Friday, February 28, 2014

On Sri Lanka, No Specific UN Comment on Censorship, Ban is Generally for Web Access, But Not for UN Complaints? Rights Up Front Sans LKA


By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 28 -- While Sri Lanka's Mahinda Rajapaksa claims his government does not block websites, the Colombo Telegraph says (and shows) different. At the UN, Inner City Press on February 28 asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's outgoing spokesperson Martin Nesirky if Ban or the UN Country Team has any view in this regard. Video here.

  Nesirky replied that he doesn't have a directly link to the Country Team, which will be reporting back, and that he would not characterize Ban's view on this particular matter -- this blocking from the Internet.
  But, Nesirky continues, generally freedom of expression "we consider very important," including free access to the Web and information on it.
  On February 27 in a memorial of the Rwanda genocide, Ban brought up his "Rights Up Front" plan - without a single mention of the failure in Sri Lanka that led to it. Can you say, in denial?

  As Inner City Press and others reported earlier this month, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is calling for an independent, international inquiry into war crimes in Sri Lanka. Here are three paragraphs from her report, just online by the UN today, here 
new evidence -- including witness testimony, video and photographic material -- continues to emerge on the events that took place in the final stages of the armed conflict. Human remains are also still being discovered, for instance in Matale, in November 2012, and Mannar, in December 2013.
72. As the emblematic cases highlighted above show, national mechanisms have consistently failed to establish the truth and achieve justice. The High Commissioner believes this can no longer be explained as a function of time or technical capacity, but that it is fundamentally a question of political will. The Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts and the initiatives taken by international non-governmental organizations have shown that witnesses are willing to come forward to testify to international inquiry mechanisms that they trust and can guarantee their protection. For this reason, the High Commissioner remains convinced that an independent, international inquiry would play a positive role in eliciting new information and establishing the truth where domestic inquiry mechanisms have failed. In the absence of a credible national process, she believes the international community has a duty to take further steps, which will advance the right to truth for all in Sri Lanka and create further opportunities for justice, accountability and redress.
73. The High Commissioner reiterates her concern at the continuing trend of attacks on freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, particularly against human rights defenders, journalists and families of victims, the rising levels of religious intolerance, and continued militarization, which continue to undermine the environment where accountability and reconciliation can be achieved. She therefore reiterates and updates the recommendations made in her previous report to the Human Rights Council, most of which remain unimplemented.
Where is the UN Secretariat on this? When last Inner City Press asked, Ban Ki-moon's office of the spokesperson said it is up to member states.
This UN remains shrouded in mystery, some say, worse. After Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Sri Lankan Youth and Skills Development Minister Dullas Alahapperuma and Ambassador Palitha Kohona on February 18, Inner City Press on February 19 asked Ban's outgoing spokesperson Martin Nesirky if Alahapperuma had invited Ban to Colombo in May for a youth conference. Video here and embedded below.
  Nesirky said among other things that the UN is not in the habit of disclosing what its interlocutors say. (The UN refused the request at the beginning of 2014 of the Free UN Coalition for Access for a read out of even Ban's side of his call to the president of his native South Korea, and its more recent request for a tape of Ban's Q&A with the board of the United Nations Correspondents Association.)
  Later on Feburary 19, Inner City Press asked Alahapperuma himself: did you invite Ban to Colombo? The answer was, Yes. Some ask, why wouldn't the UN just say it? To protect Sri Lanka?

 On February 18 Inner City Press attended the photo op, as sole independent media. Before Inner City Press was spirited out of the meeting room, Ban asked the Sri Lankan delegation about President Mahinda Rajapaksa. See video here and embedded below.

