On DR Congo, Mary Robinson Calls for Calm, UN"s Kobler on the Race Card, Reuters in the Tank

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 24 -- The UN has become schizophrenic, with its Congo envoy Martin Kobler vowing to "punish" groups opposed to Congolese president Joseph Kabila while UN peace envoy Mary Robinson speaks of calm.

  On Saturday without noting which country she was in, Robinson issued a statement which concluded:

"I strongly urge all authorities in the region to observe maximum restraint, to ensure that civilian populations are protected, and to minimize the risk of escalation of the situation. I am in close contact with all parties and continue to monitor the situation very closely. My Special Adviser is currently involved in consultations with relevant authorities in order to appeal for calm and restraint."

   The last line would to indicate that Robinson is not in the region, but rather probably in Dublin, just as the UN's envoy to the Sahel Romano Prodi purports to solve Mali's problems from Bologna, Italy.

  It seems the UN is becoming a club of former heads of state from Europe. In the Congo, Kobler was quoted decrying the M23 rebels playing the ethnic card -- apparently without irony or self-consciousness. 

   Reuters chimed in with a story asserting that the shelling of Goma came from M23. How do they know?  After the UN bragged that the M23 rebels have been pushed back so their artillery can't reach Goma, it's the same UN which continues to ascribe the shelling to... the M23.

   But even more symptomatic of the UN further losing its way is a comment by UN envoy Martin Kobler, perhaps through this spokesperson, that the shelling "will not go unpunished," that the UN and its Intervention Brigade should launch an "energetic" response... and punishment.

   When did the UN get into the business of military punishment? WHO got it into this business? Inner City Press has tracked this shift in UN Peacekeeping under its fourth French chief in a row, Herve Ladsous.

  Given that Ladsous as France's Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN during the Rwanda genocide argued for the escape of the genocidaires into Eastern Congo, his Department of "Peacekeeping" Operations' vow now of "punishment" is even more striking. We will have more on this.

    For now this remains outstanding: at Friday's noon briefing, video here from Minute 10:15, Inner City Press asked the UN's outgoing deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey about the answer, when Inner City Press and another journalist asked UN Peacekeeping acting chief Edmond Mulet Thursday if the M23 rebels had entered the security zone established around Goma.

  "No," Mulet said. "Just mortars." He went on to refer to the separate "red line" established when M23 agreed in Kampala to pull out of Goma. (The portion of that agreement that gave M23 one third of the security force at the Goma airport remains unimplemented.)

  But later on Thursday, the wire service Reuters reported "a senior U.N. official, who asked not to be named, said that on Thursday the rebels entered a security zone surrounding Goma" -- which Mulet, the acting chief of DPKO, had just denied. Inner City Press and the other journalist waited to ask Mulet again, and got the same answer.

  So who is this "senior UN official who asked not to be named"? In UN Peacekeeping, only Herve Ladsous is senior to and could over-rule Mulet.

  Ladsous has in the past spoon-fed answers of dubious veracity to this same Reuters UN bureau bragging for example about the Congolese Army imposing accountability for the 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012.

   But with only a few arrests for the 135 rapes, Ladsous' DPKO continues supporting the 391st Battalion, even as it is now implicated in corpse desecration.

That the UN would try to use Reuters, willingly, resonates with a documented instance in June 2012 when Reuters UN bureau chief Louis Charbonneau gave to UN official Stephane Dujarric an internal UNCA anti-Press document,three minutes after saying he would not do so. Story here,audio here, document here, in which Charbonneau tells Dujarric, "You didn't get this from me."

  So is Reuters' "senior UN official who asked not to be named" someone junior to Mulet, or as another journalist suggested, no one at all? 

  On August 23, Del Buey said he knew what Mulet had said, and has "seen other reports." He said he'd have to check. But August 23 was his last day at the UN (the Free UN Coalition for Access wished him well, video here at Minute 9:55).  So we'll see. Watch this site.

   

Exclusive: UN Overpays Prodi Rome Travel, Seeks to Cut 59 Publishing Jobs: Counter-Proposal Here

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 30 -- The UN says it is tightening its belt. But if so, it is very selective.

