By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 19 – As the UN discussed enforced disappearances with restricting the Press' ability to cover them, Inner City Press on February 17 asked UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq why the UN's Resident Coordinator in Kenya Siddharth Chatterjee, Ban Ki-moon's son in law promoted by him without recusal, was silent on at least two cases. UN Transcript here and below.
Siddharth Chatterjee has two days later reached out to seek an agreement, in advance, to publish whatever he chooses to send in. Inner City Press in turn requested, as it did in person in New York in September, an on camera interview which it would publish live and in its entirety.
Along with the above, and what Chatterjee was doing recently in Addis Ababa lobbying in connection with the race for top African Union post, Inner City Press has conveyed in advance questions ranging from whether or not Chatterjee previously got an article about one of his promotions taken off the Internet after making an illegal offer of a job in his father in law's Secretariat to his role in the Jaffna Hospital Massacre and other specific war crimes in Sri Lanka. We hope to get answers to these questions and to publish them. Watch this site.
From the UN's February 17 transcript:
Inner City Press: it's the tenth anniversary of this Convention on enforced disappearances. So, I'd asked you, I think, on Monday about this… these case of two South Sudanese who have disappeared in Kenya. You said you're aware of the reports so, two things. One, I'm wondering, who in the UN system is engaging with the Kenyan Government or the South Sudan Government about that? Why hasn't the Resident Coordinator in Kenya? I mean the Nigeria one is speaking about when Boko Haram will be done. Has anything been said by the UN in-country about these people that have been disappeared presumably by the Government and returned to South Sudan?
Deputy Spokesman: Well, first of all, I believe that there are Special Rapporteurs dealing with this particular situation. There's… one of our human rights instruments deals with the question of disappearances. And so they're looking into this matter, and we'll try to get information from them first and foremost. And then other parts of the system can work on that as needed.
Inner City Press: Sure. And then can I, there's a high-profile case in France of a 22-year-old person that was arrested on video and has said to have been raped or sodomized during the arrest. His name is Theo. And there have been riots in France for several days on it. I've checked at least everything that's been sent out by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. I haven't seen anything. Is the UN aware of this case? And what do they think of… of both police treatment of people in France and of how the protests are being dealt with?
Deputy Spokesman: Well, regarding protests, of course, we want to make sure that the freedom of expression and the freedom of peaceful assembly are upheld. Beyond that, this is a case that, ultimately, the judicial system would need to look into, and we'll have to see where they go with that.
Deputy Spokesman: Well, first of all, I believe that there are Special Rapporteurs dealing with this particular situation. There's… one of our human rights instruments deals with the question of disappearances. And so they're looking into this matter, and we'll try to get information from them first and foremost. And then other parts of the system can work on that as needed.
Inner City Press: Sure. And then can I, there's a high-profile case in France of a 22-year-old person that was arrested on video and has said to have been raped or sodomized during the arrest. His name is Theo. And there have been riots in France for several days on it. I've checked at least everything that's been sent out by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. I haven't seen anything. Is the UN aware of this case? And what do they think of… of both police treatment of people in France and of how the protests are being dealt with?
Deputy Spokesman: Well, regarding protests, of course, we want to make sure that the freedom of expression and the freedom of peaceful assembly are upheld. Beyond that, this is a case that, ultimately, the judicial system would need to look into, and we'll have to see where they go with that.
Back on January 25 with at least these two South Sudanese threatened with deportation by Kenya, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric for the UN's response. From the UN transcript:
Inner City Press: extradition questions, not South Korea extradition but are you aware of the impending extradition of South Sudanese human rights lawyer Samuel Luak, who defended Pagan Amum? Basically, a number of highly respected groups are saying that, if he’s deported, he will face unjust treatment. So I’m wondering, has the UN…
Spokesman Dujarric: I, I have, don’t have an update here, but, again, you can check locally with the mission.
Inner City Press: So that would be the resident coordinator? I’m talking about in Kenya.
Spokesman: In Kenya, you can check with the UN Information Centre in Nairobi.
Spokesman Dujarric: I, I have, don’t have an update here, but, again, you can check locally with the mission.
Inner City Press: So that would be the resident coordinator? I’m talking about in Kenya.
Spokesman: In Kenya, you can check with the UN Information Centre in Nairobi.
Dujarric was until December 31 the spokesman for Ban Ki-moon, who before he left the UN promoted his own son in law Siddharth Chatterjee to the top UN post in Kenya, as Resident Coordinator.
In December as Kenya detained journalist Jerome Starkey, Ban Ki-moon's son in law Chatterjee was entirely silent. Like his father in law has proved to be with the Press in New York, he is at heart a censor. But it makes a mockery of Ban Ki-moon's post Sri Lanka claims of "Rights Up Front," even as Ban angles to run for President on South Korea.
In fact, in Sri Lanka Ban's son in law is implicated in presumptive war crimes, the Jaffna Hospital massacre and the crushing of civilians with tanks. And it's from him that Ban took his advice on Sri Lanka, where Ban oversaw the killing of more than 40,000 civilians.
Ban is allowing those scribes who ignore this and praise him to sell access to him on December 16 for $1200 on Wall Street. We'll have more on this.
Tellingly, as the UN's Resident Coordinator in Kenya, Ban's son in law Chatterjee has remained silent not only on the targeting of South Sudanese, but on the protests profiled in a study released by Article 19, here.
Ban's son in law ignores Ban's supposed “Rights Up Front,” given his action in Sri Lanka (see below) and because he is entirely unaccountable: he could only be fired by Ban Ki-moon, his father in law. Nepotism is harmful.
On December 3 Inner City Press reported the ever-increasingly likelihood that Ban Ki-moon's son in law Chatterjee was involved in crimes of war in Sri Lanka, which neither Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric nor Chatterjee himself when asked in the UN lobbywas willing to answer.
For some time Inner City Press has heard that Chatterjee, as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka, was a war criminal. Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Dujarric if Chatterjee was involved in the Jaffna University raid, or the Jaffna hospital massacre, without answer.
In the UN lobby, Chatterjee said he would answer at an “opportune time.” He has not answered. Chatterjee had his commander, Dalvir Singh, write a defense on Huffington Post and elsewhere, identifying himself as the commander of Chatterjee and of the 10th Para commandos.
