Film as (Gonzo) Journalism, Central African Republic Worse Off After Mads Brugger's "The Ambassador," UN's French Connection

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 25 -- A film about the Central African Republic, "The Ambassador" by Mads Brugger, opened in New York a year ago. Using hidden cameras it cover efforts to purchase diplomatic credentials from Liberia and to deal in conflict diamonds in the CAR under the Bozize government.

  A year later, Bozize has been thrown out -- although he hasresurfaced in Paris. He was not ousted due to his corruption, but by the Seleka rebels, now themselves accused of child soldier recruitment and other abuses.

  While there is much hand-wringing, for example fromEuropean Union official Kristalina Georgieva and the UN's Valerie Amos, about the crisis in the CAR, the UN Security Council has not this month as expected passed any resolution about the country.

  As first covered by Inner City Press, the reason for inaction is that French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud and others in the French Mission are on vacation for the month, and France "holds the pen" to draft all resolutions in the Council on the CAR, as it does on other former French colonies like Cote d'Ivoire and Mali.

  In "The Ambassador" -- trailer here, 1.6 GB download for $8.50 here -- the CAR's head of state security Guy-Jean Le Foll Yamande says on hidden camera that it is France which "taught corruption" in the CAR. He is later tortured and killed.

  In full disclosure, Inner City Press appears in the film, in connection with exposing the reasons and results of the UN pulling out of Birao. Due to lack of planning by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, troops from the MINURCAT mission thrown out of Chad also left Birao in CAR -- and rebels took over the town immediately after that.

  The UN's DPKO has been run, for times in a row now, by Frenchmen. The current head of DPKO Herve Ladsous refuses to answer Press questions about his past, including during the Rwanda genocide in 1994, when he was France's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, arguing for the escape of the genocidaires into Eastern Congo.

Now Ladsous commanders an all-African Intervention Brigade to "neutralize" armed groups like M23 which Congolese leader Joseph Kabila doesn't like. Plus ca change.

While Liberia fought back against the film -- see for example Toga McIntosh's speech, here -- and while Brugger may have played a bit fast and loose, troubling questions remain about the head of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's Unity Party Varney Sherman.

A promise was made to Brugger, playing Mr. Cortzen, that he could get his credential when Johnson Sirleaf returned to Monrovia from the UN General Assembly in September 2010, and that the money he paid would go toward her re-election.

What is amazing almost two years after that General Assembly, and a year after the film opened in New York, is how little has been done. While again noting some unresolved question about whether some of the purported hidden camera video was in fact agreed to, we and the Free UN Coalition for Access recommend the film, including as journalism. Watch it.

   

On Liberia, Human Rights Watch Pitches Report Then Denies Access to It, Sale of Diplomatic Credentials Not Shown?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 22 -- The Liberia report by Human Rights Watch was pre-spun on Twitter starting two days ago. HRW's European media director Andrew Stroehlein cited it, and said journalists wanting an embargoed copy should contact him.

  Since Inner City Press covers Liberia and its big UN Peacekeeping mission, it requested a copy by direct message, since this HRW staffer follows @InnerCityPress. But nothing. So a second request was sent by e-mail. Again, nothing.

(In New York, HRW's lobbyist Philippe Bolopion who formerly covered the UN for France 24 and Le Monde sends canned quotes such as last night's about the Security Council's Syria meeting to a handpicked list that does not include Inner City Press, despite repeated requests. This started when Inner City Press asked to know what topics director Ken Roth raised to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. That request was denied, on the rationale that HRW wouldn't say in order to retain access: "To preserve our ability to have frank discussions with UN officials and advance our advocacy goals, we don't typically communicate on the content of discussions we have with them.")

  So Thursday morning when the report was supposed to be available to the world at large, Inner City Press checked in. HRW was tweeting about the report, linking to a press release which promised a link to the 64 page report. But clicking there led to this: "Access denied: You are not authorized to access this page." Speaking of access.

Must be a URL snafu. But two tweets to the HRW European media director resulted in: nothing. The second asked if the report addresses the involvement of the highest Liberian officials in the sale of diplomatic credentials shown in Mads Brugger's film "The Ambassador." Watch this site.

   

In UN, Gushing About Monarchs' Chefs Poisoned by Murky Finances, UNCA Spies, Bokassa Echo

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 29 -- Three days ago, inquiring into financial practices and favoritism in the UN, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's outgoing deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey about Room S-310 being locked up by the UN Correspondents Association, used for "briefings" only publicized to those who pay it money -- on that day, about Syria.

  Del Buey replied, "we’ll check on that and get back to you." But three days later, still with no answer to that simple financial question, word leaks or oozes that UNCA is at it again, this time even lower down the food chain.

  The "Club des Chefs des Chefs" -- literally, 25 of those who cook for heads of state -- will set up shop in the room the UN gives UNCA, along with an also locked-up pantry, a separate office and even a focus booth used by a non-journalist UNCA intern to whom at the request of UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS the UN gave a "P" Press pass. 

  Falk then made the introduction to Ban's deputy Jan Eliasson as "one of our interns."

  This breaking news, or breaking eggs, event was of course not announced even to all UN accredited resident correspondents. It was "leaked" to the Free UN Coalition for Access by one of UNCA's disgruntled members.

  Then it was confirmed on the Twitter feed of a long time UNCA officer followed by a mere dozen UN correspondents, but at least two anonymous accounts set up by UNCA Executive Committee members to troll Inner City Press. (UNCA's anonymous social media campaign picked up on Saturday July 27).

  The UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit also followed. Its boss also in charge of UNTV -- which they screen the chefs, as UNCA asked them to do for Syria oppositionists? -- told FUNCA that Room S-310 would be left unlocked and the "UNCA Pantry" was just a notation on a blue print. Right.

  Worse, UNCA first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters truly leaked an internal anti-Press document to this UN Accreditation official, three minutes after promising not to do it. Audio here, story here; document headed "you didn't get this from me" here. This has still not be acted on.

   This is called spying for the UN. There is something rotten cooking in this kitchen, alongside the gushed-out presence of "White House top chef Chisteta Comerford and, yes, "Her Majesty the Queen's chef Mark Flanagan." The murky finances and spying poison the atmosphere. Watch this site.

Footnote: the talk of chefs for heads of state bring to mind the Europeans who sauced up human flesh for France's Central African Republic strongman Bokassa - more on this in connection with the Mads Brugger film "The Ambassador," which UN staff say includes, yes, Inner City Press, which reports on CAR and the ongoing CAR Alarm...