 Back on February 6, Inner City Press asked Ban's acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq about Sri Lanka: (Haq's line "whether there's any wrongdoing" was picked up in the Sri Lankan media, for example here)
Inner City Press: I wanted to know whether the Secretariat has seen this report out of a human rights group in Australia, essentially saying that during the Sri Lanka event, in the final stages of the conflict, that there was a destruction and concealment of mass graves and also that its been… on a list of countries in which mass atrocities are still quite possible. I wanted to know, given the Secretariat’s interest in 2009 and this Rights Up Front project, what’s the response to this new study?
Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: We’ve made it clear that there needs to be more done to get at the heart of what happened in Sri Lanka. You’ve seen what the Secretary-General’s reports on the situation have said and it’s clear that there continues to be a need for all the facts to be learned and for there to be a study of whether there’s any wrongdoing that’s occurred in the course of the final phases of the Sri Lankan conflict. The Secretary-General has said that repeatedly and we continue to hold by that.
Inner City Press: An international process? Just one follow-up, because it’s been a number of years now: Is a national process still credible or should it be done in Geneva?
Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Ultimately, it’s up to different Member States to determine whether there will be an international process. We have presented information to them and we’ve made clear what we believe is the need for accountability and we rely on the Member States’ judgment to follow through.
So the claim is that Ban wants facts and accountability. Did either come up in his meeting with the Sri Lankan minister and ambassador?
  Eighteen days after Inner City Press asked about the detailed report on Sri Lanka, there's still no UN Secretariat comment. But on February 18, Ban Ki-moon through spokesperson Martin Nesirky said he is "deeply disturbed" by... North Korea.
  On February 12, Tamils protested across from the UN, chanting, "Shame on you, Ban Ki-moon," watched over by a Sinhalese UN Security officer who asked a photographer, member of the Free UN Coalition for Access, for his photographs of the protest. 
  FUNCA was formed after the board of the old UN Correspondents Association screened inside the UN the Rajapaksa government's film denying the war crimes charges in "Lies Agreed To," which was not shown in the UN. When Inner City Press reported on the past financial relationship of Sri Lankan ambassador Palitha Kohona with UNCA's then president, there were demands that the article be taken off the Internet, followed by requests from within the UNCA board that Inner City Press be thrown out of the UN. Click here, here for a story from earlier today, including about the UN making it hard to cover a UN peacekeeping advisory meeting involving Shavendra Silva.
Here's the UN's read out - no mention of accountability:
The Secretary-General met today with H.E. Mr. Dullas Alahapperuma, Minister for Youth Affairs and Skills Development of Sri Lanka.
The Secretary-General and the Minister discussed the importance of advancing the global agenda for and on behalf of youth, and the importance of youth participation in efforts to tackle major global challenges, including unemployment. The Secretary-General drew particular attention to the role of the youth in peace, reconciliation and ending violence.
They also discussed the upcoming World Conference on Youth, to be held in May in Colombo, and its potential contribution to the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
Talk about undercutting the move toward accountability being attempted in Geneva in March. Watch this site.

   
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At UN, Required Reporting Meeting Six Weeks Late Overlaps With UNSC on Ukraine, UNCA 15 Didn't Ask


By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 28 -- While the UN Secretariat has essentially broken the Staff Union by refusing to recognize the slate that got the most votes in the election held in December, citing procedural violations, today another more obvious procedural breech is scheduled by the UN Secretariat's partner, the United Nations Correspondents Association.

   That group, which in 2012 tried openly and by stealth to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN and became the UN's Censorship Alliance, is required by its own online "Constitution" to hold its general meeting and financial report in the first half of January. 

    Under 2013-14 president Pamela Falk it never happened; it has twice been postponed. Now it is six weeks late, scheduled for today at 3 pm, simultaneously with a UN Security Council meeting about Ukraine.

