At UN, Iran Denounces UAE, Serbia Mocks Albania, Congo War Forgotten

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un64ga2m092609.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 26 -- In the UN's version of Saturday Night Live, at the end of a day of mostly boring speeches, Iran used its "right of reply" to defend its nuclear programs and treatment of protesters, and to denounce the United Arab Emirates for bringing up the issue of three disputed islands.

Then Serbia mocked Albania's statements about progress in Kosovo and the return of Serbian families there. To the contrary, the Serbian representative said, the Serbians in the "province of Kosovo" at the most endangered people in Europe, in what has become a crime haven.

Albania replied that Serbia's rhetoric was "old fashioned," of the type that led to "the worst war since World War Two." One question: ever heard the Democratic Republic of the Congo?

Among the four countries which voted to allow the coup leader of Madagascar to speak were Ecuador and Denmark. Who knew?

Footnote: Like the Ever-ready bunny, Ban Ki-moon just keeps motoring along. Saturday at six p.m. he and his advisors came out of a meeting with the ASEAN foreign ministers. While there were journalists including Inner City Press huddled against a stakeout barricade, the type of gaggle to which Ban usually at least waves, this time he proceeded without looking over. He will brief the press on Tuesday, then leave on another trip. Monday he's to meet, back to back, withe Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and Myanmar, then Cameroon's Paul Biya. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un64ga2m092609.html

At UN, Sri Lanka's Speech in Near Empty Hall Cheered by Defense Minister, UK Silent

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/untrip8may8srilanka092609.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 26 -- Sri Lanka's prime minister read a long triumphal speech Saturday afternoon before a UN General Assembly Hall that was well less then half full. In the audience, however, were the country's Foreign Affairs and Defense Minister, the latter being Presidential brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. They sat with their head in their hands as Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka droned on, his image projected in a large TV screen above him.

Wickramanayaka said, "we have shared our hopes and concerns with the United Nations." He might have added, we use each trip by a UN official as support for interning people in camps. His speech spoke of landmines and "self-confessed ex-LTTE cadres... mix[ed] with the IDPs." There was no mention of freedom of the press, reporters killed and imprisoned, nor of the UN system staff detained and, they say, tortured.

On September 25, Inner City Press asked three separate UK spokespeople for a read-out of David Miliband's meeting with Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on September 25. One responded, that she was not in the meeting, only Miliband, Bogollagama and Bernard Kouchner were. Therefore not even a summary was released.

Norway's foreign minister, when asked by Inner City Press what if anything Norway is now doing about about the situation in Sri Lanka, stammered that "it is up to them." Norway now seems to be running scared.

On Saturday, less than twenty yards from the Sri Lankan delegation sat that of the United States, showing little interest in or reaction to the Sri Lankan speech. The U.S. State Department was asked about its war crimes report that was due September 21 in Congress. It now appears the report is late -- some allege some Gotabhaya Rajapaksa involvement -- and will be filed in mid October. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip8may8srilanka092609.html

At UN, Malagasy Coup Leader Barred While Fiji's Speaks, Duplicity on Democracy

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un1fijimad092609.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 26 -- The day after Madagascar's de facto leader Andry Rajoelina was barred from speaking in the General Assembly, Fiji's coup leader Josaia Bainimarama was slated, without objection, to speak. It is not, then, that coup leaders are rejected by the UN. It all turns on who opposed the coup, and with what energy.

Australia and New Zealand have spoken against the Fiji coup. On September 22, Inner City Press asked Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd if he had made any headway in getting the UN to stop using and paying the government for Fijian peacekeepers until democracy is restored. Video here. We have made ourselves clear, Rudd answered. But the UN continues using Fijians in Iraq.

Meanwhile, even for a November election in Honduras which presumably would put the country back on the democratic path, the UN has cut its technical assistance. On September 24, Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Michele Montas whether the UN will similar not assist elections by the militiary government in Myanmar. Transcript and other UN GA footnotes below. The same question applies to Fiji and Madagascar.

