Amid UN Peacekeeping Cover-Ups, Crashes & Cholera, Ban Ki-moon's Review Panel of 14 Has Only Two Africans, Heavy with Insiders, Ladsous Defenders?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 31 - UN Peacekeeping has become subject, under Herve Ladsous, to mounting questions about its operations, from crashed drones, selective “neutralization” of some rebels groups and not others, like the FDLR in the DR Congo, covering up attacks in Darfur and lack of accountability for negligently introducing cholera to Haiti, to name just a few.

While Ladsous refuses and even blocks Press questions about these topics, recently Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has taken to saying that a major “external” panel will be set up to review the issues. On Friday, October 31, Ban’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced the 14-member panel, to be chaired by former Timor-Leste leader Jose Ramos-Horta.

In a run-on sentence, Ban listed the panel’s topics: “the changing nature of conflict, evolving mandates, good offices and peace-building challenges, managerial and administrative arrangements, planning, partnerships, human rights and protection of civilians, uniformed capabilities for peacekeeping operations and performance.”

Inner City Press asked Dujarric about a word NOT in the list: drones. Earlier on October 31 in the UN General Assembly’s Fourth Committee, the representative of Ecuador said that UN Peacekeeping’s use of drones should be subject to review by the General Assembly’s C-34 Committee: that is, by member states. (Ladsous evaded the C-34, then deployed more drones than he’d mentioned to the Security Council, and won’t answer on the reasons behind the crashes; DRC envoy Martin Kobler told Inner City Press it was due to “wind.”)

Dujarric cut the question off, saying that it was “too granular” and that drones might fall — as one did in DRC — under “the changing nature of conflict.”

But the question is, should UN Peacekeeping and Ladsous be subject only to review by a panel picked by Ban Ki-moon, or by the member states? Dujarric said Ban’s panel’s report will go the the General Assembly.

It is called an “external” panel, but included not only a number of long-time insiders, but even the current Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Ameerah Haq. This reporter asked Dujarric if this meant that Haq is leaving, and Dujarric said yes. The Free UN Coalition for Access opines: she is the wrong one to be leaving.

Strikingly, only TWO of Ban’s Panel’s 14 members are from Africa, where the vast majority of UN Peacekeepers are deployed. These members are from Ghana and Tunisia, not from countries with UN Missions like DRC, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Central African Republic if not to say Liberia, where Ladsous is said to be planning “emergency responses” with a government that has quarantined whole neighborhoods like West Point in Monrovia.

Recently during the Security Council proceeding to renew the mandate of the mission in Haiti, many ambassadors from Latin America said Troop Contributing Countries weren’t sufficiently consulted; Argentina said it would not participate in certain policing or repression activities. Will that be reviewed? We’ll have more on this.

Beyond Ramos-Horta, the Panel’s members include Jean Arnault of France — some wonder if he’s there to protect Ladsous — Abhijit Guha of India, Ameerah Haq of Bangladesh, Andrew Hughes of Australia, Wang Xuexian of China, Hilde Johnson of Norway after a troubled stint in South Sudan, Henrietta Joy Abena Nyarko Mensa-Bonsu of Ghana, Floriano Peixoto Vieira Neto of Brazil, Bruce Jones of Canada, Youssef Mahmoud of Tunisia, B. Lynn Pascoe of the US, whom Inner City Press reported was in the mix to replace Alexander Downer as UN envoy to Cyprus but was said to be blocked from getting it, Alexander Ilitchev of Russia and Ian Martin of the UK, who returned to the UN to mull mediation after starting the ill-fated UN Mission in Libya. Martin’s previous Board of Inquiry report on bombing in Gaza in 2009, Ban Ki-moon undercut with a cover-letter. We’ll have more on this, too.

   

At UN, Transparency Debated in Secret, Labor Discussed in the Basement, Arnault in DPKO Mix

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/un2mgmtreform041008.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 10 -- At the UN these days, there is talk of accountability and reform. A closed-door meeting was held on the topic on Wednesday; the press was not allowed t hear what UN management said to member states or vice versa.

