North Korea Blames US for Detention of Mudubong Ship by Mexico, Which Cited an UNnamed UN Official

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 8 --The North Korean mission to the UN held a press conference at its office on Second Avenue on April 8, at which its Deputy Permanent Representative An Myong Hun denounced the continued detention of the Mudubong ship in Mexico.

  An Myong Hun said that in January Mexico was going to release the ship, which ran into a Mexican coral reef (damage to which North Korea paid for) - then reversed its position, saying that a UN Under Secretary General had told them to hold the ship.

  Inner City Press asked An Myong Hun if that UN Under Secretary General was Angela Kane of Disarmament, soon to be replaced by Kim Won-soo (see Inner City Press' scoop, here). An Myong Hun said that the USG was unnamed - but said the United States was behind the continued "illegal" detention of the ship.

  But, An Myong Hun said, DPRK has not spoken about this with the United States. He was on his way to deliver a speech to the UN Disarmament meeting Inner City Press is also covering. 

Here's how An Myong Hung began his press conference:

"One peaceful commercial ship of my country has been detained for more than eight months and we think that this is complete abnormal situation. Mudubong, which was on a peaceful voyage for foreign trade activities, entered into one port at Mexico but unfortunately it went aground on a coral reef near that port. It was totally an accident. Mexico requested payment for damage to the coral reef according to its domestic law. We the DPRK fully paid all this compensation for environmental damage to the reef. And since we fulfilled our legal obligation by payment, Mexico authorities decided to release the Mudubong and allow Mudobong to leave the port, January this year.

"But suddenly, the Mexico government revoked its position. They said they have received advice from an unnamed Under Secretary General of the United Nations for the continued detention of the ship."

  The North Korean mission held another press conference back on February 16, President's Day, when the UN was closed. The purpose then  was to go public with the opposition of the DPRK Korea to the “Conference on North Korean Human Rights” to be held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on February 17.

   Inner City Press asked North Korean Ambassador Jang Il Hun if, as the Korea Times has reported, the event would be held in the US Capitol. No, he said, he expected it would be held on CSIS's campus. The State Department told him that since it is not a US government event - despite the participation of Ambassador Robert King and Kurt Campbell - the DPRK's request for cancellation or participation was not granted.

   But, Jang Il Hun said, why wasn't DPRK allowed to participate in the US goverment event in September 2014 in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel? Inner City Press covered that event, here, and asked the same question, in the spirit of the right to reply. 

  Despite the presence of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid, and a blue UN flag, Inner City Press was told that was not a “UN event,” so no right to reply.

  Inner City Press also asked Jang Il Hun if UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has replied to his government's recent letter. No, was the answer. Video here and embedded below. And so it goes at the UN.

  This press conference was held a small room at the DPRK mission on Second Avenue; Inner City press tweeted photos here, and here. 

  Jang Il Hun said he hoped this would be the first of many such events, part of DPRK's campaign. In the foyer were photographs of gifts given to DPRK, including a signed Wilson basketball. “Now you must leave,” the Press was told. Back at the UN, the temperature was 57 degrees. Watch this site.

Here's the DPRK Mission's statement:

No.4 /02/15

Press Statement of the Permanent Mission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the United Nations

The Permanent Mission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the Unite Nations releases the following press statement with regard to the “Conference on North Korean Human Rights” to be hosted by the United States in Washington D.C.

The United States and south Korea are going to convene so-called "Conference on North Korean Human Rights: the Road Ahead" on 17 February in Washington by bringing together Michael Donald Kirby, former chairman of COI and Marzuki Darusman, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK.

The Permanent Mission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the United Nations condemns the convening of such human rights gathering as a political human rights plot against the DPRK and makes clear its position as follows;

The "Conference on North Korean Human Rights: the Road Ahead " constitutes a product of the hostile policy of the United States against the DPRK, and it is nothing but a rubbish event for the United States to get rid of the predicament driven at home and abroad, due to the recent confession by the defector of the fabrication of his testimony and to the disclosure of CIA's torture crimes.

