Ban Ki-moon Daughter Hired by Douste-Blazy's UNITAID, UN Confirms to ICP

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, December 31 -- The daughter of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has been hired by UNITAID, a UN facility for the purchase of drugs against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis that is run, or mis-run, by French politician Philippe Douste-Blazy. (Click here &here for previous scoops.)

  Inner City Press asked Ban's top three spokespeople about this on December 27, and on every workday since. Finally at past 4:30 pm on New Years Eve the UN confirmed the hiring, but did not state what rules on nepotism might apply.

  Inner City Press on December 27 asked the UN to "please provide the Secretariat's response to the allegation, received by Inner City Press, that 'Hyun Hee Ban has been hired without a legitimate selection process by the UN agency UNITAID," and that "Philippe Douste-Blazy, chairman of executive board of UNITAID, arranged the deal."

  Specifically, Inner City Press asked, "What rules or safeguards, including regarding the hiring of family members of high UN system officials, apply?"

  Here is the UN's entire New Years Eve response:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 4:38 PM
Subject: Question
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] innercitypress.com

On UNITAID: We checked with UNITAID. This is their response: Hyun Hee Ban has been hired by UNITAID with a temporary (limited duration, less than six months) contract as a P3 technical officer in Monitoring and Evaluation, reporting to the head of Monitoring and Evaluation in the Department of Operations. She was selected on the basis of her CV, availability in Geneva and the high workload of the Monitoring and Evaluation team. As UNITAID is a partnership hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), all WHO rules have been adhered to, as with all UNITAID's appointments. Dr. Denis Broun, the Executive Director of UNITAID, was responsible for the hiring.

   To say someone was selected on the basis of their CV is not explaining a recruitment practice. And there is a history here - click here (2007) here (2009, legal threats) and here (2011).

   With all due respect to Hyun Hee Ban's qualification and clearly good intentions, given the obvious pressures and conflict of interest issues raised by a UN related entity employing a direct relative of the Secretary General, a more detailed response that this, and possibly better or at least some rules will be required. 

   But that, based on the timing of the response, will have to be in 2013. Happy New Year. Watch this site.

UN Can't Says What Congo Copters Were Doing, of Rapes, Ladsous & Drones

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 31 -- The UN on December 28 announced that two of its helicopters were fired on in Eastern Congo two days previous, from positions north of Goma held by the M23. No injuries are mentioned; the M23 was threatened with prosecution for war crimes.

  Three full days after the UN announcement and threat, Inner City Press asked the UN some simple questions: how many times how many UN helicopters were fired on over M23 positions, and what the UN helicopters were doing; does MONUSCO tell M23 when it is flying about the territory it controls?

  Inner City Press asked for the UN response to the following statement by M23 spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Vianney Kazarama: "We never attacked MONUSCO, we fired at helicopters from the FARDC, who were flying reconnaissance over M23 zones. If MONUSCO wants to fly reconnaissance over our territory, they must do so by day and they must warn us. At night, we can't make out the UN symbol."

  These questions should be easy to answer. But by close of business deadline, the UN's response was just another deferral: "On the latest MONUSCO-related questions: DPKO advises it is checking with the mission. On the FARDC-related MONUSCO question: DPKO advises that the human rights investigations continue."

  This last concerns the 126 FARDC rapes at Minova in late November about which DPKO chief Herve Ladsous has repeated refused to answer Press questions. On November 27 he refused Inner City Press' questions about Minova then took a handful of favored correspondents out into the hall (none then wrote about the rapes).

  On December 18, Ladsous had his spokesman seize the UN TV microphone to try to avoid the question being asked. The UN Department of Public Information has been petitioned about this but as of yet has done nothing.

  Inner City Press on December 31 asked the UN to clarify a statement that Ladsous did make earlier in the month to the French publication La Croix, that he wants to use drones in Eastern Congo, and that drones would have saved peacekeepers' lives in Cote d'Ivoire.

  So Inner City Press asked, Ladsous' desire for drones, does it apply to Cote d'Ivoire as well as DRC? Anywhere else? What are the approvals that DPKO recognizes as necessary before any use of drones? Does DPKO acknowledge that General Assembly approval would be required?

  On this, the UN replied "DPKO says it is continuing with its feasibility study on the use of unarmed aerial vehicles by peacekeeping operations, and with its consultations with Member States."

  But numerous member states, on the C-34, were critical of Ladsous' proposal, wondering who would get the information, one alleging Ladsous already selected the French company Thales to provide the drones. Several C-34 members say Ladsous is the worst head of DPKO ever.