   But the UN Secretariat and Spokesperson's Office, unlike the approach to breaking the Staff Union which actually at times challenges them, says nothing. 
   In fact, a question and answer session was held this month by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the 15 members of UNCA's Executive Committee the transcript or tape of which was never given to other journalists, even UNCA members not among the fifteen.
   Nesirky confirmed that the UNCA executive committee members did not even bring up Ukraine and the disrepute the UN was brought into by the leak that former US official Jeffrey Feltman "got" Ban to send Robert Serry to Ukraine to, in the now-famous phrase, "F*** the EU."
  After not asking that critical UN question, now UNCA as representated by Falk repeats or retweets news about Ukraine, cc-ing UN_Spokesperson. Despite all this, and the fact that when deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey left, his farewell was (appropriately) in the Spokesperson's large office, the farewell as week from now will be in the big room the UN gives UNCA, with its own kitchenette: the UN's Censorship Alliance.
  The censorship goes beyond trying to get the investigative Press -- and others -- thrown out. Inner City Press was ordered to remove from the Internet a story about Sri Lanka and seeming conflict of interest within UNCA's leadership, and was browbeaten about an article about UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous.
  While neither article was removed, one of the "for the record" complaints to the UN Accreditation official now slated to become Ban Ki-moon's new spokesperson on March 10 has been banned from Google's search following a bogus Digital Millennium Copyright Act filing, click here to view: outright censorship.
  (Ironically on February 28 when Inner City Press asked about the banning of a website by the Sri Lankan government, Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson said Ban is committed to free access to the Internet. What about this?)
 To the same UN official, an explicitly internal UNCA document was provided, with the notation "you didn't get this from me," three minutes after the pass-through committed that the document would remain within UNCA:click here for that.
  Under Falk, has UNCA even attempted reforms such as a commitment against censorship, not to spy for the UN or seek to get other journalists thrown out of the UN, or ban things from the Internet? No.
  While UNCA's "leadership" parties, some long time journalists have been thrown out of the UN; others are losing work space and working conditions at the stakeout have declined. The new Free UN Coalition for Access is taking this on. 
  Tellingly, when a petition for at least a journalists' work table at the Security Council stakeout was submitted, the response was to browbeat those who'd signed and ask them why they'd signed. This is the UN. Watch this site.

  
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Exclusive: After 50 Rapes by Mai Mai Morgan in DR Congo This Month, Silent UN Slammed to Inner City Press by Whistleblowers


By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, February 28 -- A mass rape in Eastern Congo earlier this month by the Mai Mai Morgan militia group, with links to the Congolese Army, is being covered up the UN Mission MONUSCO, whistleblowers in UN Peacekeeping have exclusively told Inner City Press.
They say that over 50 women were raped over three days around February 8 in the villages of Zalana and Mbango near Mambasa, and that the UN Mission has been aware of it since at latest February 12. Why hasn't the UN spoken out?
Mai Mai Morgan, led by elephant poacher and illegal gold miner Paul Sadala a/k/a Morgan a/k/a Chuck Norris, has links with parts of the Congolese Army FARDC who are also involved in the illegal gold trade. For that reason, they say, Congolese authorities do not arrest or even speak much about Mai Mai Morgan.
And now the UN has gone silent too.
This comes the same week as US Secretary of State John Kerry and his UK counterpart William Hague held a press conference in Washington about sexual violence in conflict; it is a topic on which UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says the UN has "zero tolerance." But the whistleblowers ask, why then the silence about these rapes?
  In the run up to a meeting of UN Special Representatives of the Secretary General, to be attended by Ban Ki-moon himself, the whistleblowers asked when MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler knew about these rapes, if not why not, and if so: why the silence?
  The UN's silence, the whistleblowers say, stands in contrast to how the UN highlighted every alleged abuse by the M23 rebels in the run-up to MONUSCO's "Force Intervention Brigade" attacking and neutralizing them. 
  There, human rights reporting fed into a military strategy. Here, with the Congolese Army linked to Mai Mai Morgan, the UN does not report abuses the whistleblower say the UN is aware of. Watch this site.

