On Ebola, IMF Announces $100M Now, $160M Soon; Answers to Inner City Press on Mongolia & Ghana Next

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 5 -- The IMF's biweekly embargoed briefing began Thursday with drama and a guest: Christine Lagarde on Ebola, in English and French, taking two questions then out.

The IMF said, "subject to Board approval of requests from the individual countries, it is expected that the CCR trust would provide grants-for-debt relief of close to $100 million for the three countries affected by Ebola in West Africa –Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. These funds would come in addition to the $130 million of assistance provided in September 2014 and to
a second round of new concessional loans amounting to about $160 million to be considered soon by the Executive Board."

 Lagarde said that one country, which she left unnamed, has made a commitment that they will be announcing. She cited non-Paris club members, naming only Russia as a creditor of Guinea. She said there'll be more at the G20 in Istanbul. 

  After that, there were seven questions to Lagarde's spokesperson Gerry Rice about Greece -- he declined to comment on the ECB further squeezing Greece -- then two on Ukraine, where the IMF is said to be in line for only $6 billion of the $15 billion now requested. US John Kerry is in Kiev today, including on IMF.

  Inner City Press, before and during the briefing, submitted three questions:

In Ghana, President Mahama on Feb 3 said, “Ghana is committed to securing an IMF programme and we are confident that we will reach agreement with the IMF by the end of this quarter.” What is the process / status at the IMF?

On Mongolia, what is the process forward on their request for an IMF stand-by arrangement? When will a visit to the country take place?

In Sri Lanka on bank consolidation, new Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran has said “I have also asked the IMF to send some technical experts to look at these issues from an international perspective and they have agreed to do so.” Can you confirm that? Would it be in connection with IMF visit at the end of February?

 The first two were answered, and will be reported in separate stories. On Sri Lanka, which was not answered during the IMF briefing, the new government is cutting off payments to Lagarde's predecessor Dominique Strauss Kahn, who once out through the revolving door (of a Manhattan hotel) sold his services to the Rajapaksas. Any comment, or future safeguards, on that? 

On Sri Lanka after the briefing and expiration of the embargo there was this answer by Gerry Rice of the IMF: "“We have been discussing with the authorities a multi-faceted technical assistance mission on financial sector issues. Looking at financial system stability and supervision in the context of the ongoing consolidation process is one element. We are currently putting together a team to send to Colombo, but will discuss with the CBSL specific needs in the next week so that we can select the best experts and structure the mission. It will likely take place after the staff visit in February, as this is a separate, technical assistance exercise.”

  On Ebola back on November 13 Inner City Press asked about Ebola, including World Bank estimates of budget shortfalls in Liberia.

 Inner City Press on November 13 asked, "On Ebola, what is the IMF's response to the US call for debt forgiveness for three countries? The World Bank has indicated that Liberia's revised 2014-15 budget has an unmet financing gap of more than half of the budget deficit projected at over $300 million. What can or will the IMF do about this?"

  IMF Deputy Spokesperson William Murray replied that given the flare up of Ebola cases in unexpected areas. "The IMF staff's previously projections were assuming the epidemic would be brought under control in the first quarter of 2015. However it now appears that it could be well into the second half of 2015 before the Ebola epidemic is brought under control in these three countries."

   Three hours later at the end of a UN General Assembly session on Ebola, Inner City Press asked a panel of UNGA President Sam Kutesa and UN Ebola envoys Anthony Banbury and David Navarro about the IMF's new projection: is it consonant with the UN's?

  It was Tony Banbury who answered, saying that the UN is aiming at 70% safe burials for example by December 1 and to turn the Ebola epidemic around.

  Is that the same thing as getting the epidemic "under control," the definition under which the IMF now projects the second half of 2015?  The work goes on. Watch this site.

  The day before at the UN on November 12 when the UN Security Council met, Liberia's Ambassador Marjon Kamara spoke not of the IMF but of the World Bank, saying "the World Bank recently gave a gloomy depiction of the economic effects of the disease on the three most affected countries - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone."

     Per Thoresson, Deputy Ambassador of Sweden which chairs the UN Peacebuilding configuration on Liberia, specified that “according to the World Bank, the two-year regional financial impact could reach $32.6 billion by the end of 2015. The World Bank also indicated that Liberia's revised 2014-15 budget has an unmet financing gap of more than half of the budget deficit projected at over $300 million.”

