By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, December 31 -- Back on December 26 Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's two top spokespeople to
"please confirm that Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was accredited to this session of the UN General Assembly, that the UN accreditation runs through December 31, and state if such accreditation confers full diplomatic immunity."
But for five days, the UN spokespeople provided no answer at all. So at the last UN noon briefing of the year on December 31, Inner City Press asked spokesperson Martin Nesirky in person about the immunity, and also if the UN had informed the US, as "host country," of Khobragade's accreditation to the General Assembly.
Although he had the question in writing for five days, Nesirky said he'd have to check with the UN Office of Legal Affairs; he insisted the question is mostly or almost entirely between the Indian authorities and the US as host country. Video here and embedded below.
Well, no - the question of whether the UN informed the US of of Ms. Khobragade's accreditation is for the UN to answer. And the UN should answer on that type of immunity being accredited to the UNGA provides.
This dodging is more and more the rule: also at the December 31 noon briefing, when Inner City Press asked about a ruling by the UN's own Dispute Tribunal that its acting head of investigations Michael Dudley"altered and withheld" evidence about scandal in the UN Medical Service(which Inner City Press exclusively uncovered), Nesirky said he doesn't speak for the unit Dudley works in, the Office of Internal Oversight Management, but that he'd ask them for an answer. OK - but when? Next year?
Footnote: The UN Dispute Tribunal ruling on Dudley cites Inner City Press' reporting, and calls Inner City Press "a daily online media outlet that specializes in reporting on the United Nations." Inner City Press on December 31 also asked about another case it first exposed, that of David Bax of the UN Mine Action Service in Mogadishu sharing genetic information with US intelligence and other abuses.
The UN alongside trying to rehabilitate Bax tried to put the clamp on any follow up by saying the Office of Project Support is investigating. But it's been six months now. We'll have more on the UNOPS, and who will head it, soon. Watch this site.
