Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ban7burmapress070409.html
UNITED NATIONS, July 4 -- As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon leaves Myanmar, not only is Aung San Suu Kyi still on trial, Mr. Ban was not allowed to visit her. On the other hand, Ban offered ham handed praise of Than Shwe's moving his country forward. Ban claimed that perhaps other political prisoners would be released, if not now then before the election.
Why did Ban Ki-moon go to Myanmar? In the run-up to the trip, before it was announced that he would go, Ban sent his envoy Ibrahim Gambari to test the waters. Whatever test was applied, upon Gambari's return to New York, Ban's office confirmed to the eight journalists hand picked to be allowed to cover Ban's trip that it would in fact occur. Several had been told in advance and had booked tickets, canceled them then re booked at additional cost.
With Ban already in Japan with an entourage of 22 UN personnel -- but few of the selected UN correspondents cover this first leg of the trip -- Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson Michele Montas what would be in the indicia of if Ban's Myanmar venture was a success or a failure.
The question was asked against the background of negative reviews of Ban's performance and predictions that Myanmar's Than Shwe regime would use Ban's trip to legitimize their trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and their highly controlled, pro-military mock election planned for 2010.
Ms. Montas reacted with exasperation, saying that Ban had clearly enunciated his goals for the trip. But that was not the question: how would the public know if it was a success or failure? Montas appeared to acknowledge that if the goals Team Ban had set out were not moved forward during the trip, it would be a failure.
Now, not only is Aung San Suu Kyi still on trial, Ban was not allowed to visit her.
On the other hand, Ban offered ham handed praise of Than Shwe's moving his country forward. Ban claimed to his hand-picked scribes that perhaps other political prisoners would be released, if not now then before the election.
Meanwhile North Korea, fresh from throwing Korean-speaking international UN staff out of the country, fired seven missiles in contempt for the US, the UN and, some said, Mr. Ban Ki-moon. The UN Spokesperson never provided basic information that had been promised in the pre-holiday press briefings. None of the promised pool reports were ever provided. And the circus like trip continued. Watch this site.
Footnote: as Inner City Press reported June 28 and was confirmed by Ban's Spokesperson Michele Montas on June 29, Ban's office hand-picked which journalists would be told of the opportunity to cover his trip to Burma. Ms. Montas first said that the UN "picked people who were willing to pool for others." On July 2, when Inner City Press asked Ms. Montas when these pool reports would begin, she reversed course and argued that "I said some of them were willing to pool, some of them... There is no print pooling, no."
Inner City Press asked Ms. Montas to confirm the information in a list it has seen, that there are at least 22 UN personnel in Ban's traveling party, ranging from political chief Lynn Pascoe and deputy chief of staff Kim Won-soo to Hak-Fan Lau, to whom reporters on Ban's previous UN mission to Burma gave at least some pooled material. "I can check for you," Ms. Montas answered. By noon on July 4 in New York, no information was provided. Watch this site.
UN's Ban Says "Assured" of Fair Burmese Elections, Despite Junta's Constitution
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, July 3-4 -- After the first of what may be two meetings with Burmese strongman Than Shwe, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the reporters he picked to travel with him, "I was assured that the Myanmar authorities will make sure that this election will be held in a fair and free and transparent manner."
As simply one example, since the constitution the junta pushed through in the wake of Cycle Nargis in May 2008 provides that fully one-quarter of seats must go to military members, it is difficult to see how an election under it could be described as fair.
Unnamed UN officials -- in New York the UN has still refused to confirm even which officials are traveling with Ban -- are quoted that the general are considering endorsing "allowing the National League for Democracy to open offices across the country and to permit her to campaign," referring to the imprisoned and on trial Aung San Suu Kyi. There is only one problem: the junta's constitution prohibits anyone who ever married a foreigner, as Mrs. Suu Kyi did, from running for office.
Myanmar is not, however, isolated from the whole world. It is reportedly seeking to import more weapons from North Korea, and it on the record gave $50,000 to President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka, perhaps in tribute to him having done to the Tamil Tigers and civilians what Than Shwe would like to do with Karen rebels and civilians.
The UN, of course, continued unabated seeking to raise donor funds for Myanmar, with the attendant run off through current exchange to Than Shwe's regime, without any question about Myanmar turning around and giving post bloodbath aid to Sri Lanka. Nor has the UN tried to track the use of Nigeria's $500,000 grant to Myanmar, on which Inner City Press exclusively reported.
Ban's deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe, who is along on the trip, is quoted telling the reporters whom she identified for the trip that Ban will have a second meeting with Than Shwe. (It is not clear why Ms. Okabe or her Office could not have conveyed this announcement to other UN reporters).
In the air is that Ban might then pull a rabbit out of the hat. But what if the rabbit is dead? Watch this site.
UN's Ban "Appreciates" Than Shwe's Actions in Burma, Scam Election on Horizon
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, July 3 --UN's Ban Ki-moon told Burmese military leader Than Shwe on July 3, "I'd like to appreciate your commitment to move your country forward." Since Cyclone Nargis hit the Irradwaddy Delta in May 2008, Shwe has used the displacement it occasioned to give land under what used to be fishing villages to his regime's cronies.
