During Sri Lanka Visit by UN Disappearances Group, Inner City Press Asks of UN Gag Orders

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 11 --  Amid the Sri Lanka visit of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Inner City Press on November 11 asked the UN a question, transcript here:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you a Sri Lanka question, while this grouping is still there.  There’s a UN working group on enforced disappearances that’s visiting Sri Lanka, including northern Sri Lanka.  Maybe this is not true, but the “Colombo Gazette” says that families whose people have been disappeared, who met with UN working group, including the widow of Prageeth [Eknaligoda], the cartoonist, were told, quote, by the UN not to speak to the media about their discussions with the working group.  It says “the UN.”  So it’s…

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:  I don’t…

Inner City Press:  Is there…

Spokesman Dujarric:  You can ask our colleagues in Geneva, who kind of help back up these independent working groups, but it’s not something I can answer from here. 

We hope to have more on this. On October 22 when Bernard Duhaime, the Vice-Chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, held a press conference at the UN, Inner City Press asked him about his country visit to Sri Lanka set for next month, and about how the Working Group considers disappearances and worse by ISIS and other “non-state groups.”

    Duhaime said he will be meeting with civil society in Sri Lanka as well as with the government (regarding which he repeatedly emphasized “transition,” and called the timing of his visit “historic.”) He said one of the Working Group's roles is to give certainty to the families of the disappeared. There are certainly many of those, particularly in Northern Sri Lanka.  Inner City Press will have more coverage of the Working Group country visit.

  On ISIS, Duhaime said said the key would be to consider if there is a nexus to any state (there are neighbors one might wish to review) and that it will be reviewed at a conference next February. He politely declined to answer a country- and complaint-specific question Inner City Press posed. Watch this site.

When the UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez held a press conference on October 20, Inner City Press asked him for his view of the only partial release of the US Senate's report on CIA torture, about Guantanamo Bay and whether he thought President Barack Obama's visit to a prison might make his long-pending request to visit US prisons move faster. Video here.

   Mendez said there should be more release(s), and accountability. He said he had had to request the US' conditional offers to visit Guantanamo Bay and US prisons, as he would not be allowed to speak with all prisoners. He praise Obama's visit, but still - Mendez can't get in.

On October 16 when the Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Benyam Dawit Mezmur held a press conference at the UN, Inner City Press asked him about US President Barack Obama's decision to continue to provide military aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan, despite all four being on the UN's (and US') lists on children and armed conflict. Video here.  

    Benyam Dawit Mezmur said that while the US is the lone holdout on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the issue can still be gotten-at under the Optional Protocol. Inner City Press asked about the sexual abuse of children in the Central African Republic by French and UN peacekeepers.

   Benyam Dawit Mezmur replied that the Committee is asking France about the alleged sexual abuse of children, and will conduct a review in January. We aim to have more on this.

  At the press conference, there were only two correspondents, as there was an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Palestine at the same time. Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Benyam Dawit Mezmur for the briefing but suggested that in the future postponement of briefings, so that more journalists could attend, be considered. UNCA wasn't present at all; nor has it disclosed the extend of funding and connection by indicted David Ng and Frank Lorenzo and their affiliates.

 Also on the UN, when the UN find a staff member using the UN's email system to trafficking in sexual images of minors, a crime, what does it do? On October 16, Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about this paragraph from a UN report it had dug up:

“49. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, pornographic material, including pornographic material involving a minor, and failed to report that another staff member had sent the staff member inappropriate material though the Organization’s e-mail system. Disposition: dismissal.”

  Inner City Press asked, was that all that happened, dismissal? Such that the person could, for example, work in a day care center? Haq said in instances the UN waives immunity.

  Inner City Press asked, how would law enforcement know that the person had used the UN's email system for child porn? Haq said there have been cases in which the UN told local authorities. Inner City Press asked, did it do so in this case? Apparently, the UN will not answer this. For now. Here are other paragraphs:

46. A staff member stored pornographic material, including pornography involving a minor, on the staff member’s United Nations computer, distributed other pornographic material through the Organization’s e-mail system and failed to report that another staff member had sent the staff member inappropriate material through the Organization’s e-mail system. Disposition: dismissal.

47. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, and stored on the staff member’s United Nations computer, pornographic material involving a minor and, on other occasions, distributed, through the Organization’s e -mail system, other pornographic material. Disposition: dismissal.

