By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 4 -- After journalists Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon were killed in Mali, the UN Security Council quickly approved and issued a press statement strongly condemning the assassinations.
The Free UN Coalition for Access deplored the murders too. But in the spirit of journalism, Inner City Press asked: why didn't the Security Council condemn or even note the killing of eight journalists so far this year in Somalia, in which there is also a UN support peacekeeping mission, AMISOM?
By the Security Council on Monday morning, Inner City Press learned more. First, that perhaps seeing the conflict of interest, France the former colonial power in and "pen holder" on Mali did not circulate the statement.
"The United States did it, which was strange,"a Council member told Inner City Press, adding that it seems France asked the US to do it in its stead.
Another source agreed that it is strange, now, that when journalists are killed in Somalia, the UK as pen holder (or the US in its stead) does not circulate any draft press statements.
"Maybe it's more sensitive in Somalia," the source said, going on to acknowledge the "politics" of such statements.
The statement on the killing of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon in Northern Mali uses the words France or French three times, including concluding that "the members of the Security Council reiterated their full support for the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and French forces who support it."
Actually, it was the French army which went in first, in Operation Serval; the UN's MINUSMA went in later, to support the French. For the new Operation Hydra in the North, as noted by Inner City Press, the UN says that MINUSMA is not involved.
The French-drafted Security Council statement begins: "The members of the Security Council strongly condemned the kidnapping and assassination of two French journalists in Kidal, Mali on 2 November 2013."
Journalistically one must ask: why list the nationality of the reporters killed? While condemning their killing, couldn't the identification of journalists with a particular country and its foreign and military policies be a problem?
Also, why didn't the Security Council condemn the killing of eight journalists in Somalia so far this year? Why hasn't it said more, as just one example, of the killing of Congolese journalist Floribert Chebeya for which the Congolese government, as on the 135 rapes in Minova by its own troops, has assigned no accountability?
Outside of Africa, why has the Security Council said nothing of the many killings and disappearances of journalists in Sri Lanka, where UK prime minister David Cameron is set to visit this month for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting? Has he yet seen "No Fire Zone"?
Footnote: Surprise grows, alongside the above, that the UN Security Council which must procure 15 approvals or at least 15 non-objections through silence was able to issue a statement on the killing of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon before UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who held a press conference about Mali on November 1 and now is there. Ban is listed on a press release about the World Bank allocating $1.5 billion to the Sahel. But still nothing on the killing of the journalists.
Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky on November 1 if Ban (and the World Bank's Jim Kim) will be going to northern Mali and Kidal; this question was not answered. Watch this site.