From the September 24 UN transcript:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about yesterday’s announcement about suspending technical assistance to the election in Honduras. I guess it’s a comparative question. What standard would the UN apply to providing electoral assistance for example, in Myanmar or even in Madagascar? Can you say a little bit more on why it was suspended at this time and what it would take to get it? There are countries like Spain that are sending their ambassadors back even the… so are [inaudible] country. What was the Secretary-General’s reasoning in this and what would it take to resume electoral assistance for an election?

Spokesperson: Yes, well, let’s first give you a little background. The electoral assistance project in Honduras was established in November 2007 for support in the lead-up to the general election planned for November 2009. So the implementation began in September 2008. It was way before the events that occurred in Honduras after that. The type of the assistance that is being provided, you know, it is assistance in training polling station staff, it’s assistance, for instance, on gender issues, an internal quick count project -- things of that sort. And they had already set up 41 polling stations; staffers, they had been hired, trained, they had been deployed. And so, all this has been put on hold. It’s a case by case issue, you know. In the specific case [of Honduras], as I said, it went back way back in November 2008. Why was it interrupted? I gave you the reason [earlier] in the statement we have.

Inner City Press: [inaudible] for example, Myanmar, it’s a military Government that’s setting up to have an election that many people say is not credible. But it seems that the UN is going to provide assistance. So I wanted to know what standard it is that the UN provides electoral assistance under.

Spokesperson: I think the best thing I can do for you is invite people from the electoral [Assistance Division of the Department of Political Affairs]; people who help on electoral issues to come here and talk to you. I think then they can give you [more accurate answers]…

Inner City Press: [inaudible] standard in the Secretary-General, who were they that made the decision to suspend this aid? Was it just the Secretary General’s decision…?

Spokesperson: Well, the Secretary-General made that decision on recommendations from his political department.

Would the UN not help an election in Fiji? Or in Madagascar? Watch this site.

Footnote: The General Debate has moved past the time of Presidents and down to ministers. Friday night as heads of state left Pittsburgh for their countries, the representative of the Solomon Islands used his GA speech to raise the issue of Taiwan. Azerbaijan's focused on Armenia's seizure, as he called it, of a fifth of his country, Nagorno-Karabakh. Still on the UN's second floor, where the Press had been promised renewed access, security officers apologetically barred the way.

Saturday morning began with Burundi saying it supports the African Union position that Ethiopia will take to Copenhagen -- reportedly, $67 billion a year in climate change reparations. The Prime Minister of Thailand said his country, a Kingdom, offers lessons from the financial crisis of 1997, that it avoided harm this time due to the King's philosophy of prudence. Slated for later were Albania, Fiji and Sri Lanka.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1fijimad092609.html

As If at UN, Sri Lankan PM at Asia Society Faces Pre-Screened Softball Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/untrip8may7srilanka092409.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 24 -- Sri Lanka's prime minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka spoke Thursday night at the Asia Society on Park Avenue in Manhattan, facing pre-screened softball questions gently raising the internment camps and freedom of the press. Even so, Wickramanayake responded testily, drawing partisan applause from the otherwise silenced auditorium.

Several facts were plainly misrepresented. The Asia Society's questioner -- who multiple times and accurately said, "I am by no means an expert on Sri Lanka" -- asked if the International Committee of the Red Cross has access to all the IDPs. Yes, Wickramanayaka replied. But the ICRC has complained of no access to at least 10,000 people.

Then Wickramanayake said that two ICRC staffers were found to have "direct" ties to the LTTE and were arrested. Presumably he was referring to the two UN system staff, a question that Inner City Press wrote on a note card that was never read out by the moderator. Nor was a question about the GSP Plus tax benefit in Europe, which Sri Lanka stands to lose for human rights violations.

The evening got off to a surreal start with the present of the Asia Society, Ms. Vishakha N. Desai, saying without qualification that the Sri Lankan government means well. Then Wickramanayake delivered a sort of speech. He said "our country is nourished by Buddhism." He spoke of opportunities for investors, tourism on Eastern beaches.