   
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As DPRK's Ja Song Nam Gives UN Credentials to Ban Ki-moon, Kim Won-soo Says Congratulations


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 28 -- When the new Permanent Representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Ja Song Nam came to the UN to hand his credentials to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, there were more than ten camera-people who arrived 30 minutes early to attend.
In the Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit it was said this was the most interest in the UN's 38th floor since the last General Assembly debate in September 2013.
Inner City Press had asked if outgoing Permanent Representative Sin Son Ho had made any farewell courtesy call on Ban Ki-moon, formerly South Korea's foreign minister. No, was the answer.
Along with ten other camera-people, Inner City Press was screened by electronic wand and a sniffing dog; there was a forty five minute waiting period first on the 37th floor then on 38 in the "Brian Urquhart Room," complete with a miniature Security Council donated by Mozambique and a small model tank given by Pakistan.
Finally the photo gaggle was called into Ban's conference room. The Under Secretary General of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, from China, was there, as was Ban's senior advisor Kim Won-soo.
Ja Song Nam was ushered in and counseled by Ban's chief of protocol. Then Ban entered from his office, shook hands and exchanged some few words in Korean with Ja Song Nam.
Kim Won-soo said, in English, congratulations. Then they went back into Ban's office, and the camera-people were asked to leave. Is it a new era? Watch this site.

   
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Yanukovych Resurfaces, No Answer on Submarine, Says Deal with 3 FMs Broken, Crimea Autonomy?


By Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press Follow Up
UNITED NATIONS, February 28 -- In a surreal press conference in Rostov on Don in Russia, Viktor Yanukovych reappeared with a week-long travelogue and a call for Crimean autonomy but not independence.

    Yanukovych said the February 21 agreement, involving three European foreign minister, was immediately violated. "We need to come back to it," he said.

   A self-described Ukrainian journalist asked if Yanukovych used a submarine to flee, and if he's met with Putin. (Then he was cut off.)  Yanukovych said he spoke with Putin by telephone; he did not answer on the submarine.

   How fast could post Yanukovych Ukraine get US money or loan guarantees? On the afternoon of February 26 came this on the record statement by State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki:

