Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un5fowler013009.html
UNITED NATIONS, January 30 -- With the UN's silence about the disappearance of its envoy to Niger, Robert Fowler, growing stranger by the day, Inner City Press on January 29 made inquiries in and out of the UN. Outside the Security Council chamber, Inner City Press asked outgoing Council president Jean-Maurice Ripert of France if Fowler and his colleagues were raised in that morning's closed-down session on international humanitarian law including the protection of UN personnel, or earlier in the month. "Not publicly," Ripert answered.
Later, at a reception a block from the UN, Inner City Press and a colleague asked the lead Ambassador of a Permanent Five member of the Security Council about Fowler's status. He was asked, "is Fowler alive?"
"Yes," the Ambassador answered.
"How do you know?"
"You asked, and I answered. I cannot say more. But we do not have immediate fear for Mr. Fowler's safety. But no one speaks about it. It's quite extraordinary."
[Ed.'s note: the above was quickly picked up, without attribution and therefore double UNsourced, here.]
Inner City Press has asked about Fowler at the UN's noon briefing a half a dozen times. Responses have ranged from "please respect the privacy of his family" to "we have nothing new to report." See December 19 video here, from Minute 10:45. Afterwards off-camera, a senior UN official told Inner City Press to stop asking, it might make "insurance problems."
The UN Development Program, whose driver Soulmania Mounkaila along with Louis Guay was also abducted, has refused comment, including on why no UN security accompanied the trio on their way to and from a Canadian-owned gold mine.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/un5fowler013009.html