Then the Asia Society's Executive Vice President Jaime Metzl took a seat and began lobbing softball questions. He said, let's turn back to Sri Lankan independence, to 1948. Wickramanayake became testy, and not for the last time. "Let us forget the past," he snapped. We want to look to the future.

EVP Metzl ever so gently raised the issue of the IDPs. Wickramanayake said the only problem is demining. "We were going it manually," he said, "until quite recently." He said now some machines have arrived. "It would have taken years," he said.

So what did Mahinda Rajapaksa's commitment to Ban Ki-moon in May, to resettle 80% of the IDPs by the end of the year, mean? One of the two is dissembling.

Metzl read out a question submitted only, "anonymously," he pointed out. took issue with why anyone would be anonymous. He said there are no problems of freedom of the press. When an audience member shouted out, "twenty years of hard labor," they were shouted down by a person sitting up in the front, in the reserved seat. Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the UN was observed up there. In front of the Asia Society, a fleet of blank four by fours were parked, with the Sri Lankan flag on their windshield. Entourage!

As Wickramanayake pontificated, about former LTTE supporters put in charge in the East, EVP Metzl nodded and said, as if involuntarily, uh huh, uh huh, while nodding his head. He let slip that he had just returned from Afghanistan, and that his father was an IDP for ten years after World War II. He named El Salvador as a country with a past of ethnic conflict. (Actually, there it is social class, we'll cite Roque Dalton.) Metzl's high point, he let the audience know, was getting an empty commitment from Wickramanayake that the Red Cross could contact his office. "And the Ministry of Defense," Wickramanayake quickly added. Of course.

The questions got more and more lame, culminating with "what do you pray for every night?" Wickramanayake answered, testy to the end, "I don't want to disclose that." Then the Asia Society whisked him and his entourage through a door, presumably to a reception, and the audience filed out.

Inner City Press felt a duty to come and hear, even paid to do it. In other circumstances, a refund would be in order given the weakness of the questions, and not allowing the audience or Press to ask any questions. The Asia Society created it own protest free General Assembly, and changed twenty dollars a seat for it.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip8may7srilanka092409.html

At UN, Miliband and Kouchner in Sri Lankan Meeting Friday, Japan Says It's Resolved

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/untrip8may6srilanka092309.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 23 -- On the opening day of the UN General Assembly, UK foreign minister David Miliband told the Press that he and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner will have a "joint meeting" with the Sri Lankan foreign minister on Friday. As Miliband spoke with mostly British reporters about the statement he had just read out on camera about Iran, Inner City Press asked what if anything the UK was doing about Sri Lanka during this UN General Assembly week.

Miliband said, "I am certainly having a meeting with the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister... Bernard Kouchner and I are jointing meeting him." Inner City Press asked what would be raised or asked for at the meeting. Miliband turned to one of the British journalists and said, this would be good clip for you.

Then he answered, that "Mr Kouchner and I, when we went to Sri Lanka, got very clear commitments from the president of Sri Lanka, about IDPs and a host of related issues and we're following up those commitments." If follow-up is what it's about, one will expect a read out from the UK Mission, or even the French.

The Japanese, meanwhile, dodged Sri Lanka questions for the second time this week. Inner City Press asked Kazuo Kodama, Press Secretary for the Prime Minister of Japan, for his country's position on the IDP camps and, one assumes, the same "host" of related issues Miliband referred to.

Kazuo Kodama said that yes, Minister Akashi was long engaged in the Sri Lankan peace process, but "we all know that last May... now peace is restored in Sri Lanka." Video here, from Minute 24:15. This at a minimum shows the weakness of a foreign policy, even an international organization, overly focuses on military conflicts and their end by any means necessary and not the underlying causes.

