By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, September 18 -- Human Rights Watch has just put out of press release demanding that "UN Members," including those which never joined or later quit the International Criminal Court, oppose Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir coming to speak at the UN General Debate.
But HRW has said nothing when UN official Herve Ladsous met with Bashir in July. Nor did HRW say anything when UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier met with Bashir, and Sudan issued a detailed read-out. (The UN told Inner City Press it had just been a photo.)
If the highest UN officials can meet with Bashir, without a peep from HRW, by what logic are they calling on all member states to speak out against Bashir?
Inner City Press has asked HRW to disclose, for example, at a minimum the issues raised when its director Ken Roth met with Ban Ki-moon.
Did HRW raise Ban's terse dismissal of claims of having brought cholera to Haiti, which killed over 8,000 people? Were safeguards for Ladsous' use of drones in Eastern Congo, in which he has a disturbing history, urged on the UN?
HRW's UN lobbyist, who formerly reported on or from the UN for Le Monde and France 24, eventually told Inner City Press that HRW would not even disclose a list of topics raised, in order to maintain access to the UN.
Is that why HRW has said nothing about Ladsous' and Ban's meetings with Bashir?
Ken Roth and his UN lobbyist are "all in" on stonewalling on and enabling Ladsous' and Ban's meetings with Bashir. But what about Elise Keppler or Sarah Margon, listed on the press release? What about Lewis Mudge?
Wednesday, HRW is undercutting a UN and Austrian session about human rights challenges by going forward on Central African Republic with a faux UN briefing, as Saudi-sponsored Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba held, in the clubhouse of the UN Correspondents Association. (UNCA's trolling first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters has been shown to spy for the UN, click here for that; another Executive Committee Tim Witcher has filed a complaint with the UN about how Ladsous was asked a question about the Congo by Inner City Press.)
Will HRW at the event in UNCA's clubhouse publicized only to those who pay money offer any criticism of the UN or of France, which delayed a UNSC resolution on the Central African Republic because, it said, all of its main diplomats were on vacation in August? We will not be there. Watch this site.
