By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UN
System,
April 19 --
Seeking face
time with the
media about
Syria, but
tightly
controlled, UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon late
Thursday
morning read a
statement then
took three
questions.
There was
little
news: the
Secretariat's
letter to the
Security
Council
proposing 300
military
observers for
Syria had
already been
reported.
Ban
emphasized
freedom of
movement and
no
restrictions
on the
nationalities
of the
observers, as
well as air
assets a/k/a
helicopters.
Unasked and
unanswered
is why Ban has
both accepted
and covered
up, under
pressure from
France and
Morocco,
restrictions
on the UN
peacekeepers
in Western
Sahara, as
detailed even
in the recent
twice watered
down
report.
While
Ban now
says that
Syria should
not have imput
into the
natioality of
peacekeepers,
when Inner
City Press
exclusively
covered the
meeting
for Troop
Contributing
Countries
multiple
attendees said
it was "by
invitation
only."
Inner
City Press
asked Ban's
spokesperson's
office which
countries were
invited and
which not, and
why, but has
yet to receive
an answer.
Likewise
questions are
now pending
with the
spokesman for
Joint Special
Envoy
Kofi Annan,
Ahmad Fawzi.
The
focus on air
asset also
merits a
question. Even
where the UN
has a full
peacekeeping
mission, such
as South
Sudan, it was
unable to
quickly
fly up to
Jonglei
earlier this
year and stop
tribal
violence.
If the
UN can't do it
there, how
much less in
Syria? Watch
this site.