"The United States is continuing to consider a range of options, including loan guarantees, to support Ukraine economically. But no decision has been made and the next step is the formation of a multi-party, technical government. Once that government is formed we will begin to take immediate steps, in coordination with multilateral and bilateral partners, that could compliment an IMF package, to support Ukraine."
  There was a lot of chatter about a $1 billion US loan guarantee, including from a roundtable by Secretary of State John Kerry held after he did an interview with Andrea Mitchell. Oh, This Town or #ThisTown. So which is it?
  On February 27, the IMF's Christine Lagarde announced that the new Ukraine has asked for an IMF program; her spokesperson Gerry Rice said an IMF team on be 'on the ground' next week.
   On February 25 the shift in Ukraine was echoed on the US Eastern seaboard. At the UN in New York, Ukraine's Yanukovych-era Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev canceled his 11 am press conference - though we can now link to this video of his "I am with you" moment with demonstrators outside the Ukrainian mission in New York.
  Two hours after his February 25 cancellation, in Washington, journalists Inner City Press knows from covering the International Monetary Fund took the short walk to the US State Department's briefing to ask about pre-conditions. Follow the money.
  Back at the UN, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky said he didn't know how long Ban's Middle East coordinator Robert Serry will stay in Ukraine. (He was still there on February 26.) 
  Just how high profile there does Serry's past stint as Dutch Ambassador in Kyiv make him? What similar former ambassador might Ban Ki-moon have to offer in Thailand? Just how (un) relevant has the UN become?
   Back on Sunday morning US John Kerry spoke with Russia's Sergey Lavrov and, according to a senior State Department official, expressed hope
"that the Russian Federation will join with us, the European Union and its member states, and other concerned countries to help Ukraine turn the page and emerge from this crisis stronger... He also underscored the United States' expectation that Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and democratic freedom of choice will be respected by all states."  
   Later @JohnKerry himself tweeted kudos to previous Secretary of State nominee Susan Rice, how well she had done on Ukraine NBC's Meet the Press. (As noted, David Gregory said one million have died in Syria, click here for that.)
  There, Rice mentioned working with the EU and the International Monetary Fund. Yes, it's the IMF that's meant by "appropriate international organization," and not the United Nations.
  What David Gregory gleaned from the leaked call to Geoff Pyatt was that Russia leaked it -- no mention of the plan, at least at that time, to use the UN to F- the EU. How much has change since then - including the UN being back on the margins.
  And so it occurs to ask: could Russia benefit from Ukraine being raised in the UN Security Council, where it has a veto, as it doesn't (but the US does) at the IMF? Could the UN oversee a deal, on which Russia says the opposition has already reneged?
  Then again, if Russia were to "pull an Abkhazia" (or South Ossetia) in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, it could be the Westerners trying to get the UN to condemn it. But in the Security Council, Russia has a veto. Again: UNrelevant. 
As with the State Department's February 22 Kerry - Lavrov readout, it might be surprising to some that Sunday's does not include anything on Syria, on which the UN Security Council passed a resolution on February 22. But left unmentioned even as to Ukraine is the East / West split, particularly with regard the Crimea, Donetsk and the wider Donbass. Could Ukraine's "territorial integrity," the mantra at the UN, be in jeopardy? 
  Back on Friday February 21, Presidents Obama and Putin had a phone conversation which a Senior US State Department Official called "positive" and at the US' initiative.
  The official said that Yanukovych has gone on a trip to Kharkiv in his eastern base in the country, "for some kind of meeting that's taking place out there," and recounted a rumor that the deposed interior minister has fled to Belarus.
  US State Department official William Burns will be heading to Ukraine; Vice President Joe Biden has spoken nine times with Yanukovych: twice in November, once in December, three times in January and on February 4, 18 and 20. Even Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel finally got through to his Ukraine's counterpart, Lebedev.
  Amid the self-congratulation, the United Nations was once again on the margins. The UN has made much of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's talk with Yanukovych at the Sochi Olympics, and another phone call today.
  But tellingly, the Senior US State Department Official while citing a "good offices" role for "the international community" did not mention the UN once, in opening remarks nor in response to the eight questions taken. (Two were from the New York Times, the second of which referred to Putin's call with "President Bush.")  An overly long question from Le Figaro was cut off.
 Back on February 19 when Lithuania's foreign minister Linas Linkevieius came to the UN Security Council stakeout, that country seemed to be the one to ask him about. Inner City Press asked Linkevieius about his visit to Washington; he replied among other things that there is a need for "more coordination." Video here.
  Later on February 19 a US Senior State Department Official told the press that "Russia has not been transparent about what they are doing in Ukraine," citing that Russia for example does not provide read-outs of its contacts in Ukraine. 
  The US' own high level contacts have gotten more difficult: "they are not picking up the phone," the official said, adding that three European Union foreign ministers are on their way.
  Of the four questions Linkevieius took at his UN stakeout, one was on the UN's North Korea report, another on Venezuela. A Russian reporter waiting at the stakeout with his hand raised was not given a question. This is the UN.
  Moments later at the UN's February 19 noon briefing, outgoing UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky was asked about a perceived double standards in responses to Bosnia and Ukraine. (The question was echoed on February 20, comparing Ukraine with Bahrain). Nesirky said every situation is different -- of course -- and also said the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had met for 90 minutes in Sochi with President Yanukovych.
  Ironically the US Senior State Department Official on February 19 was asked about Yanukovych becoming more hardline after his visit to Sochi. From Foggy Bottom to Turtle Bay, the view is different -- in the case of the UN, often marginal and self-serving. For example, Ban Ki-moon gave no read-out of his beginning of the year call with the president of his native South Korea.
  Ah, transparency. Watch this site.

