Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/serenakabul011408.html
UNITED NATIONS, January 14 -- In the aftermath of the attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul, news stories all over the world quoted UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, meeting in a basement of the hotel, was the target. The quote was based on an impromptu encounter between Mr. Ban and three UN correspondents early Monday afternoon. As Ban approached along the second story corridor of the UN, coming out of a meeting in the Economic and Social Council chamber, one correspondent asked the other two, "What's the question of the day?"
Most questions at the UN's noon press briefing concerned the UN's still-withheld report about the December 11 bombing of UN facilities in Algiers. "I'll ask about Afghanistan," the first reporter said, and did. Mr. Ban quickly said that he was "very much surprised by this terrorist attack against the Foreign Minister of Norway, and I feel fortunate that he was not injured," and then spoke about an event he was headed to in Madrid, of the Alliance of Civilizations. Inner City Press asked, "Where do we stand on getting a new Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan?" Mr. Ban replied, "I am still in the process of talking and interviewing. Thank you."
How well thought-out was the statement that Norway's Jonas Gahr Stoere was the target? Does the UN know more about Afghanistan than member states' intelligence services, none of which had opined on who the target was? In fact, the UN's main Afghanistan expert Mervyn Patterson, who was expelled from the country in late December for allegedly speaking with and carrying money to the Taliban, has still not been able to return. And as noted, the process of naming a new UN chief in Afghanistan is dragging on. So on what was Mr. Ban's statement based?
One of the first wire service reports of the attack, at 14:44 Greenwich Mean Time, involved DPA recounting the speculation of a newspaper in Norway:
"Interior Ministry Spokesman, Zemarai Bashary confirmed that the explosion took place near the Serena Hotel in downtown Kabul, but could not immediately provide further details about the cause or whether there were any casualties. But a report by the Oslo newspaper Aftenposten noted that the Hotel Serena is where Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahre Store is currently staying and that two Norwegian nationals had been injured."
Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson routinely turns away questions by saying the UN will not respond to "press reports." In this case, the UN relied on a press report, and thus created more...
Update of January 15, at the UN noon briefing the day after the above report, Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson acknowledged that "There was really no additional information he had. It was obvious -- and we got the confirmation today -- that what the people targeted was the international presence and that's why the Serena Hotel was targeted. The Secretary-General did not have any special information at that time. However, the fact that the Foreign Minister was present in the hotel led him to believe that maybe it was a targeted attempt against his life."