A glimpse was to be had Thursday in the basement, when Under Secretary General for Management Alicia Barcena took the podium to speak to the UN Staff Council, and to take their questions. She acknowledged that the Compact that she signed with Ban Ki-moon, uploaded to the UN's internal website under the heading Accountability, blurred to May 1 a March 1 deadline set by the General Assembly.

She noted the Staff Union's critique of the appointment of the UN's new Ombudsman. She implored not only the Union, however, but also Inner City Press to help her with reforms. "I don't always like what you write," she told the Press, "but you help raise the visibility." So here goes.

The Staff Council says Management wants only to consult, not negotiate, that as in the case of the tour guides, it responds only to negative media coverage and, in that case, a sick-out by the guides. A member asked if the Union will be allowed to make a presentation directly to the General Assembly, saying this was blocked under the tenure of the previous head of the Office of Human Resources Management, Jan Beagle. On accountability, he said that "heads should roll" over the failure in the implementation of the UN's system of performance reviews.

But at the level of UN Management, heads never figuratively roll; there is little accountability. Ms. Beagle was rewarded with an assignment to Geneva, using an UNCTAD deputy chief post the work of which she is not doing. (It is said that the Thai chief of UNCTAD Supachai Panitshpakdi now wants this post back, watch this space.) There's not even accountability on the failure to move the UN's accountability proposal. With much fanfare, the Department of Management said it would create a ten-person Office of Accountability, with at the top a new D-2 post. Cynics said this post was specifically created to reward, a la Jan Beagle, long time official Nancy Hurtz-Soyka. Then Inner City Press was told, the report on the new Office is coming out soon, no questions would be answered until the report came out.

Well, even during the March resumed session of the UN's budget committee, no report on the proposal came out from the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. Ms. Barcena confirmed this Thursday afternoon in the basement. So the question is, who is going to be accountable for this failure to move even this accountability proposal?

Also present Thursday in the basement was the new Assistant Secretary General of the Office of Human Resources Management, Catherine Pollard. As previously reported, prior to her being named to the post, Inner City Press e-mailed Ms. Pollard a copy of a staff complaint against her, seeking in fairness her comment before publication. She did not respond, then or since. Thursday she spoke only briefly, and she was generally greeted with openness, and a hope she will at least be more open that her predecessor.

Ms. Barcena also confirmed that even Ban's proposal to move the UN to one form of contract (Barcena put it at three forms) would not break down the wall between General Services and Professional staff. She showed Inner City Press a glimpse of a binder of color-coded proposals, some that the Secretary-General could implement on his own, the rest requiring General Assembly approval. Perhaps at Wednesday's session on reform, some commitments were obtained. This is not known, because the discussion on transparency was held behind closed doors. And, despite Ms. Barcena's statements for more than a year now about implementing a UN Freedom of Information policy, nothing has been done. Perhaps this, too, was discussed Wednesday in secret. Only at the UN...

Footnotes: while the topic was not mentioned at Thursday's basement session, rumors continue to circulate that Ms. Barcena will leave, either to ECLAC in Santiago or the UN's University of Peace in Costa Rica, and that her successor may be the German Joaquim Rucker, who is said to have recently threatened, along with his deputy Larry Rossin, to resign from the UN Mission in Kosovo, but was told if he left UNMIK, there could be no USG of Management post. Other rumors have UN Georgia mission chief Jean Arnault being considered to replace his fellow Frenchman Jean-Marie Guehenno as head of UN Peacekeeping. Unlike Ruecker, Arnault at least has filled out his public financial disclosure, noting a country house in Guatemala. Coming full circle, it's said Guehenno is being considered as a special envoy on Northern Kosovo, to "pull a Bosnia," as one insider put it, meaning to negotiate some form of cantonization or even de facto partition. We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2mgmtreform041008.html