UN Photos from Haiti, Goma & Korea with Ban Ki-moon in Gabarron's Carriage House for Sale, Parallel Worlds

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- Alongside the real UN there is a parallel one, based on careful editing and relying on the sweat equity of 68 years of idealists, some of whom left or remained disillusioned.

   This parallel UN was on display on Wednesday night six blocks from the UN in the Gabarron Carriage House Center for the Arts on 38th Street. There was photographs from Korea, the Sinai and Eastern Congo; there were posters about Haiti and by Keith Haring. 

  There was Ban Ki-moon, returned only earlier in the day from the Nelson Mandela memorial in South Africa, with a detour through the Group of 77. There was former Group of 77 leader Maged Abdelaziz of Egypt, now Ban's Special Adviser on Africa.

   Ban in his prepared remarks did pay tribute to the unknown people who build up the UN's name. But what about the ranks of bigger name people who tear it down? Okay there was no mention of Kurt Waldheim -- as noted, that gets edited out.

   But it must be said: Ban posed under a poster about Haiti, the UN's response to the earthquake there. Yes, many idealists were there, some died. But the UN brought cholera to the island, and has yet to admit it, or to apologize. 

  By Inner City Press' last report, the UN's Office of Legal Affairs refused to even accept service of legal papers on behalf of the victims. No amount of stunning archive photos can make this go away.

   Or take for example the photo of Eastern Congo, or one tweeted by Gabarron that UN Peacekeepers only use force in self defense. The latter is no longer true: the UN now deploys attack helicopters in the Congo, and recently participated as the Malian Army fired at unarmed protesters in Kidal. 

  There has been a change, but this parallel UN doesn't acknowledge it. Nor even answer questions: the current head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous openly refuses to answer Press questions, video here, UK coverage here. The UN allows this to continue.

   Le Monde ran a puff piece about the exhibition, noting that at Gabarron "the sessions are sometimes followed by a projection of a Stevie Wonder concert at the UN, or a radio program with, among others, Audrey Hepburn and Michael Douglas." 

  Two of these are set to be honored a week from now, along with Ban Ki-moon, by the United Nations Correspondents Association, collaborators in the falseness of this parallel world, and at times spies for it (click here for that.) They preach freedom of the press -- but their leaders tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, based onreporting about Sri Lanka and conflict of interest. They've yet to institute any rule that they won't do it again.

  They say TV equipment from Samsung "doesn't involve any mission" -- when even the UN admits that it does. As one UN official at the Gabarron on Wednesday night, one from the real not parallel UN, said the UN would do better answering all questions, not hiding and stonewalling. But they have to choose: real world or its parallel?

Footnote: cursory research after the event found that the carriage house itself was put on the market last year for $8.25 million dollars. Apparently there were no takers, as the show is on there. But like some the UN increasingly seems to be, it is for sale. Watch this site.

   

After UN's Ladsous Met Sudan's Bashir, Prosecutor Bensouda Tells Inner City Press ICC "Has No Info" - Non-Essential Meeting? Double Standards

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- When on Sudan the International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda briefed the UN Security Council on Wednesday, about the need to arrest Sudanese president Omar al Bashir, there was an elephant in the room: UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, who met with Bashir in July.

  Actually, Ladsous had been in the Security Council in the morning, but unlike the other two briefers did not speak to or take any questions from the press when he left.

  Bensouda said that either Sudan could come contest the indictment of Bashir (and others including Ahmad Haroon, to whom Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping has given free flights to and from Abyei) -- or, arrests should be made. Ladsous made no arrests in July.

  After Wednesday's meeting, Inner City Press waited and asked Bensouda what she as prosecutor thought of UN official Ladsous having met with Bashir.

  Bensouda said, "we are consistently saying that these non essential meetings should be avoided.... I do not know what was the purpose of that meeting."

  She cited a UN policy -- put out by the Office of Legal Affairs but apparently not respected by Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations -- of only essential meetings being held with indictees.

  Inner City Press asked her if, as a major / vocal state party to the Rome Statute told it, the UN is now going to give the Court or Association of State Parties prior notice before contacts like Ladsous' with Bashir.