  During this tense time, Ladsous has gone to ground. In neither French or English Google News is there any mention of Ladsous since well before Christmas. What has he been doing -- going to public relations class? Or channeling drones?

  Certainly, DPKO has not been doing its job. Inner City Press asked, "On Sudan, this is a request that the UN confirm or deny that claim by SLA - Abdelwahid Nur faction it has on December 28 captured the government office and army base in Guldo district near Central Darfur state's Nertiti town, any checking by UNAMID, any impact on civilians."

   To this, the UN replied, "On Sudan: DPKO advises it is checking with UNAMID for an update."

   On the obvious issue of why DPKO in the Congo would threaten ICC prosecution for missed shots at its helicopters at night, while making no such threat after South Sudan killed four UN crew in shooting down a helicopter, Inner City Press asked "given the statement about prosecution for war crimes made by MONUSCO, has UNMISS made such a statement about the killing of the four Russian crew?"

  Rather than take the opportunity to try to distinguish the two cases, the UN replied 

"On UNMISS: All mission statements are posted on its website. You can see there the statement made by UNMISS." 

  It hasn't threatened prosecution. What explains the double standard? DPKO is on autopilot, operating like or by a drone. Watch this site.

Amid Evacuations from Bangui, Politics But No UNSC Meetings, Echoes of Rwanda?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 31 -- As the Seleka rebels have closed in for the past week on Bangui, those fleeing from the Central African Republic have included nationals of the US, China, France as well as 100% of the UN's international staff in the country.

  But the UN Security Council has not had a meeting on the subject, since December 19, despite having maintained a political mission there.

  While notably smaller in scale, some have asked, how is this different in structure from Rwanda in 1994, where after having a Chapter 6 mission in Kigali it was mostly pulled out as violence escalated?

  (In the case of the US, the evacuation of the American Ambassador is seen as more triggered by the killings in Benghazi.)

  As to the UN, in a recent Q&A session across the street from the UN, outgoing UN Security chief Gregory Starr said that the UN shouldn't just flee places, that there are times were remaining in order to do the work, including mediation, is more important.

  Apparently someone in the UN, presumably not Starr, does not believe that applies to CAR.

  Inner City Press asked Starr about the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the M23 rebels -- about which the Security Council has repeatedly met, and where UN Security in fact brought UN officials in, rather than only evacuating them.

  So what is the UN system's interest in CAR? As Inner City Press reported before Christmas from sourcing at the top of the UN Peacebuilding Commission, some were troubled to conclude that the European Union wanted to use CAR as its first change to head a Peacebuilding Configuration in its own name.

  Given the controversy about the EU trying to have a bigger role in the UN than other non-states -- one African Ambassador told Inner City Press flatly that the EU should NOT chair the Peacebuilding Configuration for CAR or any other country -- there has been delay. Has it helped?

  Inner City Press asked Gerard Araud the Permanent Representative of France, which "holds the pen" on CARand has not called a meeting on it in the past ten days, about the EU's bid. He replied on camera that the EU is not a candidate. Others in the EU quickly told Inner City Press difference, expressing surprise at Araud's answer.

  Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's three top spokesman, three separate times, and finally received in response a statement* including that "A number of candidate countries are under consideration by the Government. We are awaiting the Government’s decision, consistent with the principle of national ownership in PBC's peacebuilding efforts." 

  Does the use of the word candidate "countries" then confirm Araud's response to Inner City Press, that the EU is NOT a candidate?

   More to the point, why hasn't France -- or any of the other Council members, particularly though which have pulled out their nationals -- called a Security Council meeting on the collapse of a country in which the UN Security Council had a political mission? Watch this site.

* -- UN's response to Inner City Press:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Subject: Questions
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] innercitypress.com

On the Peacebuilding Commission's Central African Republic configuration:

H.E. Mr. Jan Grauls, Permanent Representative of Belgium, resigned his Chairmanship of the Peacebuilding Commission's (PBC) Central African Republic configuration effective 1st April 2012.

Subsequently and in accordance with established practice, the Chair of the PBC, H.E. Mr. Abdulkalam Abdul Momen, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, with the support of the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), has been engaged in consultations with the Government of CAR, through its Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, on finding a new Chair for the configuration.

A number of candidate countries are under consideration by the Government. We are awaiting the Government’s decision, consistent with the principle of national ownership in PBC’s peacebuilding efforts.

