By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 26 -- When the new UN North Korean sanctions report was “obtained” by Reuters, then nearly immediately by other Western wire services, some wondered why it was released in this choreographed way.
Reuters did not put the report online, instead making its own choices of which nations to list: “countries such as Brazil, China, Egypt, Greece, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, Russia, Singapore and Thailand.”
But tellingly, there's more.
For example the report at Paragraphs 92-93 says that North Korean ammunition was shipped to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in early 2009.
Why didn't Reuters, which as Inner City Press has noted has (mis) reported that the UN “paused” support to a DRC Army action against the Hutu FDLR militia which had not then even begun, report on this part of the document (which it also didn't put online)?
Similarly, the new DPRK report says that
“88. The Panel continued to investigate a possible connection between an Ethiopian entity (Homicho Ammunition Engineering Industry) and a DPRK entity (Korea Mineral Trading General Corporation) that may have been in violation of the arms embargo. Ethiopian authorities informed the Panel that a “Korea Mineral Trading General Corporation” has been removed from the list of suppliers on the Homicho Ammunition Engineering Industry website. The Panel awaits further information from Ethiopia.”
As Inner City Press noted, when an ex-Reuters reporter who then went on the UN's Group of Experts of the Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group and wrote a “regime change” letter on SEMG letter head was exclusively exposed by Inner City Press and resigned, Reuters never reported on it.
This is how the UN -- and Reuters -- work.
This is how the UN -- and Reuters -- work.
In fact, the Reuters scribe got Google to censor his ownanti-Press “for the record” filing to the UN, here.
Equally comically, the DPRK report says, of “Gifts given by Dennis Rodman and Paddy Power,” that
“Despite the lack of informaiton from Dennis Rodman, the Panel was able to confirm some of the gifts he presented. The Irish company, Paddy Power, which accompanied Mr Rodman on the December 2013 trip, valued the gifts at around $3,000. (Paddy Power's gifts include a bottle of Jameson whiskey, a decanter and glass set, baby clothing and a Mulberry handbag.)
“The US informed the Panel that appropriate measures were taken in response. In addition, it said that it lacked sufficient information at that time to determine whether there was a violation of the luxury goods embargo but that some of the items were “likely to be considered luxury goods... 15 CFR Part 746.
“Ireland informed the Panel that the total value of the good was low and it it constitute a one-off arranged and could not be considered commercial trade. Paddy Power explained that it was unaware that its activities could violate sanctions. Ireland decided not to pursue the case.”
So the US reported to the UN Panel about Dennis Rodman. Inner City Press had asked previous chair of the UN's 1718 Committee, Sylvie Lucas of Luxembourg, about it, here.
On February 26, 2015, the new chair from Spain declined a press gaggle's request for a briefing, how ever bland. He might want to check with Lucas, or her predecessor Ambassador Cabral of Portugal -- such briefings have become expected, and to cancel them would be a step backward, the new Free UN Coalition for Accesssays. We'll have more on this, too.
