At UN Indigenous Forum, Of Hawaii Telescope & West Papua, Vanuatu

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 22 -- When a Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues related press conference was held on April 22, Inner City Press asked Ghazali Ohorella about opposition to a telescope on sacred land in Hawaii, and about Western Papua, mentioned in the Forum the day before.

  Oherella named the sponsors, including from Canada and Japan, adding the construction was postponed when indigenous people occupied the mountain.

 On West Papua, Forum member Valmarine Toki said the story is sad, but the inclusion on the UN Fourth Committee's list of French Polynesia should be celebrated. Ambassador Odo Tevi of Vanuatu, praised the day before, apologized their was only so much he could say. 

 On the evening of April 21, Inner City Press covered the Forum's cultural event in the UN lobby, photo here, Vine here.

  When the Forum started up on April 20, Inner City Press asked about the World Bank's “Climate Fund,” and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's closing down aboriginal communities and what he called the “lifestyle choice” they represent.

   The new chair of the Permanent Forum, Professor Megan Davis, said that Abbott's comments had not gone down well in Australia, and not only about aboriginal people. She asked if farming, heavily subsidized, is not lifestyle choice. Some surmise it's hydrocarbons under the land that explains the closing of the communities.

  And now Abbott is going to New Zealand - where he faces further protests of his remarks and actions.

   Joan Carling, also on the UN panel on April 20, told Inner City Press that the Climate Fund, REDD and similar project involve reducing the forests to the carbon issue and to payments.

Footnote: While the April 20 press conference was in the UN Press Briefing Room, there was no UN transcript or even summary made. Worse, the UN collaborated with itsUN Censorship Alliance (some of whose board members have tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN) in shifting the Chagos Refugees Group's Olivier Bancoult into an almost empty session in UNCA's private club, not on UNTV, not reported. 

(Inner City Press previously asked about the Chagossians, here to outgoing UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who seemingly against character turned censor-inward in farewell.) Inner City Press based on similar collusion by UNCA quit the group and co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access which is covering the Forum and how the UN treats it. Watch this site.

   

UNreal: At UN, Kingdom of Atooi Claims "Seat 25" and Pitches New Currency, Follow this Money?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 20 -- Puerto Rico is debated at the UN as a case of decolonization, but Hawai'i is not. Still on Monday the King or Ali'i Nui of of the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi appeared at a UN press conference to launch a new currency and encourage people to buy it.

Inner City Press asked three questions: is the King trying to get Atooi inscribed on the list of non self governing territories, as happened May 17 with French Polynesia? The answer was unclear. The king, Aleka Aipoalani, said Atooi already has a seat -- "number twenty five" in the General Assembly, he said.

  What are the benefits of minting your own currency? Will the coins just be worth the weight of the precious metals they're make of, or will there be some sort of sovereignty premium? 

   Here the King deferred to his expert, a man citing "Sovereign Economics" and displaying slides of the coins. Everyone will have their own reasons for buying, he said.

  Finally Inner City Press asked, who is sponsoring this press conference? It's said that only if sponsored by a country or a UN entity is a press conference allowed and televised. (Others come in through the backdoor of UNCA, but these are not on UN Television.) The answer, after a pause, was that the press conference was sponsored by the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

  Only an hour and a half earlier, Inner City Press covered then wrote about a press conference of the PFII, with representative from Kenya, Fiji, Canada and Alaska. This currency press conference felt different. Like we said, follow the money. Watch this site.

Footnote: all this takes place in a UN that wouldn't even distribute the letter of Somaliland, and is purported to "give" its airspace by the Somalia. We'll have more on this.

At UN, French Polynesia Put Back on Decolonization List, US, Germany, Netherlands & UK Disassociate

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 -- French Polynesia got taken off the list of non-self governing territories, but Friday was put back on. France managed to get the resolution delayed in 2011, but not this time. Afterward there were "disassociation" speeches by the UK, Netherlands, Germany and the US, and "reservations" by Mexico.

Back in February 2013, Inner City Press managed to ask French ambassador Gerard Araud about it, as the final question in a Q&A stakeout on another topic. He said the UN shouldn't be used for electoral politics back home, even as French president Francois Hollande did just that. Now the argument was that the election Araud alluded to meant the resolution should have been withdrawn. But it was not.

Argentina also spoke afterward, to say that the Special Committee on Decolonization is the right forum for this; Indonesia said this should not be a precedent for other territories that were once on the list of non self governing territories. They all saw it through the lens of their own interests, with Malvinas / Falkland Islands, West Papua or Puerto Rico.

France was described as a "brain" behind the Syria resolution that garnered only 107 votes on May 15, down from 133 previously. So these are losses for France, whose Francois Hollande is not doing so well at home either.

France's impact on the UN through putting Herve Ladsous atop UN Peacekeeping is another loss -- for all concerned. Watch this site.