We also note that according to Kazuo Kodama, when Gordon Brown met with Japan's new prime minister, Myanmar was raised, but not Sri Lanka...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip8may6srilanka092309.html

As U.S. and Japan "Engage" with Myanmar, Singapore Praises Army in Government

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/banvac8myanmar092309.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 23 -- As the UN's "Group of Friends of the Secretary General on Myanmar" met Wednesday in the UN's basement, in the penned in area outside, the talk was of backsliding. Despite the near rote talk about Aung San Suu Kyi, the U.S. is said to be ready to "engage" with the military government of Than Shwe. And when Singapore's foreign minister George Yeo emerged, he said he welcomed Hillary Clinton's statement.

Inner City Press asked, what about the upsurge in violence against ethnic groups, such as in the Kokang regions, leading to refugee flows? The Singaporean minister said that was not discussed, that "drugs" were not discussed, only refugees.

Despite this cognitive dissonance, Inner City Press asked if he thought the UN should provide electoral assistant -- just cut off to Honduras -- since the Myanmar constitution devotes seats to those with military background. That is not a bad thing, the Minister asked, the involvement of the military. Video here.

Friends on Myanmar, indeed. The contradiction of suspending election aid to Honduras, but moving to provide it in Myanmar, will be explored.

Earlier on Wednesday, Inner City Press asked Kazuo Kodama, Press Secretary for the Prime Minister of Japan, for his country's position on Myanmar. Tellingly, the issue did not come up in the Prime Minister's meeting with Barack Obama. But, it emerged, it did come up in his meeting with the UK's Gordon Brown. The spokesman added, as if by rote, the Aung San Suu Kyi should be freed.

Later, the Japanese foreign minister came out of the Friends' meeting and took two questions in Japanese, none in English. Presumably, he did not respond to the calls that Japan divest of Nippon Oil Exploration (Myanmar), with a stake in natural gas in the country. We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/banvac8myanmar092309.html

At UN Entrance, Chavez on Zelaya, Mugabe, Obama Watch, Turkmen and Entourage

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un64ga1m092309.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 23, updated -- At the UN's entrance Wednesday morning, Robert Mugabe and then Hugo Chavez came in. Chavez came over to the crowded stakeout the Press was penned into, and even answered a few questions. Zelaya? He is "un valiente," a valiant. Chavez said he hasn't been to the UN General Assembly for three years, but he is hoping for "good speeches."

One TV journalist yelled out, "Any books for President Obama?" The reference was to Chavez' gift of Chomsky to Bush. Inner City Press wonders, if not sulfur, what will it smell like?

The second entering president to speak to the Press was Fernandez of the Dominican Republic, with what one photographer called an "insanely large" entourage. As he spoke about coup d'etat -- presumably, Honduras -- a trio of journalists with "Turkmenistan" emblazoned on their jackets grumbled. Who is this guy?

The question was, where is Obama? Michele Obama came in...

Update of 9:32 a.m. -- security tells the Press, Obama will arrive in two minutes. The Press is locked in the stakeout. As we wait, Inner City Press is asked, why does Brazil always speak first? A UN staffer answers, the first GA president did it, and they've kept the tradition.

During the wait, a UN security officer tells TV camera people to stop standing on the chairs. When they ignore him, he starts taking the chairs. The camera people just push closer to the front edge of the stakeout.

Even diplomats are stopped for a time from entering. A Sri Lankan diplomat flashes her "secondary pass," but the security officer shrugs. You have to wait just like the others. Entourages pour in.

Update of 9:40 p.m. -- the two minutes have turned to eight. Now a security officer says, in Spanish, cinco minutos. Then, diez minutos. There is a strangely near reverential lull and silence.

Update of 9:42 a.m. - Gaddafi comes in. "What is your message to the people of Britain?" one journalist shouts out. Gaddafi is flashing theV peace sign -- for the record, two fingers. He is trailed by women in combat fatigues with long black hair.

Update of 9:53 a.m. -- Rwanda's President Paul Kagame walks in, and no one at the stakeout calls out a question or even notices, so intent on Obama's now delayed entrance.... We can call this, political paparazzi....

