On Syria in Geneva, Pinheiro Report Has No Qatar or Del Ponte, Ladsous' Clouseau-Like Probe of Qatar Role in Golan Kidnappings?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 4 -- As the Syria report of the UN Commission of Inquiry was released and debated in Geneva Tuesday morning, the report was as noteworthy for what was not in it as for what was.

  When panelist Carla Del Ponte said publicly there were "serious suspicions" of chemical weapons use by the rebels, CoI chairperson Paulo Pinheiri quickly put out a press release undercutting it. 

  And lo and behold, his report says in Paragraph 138 that while "it is possible that anti-Government armed groups may access and use chemical weapons... there is no compelling evidence that these groups possess such weapons or their requisite delivery systems."

So there are "strong suspicions" (Del Ponte) but according to Pinheiro's final report, no "compelling evidence"? How to square these two?

On June 3 Inner City Press exclusively reported that despite a statement by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Office of the Spokesperson that video said to indicate rebel use of chemical weapons at Khan Al-Asal was being processed by the UN's Angela Kane for submission to Ban's prober Ake Sellstrom, this has not taken place. Then again, Pinheiro wouldn't even consider the footage.

  Likewise, while the Pinheiro report recites the repeated kidnapping of UN peacekeepers in the Golan in Paragraph 72, it does not even mention the allegation of involvement from Doha, Qatar. During the debate, it was (mis?) stated that Ban's head of Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous is investigating Qatar's role.

  Ironically, Qatar in its speech denounced the abduction of people. Really?

  Pinheiro did speaks against the transfer of weapons in to Syria. At the UN in New York on June 3, the UK's Alistair Burt told Inner City Press his country wants the flexibility to do just that. 

While Botswana said talks could lead to an "amicable" resolution, it's hard to imagine any denouement that would be "amicable."

US Ambassador Eileen Donahoe praised the opposition's "awareness campaigns" -- apparently PSAs by the FSA, Public Service Announcements by the Free Syrian Army. But what about the Al Nusra Front? Watch this site.

As Sweden Congratulates ECOSOC Winners Including Sudan, Secret Ballots

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, November 9 -- How does the UN work? How should it? On November 8, Sudan won a seat on the UN's Economic and Social Council, with 176 votes in favor out of 192 cast.

  Earlier in the year, much pressure was brought to bear to get Sudan to drop out of the race for the Human Rights Council. But for ECOSOC, which controls among other things the accreditation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to operate in the UN, Sudan ran unopposed on a clear slate.

  The Geneva-based NGO UN Watch quickly took to Twitter, urging US Ambassador Susan Rice to denounce Sudan's election, and asking the European Union's Catherine Ashton to explain how at least ten (and probably more) EU members voted for Sudan.

  These are secret ballots, but one might expect countries that are loud on human rights to reveal and brag about their votes. But on November 8, Sweden's Mission to the UN tweeted a congratulations to all those elected to ECOSOC.

  Inner City Press replied, Including Sudan? Was Sweden one of the abstainers? There has been no response.

   At an event in the UN Friday with UN Watch, Inner City Press asked if it or its co-presenter the Human Rights Foundation knew who the abstainers were. The response was a suggestion that an enterprising reporter should spend two or three hours and ask all 192 voters how they cast their ballot.

   Inner City Press covers elections at the UN, for example predicting within two votes the margin of victory for current President of the General Assembly Vuk Jeremic. Click here for the pre-vote tweet. People talk, but on condition of anonymity.

   Why don't the countries which brag about human rights, or that they do not engage in vote trading, make public their votes?

   In the UN's North Lawn building on the morning November 9, a Sudanese diplomat joked to Inner City Press, "We got more votes than the United States." The UN vote tally for the US reads 171. And how DID the US vote?

    In a race of five for three Human Rights Council seats on November 12, the US and Sweden are competing with Germany, Greece and Ireland. How did these five vote on Sudan for ECOSOC?

  In the Fifth (Budget) Committee on November 9, the vote among five African candidates for two seats on the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) went two rounds of secret ballot. Inner City Press had predicted that Eritrea, despite sanctions, would get a seat -- and it did, in the form of its Fifth Committee rep Tesfa Alem Seyoum. Babou Sene of Senegal beat incumbent chairman Collen Kelapile, who got 65 votes in the first round, 64 in the second -- all secret. Ah, rotation. We wish him well, and we'll have more on all this.

For UN GA Chairs, Germany Takes Budget, Indonesia & Latins Fill Others

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, August 21, updated -- In the fight to chair UN General Assembly committees, Germany had grabbed the Fifth (Budget) Committee from Sri Lanka in an August deal, Inner City Press has learned.

  Asia now gets the First Committee, but it will be Indonesia and not Sri Lanka. Source say that the African Group, in the shape of Gabon, is taking the Fourth Committee.

  The Latin American and Caribbean Group, GRULAC, has is getting two chairs, Second and Third, for Suriname and Guyana. 

  And it's said the Eastern European Group, which could not get it together to vote between Serbia's Vuk Jeremic and Lithuania for the next President of the General Assembly -- Jeremic won -- will chair the Sixth (Legal) Committee.

  In a strange proviso, it's said that Germany will chair the Fifth Committee at the Deputy Permanent Representative level: that is, Ambassador Miguel Berger rather than Peter Wittig.

Update: Berger confirmed this to Inner City Press, explaining that Germany will still be on the Security Council until the end of 2012, and that he (Berger) has worked on budget issues in the past.

  Back in July, Sri Lanka was said to have "bagged" the Fifth Committee. Inner City Press wrote about it, and questioned it in that Sri Lankan Permanent Representative Palitha Kohona is named in Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's own Panel of Experts report on the killings in May 2009, just as Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative Shavendra Silva's battalion is named.

  Silva managed to squeeze onto Ban Ki-moon's and DPKO chief Herve Ladsous' Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations. While Ban Ki-moon never commented on the irony, telling Inner City Press it was a decision of member states, much opposition was expressed after detailed reports.

  Now the idea of Sri Lanka chairing the Fifth Committee appears to be dead. Germany will want to save money. 

  There is a separate fight for seats on, and the chair of, the Advisory Committeee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, as Inner City Press exclusively reported, with the able Botswanan chair Collen Kelapile wanting to stay on, but Eritrea and then Kenya clamoring for a rotation to the North which didn't in the past take place.

   Senegal and Benin are said to be vying for another seat. Watch this site.

At UN, Eritrea in Line for ACABQ, Botswana Aims to Keep It, Kenya in the Mix

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, August 7 -- One of the few overseers of the UN's murky spending is its Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions or ACABQ. The chairman has been Collen Kelapile of Botswana, often found at seven pm or later in the North Lawn building, well versed in the nitty gritty of the UN's budget.

  But now, based on the system of rotation in place at the UN, Kelapile faces replacement, by an Eritrean.

  Inner City Press has confirmed with the Eritrean mission that they have the endorsement not only of the African Union or also the "East Africans." Other sources say that Botswana and southern Africa are arguing, why give up seniority and the chairmanship for this mere rotation?

  Eritrea replies that it gave up claims on a vice presidency of the General Assembly. Others say Kenya, seeing the split, jumped into the fray, under the theory that a country under sanctions like Eritrea is not well placed to head ACABQ.

  This is the way that wheeling and dealing is done at the UN, and why so much escapes oversight. Watch this site.