  So where's the money going to come from? Back on October 30, Inner City Press asked the International Monetary Fund about its stated $130 million commitment to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

   Inner City Press asked IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice for an update at the IMF's embargoed briefing on October 30.

  Rice said the outlook has worsened, with region-wide fall offs in travel and tourism. As to the three countries most impacted, there are "large financing needs likely for 2015."

  At the Annual Meetings earlier this month, the IMF met with the three countries' authorities, Rice said. "2015 is going to be a challenging year." If the outbreak spreads, it would have larger spillovers. The IMF, Rice said, is ready. We'll see.

  In the UN Security Council on November 12, the head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous recited that Justice Minister Christiana Tah resigned and five soldiers have been demoted for disciplinary offenses while enforcing a quarantine of an Ebola-affected community in Monrovia.

  Under Ladsous, it must be noted, UN Peackeeping has covered up attacks on civilians in Darfur and the Central African Republic. Ladsous himself refused repeatedly to answer Press questions about rapes by his partners in the DR Congo Army. Video compilation here. Most recently, Ladsous tried to block the Press' camera, Vine here. Thus is the UN UNdercut.

  Also during the October 30 embargoed IMF briefing,Inner City Press submitted this question: "On Ghana, does the IMF have any comment on the October 28 launch of the “Civil Society Organization Platform on the IMF Bailout to Ghana”? Will the IMF meet with the group?")

 On Ebola back on August 28 Rice told Inner City Press that the IMF was working on the ebola crisis with the government of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.  Later came the $130 million commitment.

  While most questions on August 28 concerned IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde being under investigation -- she will brief the IMF Board “very soon,” Rice said, calling it “highly unlikely” it would be on August 29 along with the Board's meeting on Ukraine -- Inner City Press also asked about Yemen, Ghana, Pakistan -- and ebola, IMF transcript here:

“Has the IMF produced any estimates of the impact of the ebola crisis? Any IMF responses to it?”

  Rice read out the question, then said that ebola's "acute impacts" are “macro-economic” and social, hitting three “already fragile” countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone). He said "growth is likely to slow sharply in all three cases" and significant financial needs will rise: "increased poverty and food insecurity" and impacts on employment in the key agricultural sector.

  Rice concluded, "We are actively working with all three countries to prepare... additional financing that may be required."

Watch this site. 
   

In Brisbane for G-20, Obama Silent on Manus, Praises Myanmar Despite Aung Naing

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 14 -- In Brisbane for the G20, US President Barack Obama announced a $3 billion commitment to the Green climate fund, to applause at the University of Queenland. He did not mention Australia's anti-immigrant policies or Manus Island.

  Obama claimed that the US never puts its principles in the back seat, referring to China -- with no mention of Saudi Arabia or its neighbors Bahrain and Qatar. He praised Myanmar, saying he spoke there about how journalism can be responsible, without mentioned Aung Naing, killed in custody.

  Back in Beijing on November 10, US President Barack Obama is promoting the "Transpacific Partnership," which would among other things export pro-corporate (and pro-censorship) laws like the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 

  After telling the media to hurry up and get out of the room, "we have some work to do," a statement emerged on November 10, that 

"We, the Leaders of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam, welcome the significant progress in recent months, as reported to us by our Ministers, that sets the stage to bring these landmark Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations to conclusion."

   But if the TPP is so good, why would an organization like the Electronic Frontier Foundation be sounding the alarm? And why and how can the UN be promoting and praising this TPP?

 The UN has a joint agency with the World Trade Organization, and on March 6, 2014, at the UN the director of the joint agency the International Trade Centre Arancha Gonzalez, formerly of the WTO, spoke at the UN and praised the pending Trans Pacific Partnership.

Inner City Press when able asked Gonzalez to explain working on the TPP as a UN project, given the range of groups opposed to the TPP, including for example the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Click here.

  As the Free UN Coalition for Access is pursuing, TPP would essentially globalize the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which can be used for censorship -- not only has used by Reuters UN bureau chief to ban from Google's Search an anti-Press complaint he filed with the UN, but more recently to take-down videos of protests.Click here.

  Gonzalez gave a lengthy answer, that trade deals are up to member state, but added that the ICT works so that rules are consistent and not fragmented.  To some this sounds like "race to the bottom."

