US CRomnibus Scrutinizes Lebanon, Yemen, Ethiopia, Bahrain & Sri Lanka - But Why Haiti?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- A provision of the US Continuing Resolution / Omnibus or CRomnibus set for adoption this week in Congress is a list of countries any payment to which requires prior notification of the House of Representative's Appropriations Committee. From page 1179 of the CRomnibus, online here:

"(f) None of the funds appropriated under titles III through VI of this Act shall be obligated or expended for assistance for Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bolivia, Burma, Cambodia, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe except as provided through the regular notification procedures of the Committees on Appropriations."

  Sri Lanka is on the list -- yesterday, this reporter highlighted what the US was told about Sri Lanka by the UN Special Adviser on Genocide, here.

  The inclusion of Lebanon and Yemen seems triggered by the fluxuating roles in each country of Hezbollah and the Houthis, respectively.

  Of the "Latin list," some seem to come from the past, and some more current.  Bahrain barred, at least initially, the US State Department's Tom Malinowski; Ethiopia is on, and Eritrea not even mentioned.

  But why is Haiti on the list? And why is the US arguing in court for the UN to have total immunity -- that is, impunity -- for having brought cholera to the island which has killed over 8000 people and counting? Where's that, in the CRomnibus? Watch this site. 

  For the $2.1 billion for UN Peacekeeping, the Appropriations Committee must be told that the

"United Nations has in place measures to prevent United Nations employees, contractor personnel, and peacekeeping troops serving in the mission from trafficking in persons, exploiting victims of trafficking, or committing acts of illegal sexual exploitation or other violations of human rights, and to bring to justice individuals who engage in such acts while participating in the peacekeeping mission, including prosecution in their home countries of such individuals in connection with such acts, and to make information about such cases publicly available in the country where an alleged crime occurs and on the United Nations’ Web site."

  But as Inner City Press established as recently as November 20, the UN refuses to say if peacekeepers it sends home or repatriates are in fact prosecuted. This information is not provided even in response to Press questions, must less put on the UN's website.

  So will the $2.1 billion be withheld? Particularly as the head of UN Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, continues to cover up alleged mass rapes in Tabit in Darfur, and refuses to answer Press questions about it? 

  Tales from the Cromnibus will continue.

On November 20 amid unanswered questions in Darfur about UN Peacekeeping's investigation of and reporting on attacks on civilians, including 200 alleged rapes in Taabit,  UN Police Adviser Stefan Feller and UNAMID Police chief Hester Panera took question from the Press.

 Inner City Press asked Panera about her Mission's (in) action on Thabit, including issuing a November 9 press release claiming the residents get along well with Sudanese security, without mentioning that the interviews were conducted with these security officials present.

  Panera told Inner City Press, "We have to realize we are working in a sitution with very strong spoilers... There were statements by the Secretary General in this regard. We are going to follow up further, we are sending teams to try and get more information." Video here.

   So is the allegation that those reporting rape are "spoilers"? Or the UNAMID whistleblower? And how can it be said UNAMID is sending teams, when the government has blocked access for a second time?

  One year (or 364 days) ago, Inner City Press asked Feller about accountability, specifically, a UN Police officer who after being charged with sexual abuse and exploitation in Haiti fled by plane to Canada. Inner City Press first asked about this in April 2013 and was told "DPKO says that the case is still under investigation by the Canadian authorities."

  Feller on last year did follow through, like his Police Adviser predecessor Marie Orler, and provide a response to Inner City Press' question. Feller is significantly more responsive that the overall boss of UN Peacekeeping, video compilation here, Vine here. But the lack of accountability is pervasive.

   A year ago, the answer, through Police Division Communications Officer Zoe Mentel, was: "Regarding the case you asked the Police Adviser about this morning, we did check into this matter and it is currently under investigation with the police-contributing country."

  And on November 20, 2014, Feller gave a "generic" answer but did not provide any specific information about this case, whether the defendant who fled was cleaned or disciplined. Is it any wonder people doubt "zero tolerance" at the UN?

   That's seven months after Inner City Press was given in essence the same answer. UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous allowed the Congolese Army to go a full year on the 135 rapes in Minova by the 41st and 391st Battalions, to which the UN still provides support.

  Is his Department's cover up in Darfur, including on the rape allegations in Thabit, really any surprise? What will the Ramos Horta review panel do about this?

  Some might wonder if the hope isn't just that the Canadian case goes away. But that is not accountability; it is not transparency or the rule of law. Given the wider UN's attempt to evade substantial charges of bringing cholera to Haiti, MINUSTAH's reputation is already in question in the country. The questions will continue.