On Monday, 24 December the Chair of the PBC issued a statement on behalf of PBC on the current disturbing developments in CAR. This is an indication that the absence of a Chair has not stopped the PBC from following closely and responding to developments in CAR.

Watch this site.

Has HRW Lost Its Way in DRC, Silent As UN Stonewalls on 126 FARDC Rapes in Minova, Human Rights Policy?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 28 -- After the UN belatedly admitted that its partner the Congolese Army committed at least 126 rapes in Minova in late November, and top UN Peacekeeper Herve Ladsous openly refused to answer questions about the rapes, among the notably silent has been Human Rights Watch.

  HRW has historically been focused on Eastern Congo, particular though now deceased Alison Des Forges. But of late, HRW director Ken Roth has only one line on the Congo: the M23 mutineers are bad; Rwanda supports them; so Rwanda is bad and should not be in the UN Security Council.

  It's an advocacy line, but Human Rights Watch usually pretends to be objective at least while it is collecting facts. This model would be, compile a multi-sided depiction of a zone of conflict, name the bad actors on all sides, and then advocate.

  Here, HRW has made its position clear and now pays -- at least "travel costs" -- for evidence to support its position, as Liberation has reiterated with reporting from Project Healin Goma.

  But HRW being "all in" against M23 means it has failed with regard to not only the Congolese Army, whose Regiments including 802 and 1001 were in Minova during the mass rapes, but also with regard to the UN.

  The UN claims to have a Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, that it will not support or work with army units engaged in abuses. But on November 27, December 7 and December 18, the UN's Herve Ladsous openly refused to answer any Press questions about which units were in Minova.

  Even asking at the UN noon briefing and repeatedly in writing, the UN won't list which FARDC units it works with.

  This would seem to be a HRW issue -- "Human Rights" and all -- but HRW is nowhere to be seen. Its UN "director" Philippe Bolopion, formerly of Le Monde and France 24, has penned an anti M23 and anti Rwanda post in the Herald Tribune.

   From the view in front of the UNSC, Bolopion's references to the "lifesaving work of the Security Council" and claim that "few countries dare challenge the Security Council the way Rwanda does" ring false.

  Earlier Bolopion refused to answer Inner City Press on even the topics Roth met with the UN about.  Bolopion for HRW told Inner City Press, "To preserve our ability to have frank discussions with UN officials and advance our advocacy goals, we don't typically communicate on the content of discussions we have with them."  

  When Inner City Press asked the questions again on December 16, Bolopion did not answer it. Again we ask, are only HRW donors told about HRW's meetings with the UN?

  More to this point, did Roth meet with Ladsous? What is HRW's position on Ladsous' refusal to answer basic questions about the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy? 

   The question has been posed, to Ken Roth and two other HRW staffers. Watch this site.

UN Explains Hyundai, Defers DRC, Sudan & Liberia, Silent on Cambodia & NJ Incident

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 28 -- How does the UN decide when to take a donation, particularly from a government? Inner City Press first raised the question when Ban Ki-moon accepted flights around the Gulf from the United Arab Emirates -- would he similarly accept flights from Syria?

   Back then in January, Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky said that accepting gifts including transportation is "thought about extremely carefully."

   But how is it thought about? Inner City Press has asked the UN what rules applied to the armored Hyundai luxury sedan that Ban Ki-moon accepted earlier this month, with a red bow in the hood and a champagne toast. 

  The UN has told Inner City Press, "it was decided to accept the donation made by the Government of Korea given the donation is consistent with the policies, aims and activities of the Organization."

   Does this mean that giving an armored car is consistent with UN aims? Or that South Korea, as a donor, is consistent with UN aims as other countries, including on the Peninsula, might not be?

   The UN also told Inner City Press that "the Government of the Republic of Korea will pay for all costs and expenses related to the vehicle."

   Is the low mileage of the car consistent with UN policies and aims? The UN answered, "Fuel costs will be similar to the existing armoured vehicles in the fleet." But what about its carbon footprint?

   At least the UN responded to these automotive Press questions, and one about UNRWA. Others questions have been ignored or deferred, among others about Darfur and Liberia, Cambodia and, yes, New Jersey:

Dec 28-1 In Sudan, what is UNAMID doing about the seige of Ronga Tas IDP camp in Central Darfur, and the attempt by authorities to arrest 27 people who organized a demonstration? What is UNAMID's response to calls that the UN do more to protect civilians? Does UNAMID support the government's push to relocate these 33,000 people to places other than their places of origin?

