By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
20 -- This UN
rarely gets to
the bottom of
the
conflicts of
interest of
its officials.
Take, most
recently,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
ostensibly
full time envoy on
the
Sahel, Romano
Prodi, and his
role in the
race for the
Italian
presidency.
Inner
City
Press: Mr.
Romano Prodi
is obviously
the Envoy on
the Sahel. But
it was
reported at
least that he
was part of a
primary in
Italy
in terms of
the run-up to
the election
for the next
President of
the
Five Star
Movement, he
was listed as
a candidate.
So I wanted to
know, is there
any potential
for a kind of
a conflict of
interest? Can
you be a UN
official and
run for
office, or did
he not consent
to
be part of
that primary?
Is the UN
aware of him
being part of
that
primary? What
do they think
of it?
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky: I’ll
see what we
have on that,
Matthew; I am
not
familiar with
that, okay?
But
Prodi's
role was
reported not
only all over
the Italian
press, but on
English
language wire
services. And
Prodi was
openly
campaigning.
Was he
allowed to do
this by the
UN, but the UN
never said it?
Or is
this UN just
there for the
using, a
comfortable
and
comfortably
paid
resting place
until an
official runs
for office
again?
So can
he remain as
the UN's Sahel
envoy? (There
is another
exclusive
Inner City
Press published
on April 3
that is not
unrelated to
this - click
here.)
Some
use
the UN on a
more ongoing
basis. Tony
Blair has his
Quartet
position and
perks, while
for example
getting paid
$11 million by
Kazakhstan.
Inner City
Press asked
the UN about
this; it's
been told
to ask Tony
Blair's
Office. Right.
Then
there's
Terje
Roed-Larsen,
Ban's envoy on
Resolution
1551, and also
the boss of
the
International
Peace
Institute,
opening an
office in
Bahrain with
Bahraini
money. This
seems a direct
conflict of
interest. But
where is Ban
Ki-moon? Some
continue to
wonder: could
he
too be angling
to run for
office,
eventually?
Footnote:
particularly
with regard to
the last line,
a reader
jokes, watch
out,
they'll raid
your office
again. It
remains
amazing that
Ban's UN has
not responded
about how
photographs
taken during
the
non-consensual
raid were
leaked to
BuzzFeed
immediately
after that
publication
contacted
Ban's
spokesperson
about the
raid.
Or
maybe
Ban's
Department of
Public
Information
will take umbrage at
any
tweet about
this, as it
did to the
mention of
World War Two
in
connection
with the new
Police Adviser
to DPKO's
Herve Ladsous,
who
obviously
holds that
post at the
pleasure of
France through
the UN
Security
Council veto
it “won” in...
the Second
World War.
Where is this
UN, or this
part of it,
going? Watch
this site.