Footnote: On the Obama - Putin "positive" call, Inner City Press muses it may signal a 15-0 vote in the UN Security Council on the Syria humanitarian resolution about which Inner City Press asked State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf earlier on February 21, click here for that.

   
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Thursday, February 27, 2014

US Human Rights Unit Reports on UNSC Allies, Of French Roma But No Spying, Palestine Not Listed, Sri Lanka at HRC in March


By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 27 -- While the UN Security Council on Thursday morning held a closed-door "private" meeting, 200 miles south Secretary of State John Kerry was releasing the US' annual Human Rights Report with lists among countries and areas Western Sahara and Kosovo, but not Palestine.
 
  (There's a report on "Israel and The Occupied Territories.")

  Both Western Sahara and Kosovo, for example, are on the agenda of the UN Security Council, unlike Sri Lanka, and so Inner City Press thought it'd be a good time to look at the US' assessment of its allies on the Council.


  And today's US report says, of Australia, "the main human rights problems reported were.. discrimination against indigenous people; and policies affecting asylum seekers, including lengthy detention and austere detention center conditions for some arriving to Australia by sea." 



"The most significant human rights problems during the year included an increasing number of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim incidents. There also were government evictions of Roma from illegal camps and overcrowded and unhygienic conditions in prisons, compounded by problems in the judicial system, including lengthy pretrial detention and protracted investigations and trials. Other human rights problems reported included instances of excessive use of force by police, societal violence against women, and trafficking in persons."

  The US report notes as it must, even beyond Morocco reportedly described as France's "mistress," the country's explicitly colonial holdings, which are still extensive:

"Four overseas territories in French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and La Reunion have the same political status as the 22 metropolitan regions and 101 departments on the mainland. Five divisions are overseas 'collectivities': French Polynesia, Saint-Barthelemy, Saint-Martin, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, and Wallis and Futuna. New Caledonia is a special overseas collectivity with a unique, semi autonomous status between an independent country and an overseas department. Mayotte became the 101st department in 2011."

  And what about discrimination? What about France's "unique" approach to (non) freedom of the press?

  Of ally South Korea, homeland of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the US says "the primary human rights problems reported were the government’s interpretation of the National Security Law (NSL) and other laws to limit freedom of expression and restrict access to the internet, and the jailing of conscientious objectors to military service...The government also restricted workers’ rights and interfered with the right to strike."

   Well. Even Lithuania, which just finished up its month as Security Council president without holding a single question and answer stakeout, comes in for this critique: "Some prisons continued to be overcrowded and in poor condition, and lengthy pretrial detention remained a problem. There were open manifestations of intolerance, including xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and prejudice based on sexual orientation and identity. Roma continued to live in poor conditions in areas of high crime facing social exclusion and discrimination. Additional problems included interference with the privacy of persons, [and] libel and antidiscrimination laws that limited freedom of expression."

  Among the lightest criticism in the US report is for Luxembourg: "Due to a high level of asylum requests, the government was slow to adjudicate asylum claims. Other human rights problems reported during the year included cases of domestic violence against women and allegations of trafficking, primarily of women, for sexual exploitation."

  Of the special relationship with the UK, there's no mention of spying for example or the case against David Miranda. Instead the US says:

"During the year there were significant reported incidences of sexual crimes, including the sexual exploitation of children, rape, and domestic violence. Hate crimes, based on factors including race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, and disability were a serious problem, and both the British Crime Survey and a Northern Ireland Policing Board report suggested such crimes were underreported. There were also reported incidences of child labor and trafficking in persons in the UK and in Anguilla and Montserrat. Other human rights problems included mistreatment of prisoners in the women’s and youths’ prisons in Northern Ireland, 'heavy-handed' tactics by police in round-ups of illegal immigrants, some cases of forced or early marriage, anti-Semitic crimes, discrimination against Travellers (a distinct ethnic group with its own history and culture), different legal age for consensual sex for gays and lesbians in Bermuda, reported deaths in prison, unequal pay for equal work between women and men, and limitations on the right to strike."