We made due request to the U.S. on our participation in the gathering, since we are the party directly concerned. But the U.S. ignored our request for participation because they are afraid of disclosure of their plot for fabrication.

The US is advised to clean up its own human rights ravages. If the U.S. is sincerely interested in human rights, they should, above all, call into question the CIA's torture crimes and the gross human rights violations committed by "national security law" in south Korea, far from clinging to the attempted fabrication of falsehood and plot through such as the kind of above "conference".

The United States does not have qualification at all to talk about human rights situation of other countries, since it is the worst human rights violator in the world.

We, the people of the DPRK are proud of our political and social system chosen by ourselves and we will strongly respond to any attempts to overthrow our system under the pretext of human rights.

   

UN Confirms Inner City Press' Feb 25 Scoop, Mr. Kim Won-soo To Head UN Disarmament, Replacing Angela Kane

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive confirmed

UNITED NATIONS, Marhc 24 -- On February 25 Inner City Press exclusively reported that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's senior adviser and right hand man Kim Won-soo was in line to replace Angela Kane atop UN Disarmament.

  Inner City Press published the story, and asked the UN Spokesman, in the UN Press Briefing Room, to confirm it. 

Inner City Press' scoop was credited, for example here.

 Now on March 24 the UN has done just that  - Kane is out, and Mister Kim is in, as "acting" head of Disarmament, including with its North Korean portfolio. 

On February 25, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Dujarric:

Inner City Press: I did want to ask you. We did it on Kubiš. So now I want to ask you this one. Whether you can confirm that Mr. Kim, Kim Won-soo, is a candidate to replace Angela Kane at the top UN disarmament?

Spokesman: I will not. Because I do not know. Thank you very much. Have a great day.

On March 6 Inner City Press asked Dujarric:

Inner City Press: now that Angela Kane has confirmed that she's leaving the disarmament post publicly, I wanted to ask… I'd asked whether Mr. Kim is in fact a candidate. Are there women candidates in that and what's the process?

Spokesman: As you know, the process will be open, and when the selection process is made, it will be announced.

Inner City Press: Is it a policy to have a woman candidate in the final three in each of these?

Spokesman: When the candidate is announced, we will announce it

   As Inner City Press first reported, Kim had applied for an Assistant Secretary General position in the Department of Political Affairs. But, sources tell Inner City Press, Under Secretary General of DPA Jeffrey Feltman put the kibosh on that. Kim would report directly to Ban Ki-moon, whose campaign for election and re-election as Secretary General Kim essentially ran.

   Inner City Press previously reported on January 30 that along with Kim, another candidate for the DPA Assistant Secretary General post -- whose interim holder spoke with week, for example, with the foreign minister of the Maldives after the jailing of former president Nasheed -- was Dmitry Titov. It is again confirmed that this was plan - but we're told it is no longer. Miroslav Jenca got the post, and Bulgaria's Dragonov took over Jenca's Central Asia post. So who will be the next SG?

  Some question Kim Won-soo of South Korea holding the UN's Disarmament post, given the nuclear standoff with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North Korea. 

  Kane has had a long tenure in the UN, in such duty stations as Eritrea and, before Disarmament, in the Department of Management. As recently of February 23, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarricabout a controversy in UMOJA during Kane's tenure as Under Secretary General for Management, on which Inner City Press has also exclusively reported:

Inner City Press: you may remember a Paul van Essche was an UMOJA official that ended up leaving his job due to irregularities in his CV, etc.  He recently then was rehired by UNICEF as the head of information technology and it’s my understanding that he quit once the connection was made to the prior problem on this side of the street.  I wanted to ask you whether the Secretary-General called Anthony Lake about this and whether it’s true that Mr. van Essche, despite leaving the job after 10 days, is receiving six months’ salary for his troubles.

