As UN Slammed on Haiti Cholera Impunity, It Looks at its Own Waste in Mali, Ladsous Knee-deep

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 26 -- The UN's bid for impunity for bringing cholera to Haiti was assailed at a legal conference on Saturday, with Seton Hall law professor Kristen Boon saying that the UN does not possess absolute immunity, it's conditional on provision to provide forum for remedy.

But the UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous has refused to comply with its Status of Forces Agreement and set up any standing claims commissions.

Recently the UN lied or mis-spoke to Inner City Press -- it said that now UN Peacekeeping screens for cholera. Then when Inner City Press asked for the second time the next day, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq admitted this is not the case. But media reported that the UN now screens, and the UN did not correct it.

  It's worth noting -- and putting into context -- that the Security Council's resolution 2100 setting up the mission in Mali, MINUSMA, provides for

"the Secretary-General to consider the environmental impacts of operations of MINUSMA when fulfilling its mandated tasks and, in this context encourages MINUSMA to manage them, as appropriate and in accordance with applicable and relevant General Assembly resolutions and United Nations rules and regulations, and to operate mindfully in the vicinity of cultural and historical sites."

  Sophie Ravier, Environmental Officer of the UN Department of Field Support -- whose Ameerah Haq Inner City Press is told and has reported is to be sent off to ESCAP in Thailand by Herve Ladsous -- has said that "The reconnaissance team visited a few locations to assess them from a security perspective, but also looked at the environmental aspects of those locations including water, energy and possible waste management solutions."

  It's nice for the UN, now, to be saying it is looking at " possible waste management solutions" rather than simply putting cholera infested feces into people's drinking water as in Haiti. But what about the thousands of families injured, killed, by the UN's gross negligence?

  And whatever belated review UN Peacekeeping is doing on its waste in Mali, Ladsous has incorporated into the mission a country on the UN's list of child soldier recruiters, and has yet to act on its rapes, or those of his partners in the Congo.

  How can Ladsous and Ban Ki-mon preach or even speak of rule of law, while refusing to answer questions about their responsibility for deaths in in Haiti? Ladsous, who refuses all Press questions (video here, UK coverage here) is polluting, Haiti style, the entire UN. Watch this site.

   

UN Denies Ban's Korea-Less Speech Was For Re-Election, NJ Wrong Venue, It Says

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 24 -- “Do you think the Secretary General would give a re-election speech at a university in New Jersey?” Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Farhan Haq asked Inner City Press on Wednesday, two days after Ban's “major policy address” at Seton Hall.

Well, yes. Ban's speech, replete with first person references to the effect of “I saved people in Myanmar,” was described a warm up, or off Broadway working out the kinks of, a re-election speech. Suggestion to speech writer Mike Meyer: next time, try to include more about Korea. And it's better to acknowledge UN failures, from the mass rapes in Congo to the shooting of civilians in Haiti, than to ignore them.

Those present at Seton Hall on Monday compared Ban's crowd unfavorably to one drawn by Tony Blair. The questions, as it happens, were pre-screened so as to not be controversial.

Inner City Press asked Haq on November 24 if any thought had been given to including Korea in the speech, given that even days before Ban delivered it, the focus of reporters covering the Security Council was on North Korea and nuclear non proliferation. Haq pointed to Ban's November 23 statement, a day after the speech.

Haq was asked why Ban, in expressing his “utmost concern” about North Korea to Security Council president Mark Lyall Grant, had not asked a meeting on the topic, as he could under Article 99 of the UN Charter. Video here.

Inner City Press asked about a Korean Peninsula / DPRK Policy Committee memo and meeting scheduled for December 6. We don't comment on leaked documents, Haq said, before saying that no senior official had seen the memo.

So is there a unit in the UN Department of Political Affairs which drafts memos for Ban's Policy Committee?

And if this is the Ban administration's attitude to New Jersey, why did Ban go there to receive an honorary degree -- which Haq declined to confirm, hours before it was awarded -- and to deliver a policy speech across the Hudson River? Watch this site.