Update of 9:59 a.m. -- "this is is," the woman from the UN's Department of Public Information says. And after a slew of security officers, there is Obama, waving to the Press. Reporters shout only his name, no questions. Then in his wake, anther call: "Hilary!" By the time Ambassador Susan Rice walks by, next to a tall red headed woman -- we are assuming Samantha Power -- no reporter shouts anything. Two minutes later, the stakeout has emptied out. It's all about Obama...

Update of 10:26 a.m. -- as Obama, with the green marble backdrop, says the U.S. will work with Russia, the UN TV camera pans to Russia's seat, in which the country's Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin sits nonplussed. Coming up from the stakeout, reporters are crowded around TV screens on the third floor -- even without sound! filming each other! It is hard to describe Obama's tone: teacher-ly? He might (want to) appear to be lecturing...

Update of 10:31 a.m. -- a press conference by the spokesman for Japan's new prime minister, which was scheduled to start at 10 a.m., has been delayed. Deferred, one might say, out of deference, not wanting to overlap with Obama. Perhaps its that no repoters would go to the Japanese presser at this time. The next is Spain's Zapatero at noon.

Update of 11:39 a.m. -- Obama went 38 minutes, and Gaddafi for now is at 32 minutes. He has called the Security Council the "Terror Council." This is the PG version of what he may do and say in the Security Council tomorrow...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un64ga1m092309.html

On Sri Lanka, Australia's Rudd Says He's Watching, UN Silent on Immunity, Miliband at UN

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/untrip8may5srilanka092209.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 22 -- With the internment camps in northern Sri Lanka still full, Inner City Press on Tuesday asked Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd what his country will do, including since Australian UNICEF staff member James Elder was ordered expelled from the country for speaking of the detainees' plight. Video here, from Minute 11:28.

Rudd, after answering about climate change and the UN's use of peacekeepers from militarily-ruled Fiji, said Australia is "monitoring human rights" in Sri Lanka and will take the "necessary action with respect to any individual." Video here from Minute 13:11.

Even less firm was an answer by the UN Spokesperson's Office, when asked what if anything Lynn Pascoe accomplished in Sri Lanka about the two UN system staffer who were grabbed up by the government and, they say, tortured. Spokesperson Michele Montas said, twice, the Pascoe had "raised" the issue to President Mahinda Rajapaksa. But what is being done?

Inner City Press asked, again, if it is the UN's position that it national staff are immune, at least within the scope of their employment for the UN. Ms. Montas declined to answer, saying that lawyers have been provided for the two staffers. On whether the UN in Sri Lanka, as it does elsewhere including Sudan, assert immunity, Ms Montas said, "I will have to find out." Video here, from Minute 13:18.

Later on Tuesday, the UN Spokesperson's office issues three separate statement about Sudan. But nothing about Sri Lanka... Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was grilled about Sri Lanka over the weekend. One wonders how, then, simple questions like those posed on September 18 can remain unanswered.

Footnote: UK Foreign Minister David Miliband is said to be arranging by invitation only press briefings on September 23 inside the UN. It is not clear if any Sri Lanka follow up question will be asked or even allowed. Watch this space.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip8may5srilanka092209.html

At UN, Art of Comoros Death Made of Shanty Tin As Diplomats Dine on, Climate Change

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unart1comoros092209.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 22 -- While Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held a tightly controlled press conference on climate change, accepting a mere four questions, none about poor countries, in the UN's lobby a small crowd viewed graphic art work about thousands of deaths in the sea between Comoros and Mayotte.

Artist Denis Balthazar, originally from French Guyana but focused in this work on the pieces of Grand Comoros, told Inner City Press that the UN does and says too little for the poor in the Comoros.

They live in shantytowns, the sheet metal walls from which Balthazar uses in his paintings. He also uses magnifying glasses and fragments of newspapers. He depicts the mercenary Robert Denard, and crying faces underneath a French flag.

The work has been shown in Paris, in Mayotte and now New York. Why not on Comoros, Inner City Press asked. That will be the next stop. First was to try to confront the silence, Balthazar said. Security guards milled around, eating the free sandwiches.

