By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive | Inner City Press
UNITED NATIONS, June 26 — Earlier this month the "Report of the Secretary General on Eritrea" was circulated and was put on the UN Security Council's web site, dated June 8, assigned symbol S/2012/412.
Then, 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."
Now, Inner City Press can report that while "Report of the Secretary-General on Eritrea, S/2012/412, 8 June 2012" is still LISTED on the Security Council's web site, the S/2012/412 link has done dead, leading to a message on the UN's ODS Official Document Service that "There is no document matching your request / Pas de reponse a votre demande."
Well, no document anyMORE. As circulated, Ban Ki-moon's report for example quoted Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki 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 Inner City Press video of Yemane Ghebreab at that time, here on Inner City Press' YouTube channel with 28,000 views and counting.)
The June 8, 2012 report recited Eritrea's objections 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 Inner City Press' questions; Big Five media have moved to expel Inner City Press, now led by US government owned Voice of America asking the UN to review Inner City Press' accreditation status.
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?
Like many millions, I am following this “clever politicking” with great interest. I have a feeling things are going to be spilled, and I will be forced to add on the spill, I am talking about like a glass full of milk falling off the table and shattering on the floor. Too many people have used the diplomatic infrastructure to make a fool out us, this time I am up for the challenge, just to undertone what may follow. Some of the people at the UN will find it unbelievable what their silliness may have produced. I will let them have it in ways they have never had it before or heard others experiencing it. I will let them learn their limitations, not by a mare reprimand but real decimation. History teaches us, some people learn the hard way. When it comes to compromising the status-quo we will see who is NUMBER ONE, I have not had the chicken game for a while, I would like to recapture the essence of that feel again. We shall see who blinks first.
I am sure Suzan Rice will edit it to her likes with lies and fabrications added to it and then will ask for more sanctions against the inocent victim (the people of Eritrea). When it comes to the border issue b/n Eritrea and Dijubuti the UNSC pressured Eritrea to comply and the case was even one of the reasons for sanctions, but when it comes to the border issue b/n Eritrea and Ethiopia – Ethiopia blocked the implementation of the final-and-binding decisions of the EEBC but nothing happened. Suzan Rice is blocking this issue not to be raised at the UNSC. Can you see the double standard here? The Obama's sologan during the 2008 election was "Change," "Change we can believe in," etc., but once he took office the Bush addminstration's policies took momentum. Now, people are starting to reconcider their belief of that "Bush is the worst president in our era". I hope Mitt Romney brings the true "change," Obama used as his slogan to decive people in order to get elected in 2008.