Dec 28-2 In Liberia, this is a request for a detailed update on what the UN ever did about the complaints of the National Staff Association of UNMIL, first to Jane Holl Lute then to the Secretary General, about working conditions and discrimination. In particular, this is a request whether the UN ever investigated and came to a conclusion on the NASA's charges about the UNMIL Deputy Chief Engineer...

Dec 28-5 please confirm or deny an incident described to Inner City Press in which during a Secretary General trip in New Jersey [on information and belief to play golf] his vehicle and security were stopped by authorities and searched. What are the legalities of UN DSS personnel carrying weapons outside of the UN premises, including in the adjacent states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania?

Dec 28-6 On Cambodia, given the history, what is the Secretary General's or Secretariat's comment on the 20 year prison term for journalist Mam Sonando for criticizing Hun Sen, and the restrictions on Chan Soveth of Adhoc, who was questioned on Monday?

   The questions on Cambodia and New Jersey have received no answer as of 5 pm on Friday. On Liberia, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, these deferrals were provided:

"On UNAMID and UNMIL - DPKO advise they are in touch with the missions and when they have something we will let you know. On MONUSCO - DPKO does not have a further update at this stage. As already advised, human rights investigations continue."

   This last is about the 126 rapes by Congolese forces the UN may still be working with, which occurred in November 2012. 

  How is the UN's supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy meaningful, with not only this delay, but lack of transparency in stating which FARDC units the UN has been working with? 

   DPKO chief Ladsous refused to answer this question,retreating to the hall with favored correspondents on November 27 (video here) then having his spokesman seize the UN TV microphone on December 18 (video here), stillnot addressed by the UN. Watch this site.

HRW Paid for Anti M23 Testimony in Goma, UN Topics Secret, CAR Ignored?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 28 -- The disparity in focus on rebels in the Eastern Congo and now in Central African Republic is striking. 

   The M23 mutineers have been the subject of numerous UN Group of Experts leaked reports by Steve Hege, of UN Security Council meetings, open and closed, and a resolution, and compensated testimony gathering by, along others, Human Rights Watch.

   The taking of ten towns in CAR garnered nowhere near this focus: two press statements and a single closed door meeting of the UNSC, none since embassies including of the USA in Bangui have closed. Some have asked, where is Human Rights Watch on the Central African Republic?

   For now, we return to a topic we reported on back on December 16: HRW admitting paying for travel for those who would testify to it.

Inner City Press asked HRW a number of questions, and received a canned statement from HRW's UN representative Philippe Bolopion: 

"Human Rights Watch does not pay witnesses in exchange for information, in order to preserve the integrity of the interviews we conduct. Human Rights Watch occasionally compensates victims or witnesses for incidental costs they may incur when traveling specifically in order to meet with our researchers. As in any other conflict, Human Rights Watch documents abuses committed by all sides in the DRC and therefore seeks information from anyone with first-hand information to give."

   We ran the HRW statement on December 16; Liberationran it as a "right of reply" on December 23, along with their reporter's damning sur-reply, that HRW's investigator began with the position that M23 was the primary perpetrator, and quoting a witness at Heal Africa that HRW was "looking for testimonies against M23."

  Frankly, while having an opinion is a good thing, it would not be surprising that an employee of HRW, seeing the Tweets of boss Ken Roth, would view his or her role in Goma as finding testimonies to prove the boss' already expressed opinion.

  But we remain interested in the questions twice posed to Human Rights Watch on December 16 and still not answered: what testimony was collected? What has been done with it? 

   And since May 2011 have senior HRW staff met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon; if so, what dates, and this is a request again to know the topics.

   Previously, Bolopion for HRW told Inner City Press, "To preserve our ability to have frank discussions with UN officials and advance our advocacy goals, we don't typically communicate on the content of discussions we have with them."

   But doesn't HRW disclose at least the topics raised with the UN to their donors? Is that what one has to do to be informed? Watch this site.

As UN Squeezes Press Out, Gives Space to NYT Which "Never" Comes: Double Standards Redux

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 27 -- The UN, which preaches for rule of law all over the world, says that media organizations must come to its headquarters at least three days a week to be given office space and resident correspondent status.

  But as Inner City Press raised to the UN on December 27 during the UN's meeting announcing the layout of media space in the refurbished headquarters, the New York Times has not used or even entered its UN office since at least October.

  For more than a year, the New York Times has failed to comply with the three days a week rule. So why it is being assigned its own office, while other media have been told to leave?

   Inner City Press prefaced its question with "all due respect;" the Times is fine newspaper. But shouldn't they want to play by the rules? Shouldn't they have to, at the UN?

