As
UN Denies,
Boumedra Tells
ICP Kobler
Chose Photos,
Dropped
Inquiry
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 24 --
Two days ago
the UN
was asked
by Inner City
Press about
the statement
by former UN
Mission in
Iraq human
rights officer
Tahar Boumedra
that current
Special
Representative
of the
Secretary
General in
Iraq Martin
Kobler told
him to only
send out
"positive
photographs"
and to
"falsify
reports" about
Camp Ashraf.
Yesterday the
UN denied
it.
Now, Mr.
Boumedra has
provided more
detail to
Inner City
Press. And the
UN, despite
being provided
a full copy,
has not
addressed it.
In a
12 paragraph
statement to
Inner City
Press, here,
Boumedra
specifies that
it was the
December 2011
photographs
that Kobler
cherry-picked,
and Boumedra
states that
Kobler
repeatedly
told him that
the residents
of the camp
were
"terrorists."
Boumedra
says
that a UN
shelter
specialists
was pressured
into declaring
the facilities
adequate. He
says that a
Memorandum of
Understanding
was watered
down to drop
reference to
human rights
law, and that
Kobler stopped
pushing for an
inquiry into
killings in
the camp in
early 2011.
Back
on August 22,
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
about
Boumedra's
claim that he
was ordered to
only take
photographs of
the positive
things and
essentially
file
inaccurate
reports: "I've
tried to get
an answer from
Mr. Kobler and
others. Do
they deny that
these orders
were given?"
Nesirky
replied
that "it’s
regrettable
that such a
distorted
picture is
being
presented of
the efforts of
the United
Nations in
Iraq to
resolve
peacefully the
situation of
Camp Ashraf,"
then that he'd
"just go back
to what’s
already been
said, and
that’s that it
is a distorted
picture." Video
here from
Minute 46.
But,
Inner City
Press
asked, what is
the UN saying
is distorted:
the picture of
conditions in
the camp, or
the claim that
a UN official,
previously in
charge of
human rights,
was told to
"doctor"
reports?
On
August 23, the
UN provided a
more direct
denial, which
Inner City
Press
immediately
added as an
update, that
"Matthew,
You asked
specifically
about
allegations by
a former staff
member of
misleading use
of photos or
'doctoring' of
reports in
connection
with the work
of the UN on
Camp Ashraf.
We would like
to state very
clearly that
such
allegations
are false."
Inner
City Press
published the
UN's denial,
but
subsequently
received a
direct reply
from Boumedra,
here.
The UN was
provided the
full copy, but
has indicated
it will not
respond. Watch
this site.
, 