 48. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, pornographic material involving a minor and, on three other occasions, distributed other pornographic material through the Organization’s e-mail system and stored pornographic material on the staff member’s United Nations computer. Disposition: dismissal.

 The report is entitled "Practice of the Secretary-General in disciplinary matters and cases of criminal behaviour, 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015."

We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

Inner City Press Asks of Sri Lanka Visit by UN Disappearances Working Group, How ISIS Considered

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 22 --  When Bernard Duhaime, the Vice-Chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, held a press conference at the UN on October 22, Inner City Press asked him about his country visit to Sri Lanka set for next month, and about how the Working Group considers disappearances and worse by ISIS and other “non-state groups.”

    Duhaime said he will be meeting with civil society in Sri Lanka as well as with the government (regarding which he repeatedly emphasized “transition,” and called the timing of his visit “historic.”) He said one of the Working Group's roles is to give certainty to the families of the disappeared. There are certainly many of those, particularly in Northern Sri Lanka.  Inner City Press will have more coverage of the Working Group country visit.

  On ISIS, Duhaime said said the key would be to consider if there is a nexus to any state (there are neighbors one might wish to review) and that it will be reviewed at a conference next February. He politely declined to answer a country- and complaint-specific question Inner City Press posed. Watch this site.

When the UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez held a press conference on October 20, Inner City Press asked him for his view of the only partial release of the US Senate's report on CIA torture, about Guantanamo Bay and whether he thought President Barack Obama's visit to a prison might make his long-pending request to visit US prisons move faster. Video here.

   Mendez said there should be more release(s), and accountability. He said he had had to request the US' conditional offers to visit Guantanamo Bay and US prisons, as he would not be allowed to speak with all prisoners. He praise Obama's visit, but still - Mendez can't get in.

On October 16 when the Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Benyam Dawit Mezmur held a press conference at the UN, Inner City Press asked him about US President Barack Obama's decision to continue to provide military aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan, despite all four being on the UN's (and US') lists on children and armed conflict. Video here.  

    Benyam Dawit Mezmur said that while the US is the lone holdout on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the issue can still be gotten-at under the Optional Protocol. Inner City Press asked about the sexual abuse of children in the Central African Republic by French and UN peacekeepers.

   Benyam Dawit Mezmur replied that the Committee is asking France about the alleged sexual abuse of children, and will conduct a review in January. We aim to have more on this.

  At the press conference, there were only two correspondents, as there was an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Palestine at the same time. Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Benyam Dawit Mezmur for the briefing but suggested that in the future postponement of briefings, so that more journalists could attend, be considered. UNCA wasn't present at all; nor has it disclosed the extend of funding and connection by indicted David Ng and Frank Lorenzo and their affiliates.

 Also on the UN, when the UN find a staff member using the UN's email system to trafficking in sexual images of minors, a crime, what does it do? On October 16, Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about this paragraph from a UN report it had dug up:

“49. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, pornographic material, including pornographic material involving a minor, and failed to report that another staff member had sent the staff member inappropriate material though the Organization’s e-mail system. Disposition: dismissal.”

  Inner City Press asked, was that all that happened, dismissal? Such that the person could, for example, work in a day care center? Haq said in instances the UN waives immunity.

  Inner City Press asked, how would law enforcement know that the person had used the UN's email system for child porn? Haq said there have been cases in which the UN told local authorities. Inner City Press asked, did it do so in this case? Apparently, the UN will not answer this. For now. Here are other paragraphs:

46. A staff member stored pornographic material, including pornography involving a minor, on the staff member’s United Nations computer, distributed other pornographic material through the Organization’s e-mail system and failed to report that another staff member had sent the staff member inappropriate material through the Organization’s e-mail system. Disposition: dismissal.

47. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, and stored on the staff member’s United Nations computer, pornographic material involving a minor and, on other occasions, distributed, through the Organization’s e -mail system, other pornographic material. Disposition: dismissal.

 48. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, pornographic material involving a minor and, on three other occasions, distributed other pornographic material through the Organization’s e-mail system and stored pornographic material on the staff member’s United Nations computer. Disposition: dismissal.

 The report is entitled "Practice of the Secretary-General in disciplinary matters and cases of criminal behaviour, 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015."

We'll have more on this. Watch this site.
   

