UN Spokesperson Dujarric Spins Iqbal Riza, Stonewalls On GA Request, Press Questions on Nigeria, UN Corruption

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 13 -- When the UN General Assembly, and then the Press, ask the UN Secretariat how many Under Secretaries General there are and what they do, shouldn't Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric be expected to answer? 

  On March 13, Dujarric only answered as to a single USG, stonewalling on the broader issues and even specifically asked about Terje Roed-Larsen and Joseph V. Reed. Welcome to the new UN.

  On March 10 Inner City Press asked new / old UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric about "Iqbal Riza, I still see listed as a high official.  Can you describe what his current mandate, what he has been doing; what is he doing?"

   Dujarric replied, "As for Mr. Riza, I will double-check.  I think I know what his current post is but I don’t want to speculate."

   Later all Dujarric did was insert into the transcript of the March 10 briefing this following: "[The Spokesman later said that Mr. Riza was a Special Adviser to the Secretary-General.]"

  But that doesn't explain at all what Riza has been doing, is doing, to remain an Under Secretary General.

  On on the morning of March 12, Inner City Press wrote to Dujarric asking for an answer before noon -- that is, before 48 hours elapsed since the simple question: "state not only the title (inserted into the transcript) but the current terms of reference, mandate of Mr. Iqbal Riza."

 Dujarric replied, "we are working on the briefing and will not be in a position to answer before noon."

  Three hours later, still no answer to the question. On March 13 -- this time earlier, at 8 am -- Inner City Press asked more:

-While still requesting response with regard to Mr. Roed-Larsen, Mr. Joseph V. Reed et al, here is a more systematic question:

Has the SG yet prepared the guidelines required by Resolution 67/255? Following the GA's decision on $1/year contracts in April 2013, how many individuals currently have $1/year contracts, and who are they?

To assist your answer:

A/RES/67/255 73rd plenary meeting 12 April 2013 excerpt

...63. Stresses that one-dollar-a-year contracts should be granted only under exceptional circumstances and be limited to high-level appointments, and requests the Secretary-General to prepare guidelines regarding the use of these contracts, along the same lines of those established for when-actually-employed appointments, and to report thereon, in the context of his next overview report, to the General Assembly at the main part of its sixty-ninth session;

   Instead of answering these question, eight hours after they were asked, Dujarric's office sent only this response:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Mar 13, 2014 at 4:31 PM
Subject: Your question on Iqbal Riza
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Cc: Stephane Dujarric [at] un.org

Regarding your emailed questions today, we have the following to add about Iqbal Riza:

After the Alliance of Civilizations was launched in 2005 by the Prime Ministers of Spain and Turkey, Secretary-General Kofi Annan assigned Iqbal Riza to work with the co-sponsors and to advise him on the progress of the initiative. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked Mr Riza to continue in the assignment, under a dollar a year arrangement. Mr Riza keeps the Secretary-General apprised of the progress of the Alliance of Civilizations initiative, providing advice as appropriate, and also complies with any other tasks assigned by the Secretary-General.

As for the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), it continues to go about its mandated tasks on the ground.

  What about the General Assembly's directive? What about the report? What about Roed-Larsen and Joseph V. Reed? What about the Nigeria and UN corruption questions asked?The UN is hitting new lows daily of late.

   Consider: for an appearance in Lahore to moderate a Mahbub ul Haq lecture, Riza was listed as "former Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations."

   But he's still listed as a USG. How long was he or has he been in Lahore, where he was listed for another event in February 2014? Dujarric and his office should have answered this. There are other questions pending.

   When Augustine Mahiga was replaced last June as the UN's envoy in Somalia by Nicholas Kay of the UK, little was said of where Mahiga would go next. 

   Inner City Press on March 8 reported that Mahiga was given a little known Under Secretary General position, called "Under-Secretary-General, Mediator-in-Residence, DPA’s Mediator Debriefing and Lessons Learned Program."

   Inner City Press asked several well-placed UN officials who had, until asked, no idea that Mahiga had stayed with the UN, much less at the USG level. "Incredible," said one source who requested anonymity to keep his own UN position.

  On March 10 Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's new spokesperson Stephane Dujarric (who previously spoke for Kofi Annan) about this quiet job-giving, to Mahiga and also Margaret Vogt formerly the UN envoy to Central African Republic. Inner City Press also asked what former Annan official Iqbal Riza is doing, still on the payroll under Ban Ki-moon.