From the UN's November 24 transcript:

Inner City Press: I notice in the speech the Secretary-General gave at Seton Hall didn’t really seem to, other than a sort of historical reference to the UN having helped Korea in the past, there seems to have been no mention of events, whether positive or negative, in terms of Korea. I guess I wonder — at the time the speech was given, there was already a lot of discussion at the Security Council of proliferation in Korea. Was there any, in retrospect it looks like this seems to be a big, a kind of a missing, an elephant in the room in terms of that speech, which some people have described as a re-election speech.

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq: Not every topic needs to come up in every speech that the Secretary-General gives. The Secretary-General spoke quite forcefully on the question of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea just yesterday, and I would refer you to what he said. Beyond that, of course, we have a long-standing concern for the suffering people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, particularly women and children.

Inner City Press: But I guess I wanted to — if you could, and you’re very good at explaining these things. That speech seemed to only portray, there didn’t seem to be any kind of self-criticism of, let’s say, doubts that have arisen in Haiti, or the mass rapes in the Congo. Everything was “the UN is needed and is doing its job, it’s excellent”, and some people have described it as a re-election speech. Is that how we should read that speech? Seton Hall said it was going to be a major policy statement.

Acting Deputy Spokesperson: You’re suggesting that the Secretary-General of the United Nations would do a re-election speech at a university in New Jersey?

Inner City Press: I guess I am asking you.

Acting Deputy Spokesperson: I think your question answers itself.

Amid Korea Shots & Worries, UN Ban Silent in NJ Speech, Hours After White House

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 23, updated -- With North and South Korea exchanging fire amid renewed concern about North Korea's nuclear program, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's November 22 speech at Seton Hall, billed alternately as a major policy address or Ban's re-election speech, mentioned Korea only once, in passing and in an entirely positive context.

“We help the helpless to help themselves, just as the UN did for Korea many decades ago,” Ban said, before praising his own performance in Myanmar and Darfur.

Throughout the weekend before Ban gave his major / re-election speech, the wires and UN press corps were full of news of North Korea and its nuclear program. Still, no one in Ban's team modified the speech.

At 4:30 am on November 23, the US White House issued a statement on the Korean shooting. Four hours later, still nothing out of Ban's UN Secretariat. Watch this space.

Update of 10:20 am -- Ban Ki-moon has announced that he has “conveyed his utmost concern to the President of the Security Council.” But President Mark Lyall Grant told the Press no one has requested a meeting on the Korea shootout. S-Gs can request Council meetings, under Article 99 of the UN Charter. So what does utmost mean? What is ut-ter than utmost? Watch this site.

In New Jersey, UN Ban Speech Ignores Haiti, Congo & Sri Lanka, Brags of Darfur

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 22 -- When Seton Hall hosted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday, it told the Press to expect a “major policy address entitled, 'Can the UN Deliver What the World Needs?'”

At a time when for example the UN is accused of playing a role in the introduction and spread of cholera in Haiti, and has killed at least one Haitian demonstrator, one expected this issue to at least be mentioned in the major policy address. But Ban's speech, as distributed under embargo to the UN press corps, did not even mention Haiti.

Amazingly, Ban's speech praised his and the UN's role in Myanmar and went on that “We did the same in Darfur. For years, conflict raged... today, the mission continues to protect civilians.” This right after the slaughter at Tawila, which even Ban acknowledged raised issues about the UN peacekeepers freedom of movement and protection of civilians.

Ban did not mention Sri Lanka, a country where he has been burned in effigy and where after tens of thousands of deaths, the International Crisis Group said the UN's inaction should be investigated.

Not a mention of the mass rapes in Eastern Congo, and the UN peacekeepers' inaction. After each of these incidents, the UN has said it can and will do better. But this is soon forgotten, not even mentioned amid the self congratulation.

This speech is described in house as Ban's re-election speech: "all the great things I have done" (and none of the short falls, none of the need to or commitment to reform - spin, in short.)

An Inner City Press correspondent at the speech reports on questions about the South Sudan referendum, Afghanistan and terrorism, still nothing on cholera in Haiti, mass rape in the Congo.

At Monday's noon press briefing, Ban's acting deputy spokesman was asked if Ban would be receiving an honorary degree, as Seton Hall itself had been announcing since last week. Haq would not confirm it. But the speech, even as embargoed, began with thanks for the award. Ah, communications.