
City Press
asked Deby for
his view of
developments
in Sudan. Deby
spoke of
Southern
Kordofan and
"Nil Bleu,"
Blue Nile,
then said that
much remains
to be solved
between North
and South
Sudan.
On
this, Inner
City Press
asked Deby to
respond to reports
that the
publication
N'Djamena
Bi-Hebdo was
told not to
compare South
Sudan to
Southern
Chad:
"In
the
October 14 to
17 edition of
the local
newspaper
N'Djamena
Bi-Hebdo, the
publishers
included an
article
comparing
southern Sudan
with southern
Chad. The
prime minister
called the
article
'dangerous'
and asked the
HCC to act on
the matter. On
October 19,
the HCC met
with
journalists
and warned
N'Djamena
Bi-Hebdo in
particular and
all
media houses
in general to
"observe
ethics rules"
by not
printing
articles that
risked
inciting
hatred,
violence, or
separatist
sentiment."
Deby
said he
didn't know
about the
case. He said
"come to Chad"
to see
the freedom of
the press, and
also said that
"there are no
political
prisons in
Chad." Inner
City Press
began to ask
of
one example --
Ibni
Oumar Mahamat
Saleh --
but Deby
didn't answer
on
it.
Deby and the
author, smiles
on Libya,
other answers
not show
The
interview was
over, and
Inner City
Press left the
Plaza
Hotel. Deby
will speak
before the
General
Assembly on
Friday, after
meeting with
Ban Ki-moon
the day
before. "Mais
vous savez de
tout,"
Deby said. Not
as much as
we'd like to.
Watch this
site.
, 