  Watch this site.

Footnote: While the moderator, the Ladsous spokesman who in September tried to block Inner City Press' filming from the General Assembly stakeout, called first on UNCA then AFP, he did as third question call on Inner City Press, or rather, as he said, "Foonca," theFree UN Coalition for Access, which is fine. And the question asked was of the type that, when put to Ladsous, Ladsous has said "I do not respond to you Mister." But the questions will continue to be asked, and should be answered. We'll see.

   

Ecuador FM Patino Raised Assange & Corporations to Ban, Dropped from Read-Out

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 24 -- After Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, he came down and held a press conference. He ran though issues from the litigation against Chevron for polluting Lagio Agrio, in the context of previous UN work on transnational corporations, to the asylum case of Julian Assange.

Inner City Press, after thanking Patino on behalf for theFree UN Coalition for Access for holding a briefing right after meeting Ban, proceeded to ask Patino what issues he raised to Ban, and what Ban said.

Patino said he had raised transnational corporation, and that Ban had “taken note” of what he said about Assange's case, for which Patino criticized both the UK and Sweden while saying he'd like to meet with the UK's new Foreign Secretary, most probably in London.

But when, later during Patino's press conference, Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office sent out the UN's read-out of the meeting it mentioned climate change and Ebola, but not a word about corporations or Assange or Wikileaks.

To some, this is like when Ban went to Nicaragua and Daniel Ortega spoke at length about Gaza but Ban's spokesperson's office did not mention Gaza in the read-out. Is it that Ban doesn't hear what he doesn't want to hear? Or that his spokesperson's office leaves out what Ban doesn't want known?

Inner City Press also asked Patino about Ecuador opening embassies in Algeria, Angola and Nigeria. He confirmed it, and said there is a need for better relations between blocs or regional groups, Latin America and Africa. We'll have more on this.

   

Dueling with Predatory Hedge Funds, Argentina's Kicillof Briefs G77 at UN, Who Else, Asks Inner City Press

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 25 -- When Argentina's foreign minister Héctor Timerman held a press conference at the UN at 6 pm on June 25, it came after he and Economy Mininster Axel Kicillof presented Argentina's case against hedge funds to the Group of 77.  Tweeted photo here.

Inner City Press thanked the ministers on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access, then asked if Elliott Management and Aurelius Capital hold stakes in other G77 members, and if the case shows the need for reform, that countries should have at least the same debt restructuring rights as corporations.

  Kicillof added, states and the people (pueblos) they represented. He said that in the G77 meeting, Peru had spoken. An attentive Inner City Press reader chimed in with a question about Ecuador, which sold bonds just this week.

  But in that case, new language tried to avoid the Argentina decision of the US Supreme Court, just as Belize and Armenia have also done on their debt. 

  Kicillof was returning to Buenos Aires after the press conference; Timerman will still be in New York for another media availability on June 26 at 1 pm. Watch this site.

   

UN in August: Cuban Ship Inspection Pushed Back from 5th to 12th, Argentina & Malvinas in UNSC on August 6 - & CELAC?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- For the UN inspection in Panama of the ship bound from Cuba to North Korea, August 5 was supposed to be the date. 

 But it has taken longer than expected to unload all of the sugar. And Panama's president has made it a point to pose for photos with every old MiG engine taken out. So now it's August 12.

  Outside the UN Security Council Thursday morning, Inner City Press asked South Korea's Permanent Representative Kim Sook about the delay, and about the head of the UN team, Martin Udin.

  He replied that Udin was the UK Ambassador to Korea, and therefore knows what North Korea is like. He noted that Cuba has pledged to cooperate with the Security Council and added, let's see.

  Also in front of the Security Council Thursday morning, Inner City Press learned more about incoming Council president Argentina's August 6 high level session on "cooperation with regional organizations."

  President Cristina Kirchner will attended - and Malvinas (or Falkland) Islands will be on the agenda. Foreign minsters including of Venezuela and Ecuador are slated to attend. Cuba has been mentioned, then mentioned as not yet confirmed.

  One might link these two stories, the Cuban ship in Panama and the Security Council on August 6. But sources tell Inner City Press a question has arising about the CELAC grouping being among the "regional organizations" on August 6. Watch this site.

Footnote: Into the bilateral meetings with new UNSC President Argentina, after Togo, France ran in. A question is pending, from the Free UN Coalition for Access since it is a transparency policy question, whether France thinks UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous should disclose which Congolese Army units they support, and who won Ladsous' drone contract. The question pends elsewhere, too. Watch this site.

