IMF on Rep of Congo Told Inner City Press July 11 With Corruption on Agenda, NGOs UNlike UN, Of Sri Lanka Fuel Subsidies

By Matthew Russell Lee


UNITED NATIONS, June 7 – On the morning of June 28 for the International Monetary Fund's embargoed media briefing Inner City Press submitted several questions including on Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka and, as always, Cameroon. IMF Spokesman Gerry Rice, after calling on those in the room read out Inner City Press' Congo question, "from Matthew Lee in New York," which was as follows: "On Congo-Brazzaville, please confirm or deny that the IMF Executive Board will meet on the country's bail-out request on July 6, and state what some of the issues, particularly on anti-corruption, are." 

Rice said in fact the Board is tentatively set to meet on Congo later, on July 11 and that anti-corruption is indeed a major issue, that the IMF says civil society should allowed to be involved. (This is in contrast to today's UN Counter-Terrorism High Level Conference, which excludes NGOs and, at least at the background briefing level, some Press.) On Sri Lanka, Inner City Press asked, "On Sri Lanka, what is the IMF's assessment if the country is moving quickly enough toward a transparent power pricing formula - must it / will it be fully implemented by September?" Rice's Sri Lanka answer included that the Finance Minister assures that the elimination of fuel subsidies will help the poor, because the subsidies have been helping the rich. We'll have more on this. On June 7 Inner City Press asked the IMF about Barbados, Zambia, Jordan and Ukraine. Rice, after calling on those in the room on the latter two - as well as a named Ukrainian journalist - left Zambia and Barbados for last, nameless, deferred. On Barbados Inner City Press had asked, "what will the IMF do to try to ensure austerity measures don't hurt the poor and also lead to protests and political instability?" Rice answered that there is an IMF team finishing in Bridgetown and there might be a statement as early as today. And, after six pm, here it is: "At the request of the newly elected Government of Barbados, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Bert van Selm visited Bridgetown on June 5-7, to have discussions on economic policies and possible IMF financial support of the government’s economic plan. At the end of the visit, Mr. van Selm made the following statement:

“Barbados is in a precarious economic situation. International reserves have dwindled to US$220 million, while central government debt is unsustainable. The fiscal deficit has decreased over the last few years but remains large, at about 4 percent of GDP in FY2017/18. Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Barbados (CBB) is reporting a contraction of output of 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2018 (over the same period last year).

“The Barbadian authorities, in close consultation with their social partners, are rapidly developing a plan to address current economic vulnerabilities. We welcome the government’s plans to urgently address infrastructure problems, and its goal of seeking to support the most vulnerable during the economic adjustment process.

“At this juncture, the IMF’s recommendations contained in the 2017 Article IV Consultation remain highly relevant to rebuild confidence and address Barbados’ current challenges. Substantial fiscal consolidation is needed to place debt on a clear downward trajectory in conjunction with the proposed debt restructuring, and to address balance of payments risks that cloud the country’s future. Since tax and revenues are relatively high, the adjustment effort should focus on the expenditure side, including by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public services, containing wages, and reforming government pensions. Government transfers to SOEs need to be reduced by reviewing user fees, exploring options for mergers and privatization, and by providing much stronger oversight. Tax policy should be reviewed with a view to broadening the tax base and improving its progressivity, while efforts to strengthen tax administration should continue. Structural reforms are critical to improve the business climate in Barbados to attract investment, and develop the private sector.

“Fiscal consolidation will also help to reduce financing needs, in conjunction with the proposed debt restructuring. It will be important for the CBB to limit financing of the government budget given that such practice is not consistent with Barbados’ exchange rate peg; the large monetary financing over the last few years has contributed to the decline in international reserves.

“We also note the authorities’ decision to seek a restructuring of domestic debt and external debt to commercial creditors. An early and open dialogue with the country’s creditors, aiming to achieve an orderly debt restructuring process, is important.

“Overall, the team had very positive and candid discussions with the government during the visit. In the coming months, we expect to continue our close dialogue with the Barbados government with the aim of reaching understandings on economic policies that could underpin an IMF supported program. Our goal is to help Barbados achieve higher living standards and more inclusive growth for the years ahead.