Spokesman Dujarric:  I think that’s a question you’d need to address to UNICEF.

Inner City Press:  The reason I’m asking here [cut off by Spokesman]

Spokesman Dujarric:  I’m not aware of any contact between the Secretary-General and Mr. Lake on this issue.

  Kane leaving the Disarmament post would seem to increase the odds of her fellow German Martin Kobler getting the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs post which the UK has held twice in a row. (Inner City Press' exclusive reporting on the OCHA race has been credited by, for example, UK Channel 4, here.)

   Kobler has not, however, fulfilled his vow that the Mission in the Congo under his command would neutralize the Hutu FDLR militia as it did the largely Tutsi M23 group. There is also an unresolved scandal, first exposed by Inner City Press,  in that mission and the one in Haiti, both run by Herve Ladsous, in which UN Police position were sold for money by an Ivorian diplomat who Inner City Press continues to see inside the UN.

   Inner City Press was first to report that Nickolay Mladenov would replace Robert Serry as UN Middle East envoy, that that Jan Kubis would replace Mladenov in Iraq, confirmed on February 24, nine days after Inner City Press reported it. Now that. Watch this site.

   

UN's Kim Won-soo Eyed to Head UN Disarmament, Upping Martin Kobler's OCHA Odds, Sources Tell Inner City Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 25 -- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's senior adviser and right hand man Kim Won-soo is in line to replace Angela Kane atop UN Disarmament, sources exclusively tell Inner City Press.

   As Inner City Press first reported, Kim had applied for an Assistant Secretary General position in the Department of Political Affairs. But, sources tell Inner City Press, Under Secretary General of DPA Jeffrey Feltman put the kibosh on that. Kim would report directly to Ban Ki-moon, whose campaign for election and re-election as Secretary General Kim essentially ran.

   Inner City Press previously reported on January 30 that along with Kim, another candidate for the DPA Assistant Secretary General post -- whose interim holder spoke with week, for example, with the foreign minister of the Maldives after the jailing of former president Nasheed -- was Dmitry Titov. It is again confirmed that this was plan - but we're told it is no longer. As to who will get this ASG post, we'll have more.

  Some question Kim Won-soo of South Korea holding the UN's Disarmament post, given the nuclear standoff with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North Korea. 

  Kane has had a long tenure in the UN, in such duty stations as Eritrea and, before Disarmament, in the Department of Management. As recently of February 23, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about a controversy in UMOJA during Kane's tenure as Under Secretary General for Management, on which Inner City Press has also exclusively reported:

Inner City Press: you may remember a Paul van Essche was an UMOJA official that ended up leaving his job due to irregularities in his CV, etc.  He recently then was rehired by UNICEF as the head of information technology and it’s my understanding that he quit once the connection was made to the prior problem on this side of the street.  I wanted to ask you whether the Secretary-General called Anthony Lake about this and whether it’s true that Mr. van Essche, despite leaving the job after 10 days, is receiving six months’ salary for his troubles.

Spokesman Dujarric:  I think that’s a question you’d need to address to UNICEF.

Inner City Press:  The reason I’m asking here [cut off by Spokesman]

Spokesman Dujarric:  I’m not aware of any contact between the Secretary-General and Mr. Lake on this issue.

  Kane leaving the Disarmament post would seem to increase the odds of her fellow German Martin Kobler getting the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs post which the UK has held twice in a row. (Inner City Press' exclusive reporting on the OCHA race has been credited by, for example, UK Channel 4, here.)

   Kobler has not, however, fulfilled his vow that the Mission in the Congo under his command would neutralize the Hutu FDLR militia as it did the largely Tutsi M23 group. There is also an unresolved scandal, first exposed by Inner City Press,  in that mission and the one in Haiti, both run by Herve Ladsous, in which UN Police position were sold for money by an Ivorian diplomat who Inner City Press continues to see inside the UN.

