By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 11 -- Amid complaints about the UN again dumping feces by rivers in Haiti, funding mercenaries in Somalia and being soft on the Sudanese Armed Forces, the UN in New York has simply stopped answering questions.
A day after Inner City Press reported that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's lead spokesman Martin Nesirky plans not to return to the UN until September 17, while his deputy Farhan Haq canvassed select reporters to justify curtailing even his ten minute noon briefings, virtually none of the questions asked at Thursday's noon briefing were answered by the UN on August 10.
After the SPLM complained that soldiers from Khartoum remain in control of contested Abyei, despite the UN force of Ethiopian troops being there, Inner City Press asked Associate Spokesperson Vannina Maestracci when the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, which is paying for and ostensibly overseeing UNISFA, thinks the Sudan Armed Forces are supposed to leave. The question was not answered.
Inner City Press asked about a media report that in Darfur a local staff member of the UN WFP was killed. Thursday afternoon, the Office of the Spokesperson read out over its squawk system that no staffer was killed. Inner City Press e-mailed Maestracci, Nesirky and Haq, as well as WFP, with the media report, saying that Ahmaday Mohammad Omar, an employee of the World Food Program, was killed by an armed group in West Darfur on Tuesday. His wife and child were also killed in the incident."
WFP's spokesperson in New York replied that "Security tells WFP that no WFP staff member was shot dead in Darfur today."
Since August 11 is Thursday, the answer is not complete. Inner City Press send a follow up email to WFP, Maestracci, Nesirky and Haq: "does WFP have an employee named Ahmaday Mohammad Omar? If so, is the individual alive? If not alive, how and when did he die?"
But by deadline, no response was received.
Since Ban Ki-moon was described in the Korean press as saying that it is "too soon" to remove UN sanctions on North Korea, Inner City Press asked Maestracci what Ban thought of the move by the US and others to impose more sanctions on Eritrea, in the midst of famine in the Horn of Africa. Maestracci genially said she doubted there would be an answer.
But why would Ban comment on Korean sanctions but not Eritrean? Or Libya? Because he is in South Korea, Maestracci said. Some wonder: or is it because Ban is Korean? If he traveled to Eritrea, or Libya, would he there talk about sanctions on those countries?
Inner City Press asked about reports of mercenaries in Somalia "funded by the United Nations and the U.S. State Department, Bancroft Global Development has provided training in a range of military services, from bomb disposal and sniper training" and was told an answer would be forthcoming. Five hours later, none was.
Even questions about the UN's own actions in its headquarters in New York were not answered. Citing the lack of a boom microphone at the Security Council stakeouts on August 10 about Somalia and Syria which leadtranscripts of stakeouts including by Ambassador Susan Rice by the US Mission to the UN to list most journalists' questions as "inaudible," Inner City Press asked about the UN's giving layoff notices to seven more broadcast engineers, on top of 17 positions already eliminated.
Maestracci said she wouldn't necessarily connect layoffs to the lack of a boom microphone, but said she would look into both. But by deadline, no answer at all had been received.
With questions pending about Sudan soldiers still in Abyei, UN peacekeepers dumping feces in Haiti, layoffs and what some see as double standards by Ban Ki-moon, how can the UN stonewall and even try to cancel its 10 minute noon briefings? Watch this site.