   Later in the briefing Dujarric was handed a piece of paper ("Oil for Food," one long-time correspondent joked) and he read out on Mahiga and Vogt that the Department of Political Affairs sometimes keeps outgoing envoys on, for lessons learned.

  Are they paid, as Mahiga is listed, at the Under Secretary General rate? And in the case of Mahiga, for nine months and counting? And what about Iqbal Riza? 

Mahiga shakes with Ban: (well) before "secret" USG post, by UN Photo

   The affable Mahiga was panned by Somalis inside the country and in the diaspora, for example during this Inner City Press reporting trip to Minneapolis in 2010.  More recently, Mahiga was the (only) source for US Voice of America story about Somalia, here.

   But do departing UN envoys have a right to stay on in little known USG positions? As another source asked, Is Alan Doss still getting paid somewhere by the UN?

  This comes in a UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon which, even as it evades responsibility for cholera in Haiti, talks a lot of accountability and even transparency. How many other "secret" USGs are there? We'll have more on this.

   When UN Secretary General performed the annual ritual signing of the Compacts with his Under Secretaries General on February 13 amid the snow, three USGs were not present either in person or on video: Angela Kane, Joan Clos of HABITAT, and Jeffrey Feltman. 

  Given the recently leaked audio of US official Victoria Nuland recounting how Feltman "got" Ban to sent Robert Serry to Ukraine, it seems worth asking with all due respect: where is he?

  Those present posed for a group photograph, tweeted hereby Inner City Press, and then came up one by one to sign their Compacts and shake hands with Ban and his deputy, Jan Eliasson. For the first signer, former Egyptian Permanent Representative and now Special Adviser on Africa Maged Abdelaziz, Ban didn't stand up, so the handshake was repeated at the end.

  Ban, introduced by his chief of staff Susana Malcorra, made much of transparency, of making all this available through the press to the public. But a quick review of Ban's "financial disclosure" web site finds, for example, that Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous has refused to make any public financial disclosure, stating that "in accordance with General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/238, I have chosen to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed in my financial disclosure statement."

  Ladsous also refuses to answer Press questions, most recently on what the UN position is on Ugandan troops remaining in South Sudan, and before that about the mass rapes in Minova by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army. Video compilation here; UK coverage here.

  Ban's Children and Armed Conflict envoy Leila Zerrougui was there; by contrast, her Office made the inconvenient report that the Free Syrian Army recruits and uses child soldiers, and she has offered the Press an interview about it. Also there, on screen from Geneva, was Navi "Half Term"Pillay who had the honesty to report on January 20 that the French decision to first disarm the ex Seleka in Central African Republic put Muslim communities at risk.

  The UN should be open, and questions as with Feltman about a former diplomat's connection with his or her country cannot be off limits or considered "insinuation."

  Amazingly, though, when Ban did a question and answer session with 15 mostly Gulf and Western correspondents,afterward no tape or transcript was provided, despite aformal request from the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which is focused on opening up the UN to the press and public. And it was confirmed that none of the 15 even asked about Feltman, Ukraine and the Nuland leak. How not?

  Carman Lapointe of the Office of Oversight Services was there, even though the Secretariat says it can't speak for her of OIOIS, even refusing yet to say if OIOS is appealing the UN Dispute Tribunal decision which recounts that Michael Dudley of OIOS investigations acknowledged altering evidence after Inner City Press uncovered the distribution of Valium by UN Medical Service personnel with no New York State licensed. Is there immunity for that? 

 Has the UN received and accepted process of the legal papers for bringing cholera to Haiti? This was asked at the February 13 noon briefing. It will be a litmus test for accountability, and for transparency. Watch this site.

   

50 Hours After UN Is Asked, What Does Iqbal Riza Do As a USG, No Answer, Called "Former" at Haq Lecture in Pakistan

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 12 -- For someone to remain a UN Under Secretary General, shouldn't the UN be able within 48 hours to explain what it is they do?

  On March 10 Inner City Press asked new / old UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric about "Iqbal Riza, I still see listed as a high official.  Can you describe what his current mandate, what he has been doing; what is he doing?"

   Dujarric replied, "As for Mr. Riza, I will double-check.  I think I know what his current post is but I don’t want to speculate."

   Later all Dujarric did was insert into the transcript of the March 10 briefing this following: "[The Spokesman later said that Mr. Riza was a Special Adviser to the Secretary-General.]"