   Inner City Press was first to report that Nickolay Mladenov would replace Robert Serry as UN Middle East envoy, that that Jan Kubis would replace Mladenov in Iraq, confirmed on February 24, nine days after Inner City Press reported it. Now that. Watch this site.

   

Exclusive Follow Up: UNICEF Pays 6 Months to Van Essche, 1st Exposed by Inner City Press, Cover Up?

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 21 -- Even when the UN fires an insider for having been too embarrassingly hired despite on the public record corruption, it pays him six months salary for his trouble, and tries to cover it up. This is that exclusive story.

  While the UN Secretariat is untransparent, lacking even a rudimentary Freedom of Information Act, many perceive its affiliate UNICEF to be better run. That's why when Inner City Press learned in late 2014 that an official it had exposed for resume irregularities in the Secretariat, Paul van Essche, had been hired as UNICEF's chief technology officer, it was surprised. 

   Inner City Press made inquiries, and wrote about van Essche again on December 24, 2014, here, in connection with the Secretariat program he'd been in, UMOJA.

    Then van Essche "stepped down" from the post he started only January 1. At the time, Inner City Press mused that "perhaps UNICEF acts after-the-fact faster than the Secretariat. But how did van Essche, given what was in the public record, get in? We'll have more on this."

  Now this is that more. Inner City Press is exclusively informed that the Secretariat, after Van Essche's second exposure, called UNICEF and said he had to go. The story is that van Essche worked with UNICEF's director's spouse.

 The outrage: van Essche got a rare mutually agreed separation -- and six month's pay, or nearly $100,000 at his D2 rank. Paid for corruption: this is the UN.

 This too: UNICEF with its flawed selection process exposed, rather than try to reform it, Inner City Press is exclusively informed, is trying to quickly replace van Essche, to put the scandal behind it. But it will only compound it - watch this site.

On the lack of a UN Freedom of Information Act: When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon unveiled his “synthesis” report on the UN’s post-2015 development agenda on December 5 it said, "Press freedom and access to information, freedom of expression, assembly and association are enablers of sustainable development."

  This is hypocritical on more than one count, including that the UN Secretariat has no Freedom of Information Act or process, something that Inner City Press and now the Free UN Coalition for Access have been asking about and pushing for. 

  As with legal accountability for harm done, as by the UN bringing cholera to Haiti, how can the Ban's UN preach to member states policies that are not applied to the UN at all?

The UN's lack of accountability, from bringing cholera to Haiti to using as “peacekeepers” armies under investigation for war crimes like those of the DR Congo and Sri Lanka, is enabled by the lack of even a basic FOIA covering the UN.

Inner City Press, which has litigated FOIA cases all the way to the US Supreme Court and submitted FOI request to dozens of countries, haslong pushed for a UN Freedom of Information Act. 

  On November 7, Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric point blank: why not disclose for example when Ban takes gifts like Qatar's of free private jet travel to the Middle East this year?

  Dujarric after claiming that disclosing such information, or setting up "structure" to disclose such basic information, would required General Assembly approval, said he had nothing to add. Video here. Nothing to disclose?

   As reported on September 15 by the Columbia Journalism Review, “Inner City Press... reported that Burnham’s successor, Alicia Barcena, said it would be in place by the end of 2007. But the General Assembly never agreed on the scheme, and it was quietly shelved. “There were differing views among Member States about what constituted openness,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, in an email.”

  (Inner City Press asked Dujarric about the quote at the September 15, 2014, noon briefing, video here and embedded below.)

  What leadership -- citing “differing views,” the UN Secretariat gave up before it even began. CJR also quotes a rights group which won't disclose what issues it raises to Ban, and correspondents happy to get leaks and text from their Western sources. This same organization, beyond its Executive Committee trying to get the investigative Pressthrown out of the UN, withheld its Q&A with Ban Ki-moon even from its own members, here. 

  This group, the so-called United Nations Correspondents Association, has now returned its censor in chief Giampaolo Pioli to its helm, to raise toasts with Ban Ki-moon while having tried to get the investigative Press thrown out, and doing nothing for freedom of information. 