  A check by Inner City Press on December 26 found months' old fliers sticking out under the door of the New York Times' office, Room L-231. A long time correspondent concurred, "the Times is never here any more." UNTV archived video bears this out. Only the UN, applying a double standard it won't admit to, is in denial.

  This obvious double standard is emblematic of the UN. As regards media accreditation, 2012 saw an attempt to "review the accreditation" of Inner City Press, filed by Voice of America which said it had the support of Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 

  All three are members of the UN Correspondents Association's executive committee, which on December 19extended its term in office, to continue unchange, even nominating its successors.

  Even after the New York Civil Liberties Union asked the UN what rules applied to accreditation, and if Inner City Press was being challenged based on the content of its publications -- which among other things question the performance of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row atop UN Peacekeeping -- the UN never responded with a set of rules.

  The UN, it seems, is all about who you know. How else to explain some freelancers being granted accreditation, and others being kept outside?

  After its experience in 2012, including on December 18 seeing Ladsous' Peacekeeping spokesman attempt to seize the UN TV microphone so that Inner City Press could not ask a question about UN inaction on the Congolese Army rapes in Minova, Inner City Press and others have founded the Free UN Coalition for Access, FUNCA.

  FUNCA has so far raised to the UN, for action, the appropriateness of Ladsous seizing the microphone and refusing to answer questions, the double standards in accreditation and now in the assignment of space, using the New York Times as the example.

 In full disclosure, while Inner City Press for FUNCA on December 27 raised cases of an Egyptian journalist on the now-longer waiting list for a space, and a photographer forced through the metal detectors, Inner City Press is depicted sharing space with an Asian news service, which is fine. Advocacy should be for those who need it.

  Under this UNCA's executive committee's watch, media space at the UN is being reduced by 40%. After this loss, rather than look at which media actually come to cover the UN, favoritism is the rule. The UNCA executive committee members have been well taken care of (by themselves). 

   Voice of America is depicted with its own office with four seats, as is Agence France-Presse (which tried to coax or coach the UN into describing its criteria as something other than favoritism). 

  Photographers and staff of AFP and Reuters, no matter how infrequently they come to the UN, are given White passes to allow them in without metal detectors, while smaller media who are denied space must pass through metal detectors and experience other barriers to coverage.

  In the floor plan, there is not only an UNCA Club -- there is an UNCA office, and even an UNCA Pantry. Why would the UN need to brand its kitchenette with its company union? What's going on here?

  There is not enough coverage of the UN -- on December 24, Inner City Press was the only media organization in front of the General Assembly covering its meeting on the UN's $5.4 billion budget. The answer is to allow in more people, and to treat them fairly. Watch this site.

UN Stonewalling on Ban Ki-moon Nepotism Complaint from UNITAID, French Want Police Adviser Post?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 27, updated twice -- The UN, which preaches for rule of law all over the world, it seen by those inside it as wracked with corruption, nepotism and conflict of interest.

  Inner City Press receives many such complaints, some of which it asks UN spokespeople about, some of which it publishes.

  But of late the spokespeople of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have simply stopped answering questions, and have even given answers to questions Inner City Press has been asking to other media but not to Inner City Press. (The belated rationale, distinguishing Press questions about the presence of UN personnel in conflict zones from their relocation, doesn't hold water.)

 On the morning of December 27, Inner City Press asked Ban's top three spokesmen for an explanation, and for response on deadline to the following questions, including about complaints received about the hiring in the UN system, arranged by Philippe Douste-Blazy, of Ban's youngest daughter:

Please provide the Secretariat's response to the allegation, received by Inner City Press, that "Hyun Hee Ban has been hired without a legitimate selection process by the UN agency UNITAID," that "she has a P3 contract, unlimited duration, NO SELECTION PROCESS;" and that "Philippe Douste-Blazy, chairman of executive board of UNITAID, arranged the deal."

  Has she been hired by UNITAID?

Unless no: at what level? What rules or safeguards, including regarding the hiring of family members of high UN system officials, apply? In this context, please describe the recruitment, and any role played by Philippe Douste-Blazy.

Dec 27 - 2 Also on personnel: please deny or confirm / comment on the UN Secretariat's consideration of current ACABQ vice chair Richard Moon of the UK to head OCSS in the Department of Management, specifically what safeguards are in place given the potential for conflict of interest in offering a job to a person ostensibly objectively analyzing the Secretariat's budget and human resources proposals at ACABQ.