  Since the press conference was billed as concerning the Commission on the Status of Women, Inner City Press asked Gonzalez which countries ban women from having bank accounts. Saudi Arabia came to mind, but Gonzalez cited Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. We hope to have more on this issue.

   Back on March 4 another UN agency UN HABITAT unveiled "The City We Need" booklet on Tuesday at the UN, in advance of an event at the nearby Ford Foundation. 

  Inner City Press, when able, asked about the corporate sponsors listed in the booklet, including GDF Suez (protested for example about a hydro-electric dam in Brazil), Siemens (Western Sahara) and Veolia, a French firm recently contracted on Syria chemical weapons which does business in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

After thanking the panel including HABITAT's Joan Clos on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, Inner City Press asked: how were these corporate sponsored vetted?

  The answer, from Nick Yu of the World Urban Campaign, was as is so often the case at the UN that the private sector is important, is a stakeholder. Yes, but what about these particular companies? What is the process? And what is their involvement, beyond paying to be listed in promotional materials?

A goal of the campaign seems to be to try to get a holistic "Cities" Sustainable Development Goal. Inner City Presshas reported on a similar move, involving Palau, to get an Oceans SDG. The list is growing.

A panelist who was also a New Yorker, Eugenie Birch, answered Inner City Press question about the last and the current New York City mayors. Bill de Blasio, Birch said, is a corrective on issues of affordable housing and free kindergarten (what about pre-K?). Michael Bloomberg, whose meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry has yet to be summarized by the UN as Inner City Press has requested, will be at the Ford Foundation. Watch this site.

   

On Ukraine, IMF Announces $14-18 Billion Preliminary Deal As Gas Prices Rise 50%, Press Qs

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- It was 4:25 am in New York and Washington when the International Monetary Fund announced its preliminary agreement for a $14 - $18 billion loan program with Ukraine. 

  Twelve hours before, Inner City Press asked a number of IMF spokespeople to confirm or comment on reports that the Ukrainian "increase the price of natural gas for household consumers by an average of 50%" is attributable to the IMF. 

 Receipt of the question was acknowledged; perhaps it will be answered at the IMF's 9:30 am briefing, embargoed until 10:30 am (when the UN General Assembly will be considering a resolution on Ukraine).

  Later on March 27 the US Congress is expected to act on a $1 billion loan guarantee to Ukraine, but not on the IMF changes the Obama administration requested. Obama Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a statement welcoming the IMF preliminary deal, concluding that "We also remain committed to providing the IMF with the resources it needs – in partnership with Congress – to provide strong support to countries like Ukraine as well as reinforcing the Fund’s governance to reflect the global economy."
  
  Two weeks ago on March 13, the day after several US Senators argued that International Monetary Fund quota reform would have to be approved by Congress to enable the IMF to meaningfully assist Ukraine, Inner City Press asked IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice if this is true. Video here, from Minute 12:05.

  Rice genially said several times that the question couldn't or wouldn't be answered while the IMF mission is “in the field” in Ukraine. He initially gave the same answer to Inner City Press' question that had nothing to do with Ukraine: is it true, as Russia reportedly argued at the most recent G-20 meeting, that quota reform could be accomplished without US approval, under some set of rule changes?

  Rice during the briefing repeated this could not be answered while the mission is in Ukraine. Later it was conveyed that the reform is not possible without US approval. The answer is appreciated: a benefit of asking in person. But Inner City Press (and the Free UN Coalition for Access) hope to make the online asking of questions work better from now on. We'll see.

  In another non-Ukraine question, Inner City Press asked Rice about a book published earlier this week in Hungary, that the then-economy minister in 2011 told Goldman Sachs that the government would be going to the IMF for a program. Since much currency trading ensued, Inner City Press asked if the IMF has any rules limiting its government interlocutors from trading on or sharing insider information. Video here, from Minute 31:12.

  Rice said there are confidential provisions. But are those only for the contents of communication and not the existence of communications or negotiations? We'll see.

  

As Obama Mocks UN's Hocus Pocus, Evidence at US Mission Called UNconvincing, United for Peace?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 6 -- When US President Barack Obama took press questions at the end of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg, he said that but-for his reaction to the August 21 incidents in Syria, it would just be a (draft) resolution at the UN, "the usual hocus pocus."

At the UN on September 5, US Ambassador Samantha Power announced that members states had been invited across the street to the US Mission to see the US' evidence. As Inner City Press reported yesterday, one attendee said he was not convinced by the evidence; another said it was the same shown "back in the capital."