On Disappearances, UN Doesn't Address Nigeria Girls Saying No Government Involvement, Silent on US & ISIS

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 23 -- The case of 43 students missing in Guerrero state in Mexico was raised at the UN by Ariel Dulitzky, Chair of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and Mr. Emmanuel Decaux, Chair of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances at a press conference on October 23.

  But they did not mention the more than 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Chibok.

Inner City Press asked why the Chibok girls were not mentioned by the Working Group or Committee, and about the US government process on the Americans kidnapped and then beheaded by Islamic State, ISIS or Da'esh.

Dulitzky said that his jurisdiction requires state involvement in the disappearance, while both cases Inner City Press raised involved non-state actors. Decaux added that these restrictions are frustrating, that to the victims and their families there is no difference.

Neither directly addressed the US government telling families of the disappeared to stay quiet, for example.

Inner City Press followed up by asking how the Working Group knew, early on, of government involvement in the disappearances in Guerrero, now attributed by the Mexican attorney general to the Mayor and his wife. Dulitzky said before his statement, there was evidence of the involvement of municipal authorities. But what is the standard, the quantum of such proof, needed to get the UN Working Group involved?

Decaux said while Nigeria is a state party, the people there must not have heard of it because he has received no complaints or appeals.

Footnote: The first question was set-aside for the old UN Correspondents Association, which asked a softball question merely repeating what the panelists had already said about Syria (102 complaints) and DPRK / North Korea -- only 47 complaints, nearly all about citizens of Japan and South Korea. The new Free UN Coalition for Access objects to set-asides, especially when as here other journalists had their questions all bunched together, and to the UN's Censorship Alliance. We'll have more on this.

   

As Ban Ki-moon Heads to Seoul, ICP's Told of 1000s Disappeared in DPRK Camps

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, October 27 -- Two days before UN Secretary General set out for South Korea to receive the Seoul Peace Prize, the Chair of UN system's Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, Olivier de Frouville, held a joint press conference at the UN in New York.

   Inner City Press asked about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North Korea. Video here, from Minute 46:21.

    The Working Group on Enforced Disappearances' most recent annual report lists the cases of "Jeong-Woong Choi, Won Hwang and Dong-Ki Lee who were allegedly abducted while on board of Korean Airlines flight YS-11, flying from Gangneung City to Seoul’s airport" and says "the Government transmitted three communications to the Working Group, dated 9 February, 9 May and 12 September 2011, in which it replied to nine outstanding case."

  When Inner City Press asked about these cases, Olivier de Frouville said there has been no progress, "it looks bigger than us... it's really a matter of how in the future the DPRK could be ready to cooperation with us. At moment there's no dialogue on those issues."

   He also told Inner City Press, as something of an aside, that the Working Group "received recently very serious and credible allegation the number of persons effectively disappeared in camps are by thousands."

   When will this be reported on? As Inner City Press asked the UN about in August 2012 without much answer, Ban Ki-moon noted in a recent visit to Korea that "the UN has appointed a special envoy to handle North Korean human rights issues, but the communist country refuses to let him visit. He also said he 'actively took part' in getting the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to denounce the detentions and urge North Korea to release the women, in May."

  After that quote, at the August 15 noon briefing Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey, what was his involvement? Maybe you’ll know or you can find – what was his involvement in that Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions?

 
  When 5 pm hit on the next day August 16, and no information had been provided, an article was called for.

  This is increasingly a problem in the UN, among top Ban Ki-moon officials. Ban's Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous has taken to refusing to answer any Press questions, due to what he calls (without defining) "insulting insinuations." 

  Tellingly, Ladsous was chosen by France for the post -- which has apparently been assigned to that country. This was without so much as an interview to vet him on his statements as France's deputy UN ambassador during the Rwanda genocide, or his arranging of disgraced ex-French foreign minister Michele Aliot-Marie's flights with cronies of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali.

   Now Ladsous proposes the UN use drones, without being willing to answer Press questions on any safeguards.

  So what is being done about this report of thousands disappeared in DPRK work camps? We'll see.

 

Footnote: Ban's trip to Seoul coincides with the impending arrival of hurricane Sandy in New York. Already, for example, Amnesty International has canceled an event on Monday, October 29 -- a day on which an all day Security Council debate is scheduled on Women, Peace and Security. Will it go forward?