Obduracy at the New York Times: Refusal to Acknowledge Errors or Problems in the Representation of Realities in West Darfur

Eric Reeves On April 4, 2012 I published an extensive challenge to the claims of the New York Times dispatch from Nyuru, West Darfur (February 26, 2012) by Jeffrey Gettleman, this in the form of an open letter to the Public Editor, nominally charged with “representing the readers of the NYT.” My subsequent communications with the New York Times have not produced any acknowledgement of errors or problems in the reporting from Nyuru: there has been no recognition of how deeply problematic it is to use self-interested UNAMID sources, and even the in-country personnel of UN humanitarian agencies (I attach at the end of this brief links to a series of analyses of demonstrable mendacity on the part of senior UNAMID and UN humanitarian officials). Nor has there been a meaningful response to the substantial issues raised by a lengthy series of reports by Radio Dabanga in the wake of the NYT dispatch, as well as in its general reporting from the region. Most significantly there has been no acknowledgement by the NYT that the dispatch as it was published clearly implies that there have been massive returns of refugees from eastern Chad. This is simply not the case, as Radio Dabanga has conclusively demonstrated on the basis of interviews with the leaders of all twelve Darfuri refugee camps in eastern Chad and with the Chad representative of the UN High Commission for Refugees. Moreover, the NYT seems unaware that the total Darfuri refugee population living in eastern Chad outside the camps is unlikely to exceed 20,000. UNHCR reports a total registration in the twelve camps as a highly stable 282,000.Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>