  Bensouda replied that she wounldn't call it notice, but "we have discussed some visits before, why it was essential."

  So, Inner City Press asked, what about Ladsous' July 2013 meeting with Bashir?

  Bensouda said, "the one in July, we have not had any information about it."

  Ladsous has a history, of not answering Press questions.Video here, UK coverage here. But this is one he should answer. Will he?

  Sudanese Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, after harshly criticizing Bensouda in his speech in the Council, agreed to answer a few Inner City Press questions afterward in the so called Turkish Lounge next to the Security Council. 

 While this used to be the media's space, during the UN renovation the UN took money from Turkey for the space. Now, it is said, reporters can only go there if invited by a diplomat. This is challenged by the new Free UN Coalition for Access as a decline in working conditions and access under this UN.

  Wednesday as noted Inner City Press was invited into the Turkish Lounge area, but nevertheless was told to get back in the penned stakeout. (In noting this, the focus is not on the one endeavoring to implement the vague policy, but on the policy and vagueness themselves, which are an invitation, too often accepted, for more UN double standards.)

    Meanwhile scribes favored by -- and spying for -- the UN and its Censorship Alliance (click here) plop down in the Turkish Lounge to make cell phone calls.

  Likewise while disfavored NGOs are told they cannot be at the stakeout, last week Human Rights Watch's UN lobbyist, a former France 24 and Le Monde journalist, was at the stakeout spinning Central African Republic, with no mention of its problems' French colonial roots. As Sudan says: double standards. As Inner City Press says: Ladsous is the elephant in the room. Watch this site.

   

On Birth Registrations, Inner City Press Asks UNICEF of Myanmar, Haiti & Mali Government's Arrests, UN Split on Age Assumptions?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- On UNICEF's 67th birthday, it launched a report about "Inequities and Trends in Birth Registration" around the world.

  Inner City Press asked about Myanmar, Haiti / Dominican Republic, Lebanon / Palestine and finally about Mali, and five children imprisoned by the government with which UN Peacekeeping is working.

  On this last, the answer was the UNICEF does not get involved in such individual cases -- but that disputes about whether someone is a child should be subject to the assumption that the person is a child. 

  This stands in contrast to Mali expressing, and then the UN echoing to Inner City Press on December 5, here, that Amnesty International is wrong and the detainees are not children. We hope to have more on this.

  The UNICEF report, on Myanmar, said that country "currently has no electronic record of children registered at birth or registered through late registration procedures; records exist only as paper copies kept at the local Township Medical office. At the national level, forms are discarded after two years."

  Inner City Press asked how this relates to Myanmar disputes that the Rohingya Muslims are in fact from Myanmar, and relatedly asked about people in Haitian descent who are in the Dominican Republic (and now being deported), and Palestinians not formally refugees who are in Lebanon.

  UNICEF's Deputy Executive Director Geeta Rao Gupta deferred the question to Claudia Cappa, Statistics and Monitoring Specialist who said that her agency favors registration being "confidential and secure," to not play into discrimination. 

 The plight of Palestinians in Lebanon was not addressed. UNICEF's report says: "In Lebanon, most Palestinian children are registered as refugees, but those who do not have this official status cannot have their birth registered."

  On Mali, on December 3 Inner City Press asked UN Spokesperson Martin Nesirky about Amnesty International's report that Mali has locked up children:

Inner City Press: on Mali, there was a report put out by Amnesty International, naming very specifically children that are incarcerated by the Malian Army and authorities and saying they should be released and describing exactly how they were imprisoned. Given that MINUSMA (United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali) works with the Malian army and there is a UN presence there, including human rights monitoring, has the UN chimed in on this? Are they seeking the release of these children detainees of the Malian authorities?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I’ll need to check. I don’t have anything on that, Matthew.

After a couple days, UN Peacekeeping through Nesirky's office provided this response, on children:

To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 4:19 PM
Subject: Your question on Mali [children]

Regarding your question on Mali and minors in detention, please see the following from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations:

“MINUSMA and UNICEF are working closely with the Malian authorities on the issue of minors in detention. A small number of individuals are reportedly detained by the Malian gendarmerie. Their age, however, remains to be determined due to lack of birth certificates and other documentation.