   

On Snowden, UNCA Calls Ecuador “Autocratic” & Russia “Uncooperative," UN Consensus Alliance?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 25 -- At the UN and even in its press corps there are a range of views, for example on former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and the countries he's been in and has applied to enter. But this range is not reflected at the top of the UN Correspondents Association.

  On Tuesday at US Ambassador Rice's last UN stakeout, UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS began her question: “Can you comment on the autocratic governments of Ecuador, China, Russia characterizing themselves in the Snowden case as defenders of democracy as against the United States?” Video here, from Minute 9:50.

  Is Ecuador autocratic? Why this loaded question? Particularly from the head of an organization, UNCA, whichin 2012 tried to get smaller investigative Press throw out of the UN, and in 2013 lobbied for and sign onto a rule to outlaw even the sign of a start-up alternative, the Free UN Coalition for Access?

  UNCA's first vice president in both 2012 and 2013 is Reuters' Lou Charbonneau, who asked Rice: “Russia has been, on a number of issues, at odds with the United States, not just on Syria. We’re seeing with the Snowden case that they simply aren’t cooperating with the US.” Video here, from Minute 15:30.

  In fact, Snowden flew as a transit passenger into Russia, which does not require a visa. He has stayed since in the transit terminal of the airport outside of Moscow. Both questions are entirely from a US point of view. But this is the UN, as in United Nations Correspondents Association. Or is it?

  Filing the 2012 request for the UN Department of Public Information's Stephane Dujarric to “review” Inner City Press' accreditation was Voice of America, document as obtained under the Freedom of Information Act here.

  Earlier on Tuesday, VOA's Margaret Besheer asked Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari a similarly loaded question about Hezbollah. He replied, “Are you a young journalist or an old journalist? ... If you were a real journalist, you could not ask that.”

  The same might be said for asking the US ambassador about “autocratic” Ecuador claiming “to represent democracy.” But this is UNCA -- and it is why Dujarric's and others in DPI's attempt to outlaw even the Free UN Coalition for Access' sign is so unsavory. As it turns out, they work together. Who's autocratic, again? Watch this site.

  

After Syria Vote, Dodging on Ahtisaari & Water-Down, Stonewall on Annan's Team

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 3, updated -- After the watered down Saudi resolution on Syria was adopted by the UN General Assembly with 133 in favor, 31 abstaining and 12 against, Inner City Press put the same two questions to the Permanent Representatives of the UK, France, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

 The first question concerned why the resolution was watered down to drop explicit references to Assad stepping down and urging states to join in the Arab League sanctions on Syria. 

   The second question, uniformly dodged, was for comment on the possibility of Martti Ahtisaari replacing Kofi Annan as Syria envoy.  As Inner City Press tweeted early Friday morning, given Russia's position on Ahtisaari's Kosovo work, he seems unlikely.

Update: And Friday at 3:25 pm, Inner City Press asked Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Ahtisaari as envoy to Syria. "No, no. He is in deep retirement," Churkin exclusively told Inner City Press.

  UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant acknowledged that changes were made, but also said that the resolution was not intended to be balanced, because the action on the ground is not balanced. He said, "in response to the comments that had been made on their initial draft that it was better to make some amendments. And I think that the result today proves that to have been correct judgement because 133 votes in favor is a colossal majority."

 He would not comment on Ahtisaari: "I'm not going to comment on possible successors." Transcript below.

  French Ambassador Araud argued that the resolution STILL calls for Assad to step down, because it "welcomes" the Arab League's decision which call for just that.

 Saudi Arabia's Permanent Representative said that the resolution, even as changed, still "meets the requirements" of the Arab League. He said he wouldn't comment on the process for choosing Kofi Annan's replacement "at this stage."

  Syria's Bashar Ja'afari insisted, as Araud did, that the resolution still calls for regime change. He said Saudi Arabia is hypocritical for urging others to join Arab League sanctions while voting each year for a resolution against unilateral sanctions.

 In the GA before the vote, the Qatari President of the GA started by saying the resolution was available in the Hall, an attempt to cure having posted a link to, and emailed out, the wrong draft, which included the explicit calls for sanctions and for Assad to step down.

  At the noon briefing, Secretariat spokesman Martin Nesirky declined to explain how this had happened, telling Inner City Press maybe it thought it was always perfect, but the UN admits its mistakes.

  No, Inner City Press is NOT perfect. And when will the UN finally admit it introduced cholera to Haiti?

   In his GA speech, Ban Ki-moon thanked Kofi Annan "and his team." Inner City Press missed speeches to run to the noon briefing to ask, for the second day in a row, if from Annan's team Messrs. Al Kidwa, Ahmad Fawzi and Martin Griffiths would all be leaving.

