Eva
Bartlett breaks down the dizzying array of information surrounding
the mounting humanitarian crisis in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta. With
accusations abound, parsing the reality on the ground is becoming
more challenging by the day.
by
Eva Bartlett
Part
2 - UN Serial Censorship
In
trying to relate Syria’s side of the story in the United Nations,
Ambassador al-Ja’afari was initially prevented from doing so. In
his subsequent address to the press, he noted: “The President of
the Security Council, the Ambassador of Kuwait, acted irresponsibly
today by trying to prevent me from speaking, while the meeting is on
Syria. This irresponsible behavior coming from the President of the
Security Council in a meeting allocated to the situation in Syria
reveals also that Kuwait is not — the Kuwaiti delegation — is not
up to the responsibility it is assuming as President of the Security
Council, because this irresponsible behavior works against the rules
and procedures of the Security Council. The shortage of the moral
behavior of the Kuwaiti ambassador found a crystal-cut answer by the
Russian ambassador, who corrected him and said you have no right
whatsoever to prevent the Syrian ambassador from addressing the
council.”
Censorship
at the UN has happened previously. In early 2015, after interviewing
the Syrian Ambassador, I wrote, quoting him: “The British
ambassador cut me off one time while I was speaking. He said ‘you
have exceeded four minutes.’ I said, ‘Who gave you the right to
fix four minutes? I am a member of a concerned party, and I have the
right to explain.’ To justify his wrongdoing, he also cut off the
Iraqi ambassador after me. We were the only two ambassadors speaking
at that session, and it was on Syria and Iraq. The issue was on
terrorism in Syria and Iraq, and he cut off both of us after four
minutes!”
In a
subsequent article, I wrote of the repeated cuts to the Syrian
Ambassador’s video and microphone feeds, also noting the attempted
censorship of Syria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs: “In
January, 2014, at the Geneva II conference on Syria in Montreux,
Switzerland, Foreign Affairs Minister Walid Muallem was himself cut
off by none other than the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. Pointing
out the ridiculousness of the situation, Muallem noted: ‘You live
in New York, I live in Syria. I have the right to give the Syrian
version in this forum. After three years of suffering, this is my
right. You spoke for 25 minutes. I need at least 30.’ While Ban
interrupted Muallem’s speech, asking him to ‘wrap up in just one
or two minutes,’ the Syrian Minister refused to be silenced and
did eventually finish his speech.”
Regarding
some of the other instances of UN censorship of Ambassador
al-Ja’afari, in that same article I wrote: “Correspondent
Nizar Abboud…says the cuts are not due to ‘technical problems,’
but instead often done ‘by senior officials at the United Nations.’
Matthew Lee, a journalist with Inner City Press (ICP) reported on
an April 5, 2012 feed cut, noting that the speeches of the then
Special Envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, as well as the (Qatari)
President of the General Assembly (GA) and Ban Ki-moon were all
broadcast on UN television. However, ‘just as Syria’s Permanent
Representative Bashar Ja’afari took the floor to respond, UN TV
went dark. When the session was over several Permanent
Representatives were critical of what they called ‘the PGA’s use
of the UN for Qatar’s foreign policy.’ … The Syrian Ambassador
was again cut out of the feed on June 18, 2014. ICP’s Lee reported
that on June 20 he was told by the same Dujarric regarding the June 7
cut that [in Lee’s words], in fact the error in 2012 was been [sic]
to allow Ja’afari to speak AT ALL on UN TV. He said the arrangement
was that Ban and the Qatari PGA could speak, then the UN TV was
supposed to go off.’ Following the June 2014 Syrian elections,
international representatives who had observed the elections in Syria
convened at the UN to report back. Roughly five minutes in, after
Ambassador al-Ja’afari had opened the meeting and thanked the
Secretariat for facilitating it, the webcast feed was cut.
Ironically, the Ambassador had stressed he wanted to leave ‘enough
time to give you the right picture of the Syrian landscape that was
prevailing during elections. They are eyewitnesses.’”
Source,
links, videos:
Comments
Post a Comment