The United Nations has a good working relationship with the Malian justice and correction authorities and we are confident that a specific mechanism to address this issue can be put in place jointly by the United Nations and the Malian Government.”

  If the UN has such a "good working relationship with the Malian justice and correction authorities," as Inner City Press asked, where's the investigation and prosecution of those in the Malian Army who shot unarmed protesters in Kidal?

And where, given what the UN's own UNICEF said on December 11, is the assumption when a dispute exists as to age that the person is, in fact, a child?

Here is from the Amnesty report on Mali, which UNICEF should now act on:

"One boy (16) was arrested in Kidal by Malian security forces more than two months ago when he came out of a shop and a grenade went off across the road. The security officers accused him of throwing the grenade and beat him, blindfolded him, tied his hands and feet together and burnt him with a cigarette all over his arms.

"Another boy (15) joined MUJAO as he was desperately poor and heard they were paying people. He left after months of not being paid and was arrested by Malian security forces in his home village of Kadji (near Gao). The Malian soldiers tied him up, beat him in the back and blindfolded him."

Watch this site.

   

On DR Congo, UN Peacekeeping Report on Impunity for Electoral Violence "Did Not Come Up" in UNSC When Briefed by UN Peacekeeping's Ladsous, Minova Case Rape Spin

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- After the UN itself issued a report calling on the "the international community to urge Congolese authorities to combat impunity and prosecute those suspected of human rights violations committed during the election process," Inner City Press asked French Ambassador Gerard Araud about it, at the conclusion of the UN Security Council's DRC session on Wednesday.

  Araud replied that the issue had not come up during the more than two hour meeting just concluded. One must ask, why not? The report was issued by MONUSCO, the UN Peacekeeping mission. Herve Ladsous, the chief of UN Peacekeeping, was in the meeting (though he did not speak to the press afterward).

  The head of MONUSCO, Martin Kobler, did come and speak to the press. Inner City Press asked him two accountability questions: about the above-quoted report, and also about the Minova rapes by the 391st and 41st Battalions of the Congolese Army, and when the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy might be applied to them.

  Kobler answered about Minova, that a trial has begun but so far only the 40 (or 41) charged soldiers have been interviewed. He said that the HRDDP is implemented, but it is still unclear: why did MONUSCO continue working with the 391st and 41st Battalions after their mass rape, for a full year before any kind of trial began? Are the commanders being held accountable?

Araud also spoke about the Minova rapes, after saying that the MONUSCO report on electoral violence, here, had not come up. He made much of the trials, not mentioning the limitation on interviews that Kobler had mentioned. 

  But Araud is coming to take questions after many sessions this month - it is Ladsous, of the three briefers on Wednesday, who did not come to the stakeout. There are many questions that he should answer his next time. But will he? Watch this site.

   

In Mali, Is There Any UN Probe of Deadly Shooting of Protesters in Kidal? Any Recusal of Ladsous from Letter of Assist Payments to France?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- As UN Peacekeeping becomes more and more of a combatant in Africa, for example acting with the Malian Army as they shot unarmed protesters in Kidal, at the UN in New York more of its briefings are closed, and its chief Herve Ladsous has until now resisted and refused Press questions. Video here, UK coverage here.

So Inner City Press on December 10 asked Ladsous' deputy Edmond Mulet about the deadly live fire at the Kidal airport: is UN Peacekeeping, as even this month's Security Council president Gerard Araud suggested to Inner City Press, conducting an investigation into its actions in northern Mali?

Mulet to his credit did stop on the way from the Security Council to the elevator to say that DPKO is speaking with the Malian authorities. But he used a phrase, lessons learned, which often precludes accountability.

Ultimately it is Ladsous who must answer this question. This morning he is briefing the Council about the Democratic Republic of the Congo, over which he has finally launched his drone. But the briefing is closed. He should take this question, and others, later in the week: but will he?

He should also answer whether he recused himself from any involvement in the UN's non-public Letter of Assist to pay UN money to France for airfield services in northern Mali -- as luck has it, in Kidal where the deadly shooting of unarmed protesters took place.

