UN's Ban Confirms Taking Down His Own Eritrea Report, ICP Publishes It
By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
Read the Report of the Secretary-General on Eritrea, S/2012/412 8 June 2012
in PDF, thereafter, it was removed from the official un website:
http://www.innercitypress.com/ban1eritreaicp060812.pdf
UNITED NATIONS, June 28, 2012 -- The day after Inner City Press noted,
reported and asked the UN about the removal from the Internet
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/ban1eritrea062612.html> of the "Report of
the Secretary General on Eritrea," Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman
Martin Nesirky confirmed that Ban's Secretariat was responsible for taking
the report down.
We are publishing the June 8 report
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/ban1eritreaicp060812.pdf> which "the
Secretariat" has confirmed will not be put online again.
Inner City Press asked who it was in the Secretariat that prepared the
report, that "the Secretariat" took down, and asked for confirmation that
countries such as Ethiopia and the United States complained about the
report. Nesirky would not answer either question, except to say that when
the report was looked at "again," it was concluded that it was "not an
adequate response" to Resolution 2023.
As Inner City Press exclusively reported on June 15, there were rumblings
that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would change his 44-paragraph Eritrea
report, like
"the two versions of the last report on Western Sahara were watered down to
drop allegations against Morocco of limiting freedom of movement of the
peacekeepers.
"Inner City Press exclusively learned on Friday that a similar amateurish
post-publication is taking place on the forthcoming report on Eritrea. The
report already has a number (S/2012/412) and has been on the UN's ODS
Official Document Service.
"But unlike the Western Sahara watering down, in this case it's a matter of
watering UP -- Ethiopia and others are said to want the report to be more
damning of Asmara. And so it goes at the UN."
Then on the morning of June 26 Inner City Press reported that while the
"Report of the Secretary-General on Eritrea, S/2012/412, 8 June 2012
<
http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/sgrep12.htm> " was still LISTED on the Security
Council's web site, the S/2012/412 link had gone dead, leading to a message
on the UN's ODS Official Document Service that
<
http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?Open&DS=S/2012/412&Lang=E&Area=UND
OC> "There is no document matching your request / Pas de reponse a votre
demande."
On June 26 at the UN noon briefing Inner City Press asked about
Inner City Press: the report of the Secretary-General on Eritrea, that was
actually, dated 8 June, that was put on the Security Council's website. It
was available there, on that, I heard, starting around 15 June, there were
some concerns raised by other neighbours of Eritrea about the report. And
this morning I learned and confirmed that the report's gone from the
website. Still listed there, but the link is now dead. And the document is
not available. And I wondered, can you explain what happened to the report?
And what's, is it being changed? At whose behest? Why did they, why was it
taken offline so unceremoniously?
Spokesperson Nesirky: Thanks for the question. But Matthew, I don't have
anything on that at the moment. But I'm hoping to have something a little
bit later.
Twenty four hours later, Nesirky read out his statement that when looked at
"again.. the Secretariat" decided the report was "not an adequate response"
to Resolution 2023.
As circulated, Ban Ki-moon's report for example quoted Eritrean President
Isaias Afwerki <
http://www.innercitypress.com/ban1eritreaicp060812.pdf>
telling Ban in September 2011 that "the border issue with Ethiopia was a
'closed chapter' and that there was 'nothing to negotiate.'" See, Paragraph
17.
It recited Ban's July 24, 2011 meeting with "Eritrean Foreign Minister and
Political Adviser to the Eritrean President" on Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan
and Darfur. (See <
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLO4vzNX_kA> Inner City
Press video of Yemane Ghebreab at that time, here
<
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLO4vzNX_kAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL
O4vzNX_kA> on Inner City Press' YouTube channel with 28,000 views and
counting <
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLO4vzNX_kA> .)
The June 8, 2012 report recited Eritrea's objections
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/ban1eritreaicp060812.pdf> to Security
Council manuevers in late November and early December 2011, exclusively
reported by Inner City Press, which even after protest would only have
allowed Isaias Afwerki, President of a country facing unprecedented
sanctions, to speak to the Council AFTER the resolution was put in blue and
finalized for a vote.
But now all of that has been taken off line, as if it never existed. A
diplomat from one of Eritrea's neighbors explained to Inner City Press that
the June 8 report just "wasn't right," that it was not like other sanctions
reports and not what his country has in mind.
This was the approach taken when Department of Peacekeeping Operations
Herve Ladsous changed and watered down the most recent Western Sahara
report. As many noted, but only Inner City Press explicitly emphasized,
Ladsous is the fourth French chief of DPKO in a row, whose previous job was
to serve discredited French foreign minister Michele Aliot-Marie including
arranging her flights on planes of cronies of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali.
Since then, Ladsous refuses to answer
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/ladsous1uncabanicp052912.html> Inner City
Press' questions
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/ladsous1uncabanicp052912.html> ; Big Five
media have moved to expel
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/un1banpress052912.html> Inner City Press,
now led by US government owned Voice of America asking the UN to review
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/unca2voaban062112.html> Inner City Press'
accreditation status <
http://www.innercitypress.com/unca2voaban062112.html>
.
But who -- not which countries, which is obvious, but which UN official
beyond Ban Ki-moon -- is responsible for taking off line the Eritrea report,
and what will happen and be issued next?
For now, we are publishing the June 8 report which
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/ban1eritreaicp060812.pdf> "the Secretariat"
has confirmed will not be put online again. Watch this site.
Received on Thu Jun 28 2012 - 14:34:44 EDT