  Since then other attendees have told Inner City Press the US invited was directed beyond the Security Council members to those countries which wrote to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asking for an investigation into the August 21 incidents.

  That's the same group the UN's Angela Kane invited to a stealth meeting in the North Lawn building earlier this week -- but that, Syria's Permanent Representative Ja'afari also attended (and spoke afterward, see Inner City PressYouTube here.)

  While some make much of a Saudi draft General Assembly resolution, other interested countries tell Inner City Press "that's on hold" and speak of another, quite different resolution.

  There's also this question, for the US: would it support a Uniting for Peace resolution which could empower to act on the issues the US uses its veto for in the Security Council?

  Echoing Obama, French president Francois Hollande after the G20 said Obama told him the vote in the US Congress could not be until the middle of next week and that he, Hollande, told Ban Ki-moon to speed up the report.

(Hollande asked what if instead of just intervening in Mali he'd waited for the Security Council -- seemingly an admission that the line France used at the time, that its intervention was under an earlier resolution for an African force, "in the framework of international law," was just... the usual hocus pocus.)

  Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi after meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said the UN report will go to the Security Council and to the rest of the international community." Does that mean all 193 states, at same time as Security Council? Or another "hocus pocus" invite list, like the US and Angela Kane have used? Watch this site.

   

John Kerry Claims Qatar and Saudi Work for Moderation in Syria, Cites Poland Support for Bombing, Ban Ki-moon at G20

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 6 -- Selling US military action on Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry told MSNBC's Chris Hayes that Saudi Arabia and Qatar are involved in training armed groups in Syria to be more moderate. Kerry said:

"there’s a very careful vetting process that’s taking place where people have to come out of Syria and they spend a period of time. They are trained appropriately after being vetted, and then they go back in. And the Turks, the Jordanians, the Qataris, the Saudis, the Emiratis, a lot of people are involved in that process."

  This description of Saudi and Qatari involvement in Syria seems partial, to say the least. Kerry went on to name, as supporters of military action on Syria, this same grouping along with France and one other country: Poland.

Observers of how the US works in the United Nations now expect the US to strong arm micro-states to come out in support.

  Meanwhile at the G20 in St. Petersburg, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with and issued read-outs about Turkey's Ergogan, Germany's Merkel and France's Francois Hollande (and foreign minister Laurent Fabius).

  Two attendees were listed for France, as Ban brought along envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to the meeting with the French (but not Germany or Turkey). With Erdogan Ban discussed not only Syria but also Cyprus. But with France, there was no mention of Mali, or the Central African Republic, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  In terms of the training that Kerry claimed for Syrian rebels, it's worth noting as Inner City Press did months ago that the DRC's 391st Battalion, implicated in 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012 and in corpse desecration more recently, was trained by the US. 

  Click here to view the US Mission to the UN's response to Inner City Press about the DRC 391st Battalion. We publish responses -- when we get them. While not answered or allowed at the UN on September 5, will US Ambassador Samantha Power address, in DC at the Center for American Progress later today, why not wait for the UN report? Watch this site.

   

On Syria, Brahimi to Russia for G20, William Hague Meets Saudi's Jarba, UN and UK Race for Relevance

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 5 -- To work the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Russia trying desperately to save the long-promised Geneva Two talks on Syria, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has announced envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is on his way to St. Petersburg.

Brahimi when last seen, other than through a dubious Twitter account, was saying more clearly than Ban had or has that military action on Syria must go through the UN Security Council. (Click here for Inner City Press story on that.) Will that be his message to the US and France at the G20 meeting?

Saudi-sponsored Syria rebel boss Jarba has been calling for air strikes, disappointed to even wait for process in the US Congress, where the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted "Yes," 10-7, on September 4.

In the UK, where such action on Syria was roundly voted down, Foreign Secretary William Hague meets today with Jarba. Why not just talk with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal? After losing in the House of Commons, the David Cameron - Nick Clegg government is in its own Race for Relevance.

  Jarba when last seen in New York was in a faux "UN briefing" publicized only to those who paid money, held in a third floor room the UN gives to its UN Correspondents Association (now under Pamela Falk of CBS known as the UN Censorship Alliance, yesterday trying to block or exclude a question that rebels may have used chemical weapons in Syria, click here.) Also this (Reuters as spy) story, audio, document.

