By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 10 -- When last November 19 Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic came to speak with the media after the UN Security Council session about Kosovo, only three journalists asked questions.
(Inner City Press asked why the OSCE had taken the ballot boxes away, and to where. Dacic said this will be raised in Brussels, as it casts doubt on the results.)
On Monday February 10, things got even more marginal. Kosovo Prime Minister Thaci came out of the Council but declined to speak at the stakeout. Why should he?
Dacic came out ready to go to the stakeout, but was diverted. By the time he made it to the UNTV stakeout, only one media asked questions there: Inner City Press. How can that be? What is happening to the UN, on this issue and others? The Free UN Coalition for Access opposes the dying off or privatization of the Security Council stakeout.
This time Inner City Press asked about returns of Serbs to Kosovo, and about the status of investigations into the harvesting of organs reported on by Dick Marty.
Through an interpreter, whose translation may not have made it onto UNTV, Dacic said the difficulty of returns after 15 years showed the problem. He said the organ investigation must be pursued. But will it be?
The two are speaking with the EU's Cathy Ashton, as they did at the Munich Security Conference. The big issues like the Middle East, North Korea and Iran have moved away from the UN; even this one, with a whimper, is fading away.
Back on November 19 the third questioner asked about discrimination in Serbia. Dacic asked him, where are you from?
From here, he replied. America. Then he added, Kosovo television RTV 21. Kosovo national television.
Dacic smiled, and soon said, I am here to answer questions, not to hear speeches or your opinion. The stakeout was over.
A larger crowd gathered, to discuss after the fact if this is permissible. The Free UN Coalition for Access has questioned it. In the past, the UN let France limit a press conference in the UN briefing room to "French journalists" -- even making one journalist for a pro-Western newspaper in Lebanon show her passport.
More recently, the UN affirmatively let France mark many of the seats in the new briefing room "Reserved" for French traveling journalists. Perhaps most outrageously, the UN has let its Under Secretary for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous openly refuse to answer any answer from Inner City Press. Video compilation here; UK coverage here. And so it goes at the UN. Watch this site.