Nesirky claimed he answered the question on August 2 -- if he did, it wasn't understood, if these individuals will stay on with Martti Ahtisaari or whomever -- then turned away from Inner City Press' follow up.

 Click here for the August 2 UN transcript, which even though it calls Inner City Press' detailed questions "inaudible," has Nesirky replying, "I've already answered that point and I said very clearly that the work of the Office of the Joint Special Envoy continues." 

   But with the same people other than Annan? With Fawzi and Kidwa? Of Griffiths we'll have more.

In introducing the resolution, the Saudi Perm Rep said Annan quit because he felt "impotent." Later, Syria's Ja'afari would say that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey arming the rebels forced Annan to quit.

Iran also took this tack, blaming Annan quitting on those Security Council members who said they'd act outside of Council process.

Ecuador said the resolution seeks to change the mandate of the Special Envoy to please some states, and ended up abstaining, as did both India and Pakistan. Serbia voted yes, perhaps the product of the new government.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' Permanent Representative, who also abstained, noted a small but vibrant Syrian & Lebanese community there. One wag later characterized this as a call for tourism or refugees. And so it goes at the UN.

At UN, Correa of Ecuador Mocks Union City Mayor, Says US Business Intact

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 23 -- When Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa held a stakeout at the UN on Friday night, most of the questions were taken in advance, about the pay-to-not-drill environmental project Correa was promoting. Inner City Press did not pre-register any question or itself, but rather sought to ask the old fashioned way.

As the last question at the stakeout, Inner City Press asked Correa about his relations with the United States, and more locally with Union City, which barred him from appearing in a high school. Correa mocked the mayor "whose name I don't know."

Inner City Press said, "Brian Stack." Correa repeated the name, then sarcastically said he would hire him as a publicist, since banning the talk gave rise to more stories, including in Ecuador.

Still it is rare from the UN General Assembly to cause any local ripples beyond traffic, so that question had to be asked.

As to the United States, Correa said that while he had expelled the US Ambassador and the US followed suit, now new envoy had been nominated, and even during the standoff commercial relations continued "almost intact." Now these relations including payments through UNDP not to drill. We'll see.

At UN, Bolivia's Morales Hits Obama "Blackmail" and Lack of Change, "Sign Kyoto"

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/evo1obama050810.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 8 -- "Maybe the color of the skin of the U.S. President has changed," Bolivian President Evo Morales told the Press on Friday, "but nothing else has changed." Video here, from Minute 47:45.

Inner City Press asked Morales about reports in the Latin American press that the U.S. had "blackmailed" Bolivia and Ecuador by cutting off aid for not signing the Copenhagen Accord on climate change. Video here, from Minute 26:24.

Morales confirmed that "Ecuador lost $2 million, and Bolivia lost $3 million," but said these were more than made up for by money from Venezuela and Brazil. "They took away the Millennium Account," he said. "We don't have any trade preferences any more. But we're better off than before."

Last month Morales convened an alternative Copenhagen meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Morales contrasts the non-binding Copenhagen Accord with the previous binding Kyoto protocol. On Friday he said the U.S. is "making a mistake" by cutting aid, that they could cooperate if the U.S. just "signed the Kyoto Protocol."

To Cochabamba, the UN sent its Under Secretary General for Latin America, Alicia Barcena, to attend. She was reportedly booed as she read a statement from Ban Ki-moon, then offered "if you don't want us here, then we will withdraw ... we also represent peoples."

Inner City Press asked Morales if, as requested in connection with the Cochabamba "cumbre," he had raised the issue of the U.S. blackmail to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and if so what Ban had said. Morales did not answer this part of the question.

Since Ban is focused on obtaining a second term, which could be blocked by the U.S., France, UK, Russia or China, it is unlikely he would issue any criticism of the U.S., even about cutting off aid to countries like Bolivia and Ecuador. Millennium Development Goals, indeed.

One issue that was raised in the Morales group's meeting with Ban was the upcoming naming of a new head of the UNFCCC, to lead the UN climate change talks into Cancun. Last week Inner City Press reported, based on tips from well placed Ambassadors, that the UN's short list of four consists of the candidates from Costa Rica, India, South Africa and Hungary. The last is an inside candidate who already works for Ban Ki-moon, Janos Pasztor, who has recused himself from much of his work while seeking the UNFCCC post. We'll see.