  Inner City Press has repeatedly asked the UN whether this for-pay session by Jarba (a/k/a Jarbucks) could legitimately be called a "UN briefing" -- still without any answer. In its Race for Relevance, this UN will do almost anything. Watch this site.

   

On G20, Mexico Doesn't Meet UN's Ban, Occupy Discouraged, Volcker Rule Opposed, UN in "Urgent Need of Reform"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 8 -- When the current G20 heads of Mexico came to New York, they tellingly did not meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Inner City Press learned on Thursday. Rather they met only with Ban's official Robert Orr, now being moved to an invented post about public private partnerships.

The Mexican Mission to the UN's able spokesman organized a press conference at the Mission with five journalists, at which Roberto Marino and "Sherpa" representative Gabriel Terres downplayed the obsolescence of the UN.

Then Inner City Press asked Mexico's Permanent Representative to respond to the theory that currently the UN General Assembly is becoming obsolete, or "not fit for purpose" as its President from Qatar has put it. (The PGA's spokeswoman told Inner City Press earlier on Thursday this was "taken out of context," but wouldn't say if any correction had been requested.)

It is "in urgent need of reform," Mexico's ambassador responded, indicting the marginalization of ECOSOC, but saying that somehow the current troika and Singapore could reverse it.

Mexico is a leader of the UFC school of Security Council reform which if enacted, which is unlikely, could help reverse the trend.

The Mission was asked if the Occupy movement will target their G20. I hope not, said Marino. But why not? Already President Obama has moved the G8 from Chicago to Camp David to make it "more intimate" -- that is, less protestable.

Inner City Press asked if it is true that the G20 is against implementation of the US Volcker Rule, not because it is pro deregulation, but only because it would lower the value of non-US goverment bonds. It hadn't been implemented, Magiro agilely answered.

But in fact a Mexico based subprime lending owned by Salinas Pliego, the Grupo Elektra, is now in line to buy controversial US payday lending Advance America. Who is using the G20? Watch this site.

France Pitching Lagarde for IMF Called “Not Incompatible” with Leading G-20

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 3 -- For the second time during France's presidency of the Group of 20, a French minister has come to the UN and held a closed door briefing, excluding the press, about how open the Sarkozy administration's leadership of the G-20 is.

But when Labor and Health Minister Xavier Bertrand came on June 3, something had changed. Dominique Strauss Kahn had lost the top post at the International Monetary Fund after being charged with sexual assault on a maid at Sofitel in New York, and fellow French minster Christine Lagarde is globetrotting to procure a vote this month to replace DSK.

Inner City Press asked Bertrand, flanked by French Ambassador to the UN Gerard Araud and his spokesman, about a complaint by South Africa's minister of finance Pravin Gardhan that the fast moves for Lagarde breach some commitment by the G-20 for a more open process.

As Bertrand rolled his eyes even before the question was finished, Inner City Press asked if there might be a conflict of interest in France leading the G-20 while pushing for Lagarde to replace DSK. Might a G-20 with a developing world president speak and act differently during this period?

After saying he hadn't come to speak about the question of the IMF, Bertrand emphasized that Lagarde has support “beyond France, even beyond Europe.” He said that while “certain [people] take into account nationality,” Lagarde's experience goes beyond that.

He claimed that France's leadership of the G-20 is “collective,” and is “not incompatible,” with pushing Lagarde.

Inner City Press did not mentioned DSK, having noted that Bertrand has even come to the defense of fellow French official Georges Tron, also charged with sex abuse. Innocent until proven guilty, Bertrand has said -- without referring to the upcoming June 10 court decision on Lagarde's role in the payment of a large governmental settlement to Sarkozy ally Bernard Tapie. Watch this site.

Footnotes: while some in France ascribe Agustin Carstens counter candidacy to l'affaire Cassez between Mexico, others tell Inner City Press that if Lagarde's candidacy survives the June 10 court decision, and if she replaced DSK, it would not be for a full term, and a stronger commitment would be made that her successor would not be European. We'll see.

At Bertrand's closed door G-20 pitch, Singapore's Permanent Representative Vanu Gopala Menon on behalf of the Global Governance Group (3G) urged France to “allow greater involvement of non G-20 countries in work groups” of the G-20. Inner City Press asked Bertrand about this as well; he responded that Singapore is invited, France's G-20 is not a club. Watch this site.