By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 29 – After the UN's head of Communications Cristina Gallach is given a strange farewell toast on March 30, the "position will be filled by an Officer-in-Charge... while the process to find a new Under-Secretary-General for Public Information continues," the UN replied to Inner City Press on March 29. The day before, the same UN Spokesman had declined to even confirm that Gallach was leaving. On the morning of March 28 Inner City Press asked the UN Spokesman to state if the Under Secretary General of the Department of Public Information is leaving March 31 and the status of the recruitment" to replace her. Spokesman Farhan Haq replied, "We will announce arrivals and departures as they occur." Then later on March 28, forwarded not sent to Inner City Press, this: "UNCA will host a farewell reception in honor of Under-Secretary-General of DPI, Cristina Gallach, on Thursday, March 30th at 5:30 pm in the UNCA room (3rd floor, UN Secretariat Building, room 310). Food and wine will be served. Please join us for a farewell toast!" If it's farewell, she's leaving. Toasting what? Allowing into the UN with no due diligence the Macau-based businessman Ng Lap Seng, as detailed in the UN's own auditat Paragraphs 37-40 and 20b? Evicting the Press without any hearing or appeal? The decline in media access? On March 29, Inner City Press asked among other things, "yesterday your Office replied, regarding the USG of DPI, 'We will announce arrivals and departures as they occur.' Now that your partner has arranged a farewell for this USG for March 30, what is the rationale for your Office refusing to confirm her departure and the status of recruiting a replacement?" The UN spokesman replied, "Regarding Under-Secretary-General Cristina Gallach, her position will be filled by an Officer-in-Charge upon her departure while the process to find a new Under-Secretary-General for Public Information continues." We'll have more on this.
On March 15, Inner City Press asked the UN's holdover lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: Is the head of OHRM [Office of Human Resources Management] still in place? I wanted to ask you that. I've heard that the ASG [Assistant Secretary-General] for OHRM is actually no long… and I ask because it's… they're the person who decides who can be punished and who can't. Are they…?
Spokesman: Right, right. I understand… I mean, I don't know if the outgoing… or if the person who was in that post is actually still there. And even if they… if a senior official is no… a person is no longer in the post, there's an officer in charge, and the process… the process continues.
Spokesman: Right, right. I understand… I mean, I don't know if the outgoing… or if the person who was in that post is actually still there. And even if they… if a senior official is no… a person is no longer in the post, there's an officer in charge, and the process… the process continues.
Hours later, Dujarric never confirmed this simple fact, about the UN official who decides who gets punished. We now exclusively publish this:
From: Carole Wamuyu Wainaina /NY/UNO@UNHQ
Date: 03/13/2017 XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I am out of the office until 31/12/2030.
Date: 03/13/2017 XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I am out of the office until 31/12/2030.
Following a valuable two and the half years as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management at the UN, I wish to inform colleagues and others, whom I have not had a chance to notify, that I will be moving to back to Africa in a new role.
Mr. Victor Kisob will replace me temporarily as Acting ASG... I wish to thank you all for your support, advice and friendship during my time at the UN. Cheers, Carole
Mr. Victor Kisob will replace me temporarily as Acting ASG... I wish to thank you all for your support, advice and friendship during my time at the UN. Cheers, Carole
The UN discloses nothing. On March 13, Inner City Press asked the UN's Dujarric, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: I've noticed that two new senior-level vacancies have been announced at OHRM [Office for Human Resources Management] and the UN University, but I also… that the one for DPI [Department of Public Information], the deadline was extended. Can you give some sense of… it was said to be 6 March. Now it's 20 March. Also, OCHA [Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs], for example, there are other posts that neither have been extended nor have they been advertised. But, particularly on the extension of DPI, I wanted to… does this mean that they were unsatisfied with the applications they got? What's behind it?
Spokesman: I don't know. I'm happily not involved in the recruiting process. I think, as any hiring manager has the authority to do, we can… the recruiting deadline can be extended for a number reasons.
Inner City Press: When does Mr. [Stephen] O'Brien's contract expire?
Spokesman: I don't know. I think most people were extended for some time. I don't know what the exact date is.
Spokesman: I don't know. I'm happily not involved in the recruiting process. I think, as any hiring manager has the authority to do, we can… the recruiting deadline can be extended for a number reasons.
Inner City Press: When does Mr. [Stephen] O'Brien's contract expire?
Spokesman: I don't know. I think most people were extended for some time. I don't know what the exact date is.
And five hours later, the question wasn't answered. The same question could be asked and should be answered regarding the head of DGACM Catherine Pollard, previously the head of OHRM during the time of the cases recently decided by the UN Appeals Tribunal. Of her successor Carole Wainanu, sources tell Inner City Press she "disappeared" on March 10 and that "someone is now Acting ASG/OHRM in her place." Suspicions -- bred by lack of transparency - was expressed: "The ASG/OHRM gets to decide who gets charged with misconduct and who gets let off." We hope to have more on this.