The argument being made is that only the Department of Field Support is involved in procurement. But it is not clear that sole source "Letters of Assist" really constitute procurement: they are more like set-asides.

In any event, it was DFS' Ameerah Haq who was speaking at the International Peace Institute on the topic of peacekeeping and human rights -- at least technically more in the bailiwick of Ladsous' post if not personality. So, beyond this question to IPI, the larger question remains: was Ladsous recused from this Letter of Assist payment to France? And how much is the payment for? Watch this site.

   

At UN, Despite Call to Stop Staff Union Election It Continues, Samsung TV for Scribes Laundered by South Korea & UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- Of the two elections overlapping today in the UN, in the one of the UN Staff Union voting continued Wednesday morning in the UN lobby, despite a lawyer's letter. The other in the UN Correspondents Association features mis-speaking that no Mission was involved with "their" Samsung television and little competition -- none for the top two spots. 

  As updated here, UNCA mis-spoke in saying no mission was involved in the donation. Samsung gave the TVs to the South Korean mission, which gave them to the UN, then to UNCA. No mission was involved? Hardly.

   As to the Staff Union election, spokesperson Farhan Haq said at the December 10 noon briefing that the UN does not get involved.

  Later on December 10 a lawyer wrote to Election Services Company urging them to stop running or working in the election, saying they will not get paid. The incumbent and one Rosemary Lane are copied on the letter:

"Frank Fatone
Elections Services Company

Dear Mr. Fatone:

... Only the Staff Council has the capacity to authorize the disbursement of Staff Union funds... I urge you to postpone any action."

But in the UN lobby Wednesday morning, Staff Union voting continued. Two stories above, the UNCA incumbent president running without opposition nevertheless had fliers festooned around: only photographs, no content at all. Any amended statement of no mission involvement in the Samsung equipment?

  An hour after Haq's statement, an officious e-mail went out urging UN staff to boycott the election - a call that when made by a political party in Nepal, the UN denounced. Here's the key part:

Date: Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 1:37 PM
Subject: no to fake elections!
From: Egor Ovcharenko [at] un.org

Dear colleagues,

given the number of false statements circulated last days, I decided that it is my duty to clarify what is going on.

Last Friday Staff Union informed all of you that its Polling Officers have been recalled by Unit Chairpersons, the very same body that elected them.

From that day on, these recalled officers have no right to act as Union officials, and their actions or communications do not engage our Union in the slightest.

(Administration has been duly informed, as it has an obligation, in accordance with staff rule 8.1 d), to ensure the fairness of the ballot. Unfortunately, its actions, for instance, suspension of Polling Officers' e-mail, are still pending.)

Therefore fake elections the recalled Polling Officers are preparing must be called by their proper name: electoral fraud...

Everyone can make his or her own judgment. My opinion is that these fake elections are, in fact, a private enterprise.

I advise you not to participate in it, as there are reasons to believe that the motives of its organizers are far from innocent, as their record clearly shows.

Best,

Egor Ovcharenko
Rapporteur of the United Nations Staff Union
Coordinator of DGACM Staff Representatives

  This back and forth has echoes of the election in Cote d'Ivoire that led to military intervention. By contrast, no Permanent Five members of the Security Council has enough of an interest here for even a public relations intervention, thus far.

   The other "election" -- though four of the six top posts are clean slates with no competition --  is of the United Nations Correspondents Association, whose more than a dozenboard members participated in efforts to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN. 

  Nothing has been reformed since; tactics in 2013 devolved into anonymous social media trolling and counterfeit Twitter accounts of the new Free UN Coalition for Access and of Inner City Press.

   An argument is still being made that the 2013 president of UNCA, Pamela Falk of CBS, is somehow not responsible for this, for trolling done under her watch, and for heading an organization which functions as the UN's Censorship Alliance. This is contrary to the very "command responsibility" principles the two top candidates awaiting coronation have espoused. 

  The decision to accept "through" the UN a Samsung television is defended by referring to some vibrant debate, with no record sent out of any voting, much less a roll call disclosing who voted to take the Samsung television.

  The defenders of the gift, Inner City Press is told, pointed out that UNCA already takes corporate (and governmental) advertisements in its (partial) book of journalists covering the UN, including for example from the Italian oil firm ENI.