On French Polynesia, Araud Says Don't Use UN for Politics- But Francois Hollande Did

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 27 – As French Polynesia pushes at the UN to get back on the C-24 decolonization list, Inner City Press on Wednesday asked France's Permanent Representative Gerard Araud about the move. (Inner City Press first wrote about the rising action on February 25, here.)

Araud noted that there are elections in French Polynesia in April and said “the UN shouldn't be used in an electoral campaign.” Of course, the UN and Security Council often are. Even Francois Hollande's popularity went up after his decision to intervene in Mali -- a decision his government and Araud told the Security Council was in the framework of international law and Council resolutions.

Araud went on to note that several members of the Non-Aligned Movement are not in support of French Polynesia's push. One of them, it's said, said in Tuesday's meeting sponsored by the Solomon Islands that resolutions shouldn't be used for elections back home. But again, they often are.

Analogy is made to New Caledonia, which by resolution got re-inscribed on the decolonization list in the 1980s. There, even amid violent protest, the resolution is called by opponents of French Polynesia's move “more balanced” than the current one.

So water it down, suggests another. But pass it. Watch this site.

At UN, French Polynesia Wants on Decolonization List As France Bombs in Mali

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 25 – Even as France intervenes in its former colony Mali, its current colony French Polynesia is pushing forward at the UN for self-determination.

Amid news that French Polynesia is pushing to be put on the list of the UN Special Committee of 24 on Decolonization, Inner City Press spoke Monday to a number of Pacific island Permanent Representatives.

Some are formally in support of French Polynesia's request. Another pointed out that at the Non Aligned Movement meeting in Tehran, self determination was referred to, but not the C-24 list. “This puts us in a delicate position,” the Permanent Representative told Inner City Press, openly wonder about Indonesia and Chile, for example.

More cynically or analytically he told Inner City Press, “this is a drama for Oscar Temaru, for the upcoming election or for his legacy.” But isn't decolonization the trend? Shouldn't it be?

Later on Monday a large country's Deputy Permanent Representative mused to Inner City Press that self-determination and sovereignty are “two different things, just look at the Falklands or Malvinas.” Look indeed.

But France and its colonies are not an issue not only in the Security Council, but in the UN's North Lawn building. Watch this site.

UN Ban Punts on Tahiti Call to End Colonialism by France, Quiet Diplomacy?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 7 -- One of the UN's high points was de-colonialization, but under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon those days are apparently over. Ban traveled to a meeting in New Zealand at which colony Tahiti Nui a/k/a French Polynesia pushed, with support of Pacific Island states, to be included on the agenda of the UN's committee on de-colonialization.

One would think this would be a no-brainer for Ban Ki-moon, given the UN's historic role in at least ostensibly ending colonialism, for example Adrian Pelt's role in pre-Gaddafi Libya.

So on September 7 Inner City Press asked Ban's new Deputy Spokesman Eduardo del Buey for Ban's position on Tahiti Nui's request:

Inner City Press: one of the other controversies there had to do with French Polynesia, a move by French Polynesia, to become listed on the UN decolonization list taken up by the Fourth Committee. And since the UN has historically had such a big role in decolonization, I wondered, did he hear about that while he was there? Does he have any view [on] that territory wants to be put on the decolonization list?

Spokesman del Buey once again said "I will have to find out and get back to you on that." During the rest of the day on September 7, his office did not call or e-mail Inner City Press. Only long after close of business was an answer inserted into the UN's transcript of the noon briefing:

[The Deputy Spokesperson later said that in his press conference in Auckland, New Zealand, yesterday, the Secretary-General said that he had listened to the concerns of some leaders, including French Polynesia, concerning the right of self-determination. The Secretary-General noted that it is up to Member States voting in the General Assembly to decide on the re-listing or delisting of any territory as Non-Self-Governing Territory.]

This "saying" was over an internal "squawk" system which is not heard by any journalist covering, for example, the Security Council. On the substance, while Ban touts his own "quiet diplomacy," to not have have a position on de-colonialization, one of the UN's signature issues, is questionable.

Perhaps in this case it is the pressure of France, which sent its minister Alain Juppe to New Zealand to argue against de-colonialization. It was reported:

“For a second time in two weeks, Marie-Luce Penchard has highlighted that French Polynesia is now the French republic’s most autonomous territory. She also points out that France transfers two billion US dollars a year to Tahiti and denounces presenting such a privilege as a colonial relationship. Her statement follows a call by the French Polynesian government to end 170 years of colonisation and last month’s assembly vote on a resolution to be taken to the Forum in Auckland and the UN in New York. To counter Tahiti’s lobbying, the French foreign minister, Alain Juppe, will join the Forum leaders in Auckland.”

But shouldn't the head of the UN have a position on the right to self-determination? Watch this site.