Downstairs, unreachable by the press much less thee public, world leaders had a "working dinner" about climate change. Their distance from those depicted in Balthazar's paintings couldn't be more clear. Yet even in the UN, during the General Assembly, sometimes there is truth. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unart1comoros092209.html

UN Confirms "Extensive" Bed Bugs, Claims Missed Them in Due Diligence, GA Next?

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/uncmp9bedbugs092209.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 22 -- As the UN now admits extensive infestation by bed bugs of its "swing space" Albano Building on 46th Street, on Tuesday it gave Inner City Press a new argument. On September 18, a week after exclusively reporting the UN bed bug infestation, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesperson Michele Montas to "please confirm or deny that bed bugs were found in the Albano Building swing space and fumigation done, and please state what was found, what steps are in place if the infestation continues or even spreads east of First Avenue."

By the noon briefing on September 22, still not response has been received. So Inner City Press asked Ms. Montas' colleague Jean-Victor Nkolo, the spokesperson for General Assembly President Ali Treki, if the General Assembly or member states had been informed of the infestation by bed bugs of the building offices of the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management.

Mr. Nkolo said he is no specialist, that Inner City Press should ask "the management." Ms. Montas then handed Inner City Press a five paragraph "If Asked" statement, which quoted the first part of Inner City Press' September 18 question:

IF ASKED ABOUT BED BUGS

please confirm or deny that bed bugs were found in the Albano Building swing space and fumigation done,

Pest control contractors have confirmed an infestation of bed bugs on a number of floors in the Albano Building and staff have been informed.

Over the weekend of 19 and 20 September, extermination measures against bed bugs (fumigation) have been applied for the entire Albano Building by a specialized contractor in line with industry best practice. Follow up measure will be taken in two weeks.

Spot checks on... five floors of 380 Madison Avenue last week did not find a single incidence of bed bugs. Workstations, furniture, desks and chairs that were relocated from the Secretariat Building were also checked and no bed bugs were found.

The exterminator advises that the extend of the infestation detected in the Albano Building would take at least six months if not longer to develop. Since the UN moved into the building in mid-July it is most likely that the bed bugs were in the Albano Building before the UN moved in.

This is meant to rebut the idea that the UN's moving contractor introduced bed bugs into Albano, and therefore might have put them in Madison Avenue, Third Avenue and Second Avenue swing spaces. But if the bed bugs were in Albano before the UN moved in -- before the UN leased the property? -- what does it say about the UN's due diligence? And where might the bed bugs spread next, even during the General Assembly meetings the documents for which are prepared in the Albano Building? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/uncmp9bedbugs092209.html

Cash Still Blocked from Gaza, Blair and UNRWA Say, Syrian Bank Still Used Under Sanctions

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unrwa1blair092209.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 22 -- As the UN Relief and Works Agency prepares to celebrate sixty years of serving refugees from Palestine, its work force has been going on strike in Jordan and South Lebanon, protesting cut backs in pay as well as services. Following criticism of UNRWA for using the Commercial Bank of Syria, which is on U.S. anti-terrorism lists, UNRWA said it would stop using the bank.

But when Inner City Press asked UNRWA chief Karen AbuZayd for an update on September 18, she said that the "Central Bank of Syria" had a monopoly in rural areas and that UNRWA continues to use it. Using the Central Bank of Syria where is was the only one operating. Video here, from Minute 26:49. This was not denied later, after the press conference, by UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness.

Just as UNICEF uses two banks in Iran which are listen in the anti-nuclear resolutions of the UN Security Council, UNRWA appears to act in conflict with terror watch lists. How long will the monopoly last?

Inner City Press also asked AbuZayd for an update on Israel's blockage of cash into the Gaza Strip, and reported imposition of taxes on UNRWA contrary to how the UN is treated elsewhere. She replied that cash is still a problem, taxes less so. They allow in the cash for our salary, 10,000 staff, and for the Palestinian Authority.

On September 22, Inner City Press asked the Quartet's envoy Tony Blair about the issue of money in Gaza. Blair said it is a problem one that he works on.