The ad for the post Gallach has damaged has been extended from March 6 to March 20, while the position of Rector of UN University, held by David Malone of Canada, and Assistant Secretary General of Human Resources Management, held by Carole Wamuyu Wainaina of Kenya, have been opened for applications until April 22 and 17, respectively.
Even since Gallach's position was belatedly opened for application, she has held a murkyaward session for a airline for adding a UN sign to one plane, has wasted public fundsflying once again to her native Barcelona and has restricted the Press from events on Sexual Abuse in Conflict, Disappearances, the deathof Vitaly Churkin, Ghana, and others. We'll have more on this.
Last February UN Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Gallach ordered Inner City Press to leave the UN on two hours notice, and had it physically ejected by eight UN Security officers, audio here.
There was no due process, and no appeal since.
There was, however, a conflict of interest. Inner City Press had begun asking Gallach about her links to the UN bribery scandal of Ng Lap Seng in October 2015, video here.
Gallach in retaliation evicted Inner City Press and had its files thrown out onto First Avenue.She has tried to give its office to an Egyptian state media which rarely comes to the UN, and never asks questions. Inner City Press remains restricted.
In early February 2017, Cristina Gallach's position was the subject of a vacancy notice, here, said to be open until March 6. While some then told Inner City Press to "let it go, she's leaving" -- actually, reversal of her decisions and written rules to protect journalists going forwad were and are still needed -- others said, ghoulishly, Gallach was re-applying to continue her reign. Now, troublingly, the time to apply for the DPI job has been extended to March 20. Does this mean no dispositive applications have been received? One thing must be clear: Gallach must go. We'll have more on this.
On February 3, Inner City Press asked UN holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the vacancy announcement, and if respect for due process shouldn't be made part of the USG DPI job description. We'll have more on this.
One year ago, covering the UN corruption scandals which have resulted in two sets of indictments for bribery involving the UN, Inner City Press was ordered to leave the UN Press Briefing Room by then Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Other correspondents were allowed to stay in the briefing room, which Dujarric had "lent" them. But he insisted that Inner City Press leave. Video here.
Inner City Press asked to see any paperwork that the event was closed; none was provided. Inner City Press stated that if a single UN Security official asked it to leave, it would. Finally one guard came and said Dujarric wanted it to leave.
Inner City Press immediately left, uploaded the already live-streamed Periscope video, and continued digging into the corruption that's resulted in the indictment for bribery and money laundering of Ban Ki-moon's brother Ban Ki Sang and nephew Dennis Bahn.
But three weeks afterward, without a single conversation or opportunity to be heard, Ban's Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Gallach ordered Inner City Press to leave the UN, after ten years, on two hours notice. Order here.
This was enforced, as Inner City Press worked on its laptop at the UN Security Council stakeout, by eight UN Security officers led by Deputy Chief McNulty, who tore Inner City Press accreditation badge off its chest and said, "Now you are a trespasser." Audio here.
Inner City Press was marched down the escalator and around the UN traffic circle, without even its coat which was up in its longtime office. It was pushed out of the gate and its laptop, in a bag, was thrown on the sidewalk and damaged.
The next work day when Inner City Press arranged for a fellow journalist to sign it in as a guest so it could cover the Security Council, UN Security official Matthew Sullivan said it was Banned from UN premises worldwide. Audio here.
After three days covering the UN from the park in front in the sleet, and articles like this one, Inner City Press re-entered with a "non-resident correspondents" pass - to which it is still, more than eleven months later, confined.
The then-US Mission under Samantha Power and Isobel Coleman, even petitioned by the DC-based Government Accountability Project, did nothing. Indirectly, a offer was made of an upgraded pass if Inner City Press would agree to a gag order, to which it would not and will not agree.
There has been no UN opportunity for appeal or reinstatement. After having five boxes of Inner City Press' investigative files thrown on the sidewalk in April, Gallach is giving its office to an Egyptian state media Akhbar al Yom which rarely comes in, a correspondent Sanaa Youssef who had yet to ask a single question.
Her only claim is that she was once, decades ago, a president of the United Nations Correspondents Association, the group to which Duajrric "lent" the UN Press Briefing Room, without notice or written record, on January 29, 2016.
Even as the scope of Ban Ki-moon's corruption is being exposed upon his return to South Korea, here, his successor Antonio Guterres has yet to reverse this year of censorship and no due process. On January 6 Dujarric and Gallach led him on a tour of... the UN Correspondents Association, which now wants him again in their clubhouse. (More on this to follow.)
On January 27 as Inner City Press moved to cover Guterres at the UN's Holocaust event, it was targeted by UN Security and told it could not proceed without a minder, who did not appear for over 15 minutes.
The harassment continued through the day, as Inner City Press exposed more corruption, including involving Jeffrey Feltman (Dujarric told ICP its questioning was "despicable"), and the use of military contingents involved in war crimes in Herve Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping, as criticized by new US Ambassador Nikki Haley.
All of this must change. This is a scam, and censorship: the UN's Censorship Alliance. We will have more on this.
