UNITED
NATIONS, June
20 -- As the
UN prepares
its
peacekeeping
mission in
Mali, slated
to include
listed child
soldier
recruiter
Chad, the UN
Mission in
Liberia on
Thursday
morning
tweeted,
"Today! #UN's
@AeneasChuma
joins Pres.
#Sirleaf in
sending off
new #AFL
platoon to
support
#ECOWAS
mission in
#Mali. Big
step for
#Liberia!"
At
the UN in New
York, a
diplomat from
another larger
West African
state
told Inner
City Press,
this is
strange, you
should look
into it.
An
hour after the
first tweet, UNMIL
followed up:
"Update: #AFL
departure to
mission in
#Mali pushed
back from
today. Stay
tuned for
updates!
#Liberia."
But
despite
staying tuned,
there were no
updates, much
less an
explanation.
Inner City
Press asked
UNMIL, by the
same "social"
media they
used, why
the departure
was pushed
back, and
"what
diligence is
#DPKO doing,
unlike for
recruiter
#Chad?"
UNMIL
did not reply
or explain. So
much for the
UN and social
media, at
least for DPKO
run by Herve
Ladsous who
openly refuses
to answer
Press
questions at
press
conferences
and stakeouts.
Video
compilation
here.
So
Inner City
Press went to
Thursday's UN
noon briefing
and asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey
to explain the
push-back of
the hyped
Liberian
deployment to
Mali. He had
no answer,
even told
Inner City
Press to "ask
DPKO."
First,
UNMIL was
asked and did
not reply.
Second, DPKO's
chief
Ladsous
refuses to
answer, and
his spokesman
Kieran Dwyer
has tried
to justify it,
at end
of video here.
There
are a number
of other
UNsocial media
accounts of UN
Peacekeeping
missions, and
of the UN
Information
Centers run by
the UN
Department
of Public
Information --
some of them
are even
"locked," by
invitation
only.
So much
for social
media, so much
for access.
The
Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
which some
in DPI are
trying
to essentially
outlaw by
ordering the
take-down of a
mere sign
while allowing
two for its
UN Censorship
Alliance, will
be working on
this. Watch
this site
-- and this
new Twitter
feed, @FUNCA_info,
click
here
, 