Unsaid was that Blair also works for JPMorgan Chase Bank, along side his UN work. No one has even explained what safeguards are in place against any conflicts of interest. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unrwa1blair092209.html

At UN, Greenwashing Evaded, Vattenfall Uses UN, African Position Marginalized

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un3climate092209.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 22 -- On the UN's climate change day, corporations ranging from Duke Energy to De Beers came and were praised as leaders. From a closely guarded meeting in the UN's dining room, five panelists descended to tell the Press how well it is all doing.

Inner City Press asked what standards the UN has, to allow oil companies like Shell and BP and Respol to engage in what some call greenwashing through the UN Global Compact, which recently rejected a complaint by 80 civil society groups about Global Compact member PetroChina's involvement in Darfur. Video here, from Minute 47:26.

Two responses to this question were offered, after panelist Al Gore declined to answer it. UN moderator and "global goods" maven Robert Orr add that the UN wants to work with all companies, and that there is a trend of companies they work with getting better. The head of Calvert Investment Barbara Krumsiek acknowledged that the companies attending are doing so from self interest, but that "appropriate steps" should be taken where companies' actions "are not positive." But are they?

Afterwards, Inner City Press asked Orr about the case of Vattenfall, whose CEO Lars Josefsson claimed that his inclusion in one of Ban Ki-moon climate and energy advisory boards mean that Vattenfall has a great environmental record. Orr nodded, but it is not clear that anyone has made or even asked Josefsson and Vattenfall to retract the claim the UN calls inappropriate.

Inner City Press asked asked about the African Union figure of $67 billion per year in climate charge compensation and reparations. Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said he wouldn't discuss particularly numbers, but he expected this was going talk about in the UN's Monday roundtables.

But when Inner City Press asked UN climate expert Janos Pasztor if such discussions were taking place, he said there are many numbers, and refused to say. He said what is needed is not a payment, but a new framework. Good luck.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un3climate092209.html

As Japan and Clinton Met, Sri Lanka Not Mentioned, Myanmar Only Later, Prisoner Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/japan1myansri092109.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 21 -- When U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton met Monday one on one with her Japanese counterpart Katsuya Okada, neither Myanmar nor Sri Lanka was discussed, Inner City Press learned Monday night. These are two countries where, as reported, international "crimes have occurred."

Next to a hotel conference room full of dozens of Japanese reporters, a briefing was given Monday night for two non-Japanese journalists by Yasuhisa Kawamura, the Deputy Press Secretary of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The invitation to the briefing said that "Kawamura will accept journalist's questions on any topic of interest."

The operative word, it turned out, was "accept" -- because when Inner City Press asked about Japan's desire for a seat on the UN Security Council, whether the election in Japan has impacted that and what might be accomplished during this week's General Assembly meetings, Mr. Kawamura said, "I don't have that particular answer."

The briefing focused on or was limited to Minister Okada's "forty five minute" meeting with Hilary Clinton. Inner City Press asked if the talk of "stability" in Afghanistan included any discussion of the contested elections. Mr. Kawamura said that he meant stability "in a general way," adding, "let me repeat, Japan will continue to provide support with reconstruction efforts in civilian areas." He said that refueling in the Indian Ocean did not come up.

Inner City Press asked either if Myanmar and Sri Lanka had arisen in the meeting with Hilary Clinton, or for Japan's and its new administration's view of these issues. Mr. Kawamura said, "As far as I know, at today's meeting they didn't pick up Myanmar or Sri Lanka." He then said that "Japan is concerned about with others the Myanmar situation."

Having received not even a no comment about Sri Lanka, Inner City Press asked again, about the visit by Japan's envoy Akashi, and whether Japan would continue funding what some characterize as internment camps. Mr. Kawamura said, "again, today they didn't discuss Sri Lanka. There was a breakthrough in the civilian conflict this summer." He said, "Japan gave [funds] in the hope of internal... mutual understanding among races."

