As
France Picks
Scribes for
DRC Trip,
Australia
Won't Confirm,
Of CAR, Leaks
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 30
-- When
outgoing UN
Security
Council
president
for September
Gary Quinlan
of Australia
held his "wrap
up"
press
conference on
Monday, he
twice referred
to his country
being
the "pen
holder" on
items on the
Council's
agenda.
Being
the "pen
holder" means
the right to
present the
first draft
of documents
on the item.
But has the
Security
Council
allowed it to
mean more than
that, to the
the extent of
censorship?
Earlier
on
Monday Inner
City Press
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
to confirm how
decisions were
made on
which media
could
accompany the
Security
Council on its
upcoming trip
beginning in
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo.
Nesirky
replied
that the
decisions were
made "in
consultation
with the
lead mission
from the
Security
Council for
the entire
trip."
Video
here, from
Minute 13:10.
That
"lead mission,
the "pen
holder" on
DRC, is France,
which
supported the
genocidaire
government in
Rwanda and
their
post-genocide
escape into
Eastern
Congo.
So
Inner City
Press asked
Quinlan to
explain the
goals of this
upcoming
trip, and how
not only the
goal but which
media can go
were decided
on.
Quinlan
declined to
answer, or
even to
confirm that
there IS a
trip. Inner
City Press
told him, and
has
since tweeted
evidence,
that the
MONUSCO
mission run by
Herve
Ladsous (the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row to head
UN
Peacekeeping)
has already
been talking
publicly about
the trip:
October 3 in
Kinshasa,
October 4 in
Goma.
Here
is an article
quoting
MONUSCO's
spokesperson
Madnodje
Mounoubai,
picked up by
the UN's own
Radio Okapi.
So
there is no
basis not to
answer. We
hope to have
more on this.
Inner
City Press
also asked
Quinlan why
there had been
no action
in his
month on the
Central
African
Republic.
He cited a
ministerial
meeting
which France
sponsored at
the EU
offices. But,
surprise,
surprise,
Inner City
Press was not
informed of or
invited to
cover there,
either.
Inner
City Press
asks and
reports about
CAR, and has
in the past
routinely
been invited
to EU
briefings,
particularly
those
involving as
this did
Kristalina
Georgieva (who
even on Monday
was sending
replied to the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access @FUNCA_info from the UNHCR
meeting in
Geneva on
Syria, here.)
But not this
one.
Similarly
for
UNSC Africa
trips in the
past, in 2008
to the DRC and
as it
turned out
Rwanda,
and 2010
to Uganda and
elsewhere,
Inner City
Press
went after in
one case it
was explained
that France
tried to block
or
"veto" it (for
noting
France's
history in the
region), but
then co-leader
of the trip
South Africa
said it was
not for France
to
censor the
Press.
What
happened this
time?
Actually,
there are
separate
leaders for
each leg
of the trip,
Inner City
Press has
learned and,
after
Nesirky's
answer, has
reported.
Also
in his end of
presidency
press
conference,
Quinlan twice
joked about
the leaking of
his draft
Presidential
Statement on
humanitarian
access in
Syria, saying
"WE didn't
leak it" to
Reuters. It
is not hard to
figure out for
whom Reuters'
UN Bureau
serves as a
pass through
(and for
whom it spies:
click here for
story, here
for document,
here
for audio.)
It was pointed
out that
Agence France
Presse had it
to
-- natch.
We'll have
more on this.
Footnote:
on
behalf of the
new Free UN
Coalition for
Access, Inner
City Press
thanked
Quinlan for
the relatively
many stakeouts
he did in
September,
noting that
one on Abyei
was somewhat
needlessly
delayed.
It was a month
more
transparent
than most,
thought, to be
repeated in
November 2014.
Watch this
site.
, 
