Serbia PM Dacic Answers Just One Media (on Organ Harvesting Case) on UNTV, Kosovo PM Thaci Not At All

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.

   

As UN Misses Gbagbo Forces' Deadly Raid on Opposition Office, Ban's Spokesman Passes Buck to DPKO Missions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 4 -- What is the UN doing in Cote d'Ivoire and whom is it protecting? After forces of Laurent Gbagbo raided the offices of the opposition Democratic Party of Ivory Coast, Inner City Press asked the UN to confirm whether one or four people had been killed, and to state where other that the Golf Hotel is it protecting, even just in Abidjan.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky, who earlier spoke about the ONUCI Mission's “patrols,” replied that UN peacekeepers had “sought to gain access but it was not yet possible.”

Inner City Press asked whether the UN was purporting to protect offices of opposition political parties, or by implication their officials.

“The focus is the Golf Hotel,” Nesirky said. As the UN says when civilians are slaughtered or raped in Eastern Congo, he said UN peacekeepers “can't be everywhere all the time.” Here we're talking about a foreseeable attack on an opposition politicial party's office right in Abidjan. The UN couldn't be there?

Outside the UN Security Council, Inner City Press learned that the Council will in all probability have consultations on Cote d'Ivoire on January 5. “We're still consulting” a source told Inner City Press, “but it looks like it will be tomorrow.

At the noon briefing, Nesirky added that he would “defer to [his] colleagues in the Mission” to provide further answers. Video here, from Minute 22:22.

Nesirky, who is the spokesman not only for Ban Ki-moon but for the UN Secretariat, which includes UN peacekeeping missions, increasingly engages in this passing of the buck. In just the past ten days, he has told Inner City Press to go ask the UN Mission in Kosovo about a UN judge who let an organ theft defendant go free.

He has allowed the UN - African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur to go 11 days without answering a question about rape by Sudan government officials right next to UN peacekeepers.

Most recently Nesirky has told to go ask MINUSTAH in Haiti how much the UN pays an official. We'll have more on that one, and the others. Watch this site.

UN in Kosovo Accused of Cover Up of Organ Trade & Press Beating, Silent

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 27 -- Accused of covering up the harvest and sale of organs of prisoners of war in Kosovo, the UN has had nothing to say for the past 11 days. Nor has it commented on reports of the beating of a journalist directly in front of its UNMIK headquarters in Pristina for the past five days.

On December 27, the UN simply ignored the organ question altogether. Back on December 16, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq:

Inner City Press: I wanted to know if the UN system or UNMIK [United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] has any response to this Council of Europe report saying that Kosovo’s Prime Minister [Hashim] Thaci was involved in an organ-trading ring — and that the UN knew that, that’s one of the allegations.

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: We are aware of the report; we’ve seen the reports coming out from the Council of Europe and are studying what they have to say. At this stage, there is nothing further to say by way of response, but obviously we’ll continue to study it and may have a response down the line.

Ten days later, with the UN not having said anything even as the charges grew more specific, Inner City Press asked Haq and Ban's main spokesman Martin Nesirky, who unilaterally canceled all noon press briefings for this week, the following question in writing:

Please comment on reports of Serbia's request for an ICTY investigation of Soren Jessen Petersen for contempt of court during his time with UNMIK, see http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/un-covered-organ-trafficking-report-says-serbia

The question was submitted on December 26, with a deadline of 12:30 pm on December 27. But an hour before that deadline, Haq responded only that "UNHQ is closed on Monday."

At 11:30 am on December 27, Ban's Haq sent this:

From: Farhan Haq [at] un.org
To: Inner City Press, Martin Nesirky [at] un.org
Date: Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 11:32 AM
Re: Press Qs on Cote d'Ivoire, Darfur, Sri Lanka and Kosovo (and old questions... reiterated re [26] days ago

UNHQ is closed on Monday. Thanks.

But has UNMIK in Kosovo been closed for the past ten or five days? Given the ten days of non response to the December 16 question, and the five days of non response to the December 23 question about the beaten reporter, the snow (job) is the issue. On December 23, Inner City Press had asked Haq:

Inner City Press: there is a case in Kosovo of a journalist that was beaten right in front of the UNMIK [United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] headquarters. A regional press group has put out call saying that, you know, this is a… that attacks on journalists must cease in Kosovo. But I am wondering, particularly given [that] it happened in front of UNMIK, whether UNMIK has had anything to say about that?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: I am not aware of any recent communications by UNMIK, but we can check with them.

Apparently, in the five days after, Haq never did check with UNMIK. Watch this site.