Dec 27 - 3 Please state when UN Police Adviser Orler's contract expires or when she is expected to leave, and please deny or confirm / comment that the Secretariat is considering a French replacements despite France already occupying DPKO.*

  The occupant at the top spot of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Herve Ladsous, is the fourth Frenchman in a row in the post, and by most accounts by far the worst.  On November 27 he refused to answer Press questions about Congolese Army rapes in Minova, thensummoned into the hall a handful of favored media, video here. We will have more on this as well.

* Update: after 5 pm on December 27, one question -- not on UNITAID -- was responded to, thusly:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 5:08 PM
Subject: Question
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] innercitypress.com

On the Police Adviser: DPKO advises that  the post of Police Adviser is a rotational post that is filled by active-duty officers on secondment from national service, normally for a limited period. The current Police Adviser has been in service since 2009 and a note verbale has been circulated to seek nominations from member states to the post. The selection process is in progress.

Note on note: It's from the Note Verbale that sources tell Inner City Press that France, despite already controlling, and not well, DPKO wants to grab the Police Adviser post too. 

Update of Dec. 28, 7 pm -- still the UN had not answered the question about UNITAID and Hyun Hee Ban, asked more than 30 hours previous. Watch this site.

As UN Stonewalls Press On Sudan Killings & DRC, Serves Ladsous' AFP

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 27, updated twice -- The UN has two Peacekeeping mission in Sudan and one in South Sudan, but fails to answer questions about any of them.

 On December 26, Inner City Press asked the top three spokesmen for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon this Sudan question: "please confirm or deny the capture of the Sudanese Army base at Golo, and the reported aerial bombing around it."

 But the UN never answered that question, instead providing to Inner City Press a dilatory response on the shooting down of a UN helicopter by South Sudan.

  And to another question that Inner City Press asked in writing to Ban's three top spokesman on both December 24 and December 26, they provide nothing to Inner City Press, but an on the record quote to Agence France-Presse. The belated rationale, distinguishing Press questions about the presence of UN personnel in conflict zones from their relocation, doesn't hold water.

 Also on Sudan, back on December 24, Inner City Press asked the three top spokespeople to "please provide all available information on the killing of the four peacekeepers in Darfur." On this, they replied only that on Darfur, "we have nothing to add at the present time." And when they do, who will they hand it to?

 The head of DPKO is Herve Ladsous the fourth Frenchman in a row to hold the position, and by most accounts by far the worst and least responsive. On November 27 he refused to answer Press questions about Congolese Army rapes in Minova, then summoned into the hall a handful of favored media, including AFP.

 Ladsous was previously on one of AFP's board. And when Inner City Press exclusively reported that Ladsous was getting the UN DPKO job, as a last minute fill in for Jerome Bonnafont and that the French Mission to the UN didn't even know of the switch, it was AFP that began an anti-Press process against Inner City Press inside the UN Correspondents Association. We will have more on this as well.

On December 27, as well as demanding an explanation for the decidedly selective answering and a number of Ban Ki-moon administration seeming irregularities in hiring and recruitment, Inner City Press asked on Sudan / South Sudan "another DPKO question, even though the South Sudan helicopter question was deferred, and the question about the killing of the Rwandan UN Police officer in Haiti has never been fully answered:

"Please confirm or deny the bombing by SAF of the South Sudanese state of Northern Bahr el Ghazal on Wednesday, and whether five people were killed.

"Also -- it should certainly go without saying, but is now unclear given your Office's non response to Inner City Press' December 24 and 26 questions and then provision of a quote to AFP -- any and all information on which Congolese units were in Minova during the 126+ rapes, which FARDC units MONUSCO supports, and any suspensions of support in the last year."

 Watch this site.

Update of December 27, afternoon: the Golo question, posed at noon time on December 26, was answered on the afternoon of December 27, thusly:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 3:03 PM
Subject: Question
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] innercitypress.com

On Golo: DPKO advises that local sources have informed UNAMID of hostilities which took place between SLA-Abdul Wahid and the Sudan Armed Forces on 24 December in Golo, West Darfur, allegedly resulting in 20 Sudan Armed Forces personnel killed. Due to restrictions imposed on UNAMID by the armed movement and Government security forces operating in the area, the Mission, however, has been unable to verify the reports of fighting and associated casualties. In the meantime, the Humanitarian Aid Commissioner in West Darfur has informed humanitarian partners of civilian displacement towards Nertiti as a result of these clashes. UNAMID, in collaboration with humanitarian agencies, is attempting to independently verify this information.