As
UN's Zeid Speaks in New
York, Silent on Cameroon Net
Cut, Jordan Welcoming Bashir
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
April 2 – The UN's High
Commissioner for Human Rights
Prince Zeid, who will be in
New York on April 3, has not
included in his statements
either the cut-off
of the Internet in
western Cameroon, or his own
country Jordan having rolled
out the red carpet for Sudan's
Omar al Bashir, under
indictment for genocide. Why
not? On April 3 Zeid will
speak at a lunch in New York
about a mechanism for
accountability in Syria. Fine
- but what about Bashir? And,
as Inner City Press asked his
Office a month ago, what about
Cameroon? Relatedly, as Inner
City Press, what about the
whistleblowers retaliated
against, from Anders Kompass
through Miranda Brown to Emma
Reilly?
Back on March 5 amid
the ongoing abuse of
Anglophones in Cameroon, the
Internet being turned off for
weeks in their regions, Inner
City Press asked Rupert
Colville, Zeid's spokesperson,
questions including this:
"What is the UN system,
including the High
Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR), doing about abuses
against the Anglophone
community in Cameroon, in the
Northwest and Southwest
regions where the Internet has
been cut for 49 days and
counting?"
Past noon
the following day, March 6,
still no response from
Colville or the OHCHR. Is this
acceptable?
While UN Security
Council members visiting
Niger, 188th out of 188 on the
UN Development Index, is
certainly welcome, it is
noteworthy has is not being
addressed or even publicly
mentioned on this trip.
Beyond the
omission, which some called
shameful, of the plight of Anglophones
in Cameroon -- the
Internet has been turned off
in their regions -- the common
denominator of France's
historical power relations
with, say, Chad and Niger was
omitted even from reporting
from inside the Council's
bubble.
It was
complained to the Free UN
Coalition for Access that the
UN didn't even inform the News
Agency of Nigeria that it
could go on the trip (but did
inform, for example, Voice
of America). Might NAN
have been more critical of
aspects of the trip? How will
this omission be addressed?
And while
a Security Council member has
responded to Inner City Press
that the issue was raised in
meetings, given that VOA,
invited and on the trip, did
not even mention it, one
wonders when, where and with
what seriousness it was
raised. We hope to have more
on that.
Inner City Press in the past
was informed of such trips,
and went on some, for example
to Chad
where then French Ambassador
Jean Maurice Ripert dissembled
about President Deby's
non-appearance, then
confronted Inner City Press
about its reporting, in the
airport in Kigali, Rwanda.
Now, following a retaliatory
eviction and continuing
restriction at the UN by
Department of Public
Information chief Cristina
Gallach and spokesman Stephane Dujarric
for seeking to cover the Ng
Lap Seng / John Ashe UN
bribery case in the UN
Press Briefing Room on January
29, 2016, Inner City Press is
no longer informed or invited.
DPI under Gallach churns out
assemblages of canned quotes
and tweets as "stories,"
as from within the bubble.
We'll have more on this.
On a
previous Security Council trip
that included Sudan, Council
members spoke to the Press
about standing up to the
Sudanese government about
abuses. So what happened in
Cameroon?
***
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