  As to freedom of association, Pioli declared to someone whose vote he was soliciting -- in an election without competition -- that no one can be a member of FUNCA and "his" UN Correspondents Association at the same time. That is, he can tell people what they can join, and how they should think. This is the UN's partner.

  In order to pursue more access to information -- and the protection of the rights of investigative journalists against such insider approaches -- Inner City Press co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access.

  FUNCA says it is absurd for the UN Secretariat to blame member states for its own refusal to be transparent with its own financial information. Furthermore, how can Ban's UN make claims about “we the peoples” while blaming unnamed governments for banning accountability to the peoples?

  CJR concluded, as we will for now, with this: “Inner City Press continues to advocate for a systematic freedom of information policy, but admits that there is little binding pressure journalists can put on the UN legally. 'Ultimately you end up making a moral argument, which is that more so than most governments, the UN is always pontificating about good governance and transparency,' he said. 'That’s what I find so ironic.'”

Ironic is a diplomatic way to put it. Watch this site -- and this (FUNCA) one.

   

Video: UN's Failure to Go to Khan Al Asal UNexplained, Like Ban's Jarba Meetings

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 5 -- Why didn't the UN chemical weapons team ever go to Khan al Assal, which Syria asked them to visit back in March 2013? First the UN demanded access to other sites. Then once in Damascus, it dropped Khan al Assal in favor of al Ghouta - then left the country.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declared the result report by Ake Sellstrom "overwhelming" before he even saw it. Then he sent Sellstrom back from September 25 to September 30. Finally it seemed Khan al Assal would be visited.

But it wasn't, the UN has yet to explain why. Inner City Press asked on both October 3 and was told the answer was in a previous transcript. But it wasn't. So Inner City Press asked again on October 4, transcript and video here and below:

From the UN's October 3 transcript:

Inner City Press: Angela Kane says that she, in hindsight, regrets not having simply gone to Khan al-Asal, but instead, having requested to go to other sites which led to these, these months’ delay; so, one, I wanted to know whether the Secretary-General also has that analysis that the delay may have actually played some role in the further use of chemical weapons. And I also wanted to know whether the [Åke] Sellström team, in their most recent visit, just to be sure: did they, did they actually get out to Khan al-Asal?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I have already answered that, Matthew: no, they did not.

Inner City Press: Alright. So, why not? That’s what, I’d only learned yesterday, I may, I might have missed your earlier answer, but why didn’t they go where they were initially going to speci--

Spokesperson: I answered that, as well.

Inner City Press: Okay. Can you say why?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Read the transcript.

Then, after Inner City Press reported on this exchange in a story about Ban Ki-moon's meeting, with Angela Kane present, with Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif, Nesirky's office sent this:

Subject: Your question at the Noon Briefing
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Oct 3, 2013 at 4:58 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

In reference to your question at the [October 3] Noon Briefing, the Spokesperson said the following at the Noon briefing on 30 September 2013:

Question: Thank you, Martin. Just had a quick question about Dr. Sellström’s mission: Does that mean he won’t go back to Syria now, now that he is finalizing the report and they didn’t go to Khan al-Assal in the end?

Spokesperson: They are now heading out of Syria with the aim of finalizing their report. And I will be able to provide details on where they have been, but not right at this moment. They have not visited Khan al-Assal to my knowledge. But that does not mean that they have not been able to collect a large body of information, which they had been doing in any case in the lead up to their initial visit and then to their return. And so, if I have any more details, I will let you know. And I know also that they will now be seeking to marshal all of the information that they do have with the aim of putting that report together by the end of October, as we just said.