While to some that is "moving [the] country forward," to others it is the antithesis of the type of development the UN should be praising. While unlikely, perhaps Ban meant that while he would like to appreciate Shwe's actions, in good faith he cannot.
Inner City Press is told by well placed UN sources that, even beyond the currency exchange scams through which the UN allowed up to one quarter of post cyclone donor funds to be taken outright by Burma's junta, the UN Country Team continues to subsidize the dictatorship by, for example, accepting requirements to buy certain equipment in-country at inflated prices.
While some argue that the UN stays silent out of commitment to remain serving Burma's poor, the staged theatrics of Ban's current trip lead others to see a darker, more mixed motive.
"Ban desperately needs the appears of a win at this time," Inner City Press was told July 2 by a UN official who requested anonymity from fear of retaliation. "The generals in Naypyitaw know that, and they are using Ban's desperation to legitimatize the fixed election they plan for 2010."
The official characterized the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi as a less fundamental issue, one on which Ban might be allowed to claim some victory such as her transfer from Insein Prison back to house arrest, or a commit to later full release. Such a commitment, if the past is any guide, could later be rescinded, as could the release of lower profile political prisoners during Ban's current two day trip. Who knows -- maybe Ban will claim credit for the adjournment today of Suu Kyi's trial for a week.
The stated rationale was the failure of a Burmese (kangaroo) appeals court to return to court the file along with its decision barring two of Suu Kyi four proposed witnesses from testifying. Perhaps as his entourage claims, Ban's quiet diplomacy and soft power work in mysterious ways. Watch this site.
As UN's Ban Lands in Burma, Kibuki Theater Omits Rohinya and Karen Peoples
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, July 3 -- With news of his airplane's touch-down in Yangon, the carefully stage managed visit to Myanmar of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon began on July 3. To a group of accompanying reporters whom he had hand-picked, Ban called his task difficult but necessary. The media dutifully performed their electronic drum roll, as for a magician before he performs a sleight of hand.
Clearly, Ban's current envoy Ibrahim Gambari got some commitments for photo-ops for Ban during his preparatory trip to Myanmar. These predetermined win-wins were withheld from, and apparently not obtained by, the accompanying media. Thus fresh from Ban's stop in Japan the kibuki theater began: a widely reported challenge with a preplanned denouement. But could he flub up even this?
Of the accompanying wire services, two of the three -- or with Yonhap was it four? -- quoted Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch on what would constitute success, or failure, on this trip. Might Ban meet with Aung San Suu Kyi? Might she nonetheless be sentenced to further house arrest? Why is she being barred from the 2010 election?
Beyond the Aung San Suu Kyi show, about about the Karen people? Even more oppressed, what about the Rohinya?
The UN's Ibrahim Gambari told Inner City Press that the Rohinya, Muslims long in Burma but denied citizens' rights, are beyond the scope of this "good offices" mandate.
Ironically, an Afro-Arab UN Ambassador to the UN told Inner City Press that Gambari wanted but was passed over for the job of UN envoy to Darfur because as a Muslim he was viewed by Western power as too pro Sudan. That his name was put forward for the Sudan job shows what an afterthought Myanmar is -- until Ban Ki-moon is desperate for the appearance of a win. He has chosen the reporters, and has hidden the Gambari-won hole card. But might the game still not work out? Watch this site.
With Only Ban-Picked Press Allowed on UN's Burma Trip, Promised Pooling Denied, Theater with Than Shwe
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, July 2 -- As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon approaches Myanmar to meet with its military leader Than Shwe, information about his performance on the trip became even harder to come by. On June 29, Ban's spokesperson Ms. Montas told Inner City Press that the UN in hand selected the reporters who could accompany Ban "picked people who were willing to pool for others."
On July 2, when Inner City Press asked Ms. Montas when these pool reports would begin, she reversed course and said that only TV images would be pooled, no print. Video here, from Minute 19:07.
Even on Ban's first trip to Myanmar, when he says he saved 500,000 people, wire service reporters gave information from their notes to a UN staffer named Hak-Fan Lau, who is also on this trip, for dissemination to other reporters who cover the UN. Faced with a spate of negative publicity, Team Ban is providing even less information now than then. Some surmise this is an attempt to control coverage.
Ms. Montas told Inner City Press to wait to see what the reporters with Ban published. "We gave priority to wires... three or four, sorry, three are traveling with the Secretary General."
The confusion between three or four wires appears to depend on whether South Korea-based Yonhap, which was selected to go, is considered a global wire service. AP, Reuters and AFP are all on the trip, as is a correspondent from the New York Times. Another major U.S.-based daily, which along with two other media organizations the UN met about on May 8 with an eye toward suing, was not allowed to go.
Inner City Press asked Ms. Montas to confirm the information in a list it has seen, that there are at least 22 UN personnel in Ban's traveling party, ranging from political chief Lynn Pascoe and deputy chief of staff Kim Won-soo to the aforesaid Hak-Fan Lau. "I can check for you," Ms. Montas answered. By 6 p.m. on July 2 in New York, no information was provided. The UN in New York is closed for holidays both July 3 and 4 when Ban is in Myanmar. Still, watch this site.And see, www.innercitypress.com/ban7burmapress070409.html
