By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unngo3credentials112309.html
UNITED NATIONS, November 23, updates below -- After first taking the entry pass of a non governmental organization which spoke at the General Assembly stakeout after the vote on the Goldstone report on Gaza and then denying it, the UN on November 23 announced that the entry pass would be restored. The NGO disagrees.
As Inner City Press first reported, the NGO was asked to sign a statement or "admission" that it had broken "some security rules." The initially offered statement alleged a political basis for the expulsion, but the UN refused the statement. According to Monday's UN announcement it had apparently been sanitized. But see below.
In the same November 23 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked three question, not a single one of which got answered. Video here, from Minute 19:03. Is the UN aware of Nigerian complaints about the treatment of their countrymen in the Bakassi peninsula? Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe said the Department of Political Affairs would update her if any important new development occurred. So this is not important?
Inner City Press asked about Uzbekistan closing its border with Kazakhstan. Does the UN, which a new center in Ashkabat, have something to say? Ms. Okabe said she would ask the Department of Political Affairs.
How about a read out of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's November 22 meeting with the prime minister of Malaysia? If it was a meal, Ms. Okabe said, we won't have a read out. Not even if Sri Lanka was on the menu?
Worse, when a correspondent asked about Honduras and the elections slated for Sunday, Ms. Okabe answered as if the question were about Pakistan. Video here, from Minute 18:46. In any event -- no comment on either! Watch this site.
Subj: update
From: anne@hudsonny.org
To: mlee@innercitypress.org
Sent: 11/23/2009 10:52:38 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Hi Matthew,Just to let you know that I was told by a reporter this evening that the UN had announced at the noon briefing they had reached an agreement with me to sign some kind of confession written by them and to return my pass thereafter. I am very surprised that the UN would fabricate such an announcement for the world's press knowing full well that no such agreement had been reached. All I knew was that they intended to require me to sign a statement (which they would draft unilaterally) and if I were to sign their statement (which I had not yet seen at the time of the press briefing), then they intended to return my pass.
Watch this site.
Update 2: And 23 and 1/2 hours after the questions was asked, this arrived, which we publish in full:
Subj: Your question on Nigeria and Bakassi
From: unspokesperson-donotreply at un.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 11/24/2009 11:57:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
Regarding your question yesterday about "a call in the Nigerian parliament for the UN to take action about incidents that happened in Nigeria in the Bakasi peninsula and to somehow enforce this Greentree Agreement" ...
"UN Civilian Observers are liaising closely with the Government of Cross-River State in Nigeria to assess the situation of those displaced from Bakassi. The UN is working with both Nigeria and Cameroon in the framework of the Follow-Up Committee to ensure continued compliance with Greentree Agreement."
And on Uzbekistan, even three days later, still nothing. Watch this site.And see, www.innercitypress.com/unngo3credentials112309.html