“During the visit, the team met with Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment, CBB Governor Haynes, and other key officials. The team also had good opportunities for exchange of views with social partners, including labor unions and the private sector. The team would like to thank the Barbados government for open and candid discussions, and to express its desire to continue to work closely with Barbados in the period ahead.”" But what about austerity? He defended it with regard to Jordan, tying the protests there to the situation in and from neighboring Syria. On Argentina he said the economy would be stronger with an IMF program and that he expects Madame Lagarde to speak with Macri in Canada this weekend. On Ukraine he said the IMF doesn't comment on personalities (Inner City Press had asked about Oleksandr Danyliuk), but that the institutional role of the Finance Ministry is key. On Zambia, Rice answered Inner City Press' question with a statement that talks remain suspended due to official borrowing plans. And there it was over. Inner City Press' Cameroon and other questions were again not answered. Onward. On Somalia back on May the IMF offered some praise and support, after conducting a visit not to the country but to next door Kenya. On May 17 for the IMF's embargoed media briefing, Inner City Press asked among other things, "In Somalia, the Central Bank says it has requested from the IMF an Assessment Letter needed in order to issue a new currency. Please describe the process, and status. And, IMF gives go-ahead to source $41m to issue new bank notes, but how can printing of counterfeit notes be stopped before this time?" IMF Spokesperson Gerry Rice read out the question then said Somalia debt relief is a priority for the IMF, that all preparatory steps for the new currency have been taken, with the first step being replacing the counterfeit shillings. But what if new counterfeit is created in the meantime? Rice said the IMF would revert bilatally; Inner City Press also asked about price rises of the metro in Egypt, and of fuel in Sri Lanka. The latter, Rice defended as an attempt to eliminate subsidies that benefit the rich and not the poor - like the reported 130% rise in the price of kerosene? Most of the May 17 briefing was devoted to Argentina, on which the IMF Executive Board has a May 18 informal meeting on what Rice called Macri's request for a "high access stand by arrangement." Watch this site. 

On New UN Congolese Rapes on CAR, Inner CIty Press Asks UN Spox to Confirm Its Exclusive Report, He Won't

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive follow-up

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 -- The UN report on rapes in the Central African Republic, released on December 17, found that UN Peacekeeping's Under Secretary General Herve Ladsous “illustrate[s] the UN's failure to respond to allegations of serious human rights violations in the meaningful way.”

 Ladsous has yet to take any questions about the report -- this as Inner City Press exclusively hears from sources of yet more sexual abuse cases in CAR, involving DR Congo AND Republic of Congo, and changes of abuses will in detention.

 On January 27, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about these new charges, transcript here:

Inner City Press: on CAR, I've heard there's a new round of sexual abuse allegations found by the Mission involving soldiers from the Republic of Congo and DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo].  Is that the case?  And what's the… why… if you haven't yet announced it, why haven't you?

Spokesman Dujarric:  I don't have anything to share with you at this point on this.

Inner City Press:  What's the protocol for the Mission going public when it becomes aware?  Because I've heard of this from pretty…

Spokesman Dujarric:  This Mission has been extremely proactive in sharing publicly allegations.  So, when we're ready to do so, we will.

 We'll see.

 On January 26, a new proposal on the systemic problem of UN peacekeeper sexual abuse was made by Code Blue: to take the UN’s "oversight of every aspect of peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse out of the hands of the UN Secretariat and place it under an external, independent management board," as Stephen Lewis put it.

  Inner City Press asked Lewis' co-founder Paula Donovan about retaliation against whistleblowers, and about Ladsous having on camera linked the rapes to "R&R," here.  Donovan replied that the board would decide how to have eyes and ears on the ground; she called the linking of rapes to recreation "appalling." It's the type of thing an oversight board would act on, she said.

 Following up about the UN merely handing a victim of sexual abuse in one of its camps in South Sudan the contact information of the alleged abuses, Inner City Press asked if that would be coverd by the proposal. Donovan said it would or should cover every single instance where any part of the UN system was implicated in alleged sexual abuse.

  Inner City Press then went to the day's UN noon briefing and asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the proposal, and when Ban's response to the Deschamps report will be out. Video here.

On January 5, Ladsous mission in CAR issued a press release about yet more allegation of sexual abuse of minors by its peacekeepers, below.

 On January 18, Inner City Press managed to ask UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson about the report -- the UN Deputy Spokesperson appeared intent on not allowing the question, but Eliasson to his credit took it. Video here, UN transcript here:

Inner City Press: The UK Ambassador mentioned sexual abuse.

DSG: Yes.

Inner City Press: He did. And so I wanted to know…

DSG: I did also.

Inner City Press: So, since that report came out about the Central African Republic, what has the Secretariat or the 38th floor done to ensure that in the future if a UN staffer becomes aware of child rape, that it goes to the right people?

