By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, December 14 -- Former French foreign minister Philippe Douste Blazy's misuse of millions of dollars in funding from UNITAID has yet to be effectively acted on by the UN system, it emerged on December 14.
At a press conference on malaria, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy on the topic, Ray Chambers, what has been done since Inner City Press' questions and expose more than five month ago.
We are watching it, Chambers said, adding later that his past work as an investor made him wary of “start ups.” But Douste Blazy presented his Millennium Foundation and its MassiveGood program as nearly a sure thing. He paid Spike Lee $500,000 to make a promotional film that featured Bill Clinton, Paul Auster and others. And then... nothing, or very little.
As Inner City Press showed, the Millennium Foundation was stocked with associates of now former French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, recently fired by Nicolas Sarkozy. Chamber on December 14 said that “to the best of our knowledge,” UNITAID gave some $8 to $10 million to Douste Blazy's Millennium Foundation, which has been hampered by “software problems.” Video here, from Minuyte 37:20
But where is the accountability? To fight malaria is laudable. But who approved this transfer of funds?
In the rest of the press conference, from which WHO chief Margaret Chan left without taking any questions, Inner City Press asked about the UN's response to malaria in Pakistan after the floods, and about WHO's involvement in a company's work with genetically modified mosquitoes.
WHO's Doctor Rob Newman, in Chan's absence, acknowledged WHO's engagement with genetically modified mosquitoes. Video here, from Minute 45:07. Inner City Press was not allowed a follow up question about the specifics.
On Pakistan, Newman said that WHO sent a situation assessment team from its Eastern Mediterranean office, and has procured and shipped the “commodities” needed. But how will malaria spread in Pakistan?
How is are resistant strains of malaria spreading along the borders of Thailand with Cambodia and, more recently, Myanmar? Watch this site.
Footnote: WHO's Newman says he wrote to 39 companies to urge stopping production of single drug malaria products, and got only two responses. It seems that these, targeted by African leaders as recounted to his credit by Ray Chambers, are mostly based in India, which is joining the UN Security Council next month.
Notably, as Inner City Press reported last week from India's Mission to the UN, India argues that Myanmar is NOT a threat to international peace and security, and should not be on the Security Council's agenda. But if resistant malaria is spreading, isn't THAT a threat to international peace and security?