Mr. Kawamura paused and then added, "I need to confirm with Mister Minister," saying that before the election "we did assist." Might it change?

After the briefing was formally declared closed, Mr. Kawamura indicted he wanted to add that at a "trilateral" meeting of Hilary Clinton, Mr. Okada and their Australian counterpart, Myanmar was discussed. Minister "Okada added that it was regrettable that Aung San Suu Kyi is still detained" while welcoming the new of the release of some other prisoners.

After the briefing was finally seemingly over, Inner City Press returned a phone call and Mr. Kawamura said he wanted to "amend" certain of his answers. Where he had said that Japan would "consult" with the U.S., he had meant Japan would "examine internally" and then "cooperate" with the U.S.. Where he had seemed to over-emphasize particular issues, he only meant that they were a "focus." But there was no additional information about Myanmar, and none at all about Sri Lanka.

Footnotes: Considering -- or "focusing on" -- Hilary Clinton, we note that on this same September 21, the U.S. office on war crimes issues was to turn in a report on Sri Lanka to the U.S. Congress. There's a scheduled protest by the UN on September 22 for inaction on Sri Lanka, just as there was a similar protest earlier at the Japanese mission. And then, at 11:30 p.m. on Monday night, another Japanese press conference was called for.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/japan1myansri092109.html

China Shifts Forest Duties to Consumers of Furniture, as UNEP and Achim Steiner Offer Praise

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unep1china092109.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 21 -- As the UN Environment Program called China an environmental leader Monday for planting 2.6 billion trees, questions arose about the destruction of forests by China and other countries praised by UNEP. Inner City Press asked China's Minster of State Forestry Administration Jia Zhibang how the planting compared to the effects on forest of, for example, China's rubber plantations or Laos, or its export of old growth forest from the Congo.

Minister Jia Zhibang responded, through his translator, that "the Chinese government does not encourage illegal logging in any of the countries in which we have investments." He said, on illegal logging, one should consider "consumerism," that China imports timber, works on and exports it. We should "lead people," he said, to use less endangered wood.

Then, while UNEP's Achim Steiner was responding to or rejecting Inner City Press' question about what UNEP does to measure or verify how many trees are being taken down by the countries it is praising, another member of Minister Jia Zhibang's entourage rushed to the front of the room to make additions, that "there are two aspects... countries are sovereign to use their forests" but since wood that China imports is then exported to other markets, other governments should have adequate safeguards.

The argument apparently is that when China imports huge logs from the Congo, contrary to agreements that supposedly require the working of the wood to be done where it is felled, it is the ultimate consuming country that should discover this.

Achim Steiner's answer was that UNEP is not in charge of measuring how many trees come down -- he said FAO does that -- but rather, the Billion Tree Campaign is about "empowerment," about people doing things spontaneously. His materials list Myanmar as committing to plant 150 million trees. One wonders how spontaneous that is. Steiner expressed dissatisfaction with the question, saying that the event was about what people are doing.

The next speaker, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, said on the contrary it is an important question, because it goes to the "commitment" of governments. "We cannot commit and then go and do the opposite," she said.

UNEP then deigned to take one more question, from a Chinese journalist who asked how much China has spent on the Billion Tree Campaign. The response included the fact that Hu Jintao himself planted five trees this year. And that it was over.

Footnote: Also on the panel was a young boy, Felix Finkbeiner, who made the audience laugh by saying adults talk a lot but do little. He encouraged attendees to take photographs with him -- his photographer was waiting, with a white backdrop and a laptop showing photos of Felix with the UN's Doctor Pachauri, with UNEP "ambassador" Gisele Bundchen.

This type of program seems of more interest to Steiner's UNEP than looking at volumes of trees lost before offering praise to countries which are, in fact, destroying forests. And one continues to note Ban Ki-moon's replacement of Anna Tibaijuka by Achim Steiner to head the UN in Nairobi, with the subsequent hoopla about the UN's commitment to women in leadership, and even more questionable commitment to a have a full time Special Adviser on Africa. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unep1china092109.html