DSG Eliasson: This is very serious. As you know, the Special Representative in Central African Republic resigned, was asked to resign. One of the others who were named by the Deschamps group, panel, was considered to have abused authority has left the United Nations, retired.  And we have a group set up right now, led by the Chef de Cabinet - Edmond Mulet - that is going to work very, very quickly on following up the recommendations of the panel. Mr. Mulet and his group will report to the Secretary-General by the end of this month.

We will look into both issues of individual responsibility, but also primarily on the systemic problems. This reminded me of my reaction to the Sri Lanka tragedy back in 2009. The panel came to the conclusion that it was systemic failure, so we drew the [conclusion] to that – we need to have a systemic response. That was the origin of Human Rights Up Front.  This time also the Deschamps report talks about, almost in the same language – systemic reactions. I also expect, or we also expect, Member States again to draw the conclusions from this.  In so many cases we have passed on to the Member States very damning reports, but very little sometimes has been done by Troop Contributing or Police Contributing countries. So we need to have nation states following up these [inaudible].

  We will have more, too, on DSG Eliasson's reference to the UN's failure in Sri Lanka. At the January 19 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq if Mulet's report at the end of January will be made public. Video here.  We'll see.

Earlier in the month,  Inner City Press asked the Permanent Representative of New Zealand and of Uruguay, President of the Security Council for January, about the report(s). Video here.

Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen of New Zealand expressed concern. Ambassador Rosselli of Uruguay said in his national capacity that allegations should be dealt with has his country had, apparently a reference to Haiti. It appears the Security Council will take up this matter.

  Earlier at the January 5 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric if now Ladsous, in the Security Council right then on CAR, would belatedly answer questions, since the firing / scapegoating of former mission chief Babacar Gaye clearly didn't end the rapes. From the transcript:

 I wanted to ask but CAR, since you have this new report.  One, I guess I’d like to… since Mr. [Hervé] Ladsous is briefing the Security Council today about CAR and has yet to answer any questions on the CAR sexual abuse allegations report… I guess it’s a timely request… can he do a stakeout, take questions on it?  Because it seems like Babacar Gaye was fired, but the problems go on.  So this is a request.  It seems like a reasonable one

 But as noted (and Vined, here), Ladsous did not answer.

 Back in December, once the report came out from under embargo at the noon briefing Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric what Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will do about the findings against Ladsous, and that he escaped the “abuse of authority” moniker only because “the mandate of the Panel is to assess whether an abuse of authority has occurred in connection with the Allegations.”

 Since the abusers Ladsous let into MINUSCA were not the French troops who are accused of rape -- these troops are not in MINUSCA -- Ladsous' malfeasance is not “in connection” with the Allegations. But is it acceptable?

  Dujarric seems unfamiliar with the report; he implied that the third person found to have abused authority was the Ethics Officer, when it was a lower level official in CAR. Inner City Press asked what this all says about Ban Ki-moon's management, along with the John Ashe / Ng Lap Seng and Bernardino Leon scandal, a question Dujarric did not allow Inner City Press to asked Ban himself on December 16. “Those are your words,” Dujarric replied. Yes, they are.

  When the Panel's three members held their press conference, Inner City Press asked about Ladsous' failure to vet and his linking of rapes to “R&R.” Video here.  Marie Deschamps said pointedly she wouldn't comment on Ladsous' remarks; Yasmin Sooka said these are crimes for punishment, not recreation.

  As the last question, Inner City Press asked what it had wanted to ask Ban, and tried to ask Dujarric: what does this say about Ban's management? Video of Q&A here. Didn't Ban's chief of staff Malcorra, criticized in the report, do it for Ban? Didn't the “senior official” who ostensibly let the rape information die on the vine in the 38th floor work in an atmosphere created by Ban's nine years? We will pursue this.

And this: if OIOS' Lapointe was wrong, isn't James Finness, who continues the OIOS campaign? While the UK has spoken, where is France, given Sangaris and Ladsous?

  As to Ladsous, the finding was made even though the three authors of the report do not mention, and apparently have not yet seen, the notes from Ladsous' October 1, 2015 meeting about the CAR mission withBurundi's Vice President, in which Ladsous said he is “pragmatic” on human rights, in Burundi and by extension elsewhere, nor Ladsous' September 11, 2015 on-camera comments linking the rapes to “R&R,”video here.

  But Ladsous still as of December 17 holds the senior UN position into which France, which has chosen the last four heads of UN Peacekeeping, put him in September 2011. How much longer?

By contrast, the former head of OIOS Carman Lapointe, of whom the panel finds an abuse of authority, is conveniently gone, as is Babacar Gaye, who worked for Ladsous at the CAR mission.