Inner City Press published the above in full, while still asking: why? And the next day on October 4, Inner City Press asked again:

Inner City Press: I did read the transcript; it’s not like I don’t read these things and it was sent to me again, I just want to... forgetting the transcript and without any disrespect, I just wanted a simple answer why the UN never went to Khan al-Asal. And I read, I read it a number of times; maybe I am being dense, but was it that it they couldn’t get there? Was it that the, the, the, it was too deteriorated? I am not suggesting those are the reasons, I just want to know what the reason is.

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, it does say, not in that particular part that you have in front of you; it does say on 30 September, that transcript from Monday, or let’s be clear about it: I said there are a number of reasons, potential reasons. And one of those includes that with the passage of time, it becomes… I don’t think you expect me, I know you are reading what I said, you don’t think you’d expect me to say exactly what I said on Monday?

Inner City Press: I am asking you a kind of a substantive question; what would you say to those who say it’s, it is a shame that if the request, the initial request to go to Syria was to visit this one place, it seems to cry, to call out for an answer of why what was initially requested was not done.

Spokesperson Nesirky: Right, right, so, listen: As I have said, as I have said here a number of times, there are a number of factors why it was not possible or feasible to go. And one of those is that with the passage of time, there is a deterioration of the material that could be used for sampling, and, therefore, to help decide whether chemical weapons were used or not. But as I also said, there is a portfolio of different ways that the team, the investigation team, can gather evidence and try to determine at a distance whether chemical weapons were used. That’s one of the possible constraints. Another is obviously security. And with regard to the broader question about the passage of time, everybody knows that it was not for want of trying that the team did not get there until August. As you well know from March, there was extremely hard work done on both sides — meaning the Syrian authorities and the United Nations in the form of the Office for Disarmament Affairs — to make this work. It was not easy. And that’s been plainly said by any number of people, including the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. But the fact of the matter is that everyone persevered because there was an interest to get in. And eventually, they were able to get in and they were able then to determine that chemical weapons had indeed been used in that incident on 21 August; and they furthermore have continued both outside and then, on a subsequent visit to Syria that ended on Monday, to gather material so that they can present a final report at the end of this month.

  That says why the UN thought it wasn't WORTH going to Khan al Asal, not why they COULDN'T go to the spot that Syria had asked them to visit. It's like Ban Ki-moon meeting at his (UN-provided) residence with Saudi-sponsored Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba -- a reflection of where Ban is coming from.

  Footnote: Ban's partners in the UN Correspondents Association, whose Executive Committee is dominated by Gulf and Western media from Al Arabiya and Reuters, where as Nesirky points out he worked for 25 years (video here),hosted Jarba for a faux UN briefing in July, on which Nesirky refused to answer questions by the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info about whether this really WAS a "UN briefing," and why this room is given by the UN to a partisan organization. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

   

Critique: On Syria, NYT Runs Confession of Angela Kane -- But Why NOT Khan al Asal, What of UMOJA Scandal, Germany Role?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 2 -- Confession as revisionism? The New York Times tonight ran an interview with UN Disarmament official Angela Kane, allowing her to say she regretted not investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons in Khan al Asal in Syria in March.

  Several facts are not stated in the article. For example, even when the UN team under Ake Sellstrom returned to Syria from September 25 to 30, they did NOT visit Khan al Asal.

  Also, while inconvenient, Angela Kane in her previous UN post as head of the Department of Management was subject to investigation for irregularities in the UN's "UMOJA" computer upgrade. Inner City Press exclusively reported on this, including obtaining and publishing the audit.

  The NYT story uses the adjective "friendly" as in Kane asking "friendly" countries to fly the chemical weapons samples. But this is key -- while a long time UN official, when she was taken out of her Department of Management post, it was her native Germany which lobbied Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to keep Kane on and thus to keep an Under Secretary General post for Germany. 

 This is how the UN works. Kane was offered a UN job in Lebanon, sources told Inner City Press, and rejected it. Over the candidacy of the Philippines' Permanent Representative, Kane got the Disarmament post. But the connection with Germany, given its position on Syria, should have been mentioned.

