By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unama5sideline103009.html
UNITED NATIONS, October 30 -- In the wake of the killing of five UN staff members in Kabul, in New York Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday told the General Assembly he will ask for at least $86 million on top of the budget he presented earlier this week. The requests include a new $25 million emergency fund for security, and $50 million for a second Access Control Project -- which it is not clear would have covered the attacked Kabul guest house or facilities like it.
Ban's prepared remarks asked for "expanded authority to undertake new financial commitments in time of crisis. The current level of authority -- $1 million -- is simply not enough."
Earlier, when Inner City Press asked whether Ban would be funding his new three person investigation panel for Guinea from a $8 million fund for "unforeseen" expenses, Ban's spokesperson Michele Montas said she didn't know. A UN budget official said that the Secretary General can use this fund and simply report on its use at year's end. Inner City Press has asked for previous reports.
Meanwhile at press time in Afghanistan, Karzai's main rival Abdullah Abdullah is reportedly prepared to announce a boycott of the second round. Inner City Press has asked Ms. Montas, without answer, if the UN was in touch with the candidate -- not Ashraf Ghani -- who came in third. Would his name now be entered in the run off?
At what was billed a a "town hall" meeting with UN staff about the killing of their colleagues, Ban and the two other speakers, Ann Veneman of UNICEF and the elusive Helen Clark of UNDP, did not take any questions from staff.
Afterwards, some staff stopped and told Inner City Press the budget request smacked of opportunism. One argued that the deaths in Algiers and now Kabul were more the product of UN staff being put in places their shouldn't be, rather than a lack of money.
In Algiers, a UN security official has recommended beefing up security and raising the threat level, but the UN didn't, in deference to the government. In Kabul, UN staff ere in a guest house, to which ISAF didn't respond for an hour.
More resources may be needed, but there are not sufficient if UN leadership does not have the will, including the willingness to stand up to host countries, to protect its staff. But as with the USA Patriot Act, who will dare to vote against these requests, in the wake of a bombing?
While to some this skepticism seems harsh, it is significant - and newsworthy - that is circulating in the UN, and at a not-low level. One wonders when the Secretariat will come forward with the specifics of its DSS budget, particularly the items aluded to on Friday, and if it will forthrightly ties or compare the requests to what happened at the Kabul guesthouse, or Algiers before that. Watch this site.
