By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 25 --
Even after the
NY
Police
Department has
arrested the
head of the
UN's Emergency
Preparedness
unit for
sexual abuse,
the UN has
just refused
to tell the
complainant
what
discplinary
action it has
taken.
In a
June 22 letter
obtained and
now first
reported by
Inner City
Press, the
officer in
charge of the
UN Office of
Human
Resources
Management
Martha Helena
Lopez has told
the
complainant
that despite a
June 14
request to
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon,
neither the
fact-finding
report nor
information
about the
disciplinary
measures taken
will be
provided.
The UN tells
the
complainaint
"it is the
practice of
the
Organization
not to
publicly
disclose the
discliplinary
action(s)
imposed on a
given staff
member." And
the
administrative
instruction
about
releasing fact
finding
reports has
been repealed
or
"superseded"
under Ban
Ki-moon, in
UN-ese.
Inner City
Press is
choosing not
to publish the
letter itself,
to not
identify the
complainant.
Back on June
14, after
reporting
the arrest
and after
confirmation
by NYPD the
name of the
arrestee,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
about
an incident at
380 Madison
Avenue, which
initially I
was
asking about
because of the
Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
and
General
Shavendra
Silva...
now
it’s been
confirmed to
me by the New
York Police
Department, a
UN
official, who
will remain
unnamed, the
head of the
Emergency
Preparedness
Unit submitted
himself to the
17th Precinct
and was, in
fact, arrested
for sexual
abuse... So, I
wanted to
know... [if]
this
individual has
been
downgraded
from P5 to P4
at the
same salary
and with the
same job,
which some
people see as
not
consistent
with the zero
tolerance
policy?
But, Inner City Press asked, "Is immunity going to be sought?"
Nesirky said, "my answer in two parts will suffice there. And I am just checking on other questions."
No further information has been provided; now, the UN denies the infromation to the complainant herself.
Since February
22, Inner
City Press has
covered this
sexual abuse
complaint. on
June 12 Inner
City Press was
reliably
informed that
the abuser,
whose name we
knew
throughout,
was called
into the 17th
Precinct on
51st Street to
surrender to
police, with
his lawyer.
Inner City
Press went and
staked it out,
in the rain.
Later, Inner
City Press
obtained the
file number:
2011-017-3670.
NYPD spokesman
Lt. John
Grimpel told
Inner City
Press that
yes, he was
arrested on
June 12 for a
complaint
filed in
October 2011
of sex abuse
in the Keats
bar at 842
Second Avenue.
So after
having
withheld the
name since we
first reported
on this case
on February
22, 2012, we
ran his name:
Dushyant
Joshi, the
head of the
UN's Emergency
Preparedness
unit.
Back
in
on February 22
when Inner
City Press
went to the
UN-rented
building at
380 Madison
Avenue to see
if alleged war
criminal Sri
Lanka general
Shavendra
Silva attended
Ban Ki-moon's
Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations, it
witnessed the
NY Police
Department
being barred
from entering
the building
to arrest a UN
staffer.
While Ban's
spokesperson's
office on
March 1 and
thereafter
denied that
the NYPD was
at 380 Madison
to arrest any
UN staffer,
based on a
case of abuse
filed by a
female UN
contractor,
this was
multiply
confirmed to
Inner City
Press.
The UN's
Office of
Human
Resources
Management
under
Catherine
Pollard has
belatedly
"found cause"
in the female
contractor's
complaint, and
has (merely)
demoted the
abuser from P5
to P4 level,
but with the
same job: head
of the UN's
Emergency
Preparedness
unit. Now
the
stonewalling
continues.
Footnote:
As we tweeted
at the time,
hat tip to the
work on this
of UN
Justice,
including on
June 21
regarding the
June 14
request. May
the struggle
for
accountability
from the UN on
these matters,
and those like
the introduction
of cholera
into Haiti
and role
in the final
stages of the
conflict in
Sri Lanka,
report already
delayed for
months,
continue.
We'll
have more on
this. Watch
this site.
