By Matthew Russell Lee
UNdisclosed Location, March 21 -- To announce his Syria chemical weapons probe, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon chose to speak Thursday morning in his 38th floor office and not on UN Television - why?
To not be on UNTV taking questions, as those requesting the probe(s) were the day before?
The key issue was whether Ban's UN will look into just the Aleppo March 19 incident raised by the Assad government, or the other alleged or “rumored” uses pushed by France and the UK.
But despite doling out access and a statement to scribes in his office, they left saying it was unclear. Unclear too is why it was done this way.
Let's review: Ban's last UNTV stakeout was on March 5 after a Security Council session on the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ban took two questions -- neither on the Congo -- and turned to leave.
Inner City Press asked, “Question on the Congo?” then asked about the UN's inaction on 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese army, with which the UN partners.
Ban's answer was, yes, unclear, saying “we will do our utmost.”
But under Herve Ladsous, UN Peacekeeping had been dodging the question since at least November 27 (when Ladsous took scribes into the hall to escape the Press question) and December 18, when Ladsous' spokesman seized the UNTV microphone to try to avoid the question from Inner City Press, video here.
How did the UN respond? Two days later on March 8 Ladsous' DPKO summoned scribes who had never asked about the Minova rapes and gave them half answers, which they dutifully reported.
It was and is unclear: which two units of the Congolese army have been threatened with loss of support, and what is the deadline? The scribes didn't mention this.
On March 8 as Inner City Press at the Security Council stakeout answered another journalist's question about Ladsous' sleight of hand, or slight of scribe, Agence France Presse's Tim Witcher cut in to hiss, “Lies and distortion.” Inner City Press replied, “Lapdog.”
Using this, Witcher and Reuters correspondent Michelle Nichols filed bogus complaints with UN Security. Twice in the next week it was demanded of Inner City Press that it submit a written response to complaints it was not shown a copy or summary of.
Inner City Press raised this to the head of the Department of Public Information on March 15, asking again as the NY Civil Liberties Union did in mid 2012 for due process rules, which DPI official Stephane Dujarric denied.
On March 18 without notice or consent, DPI's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit raided Inner City Press' office, going through papers.
UN Correspondents Association president Pamela Falk of CBS was there taking pictures. That has yet to be explained -- but the UN did demand that Inner City Press remove from YouTube a video it openly filmed, post raid.
The UN's strategy, as bigger picture on this Syria probe announcement, is UNclear. Watch this site.
