UNICEF Funded the NGO Which Employed Aid Worker Alleging Rape in Bentiu, South Sudan, UNICEF Only Gave Contact Info?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 -- When peacekeepers from France allegedly raped children in the Central African Republic and the UN learned about it a year ago, the UN and UNICEF did nothing, until UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous asked to fire the whistleblower in March of this year.  Inner City Press asked UNICEF about its role, here.

Now after BuzzFeed's Jina Moore has documented that when an aid worker was allegedly raped inside the UN's Bentiu "Protection of Civilians" site in South Sudan, the UN system did little to nothing -- until on July 27, in transcribing its answer to Inner City Press' questions, the UN added in a parenthetical that Nobert did not work for the UN.

   The UN added, "[The Spokesman later clarified that Ms. Nobert did not work directly for the UN. She was employed by an NGO doing contract work for a UN agency.]" Compare to actual briefing, video here.

  She worked for Nonviolent Peaceforce, which received a $1 million grant from UNICEF for child protection in South Sudan, click here for that.

  Not only did UN spokesman Dujarric refuse to identify UNICEF, run by former US government official Anthony Lake, as the UN agency which did not act on the alleged rape, except to provide "contact information" of the contractor -- UNICEF, which was in charge of the bore hole drilling in which the alleged rapist was engaged, has not directly responded on the scandal.

   Nonviolent Peaceforce, meanwhile, has simply published anadvertisement for a(nother) "Senior Programme Manager, Nonviolent Peaceforce, South Sudan," here.

  The alleged rapist, named as Amed Asmail, seems to also be called Ahmad Ismail, whose Facebook page here pictures him playing music,listing in his bio working with "South Sudan -Life For Construction."

 Inner City Press on July 27 asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric what accountability there is when UN agency personnel themselves are raped. Video here, and embedded below.

  Dujarric began by calling it a horrendous act - then said that what the UN system did was give the victim the contact information of the contractor. But, Inner City Press asked, since Sudan-based Life for Construction has let the alleged rapist Amed Asmail's contract expire, how will this "contact information" help the victim?

  Dujarric declined to even identify the agency, which used public funds to contract for water bore holes for the Bentiu camp; when Inner City Press asked if it was UNICEF or IOM, he cut the question off. Video here.

  What we can report is that UNICEF, nearly always in charge of the water cluster for the UN system, said on its website in April 2014, here, that UNICEF

"has maintained staff in Bentiu and is rapidly responding to the urgent needs, drilling new boreholes for water, and today flying in parts for the construction of new latrines. However, UNICEF said it remains hindered by a lack of funding and access."

  UNICEF also sat on reports of the sexual abuse of children in Central African Republic; we'll have more on this.


For now, here's this, and now UN's transcript of briefing - a [parenthetical] was later added, highlighted below in bold:

Question:  Sure.  Questions on Burundi but I wanted to ask you something, you may have anticipated coming.  It was a story which was on Friday on BuzzFeed, quite detailed, about an aid worker in the UNMISS camp (United Nations Mission in South Sudan) in Bentiu, who alleges that she was raped by a UN vendor or contractor working for Life For Construction.  Basically the gist of the article is that the UN did absolutely nothing and OIOS (Office of Internal Oversight Services) said they could not investigate and there are no recording or reports of sexual abuse or exploitation by vendors anywhere in the UN, DPKO (Department of Peacekeeping Operations) or other systems.  So I wanted to know, what is your response to it?  What does the UN owe people in its protection of civilian camps if they are raped there, and why was nothing done in this case?

     Spokesman:  Well, I think this was clearly a horrendous act and I think people who work, aid workers, humanitarian workers, who work within UN camps are owed the best possible protection, that's clear.  In this particular case, the agency for which Ms. Nobert worked is greatly concerned for the well-being and safety and security of all those working with it to deliver humanitarian assistance anywhere in the world and it took these particular allegations very seriously.  [The Spokesman later clarified that Ms. Nobert did not work directly for the UN. She was employed by an NGO doing contract work for a UN agency.] When it became clear that the person accused of the attack on Ms. Nobert was, in fact, an employee of a company hired to undertake work for the agency and not an UN staff member, the agency concluded it was not a position to conduct an investigation into the alleged actions of that person itself.  All of the agencies private contractors are aware of the high standard of conduct the agency accepts from their staff and the agency gave Ms. Nobert the contact details of the employer of the person accused of attacking her, so that she could take her complaint directly to the company.  The agency also instructed the company to remove the individual immediately from any project involving the agency.  