  In his prepared remarks releasing the Human Rights Report, Secretary of State Kerry said, "We will do it in Sri Lanka, where the government still has not answered basic demands for accountability and reconciliation, where attacks on civil society activists, journalists, and religious minorities, sadly, still continue. Our concern about this ongoing situation has led the United States to support another UN Human Rights Council resolution at the March session."

  But when BBC America got its chance to interview acting Assistant Secretary of State Uzra Zeya, after she raised Syria and North Korea, the BBC America anchor asked only about Ukraine, whether it could have been foreseen. And so it goes. Watch this site.

   
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In UNSC Month, No Questions Taken by Lithuania on Somalia, Lebanon or Guinea Bissau Statements


By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 27 -- How much credit should the monthly president of the UN Security Council take or get for the number of press statements adopted?

  Concluding its month as president, Lithuania's mission to the UN on February 27 bragged of four Resolutions, three Presidential Statements, 10 Press Statements, 14 public meetings & eight consultations, calling this the "highest number of products delivered since 2012."

  Notably, there appear to have been no question and answer stakeouts by the Mission with the media after these eight consultations. (Only the Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevicius took questions during his visit which included a stakeout featuring the EU's Catherine Ashton).

  Even when a Press Statement on Guinea Bissau was read out by the Lithuanian Mission on February 26, no questions about the briefing or consultations behind it were answered or taken. 
   The number of Press Statements in a month is largely a product of the number of terrorist incidents in the month, not the Security Council presidency's acumen.  In February there were three Press Statements on attacks in Lebanon, and two in Somalia.
   Even if controversial -- many are boilerplate denunciations of acts of terrorism -- the statements are drafted by the country which "holds the pen," France for Lebanon and the UK from Somalia, not by the president.
  One thing the presidency DOES control is how transparent it tried to be, including at least endeavoring to hold a question and answer stakeout after closed consultations. China's Liu Jieyi, for example, held nine such Q&A stakeouts in his recent months as president.
   But no Q&A stakeouts? And not even yet answering aquestion, rather than praise, on the lack of transparency?Another answer said Lithuania will aim for better going forward. We will be looking for that.
  As the most recent example, on February 26 the Security Council issued a Press Statement, now here, on which the Lithuanian deputy who read-out the statement took no questions.
   Three months ago, when UN envoy Jose Ramos-Horta came to brief in person, Inner City Press asked him about the proposed Amnesty Law for the authors of the 2012 coup. Ramos-Horta on November 26 expressed support for it only if there are iron-clad commitments by the military to stay out of politics. So: a conditional amnesty that would end if that commitment were broken?
  So on February 26, when Lithuania's Deputy Permanent Representative Rita Kazragiene came out to read the Council's press statement, including "the fight against impunity," Inner City Press waited and once she was finished asked if the Amnesty Law, which Ramos-Horta spoke about, had come up in consultations.  
  But Rita Kazragiene declined to answer any questions. One wonders why, given that the Security Council and UN have a hard enough time trying to raise the profile of the problems in Guinea Bissau. Why NOT answer a question?
  At the beginning of the month, Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access urged that Lithuania come to the stakeout and take questions after each closed door consultation. As noted, during China's more recent presidency, for example, Permanent Representative Liu Jieyi held nine Q&A stakeouts.  
  So far during this, Lithuania's, month, with all the scheduled meetings over and only one day left? None. (Though as noted Lithuania's foreign minister did answer questions, including one Inner City Press pushed to ask, about Ukraine, as it also had to press to ask the EU's Cathy Ashton.)
  Lithuania is chair of the new Central African Republic sanctions committee, with an interesting mandate. When will it be spoken about, and questions taken? We'll retain an open mind and see.


   
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