  Inner City Press has previously questioned why the UN's envoy on the Sahel, Romano Prodi, gets to work from Italy. Wednesday UN budget sources approached Inner City Press to complain it is worse than this.

  Prodi is not in fact based in Rome, they told Inner City Press. He is in Bologna, and he charges the UN $1,200 for each trip to Rome, so far to the tune of $36,000.

  And the report on the Sahel strategy of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon which he was charged with preparing back in October 2012 has still not be presented to the Security Council. "It's a joke," one source told Inner City Press. "A bad joke."

  (Another source snarked that the vehicles to be bought for Herve Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations' new mission in Mali will in all probability come from French or Japanese manufacturers.)

  As Inner City Press asked and got confirmed, the UN's envoy to the Great Lakes Mary Robinson is being allowed to be based in Dublin. Are there any UN staff there? And what about the travel costs?

  Meanwhile at a lower level of the UN, staff in the Publishing Section were told that 59 "posts" -- that is, jobs -- would be eliminated. Management used the destruction of equipment in the third sub-basement to further their plan of eliminating the posts.

There was fight back, and now a counter-proposal has been sent to Ban Ki-moon; Inner City Press has exclusively obtained a copy and includes a section, below. 

 The same Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions which considers Prodi and Mary Robinson should consider these lower ranked staff member's proposal, with the same solicitude:

For a more economically efficient, flexible, and reliable printing operation, it is imperative to deploy four smaller capacity digital presses of overall capacity up to or about 90,000,000 page impressions... a total of twenty-four staff members in Trade and Craft staff category would be required for the operation of the print shop, in addition to fifteen General staff for distribution and fulfillment, and five General staff for the front office. The whole operation would be managed by a Professional staff at the P-3 level, supported by senior Trade and Craft at the TC-8 and TC-7 levels. The currents posts of the Chief (P-5) and Deputy Chief (P-4) of the Publishing Section would be abolished.

A total of twelve staff in the General staff category would be relocated to the Meetings Servicing Unit for Paper Smart meetings support. The remaining staff of the Publishing Section would be afforded real employment opportunities and appropriate training.

  So does this UN only care about the comfort of people like Prodi, charging big bucks to travel from Bologna to Rome? Or about these underground printing staff? Watch this site.

UN Tells ICP Great Lakes Envoy Mary Robinson Based in Dublin, Like Prodi in Rome: UN Used?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 28 -- The UN's envoy to the Great Lakes Mary Robinson will be based not in Africa but in Dublin, the UN on Tuesday answered Inner City Press' question from May 24.

Inner City Press was also first to ask why the Sahel envoy of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Romano Prodi, is allowed to be based in Rome, where he unsuccessfully ran for the Italian presidency while simultaneously an ostensibly independent UN official.

On Prodi, the UN on May 28 said only that its report, and that of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, are before the UN General Assembly.

There, and at the African Union in Addis Ababa, there are more and more questions about what Ban's UN is becoming: a dumping ground for former politicians, allowed as UN Under Secretaries General to work from home, until something better come along?

It was complained to Inner City Press last week that while Robinson's office is supposedly in Nairobi, she is in fact based in Ireland. Inner City Press asked the question on Friday, May 24:

Inner City Press: I had asked Martin, before he went on the trip about Mr. Romano Prodi being based in Rome and the fact thatACABQ [Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions] has said that that may be a waste of money for the UN. So far, I haven’t gotten a response yet, but I want to add to that one. Some, at least within the UN, want to know where Mary Robinson, who is obviously the Envoy to the Great Lakes, just to know factually, is she based in Dublin, Ireland, or is she based in Nairobi? And, if Dublin, Ireland, how would you address the same concerns that were raised about Mr. Prodi being based out of Rome?

Deputy Spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey: I believe her office is located in Nairobi, and that’s where her UN staffers are, but we will check on that for you.

  At the next UN noon briefing on May 28, Del Buey acknowledged that Robinson is, in fact, based in Dublin. He excused this by saying she is paid only "When Actually Employed." So will she be disclosing her hours, and any extra costs to the UN from being based in Dublin? We will closely watch and report on both envoys' work. Will Prodi, with respect to Rome? Watch this site.