However, given the highly sensitive nature of the allegations, the agency had to respect both the need for Ms. Nobert to raise her very serious complaint with those who can take actions and the rights of the accused person for due process.  It therefore did not share the specific nature of the complaint with the contractor, allowing Ms. Nobert to decide on how and when she wanted to do that.

The agency concerned believes that in this complex circumstance it did the best it could to support Ms. Nobert, to take her complaint forward.  I think it's clear that, in any of these cases, we also need to take a look how we responded and how we can do better in responding to horrendous cases like this one.

     Question:  Thus seems to imply… obviously, Life for Construction, they have already terminated the individual, so there is no more relationship between them. So is there… what is the UN saying is the accountability mechanism for this alleged rape?  And, two, you keep saying the agency. Was the agency in charge of boring water holes in the Bentiu camp?  Was it UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), was it IOM (International Organization for Migration)?  Which agency are you speaking of?

     Spokesman:  As the article makes clear, Ms. Nobert specifically requested the agencies she had contacts with shall not be named and we will respect her wishes.

     Question:  Who is in charge of boring the water holes?

     Spokesman:  That is what I have to share with you and, if I have, more I will share with you. 

See above - and InnerCityPress.com

   

As UN's Valerie Amos Leaves, Last King of Scotland in Club Valerie, Aid in Evolution: Inner City Press Review

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 14 -- When it emerged thatValerie Amos was leaving the UN and her post as Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, the focus turned to who would replace her: David Cameron's first choice Andrew Lansley, or one of Cameron's two second choices, Caroline Spellman or Stephen O'Brien, would get the (UK) post. 

  The shift in interest wasn't entirely fair to Amos, who while sometimes reliably following the line of her country, which has now held the OCHA post three times in a row, also showed independence, most recently by chiding if only implicitly Saudi Arabia for trying to politicize aid to Yemen, which it has bombed.

  But that was made up for on May 14, when a large area outside the General Assembly on the UN's third floor became "Club Valerie," complete with a jazz band, Beyonce by video and Forest Whitaker in the flesh.

  This last was a propos -- one of the speeches said that Amos had toured with Idi Amin, who Whitaker played in "The Last King of Scotland." 

 The first speech was by UNICEF's Tony Lake, relaying Amos' love of the Tottenham Spurs (while offering her a jersey of F.C. Barcelona, with its UNICEF logo.)

 Then came Ban Ki-moon; his security detail hushed the crowd while he spoke. He said he hope the journalists present would also come to his farewell  - then conflated all of them with the increasingly divisive and discredited UNCA, now known as the UN's Censorship Alliance, including on one of Ban's low points, Sri Lanka.

  Kung-hwa Kang recounted a story of Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore, coming back to set things straight, adding that she doubts Amos will do that, instead looking forward.  She declared this the biggest party in New York City in the year 2015 so far.

  Amos herself spoke movingly, recounting a story of trying to get into Homs in Syria, generously shouting out her Syria Humanitarian Coordinator who was present, adding that she wished her parents had been alive to see her get the OCHA post.

  Amos' niece, who had introduced the speakers, added details about Aunt Val, calling her an idol growing up, like a mother. She screened a re-make of Beyonce's "I was here " video, turned into "Valerie Was Here with footage of Amos in Pakistan, Jordan and in North Korea, with Ban's adviser - now on disarmament - Kim Won-soo. The video cut off, and acting moved into what has been known as the Ex-Press Bar but should perhaps be renamed, at least for some time, Club Valerie.

  But was Amos' successor Stephen O'Brien present?

  Inner City Press was first to report Cameron's begrudging submission of the alternate candidacies of Spellman and O'Brien, and the victory of O'Brien, as credited in the Telegraph, UK Channel 4 and IRIN (which was spun off from OCHA under Amos' watch). 

  Inner City Press offers this admitted partial recap:

   After taking over the OCHA post in 2010, following fellow Brit John Holmes (he of passionate ambivalence about the Tamil Bloodbath on the Beach in Sri Lanka), Amos started quietly. In 2011 when Tony Blair visited the UN, it was by her side. But she branched out: for example into Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan in Sudan, on which she always to her credit took questions.

  On Syria, Amos was unwilling ever before ISIS' takeover in Iraq to talk about OCHA operation in Raqaa; she did however get into specifics on aid workers killed and kidnapped.