Footnote: given Evo Morales' direct attack on Barack Obama, in a televised and well attended UN press conference, one might have expected the US Mission to the UN to have issued some response. (Recent questions posed to the US Mission, about Ambassador Susan Rice not going on this week's Security Council trip to the Congo for example, have done unanswered.) But so far, there's been no statement from the US. We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/evo1obama050810.html

At UN, Indigenous Cite Abuse from Right and Left, Myanmar, U.S. and Ecuador

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un2pfii011410.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 14 -- A review of indigenous people's rights at the UN on July 15 found problems with "militarism" in Myanmar and Colombia, including accusations that indigenous people in active pursuit of land rights are terrorists, and a failure to respect indigenous people's rights by governments of both the right and left.

The State of the World's Indigenous People mentions that in Myanmar, for example, indigenous people were tortured and their community ransacked. Inner City Press asked about Myanmar, and the chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Victoria Tauli-Corpus from the Philippines, bemoaned the support that Asian countries have shown toward Myanmar's military government. The new ASEAN Commission on Human Rights, she argued, would take a closer look.

The UN, it appears, is taking even less of a look at Myanmar. On July 8, Inner City Press asked the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General to comment on a dictum by Than Shwe, Burma's strongman, that voters in the upcoming election had been make the "correct choice."

There being no answer, four days later on January 12 at the noon briefing, Inner City Press put the same question to Spokesman Martin Neskiry. He responded that the statement was old, and that the UN would have no comment. He confirmed that Myanmar is being handled, such as it is, by UN chief of staff Vijay Nambiar.

Meanwhile, Ms. Tauli-Corpus' colleague, from Peru, said that entreaties are being made about American "military bases in Colombia." Ecuador was mentioned -- a leftist government that, in the name of pursuing natural resources, has enraged indigenous groups.

Inner City Press asked Mr. Corpus about the U.S. still not signing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The first time, the question was not answered. On a second pass, expanding to the Copenhagen climate change talks, Ms.Corpus acknowledged that the U.S. negotiators had opposed the inclusion of pro-indigenous language, before relenting and "unbracketing" it.

Not the position one would have predicted. But, Ms. Corpus said, the struggle continues. The Permanent Forum will meeting in the UN's new "UN-KIA" building. And we'll be there.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2pfii011410.html

In UN General Assembly, Egypt's Gaza Text Beats Ecuador's, No Vote for Cape Verde

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/gaza1verde011709.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 17 -- In the UN General Assembly on Friday night, the question asked was who cares more about the people of Palestine? At the end of two days of debate about the war in or on Gaza, there were two competing draft resolutions. GA President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann started it, with a what he called a presidential text. This could only be passed by consensus. After close of business on Friday, it became clear if it hadn't been before that there was no consensus. And then the games began.

D'Escoto withdrew his proposal, and immediately called on the representative of Ecuador. She re-introduced d'Escoto's draft as her own, amending it to demand an unconditional withdrawal from Gaza by Israel. Egypt's Ambassador immediately protested, first saying he had held up his name plate -- or "flag," as he called it -- before "the lovely woman" from Ecuador, as he called her, to groans from many in the audience.

Then he criticized d'Escoto for not putting to the vote a compromise he had reached with the European Union, which also referred to the plight of Israeli civilians. The Permanent Observer of Palestine Riyad Mansour also spoke up for this compromise, urging the Assembly to vote on it and not Ecuador's more divisive proposal. Mansour had told the Press earlier in the day that he thought d'Escoto's draft would pass, "but I'm not saying I'm happy with it." Inner City Press video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdUAg0q21Qc. D'Escoto adjourned the meeting.

Out in the hallway, the Ambassador of Syria spoke to a group of diplomats by the coffee machine. Inner City Press went to the floor of Conference Room 3 to get a copy of Ecuador's just-printed amendments. Various Ambassadors approached to tell Inner City Press that this was "sad" and "another example of how broken the Assembly is." An Arab diplomat said it would be funny if it were on another topic, but not the bombing of Gaza.

A Western Ambassador, Permanent Five member of the Security Council, said that Israel might be best helped by a vote on Ecuador's draft. D'Escoto's spokesman graciously explained the jockeying about the rules, saying Inner City Press should be rewarded for working so hard, and so late. But many Ambassador stayed to nine p.m. The war in or on Gaza has gone on for more than three weeks.

It finally ended with a whimper, not a bang. Egypt called for and won a procedural vote, to put its proposal before that of Ecuador. Then Egypt's and the EU's draft was adopted, and all that was left to fight about was whose vote was mis-recorded, and who hadn't been allowed to vote. Cape Verde's representative screamed that he had, in fact, paid his dues, and anyway was were Afghanistan and Bangladesh allowed to vote? People laughed, and garbage time was entered.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/gaza1verde011709.html