After
Ban
Met Rajoelina,
No Read Out
for 16 Hours,
Nothing on
Press Freedom
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 5 --
Before
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon met
Madagascar's
Andrei
Rajoelina
Monday at
4:15, or
really, 4:25,
pm (click
here for photo
op video)
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's
spokesman a
question at
the day's noon
briefing:
Question:
Yeah,
Madagascar, I
wanted to ask,
I, probably I
should have
asked this
before, but it
seems like a
good day to
ask it, is the
current
president,
Joelimana
[sic]* he, he
blocked the
wife of the
former deposed
president,
[Marc]
Ravalomanana,
from coming
back and, and
that was
something that
she seemed to
have a right
to come back,
many people
say it may be
an attempt by
the current
transitional
president to
remain on
either as a
prime minister
or
otherwise.
So, I wanted
to know,
without
pre-judging
what will be
said this
afternoon,
what is the
UN’s position
on the
blocking of
the wife of
the deposed
president from
returning to
the country,
and to the
possible
switch in 8
May* elections
from
presidential
to
parliamentary?
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesriky:
I think we’d
have to wait
to see what
comes out of
the meeting to
be able to
brief you on
what happens
in that
meeting, which
is later this
afternoon.
I don’t have
anything
specific on
the return
question; I’d
have to check
further.
But 16 hours
after the
meeting, no
read-out had
been issued.
Nor any any
answer been
given on "the
return
question" or
the other
questions set
out in Inner
City Press
February 3
piece on
Madagasar (nor
did Ban's
spokesperson's
office provide
any answers to
the UN
Peacekeeping
questions that
have
accumulated),
see below.
Back
in May 2012,
the UN
was partnering
with
Rajoelina's
Ministry of
Communication
to celebrate
World Press
Freedom Day in
Madagascar. On
this same day
Reporters
without
Borders
directly criticized
the
Minister of
Communication
for
threatening to
shut down
Radio Free FM
and for his
part in the
detention of 2
Free FM
journalists.
Then
after evidence
of abuse
including gang
rape and the
burning of
twenty-some
villages in
southern
Madagascar
emerged, the
transitional
prime minister
-- whose place
Rajoelina now
reportedly
seeks to take
until he runs
again in 2018
-- said an
investigation
would be
launched. But
has it?
Sources
tell
Inner City
Press that
Rajoelina's
agenda may be
to seek Ban's
support to
change the
order of
elections to
have
legislative
elections
happen on May
8 rather than
presidential
elections.
Now
that Rajoelina
has given in
to pressure
and declared
himself out of
the running
for president,
there is
public speculation
that he wants
to set
up a stand-in
to run for
president in
2013 with
Rajoelina as
Prime
Minister,
then Rajoelina
runs for
president in
2018.
Rajoelina has
already
declared his
candidacy for
2018.
France
has
publicly stated
that it may
support a
candidate in
Madagascar’s
upcoming
presidential
election ("si
nous
encourageons
une
candidature,
ce sera aussi
discrètement
que possible").
Perhaps as
part of this
support, the new
French
ambassador
recently
declared
that
ousted-president
Ravalomanana
should not be
allowed to
return to his
country before
the election.
So France
favors forced
exile counter
to Article 20
of the SADC
roadmap for a
way out of the
crisis which
states that
Ravalomanana
should be
allowed to
return to his
country
unconditionally.
Vive
la
France.
The
UN's related
laxity on
press freedom
and follow
through on
public
commitments to
investigations
is become more
and more
pervasive.
Ban's chief of
peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to hold
the post, back
in December
said a probe
of 126 rapes
in
Minova by the
Congolese
Army, his
partners,
would be
finished by
the
end of
January. But
it has not
been.
Ladsous
has
overseen the
same sleight
of hand on the
killing of
internally
displaced
people in Cote
d'Ivoire,
along with
envoy Bert
Koenders.
Meanwhile
Ladsous
refuses to
answer Press
questions, and
Ban's
for-now
partner on
press issues,
the UN
Correspondents
Association,
has said
nothing about
Ladsous'
stonewalling,
choosing
instead to go
out into the
hall with him
for private
briefings, video here.
Now it appears
that the UN
has stopped,
even
indirectly and
on a delay,
providing
answers to the
many UN
Peacekeeping
questions that
have built up
under Ladsous,
for example
Monday's
question about
the lack of
protection for
whistleblowing
peacekeepers.
Ban's
UN protects
Ladsous,
concealing
even the few
actions they
take on his
misdeeds.
We'll have
more on this,
today. Watch
this site.
* --
While Inner
City Press may
in Monday's
noon briefing
have stumbled
over the
President's
name, the UN's
Department of
Public
Information
which creates
the transcripts
(which are
approved or
ordered up by
Ban's
spokesperson's
office) in
almost all
cases fixes
such
pronunciation
or verbal
hiccups.
But not here
-- although
they DID
change how
Inner City
Press said the
date in May to
the British
format. So
which is it?
And why? And
what is wrong
with this UN?
, 