   In 2014, she told Inner City Press she was disappointed by MSF's criticism of the UN in Central African Republic. But given that in 2015 it is revealed that the UN system -- not OCHA -- helped cover up rapes of children in CAR by the French Sangaris forces, and that Amos' fellow USG Herve Ladsous pushed to get the whistleblower who revealed this fired, according to a UN Dispute Tribunal rule not contested by OHCHR (only Ladsous denies it), we'd bet MSF was right.

  This is the balance, this is the dance: the MSFs and Aids-Free Worlds of the world tell the truth, and the range of UN USGs push back, some as colleagues, others like Ladsous as unaccountable drone. 

  Amos was and is no drone, that we can say. We wish her well in future endeavors. We will have more on this.

   

Exclusive: UNDP Aim to Cut 10%, Off-Shore 20%, Accenture Plan Here, Grumbling of Helen Clark Cutting to Run for UNSG

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 18 -- There is a drive to be seen as saving money, throughout the UN system. Today Inner City Press profiles how it is happening within the UN Development Program, and why.

UNDP under Helen Clark hired Accenture to study ways to cut costs, calling it the "Structural and Cost Effectiveness Review." Accenture sent a team, which most staff never saw if heard of, working "on-site at UNDP Headquarters from July to October." Inner City Press has obtained and is publishing the executive summary of the UNDP Accenture Report, here.

The report urges "moving remaining staff to the field... High-demand countries such as Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo require dedicated teams; for program countries below $50MM it is important to ensure that each desk officer, moved to the region for relevance, is not responsible for more than 3-4 countries."

The overall plan they have arrived at involves a straight cut of 10%, and sending another 20% out to the field -- or, in the phrasing of the UNDP "Structural Review FAQs" Inner City Press obtained and is publishing today, "reversing the current HQ:regional staff ratio from 60:40 to 40:60."

  UNDP has "Global Shared Service Centers" in Copenhagen and Kuala Lumpur.

  A similar off-shoring of jobs from New York including to Kuala Lumpur is underway at UNICEF, run by American Anthony Lake.

  Helen Clark was prime minister of New Zealand; her right-hand there Heather Simpson is now leading the charge for cuts at UNDP. And why?

  There's grumbling that while the next UN Secretary General is supposed to come from the Eastern European group and "probably" be a woman, there's a move by New Zealand and allies to push Helen Clark for the job. There's talk of offers directed at Eastern Europe to back down.

  A high profile campaign of "reform" and cost-cutting at UNDP, in this context Inner City Press is exclusively informed, would be part of a Helen Clark campaign for UNSG. UNDP staff grumble that at the most recent Executive Board meeting, it was not said that 30% had to be cut (or 10% cut, 20% off-shoring). So what changed? 

   Helen Clark has held even fewer media question and answer sessions in New York than her predecessors Ad Melkert and Kemal Dervis, as documented and protested by the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info. On these extensive cuts, she should answer questions. Watch this site.

   

Exclusive: Bolivia Set to Head Group of 77 As UN Budget Fights Rise with Ban Ki-moon, Staff Union Too

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 6 -- As fights about the UN budget gather steam, the next head of the Group of 77 is set to be named: Bolivia, multiple sources tell Inner City Press. There is growing anger at Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his budget proposal.

  "Game on," one G77 Permanent Representative told Inner City Press. The G-77 sources say the timing is propitious, including given Bolivia's standing up on issues like the searching of President Evo Morales' plane. 

  They say, again speaking exclusively to Inner City Press, that while in the past the UN Secretariat's budget proposals were closer to the side of the developing world, and then richer countries tried to scale them back, now "Ban Ki-moon has sided in advance with the rich."

  This puts G77 in the position of having to fight on budget proposals right from the beginning. A similar process is going on in the UN Staff Union, as Inner City Press reported last night.

  Ban is proposing budget cuts and the elimination of posts -- that is, jobs. Similar cuts are proposed in the UN Development Program and also UNICEF, with talk of "nodes," under Anthony Lake, outsourcing and off-shoring jobs from New York. These were denounced by many speakers at an October 31 meeting of the Staff Union. Click here for that.

  Various sides in the morning said that the staff, to oppose these cut-backs, will have to reach out to the Fifth (Budget) Committee -- that is, to the Group of 77 side. This has been done in the past. Y ahora, Bolivia. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Few Answers to India & Colombia on Children & Armed Conflict "Mandate Creep," German Slogan Dredged Up

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 12, updated -- During what was billed as a “debate” on Children and Armed Conflict in the UN Security Council on Tuesday, countries like Colombia and India criticized the way the concept is being carried out by the UN.