  We don't mean to be harsh -- the NYT recently switched UN correspondents, and giving time is key. (Some other media with bureau chiefs too long, too embedded here, it's another story -- one from Reuters has even spied for the UN, still UNexplained, click here for that).

  But while wanting to give time, these omissions may not bode well. We'll retain an open mind.

Footnote: one also wonders why the NYT has not covered the controversy surrounding Saudi sponsored Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba being feted in the UN by France, and hosted by Ban Ki-moon in his residence, much less France's colonial domination of the Security Council's upcoming trip to Africa. But, one issue at a time. Watch this site.

   

Of $100 Charge to Hear Angela Kane on Speak at UN on Syria, Ban Ki-moon Spox Says Only Kane Won't Keep the Money

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 30 -- Does the UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon now allow admission fees of up to $100 to be charged to hear a UN official speak, in the UN, about their work? Apparently yes.

  Inner City Press on Monday asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky about an invitation or solicitation sent out that morning by the Global Security Institute, founded by Alan Cranston, to hear UN official Angela Kane speak in the "elegant Delegates' Dining Room" at the UN in late October -- for $100.

  In the past, for example when the Korea Society charged $10 to hear Ban's official Robert Orr speak, Nesirky's office said that only minimal facilities charges could be passed on. 

 This was repeated to the Free UN Coalition for Access@FUNCA_info by the UN Development Program when people, even children, were charged $5 to hear UNDP Administrator Helen Clark speak in New Zealand.

   But $100? For Ban's negotiator with Syria? Is this inflation? Or decay? Nesirky didn't say the change was any problem, rather tried to turn the question on Inner City Press and say the question might imply that Kane was keeping the $100 per person. 

  Other UN audits exclusively obtained and reported by Inner City Press might raise questions -- but that wasn't, and isn't, the question Inner City Press asked on Monday.

  At the same noon briefing, Nesirky confirmed that while his office solicited expression of interest from journalists to cover the UN Security Council's trip to Africa's Great Lakes region, France was allowed to hand-pick which journalists would go.

Then Nesirky cut off and did not allow Inner City Press' follow up question on the legitimacy of this, saying others didn't want to hear about Inner City Press' travel plans. (He later refused without explanation to take an Inner City Press question about the Democratic Republic of the Congo.)

There's more to say, but this is Ban's UN. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Stevie Wonder Says Must Overcome Lobbyists for US To Ratify Disabilities Convention: Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 23 -- When Stevie Wonder spoke at the UN on disabilities and development on Monday, it was a feel good moment. Inner City Press asked Wonder about the United States not having ratified the Disabilities Convention: what are the stumbling blocks?

Wonder said he didn't know the ins and outs of the stumbling blocks, but they will be overcome. We can't let the lobbyists win, he said.

Inner City Press also asked about accessibility at the UN itself. In July, Kenya's Ambassador said the UN has "no inkling" how to be accessible to the disabled. When Inner City Press pursued it, word was that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is working on a Bulletin on Accessibility. But where is it?

In the front row at Monday's press conference was UN official Daniela Bas, who last week told Inner City Press she couldn't speak for Ban on the matter of the Bulletin on Accessibility. So who can?

On the panel with Stevie Wonder was Philippines Ambassador Libran Cabactulan. He previously tried to become Ban's High Representative on Disarmament, but was passed over for Angela Kane of Germany, who needed another high post after leaving the Department of Management.

If Cabactulan had gotten that post, it would be him negotiating with the Assad government of Syria for access to investigate chemical weapons. Be careful what you wish for? Watch this site.

Footnote: DPI's chief moderated the press conference, gracefully. While he gave the first question to UNCA, he gave the second to Inner City Press, which thanked all three including Maria Soledad Cisternas Reyes, Chair of the Committee of Rights of Person with Disabilities on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, @FUNCA_info.

  Given much history, limitations and rights of free speech and association, when UNCA gets or takes the first questions, FUNCA will too. And Monday it was appreciated.