  At the December 9 noon briefing Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: is there a comprehensive place to go to see what donations the UN receives from corporations? In particular, I’m asking about what I understand to be a donation of television screens or sets from Samsung and I wanted to know, what are the rule applicable to these donations? Is the UN aware, for example, of pretty serious organizing drive in South Korea aboutoccupational diseases at Samsung? What are the rules applicable and is there a database of such contributions?

Spokesperson: I’ll check, Matthew. Thanks very much. Have a good afternoon.

  But 26 hours later, there was still no answer.Unaccountability is increasingly pervasive throughout the UN, in ways as small as this and large, for example on the scandal of UN Peacekeeping having brought cholera to Haiti and now refusing to even accept (or confirm denying) service of legal papers.

  At least in the UN Staff Union, when it was claimed last week that a vote was taken to recall the poll officers, a request was made for the names of who voted which way. 

  In the UN's Censorship Alliance,  as documented by ongoing Freedom of Information Act requests including to Voice of America, "UNCA" reached out to the UN to seek the expulsion of Inner City Press without any vote even having been taken.

  There have been no reforms since -- but again, a re-coronation of Pamela Falk of CBS as the 2014 president of UNCA,now known as the UN Censorship Alliance, is set for this week. 

  A second midnight defense was mounted, that Falk has not "done anything" to anyone, or even spoken badly. Well, the UNCA trolls are attributable to her, including under command responsibility.  In 2013, she was asked to reign in those UNCA "leaders" who used the organization to try to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, as they descended into anonymous trolling social media accounts, counterfeiting the new Free UN Coalition for Access and then Inner City Press.

  Falk's reaction in an on the record meeting was to demand that she not be written about, despite having sought this position, and putting herself forward at every opportunity to ask softball questions the answers to which are most often not published anywhere. Audio here, here and here.

  The United Nations Correspondents Association election also involves indicters and purported judges, and the Reuters successor to the scribe who spied (click here for that). That spying for the UN was done by UNCA first vice president and has not been addressed or acted on in any way. Such an organization is in no position to preach on ethics, journalistic or any other kind.

Now this UNCA is poised to raise money, $250 a plate, for an event Ban Ki-moon is set to attend, after fielding softball questions two days earlier from his hosts (or censors). Can you say, conflict of interest? And this is another way that senior UN officials remain unaccountable. Watch this site.

   

Exclusive: On UN Security Council Reform, PGA John Ashe Issues "Non-Paper" and San Marino PR Letter

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- On UN Security Council reform, President of the General Assembly John Ashe today sent a "non-paper" and letter from San Marino ambassador Daniele Bodini to Afghanistan's Ambassador Zahir Tanin as chief of the Inter-Governmental Negotiations.

  Inner City Press has obtained the letters and non-paper, which are not yet online on the UN's website, and publishes them here.

  Ashe's initial letter in this process did not immediately go online either; Inner City Press published it first. (His office said that was a snafu not to be repeated.) Now this.

  On December 2, Ashe wrote and put online a letter naming December 5 as the beginning of the "IGN" under Afghanistan Permanent Representative Zahir Tanin, and urging flexibility from states, presumably those groupings of states which protested the make-up and mandate of Ashe's advisory group: Belgium, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Sierra Leone, Brazil and Papua New Guinea.

   On Friday, December 6 Inner City Press was the only media staking out a meeting of the Advisory Group, including PGA Ashe and his colleague Ambassador Noel Sinclair, in Conference Room A in the UN basement.

  Brazil's Ambassador Patriota, when Inner City Press asked if reform is just around the corner, laughed and said "but we don't know how far the corner is."

  Ashe back on November 6 tried to assuage the critics by saying that, contrary to statements by Brazil and Germany in the Security Council debate on Working Methods, the Group of Six would neither negotiate nor draft.

  Still, France's Deputy Permanent Representative said France looked forward to the Advisory Group drafting. 

 Ashe had to write and go online again, canceling the December 5 beginning of Inter Governmental Negotiations and putting it back a week to December 12. Now Inner City Press publishes the non-paper here.

Watch this site.