  Perhaps it was easier for the panel to make the formal finding against people who had already left the UN by the time the report was released.

  One wonders: if responses like Ladsous' legalistic (and largely false) November 2 letter were received so long ago  by the panel, why did they withhold the report all the way until December 17, the day AFTER Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's rare (and last of the year) press conference?

  High Commission Zeid, of whom it is said he was slammed in the report, in fact gets the same treatment -- critical, but no formal abuse of authority -- as Ladsous, who is airbrushed out and conditions access to information and answers about Peacekeeping on positive / false coverage.

 The same finding is made with regard to former Chief of Staff Susana Malcorra. Will the critical language hurt what chance she has, as a non Eastern European, to try to follow Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General?

 More generally, how does all this criticism reflect on the tenure of Ban Ki-moon? The report does not mention the concurrent scandalsregarding UN Secretariat documents purchased by now indicted Ng Lap Seng through former President of the General Assembly John Ashe, nor Ban Libya envoy taking instruction and a cushy job with the UAE while representing Ban on and in Libya.

  In December 2015, Ban allowed those who cover him, at least the UN Correspondents Association, to sell seats with him for $6,000. And it is these same who have airbrushed out Ladsous and others.

  The Panelists -- Marie Deschamps, Hassan Jallow and Yasmin Sooka -- leave unnamed a senior officer in Ban Ki-moon's office (finding that he misspoke when he said he had informed Deputy Jan Eliasson), without saying if the officer remains in the same position. We'll have more on this.

At UN on Indigenous, Congo Claims and Sakha Music, Chiapas & a Cash Bar

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 11 -- When the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues comes to the UN has it has this week, it's often a study in contrasts. In the UN's North Lawn building, tribes people and Native Americans multi-colored hats and walking sticks pass in a parallel universe the here-indigenous diplomats in their native dress, dark suits. 

 

  The two worlds intersected Friday afternoon when a custom-suited minister from Republic of Congo held a three course lunch in the re-opened Delegates Dining Room facing the East River, with a room only half filled, mostly by other African diplomats. Many places were empty: Somalia, Zimbabwe, even neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  The Permanent Representatives of Cameroon, Chad and Angola were there, the last as this month's African Group chairman. (He did not mention the coup in Guinea Bissau, on which his country seems to disagree with some other African countries like Nigeria and Togo.)

  The Minister in from Brazzaville, Bienvenu Okiemy, promoted his country's Law No. 5-2011 of February 25, 2011 on the Promotion and Protection of Indigenous Populations' Rights. Given that some African countries argued at the UN not long ago that either all Africans are indigenous, or none are, the law is noteworthy. 

 

  The Law starts that "the term Indigenous Populations mean populations who differ from the national population by virtual of their cultural identity, way of life and extreme vulnerability." It also provides that "the use of the term pygmy is prohibited."

  It did not seem that the delegation from Brazzaville brought any indigenous person with them, those the two African members of the Permanent Forum's 16 members, and some other members including from Finland, Estonia, Canada and New Zealand were in attendance.

  When Q&A time came, the Permanent Forum member from Kenya congratulated Congo for taking the lead, noted that Nairobi "might lose the UNEP headquarters," and asked that the PFII preparatory session to be held in Congo in 2013 include a pan-African meeting of indigenous people. 

 

  These include, according to UNFPA's David Lawson's speech, the Masai of Kenya, the Baaka of Congo, the Mbororos of Cameroon, the Batwa of Uganda and the Twa of the DRC and Rwanda, to say nothing of the Bushmen and others.

  Inner City Press asked the Minister what progress has been made on the recommendation of Rapporteur James Anaya that the Congo - Brazzaville "Government will need to develop and fully implement a new procedure for demarcating and registering lands in accordance with indigenous peoples’ customary rights and tenure." The Minister said this IS being done, then closed the session.

  Earlier in the week music filled the General Assembly visitors' lobby: two songs by Sak Tzevul of Chiapas, Mexico; much from Kahurangi theater of New Zealand, Andes Manta of Ecuador and the Chakma people of Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts; Nepalese dance and a group from the Republic of Sakha in Russia.

  In a session listed as closed, the "first Finno-Ugric Event at the UN" ever was held, and hockey player Alexander Ovechkin was claimed as Finno-Ugric. Across First Avenue the "Doctrine of Discovery" was rebutted by a display, complete with cash bar, of the Six Nations of the Grand River in Canada. They presented a litany of broken treaties. And so it goes at the UN.