Colombia's foreign minister Maria Angela Holguin called “unacceptable” the UN's attempts to talk to the FARC rebels without the consent of her government. India's Permanent Representative Hardeep Singh Puri complained, for the second day in a row, about the UN's “mandate creep.”

Afterward, Inner City Press asked about the critique and requested responses from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon through this spokesman, UNICEF and German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, in his capacity as Security Council president.

Typical of the UN, none wanted to directly respond. Westerwelle said he wouldn't comment on what other countries said, emphasizing only that the resolution passed.

Ban Ki-moon came to the stakeout and read a statement but took no questions. His spokesman Martin Nesirky said Ban had an urgent 11:45 telephone call.

At the noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Nesirky for Ban's response to the critique, and to those who feel that the decisions of which countries to put on the CAAC Annex is arbitrary, excluding for example Pakistan despite the armed conflict and child recruitment admitted by Ban's previous envoy Jean-Maurice Ripert.

On the former, Nesirky replie that "the most important thing to emphasize here is that the Security Council has been consistently focused on this topic, underscoring the importance that the international community attaches to dealing with the question of children and armed conflict."

On the latter, Nesirky told Inner City Press to asked Ban's CAAC expert, Radhika Coomaraswamy. She had come out of the Council ready to do a stakeout, but was told there were not enough journalists. Later she told Inner City Press among other things that her office needs now to do the political work, explain how her Office works. Inner City Press asked, will you come out to speak after Myanmar's speech? She replied, and speak to you?

Update: when the session ended at 5:45 pm, Ms. Coomaraswamy and her team emerged. They indicted, again, that Colombia's fear is unfounded, that they would not speak to a rebel group without the government's consent. One wonders why Colombia wasn't answered, on the record, during what was called the debate?

UNICEF's Tony Lake came out and Inner City Press asked him about the critique by India and Colombia. “I'm running late,” he said, indicating he would have answered “if ten minutes earlier.” But after Inner City Press immediately e-mailed the questions to four separate UNICEF spokespeople, still there was no answer two hours later.

Footnote: Alongside the debate, the Permanent Representative of Syria was told that Westervelle political party in 1999, the FDP, was distantly associated with a slogan, "Kinder Statt Inder" -- children not Indians. It was a reference to the granting of information technology visa to Indians.

The other side is that is was in only one region, not by FDP but CDU, and unrelated to India's opposition to the German introduced and pushed resolution. But so it goes at the UN. We exoect to hear more on this.

UNICEF Dodges Questions of Congo Mass Rape and Rwanda MDG Irony

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 7 -- The UN and many of its NGO “partners” run scared of governments, even on issues like child poverty and mass rape. On Tuesday at the UN, new UNICEF chief Tony Lake presented findings that governments could benefit by focusing more on the poorest children.

Beside him was the Chief Operating Officer of Save the Children, which in its own linked report criticized countries like India, Burkina Faso and Rwanda for focusing too little on the poorest quintile of children.

But when Inner City Press asked about Rwanda, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's decision to name its president Paul Kagame as the co-chair of the UN MDG Advocacy Group, the Save the Children COO Ms Miles said they work with government, they understood the initial focus on low hanging fruit, which some call cherry picking. She did not address the irony of Rwanda and Kagame. Nor did Tony Lake.

Inner City Press asked Lake what UNICEF was doing in the Congo, in light of the mass rapes scandal. E-mail traffic provided to Inner City Press shows that such UN agencies as UNDP and FAO were informed of the rape(s) on July 30, but do not show UNICEF.

Lake gave a generic answer about monitoring, referring and tracking cases, and said that UNICEF does “name and shame.” Video here, from Minute 37:50.

But the Congolese government has in its army the FARDC noted rapists like Colonel Zimulinda / Zimurinda, Bosco Ntaganda and Peter Kerim. Has UNICEF named and shamed them?

Lake said he has approached UNICEF's donors about these issues. We'll see.

The UN briefing room was packed for the press conference, largely with UNICEF staffers. Perhaps it was to make Lake feel comfortable. UNICEF has an enormous public relations staff - but to have so many of them in one place at one time, when for example they refused to answer questions about child malnutrition in Darfur only weeks ago, was surprising. Watch this site.