No questions please, we're diplomats.
Inner City Press, the must-read blog of the indefatigable Matthew Lee is the diplomatic world's version of the Drudge Report. After a brief honeymoon, a clearly exasperated Lee is getting his hooks into Martin Nesirky who took over the hot seat as Ban Ki-moon's spokesman a few months ago.
Not an easy job at the best of times, the competent and pleasant mannered Nesirsky finds himself constantly playing defense.
Why? Total lack of leadership from a Secretary General, who as the old canard would have it is more secretary than general.
A prominent British official said the hapless Ban, "he doesn't know how to make the political weather... so we're watching to see if he can deliver anything of substance in his term."
There is growing frustration in the press room, if the tone of Lee's incendiary blogs are anything to go by. The piece extracted below, conveys some of the pressure cooker atmosphere:
UNITED NATIONS, March 5 -- The UN has reacted angrily to reports that its peacekeepers in Liberia's Lufa County "acted partially
in favor of Mandingoes when they (peacekeepers) mounted their tanks in
front of the mosque to prevent angry Lormas from attacking it."
The UN's top envoy in Monrovia Ellen Loj told a reporter that he should go to Lofa County before asking any question.
At the March 5 noon briefing in New York, Inner City Press asked spokesman Martin Nesirky about the reports and about the envoy's response to the media. Of this Special Representative of the Secretary General,Nesirky said he wouldn't second guess "him, who is on the ground." But what about the UN trying to discourage questions about its operations?
Recently Inner City Press asked Nesirky if the UN has any response to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's new prohibition on the media covering attacks by the Taliban. At first Nesirky said he hadn't heard about it, but that "generally" the UN favors free press coverage.
But when the UN's top envoy to Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdallah criticized journalists who reported on the killings of civilians by peacekeepers in Mogadishu, and said there should be a one more moratorium on such reporting, the UN did nothing to discipline him. How then could it speak against Karzai's censorship?
On March 4, Inner City Press asked Nesirky to explain Ould Abdallah's recent call for UN agencies to return to Somalia when he himself can't or won't move to Mogadishu, but rather works out of Nairobi. Nesirky acknowledged it look contradictory and said he would get an answer. But thirty hours later, there was no answer.
On Liberia, after Nesirky's first non response and deference to an SRSG of the wrong gender, a note was brought into it him. He read it out, and this summary was placed in the UN's own "highlights"
U.N. MISSION IN LIBERIA STRESSES IMPARTIALITY IN LOFA COUNTY VIOLENCE
In response to questions, the Spokesperson noted that the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has refuted claims that its forces were partial in last weekend's violent incident in Lofa County.
The Head of UNMIL, Ellen Margrethe Løj, said UNMIL troops acted promptly and supported no side in the violence, he noted.
Having first heard about a violent demonstration in Konia Town, a batch of UNMIL Formed Police unit was quickly deployed in the Town. On the morning of the violence in Voinjama, both military and police forces intervened to restore calm.
She described the incident as unfortunate and said it was based on what she called unfounded rumours that spread from Konia to Voinjama. Løj said the Lofa incident, which has ethnic undertones, shows that more challenges still remain despite the progress made so far in maintaining peace and security in Liberia.
She said while the United Nations is in Liberia to keep the peace, it is up to Liberians themselves, regardless of religious and ethnic affiliation, to decide whether they want peace.
Nesirky added that UNMIL has confirmed that shotguns and firearms were actually used in the violence by the mob, resulting in four deaths.
He also said that all UN peacekeeping mission work impartially to serve all the people in the countries where they are deployed.
And questions should not even be raised about their impartiality, apparently...
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