  But that doesn't explain at all what Riza has been doing, is doing, to remain an Under Secretary General.

  On on the morning of March 12, Inner City Press wrote to Dujarric asking for an answer before noon -- that is, before 48 hours elapsed since the simple question: "state not only the title (inserted into the transcript) but the current terms of reference, mandate of Mr. Iqbal Riza."

 Dujarric replied, "we are working on the briefing and will not be in a position to answer before noon."

  Three hours later, still no answer to the question asked fifty-one hours ago. And so consider: for an appearance in Lahore to moderate a Mahbub ul Haq lecture, Riza was listed as "former Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations."

   But he's still listed as a USG. How long was he or has he been in Lahore, where he was listed for another event in February 2014? Dujarric and his office should have answered this, in fifty one hours and counting. There are other questions pending.

   When Augustine Mahiga was replaced last June as the UN's envoy in Somalia by Nicholas Kay of the UK, little was said of where Mahiga would go next. 

   Inner City Press on March 8 reported that Mahiga was given a little known Under Secretary General position, called "Under-Secretary-General, Mediator-in-Residence, DPA’s Mediator Debriefing and Lessons Learned Program."

   Inner City Press asked several well-placed UN officials who had, until asked, no idea that Mahiga had stayed with the UN, much less at the USG level. "Incredible," said one source who requested anonymity to keep his own UN position.

  On March 10 Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's new spokesperson Stephane Dujarric (who previously spoke for Kofi Annan) about this quiet job-giving, to Mahiga and also Margaret Vogt formerly the UN envoy to Central African Republic. Inner City Press also asked what former Annan official Iqbal Riza is doing, still on the payroll under Ban Ki-moon.

   Later in the briefing Dujarric was handed a piece of paper ("Oil for Food," one long-time correspondent joked) and he read out on Mahiga and Vogt that the Department of Political Affairs sometimes keeps outgoing envoys on, for lessons learned.

  Are they paid, as Mahiga is listed, at the Under Secretary General rate? And in the case of Mahiga, for nine months and counting? And what about Iqbal Riza? 

Mahiga shakes with Ban: (well) before "secret" USG post, by UN Photo

   The affable Mahiga was panned by Somalis inside the country and in the diaspora, for example during this Inner City Press reporting trip to Minneapolis in 2010.  More recently, Mahiga was the (only) source for US Voice of America story about Somalia, here.

   But do departing UN envoys have a right to stay on in little known USG positions? As another source asked, Is Alan Doss still getting paid somewhere by the UN?

  This comes in a UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon which, even as it evades responsibility for cholera in Haiti, talks a lot of accountability and even transparency. How many other "secret" USGs are there? We'll have more on this.

   When UN Secretary General performed the annual ritual signing of the Compacts with his Under Secretaries General on February 13 amid the snow, three USGs were not present either in person or on video: Angela Kane, Joan Clos of HABITAT, and Jeffrey Feltman. 

  Given the recently leaked audio of US official Victoria Nuland recounting how Feltman "got" Ban to sent Robert Serry to Ukraine, it seems worth asking with all due respect: where is he?

  Those present posed for a group photograph, tweeted hereby Inner City Press, and then came up one by one to sign their Compacts and shake hands with Ban and his deputy, Jan Eliasson. For the first signer, former Egyptian Permanent Representative and now Special Adviser on Africa Maged Abdelaziz, Ban didn't stand up, so the handshake was repeated at the end.

  Ban, introduced by his chief of staff Susana Malcorra, made much of transparency, of making all this available through the press to the public. But a quick review of Ban's "financial disclosure" web site finds, for example, that Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous has refused to make any public financial disclosure, stating that "in accordance with General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/238, I have chosen to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed in my financial disclosure statement."

  Ladsous also refuses to answer Press questions, most recently on what the UN position is on Ugandan troops remaining in South Sudan, and before that about the mass rapes in Minova by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army. Video compilation here; UK coverage here.

  Ban's Children and Armed Conflict envoy Leila Zerrougui was there; by contrast, her Office made the inconvenient report that the Free Syrian Army recruits and uses child soldiers, and she has offered the Press an interview about it. Also there, on screen from Geneva, was Navi "Half Term"Pillay who had the honesty to report on January 20 that the French decision to first disarm the ex Seleka in Central African Republic put Muslim communities at risk.

  The UN should be open, and questions as with Feltman about a former diplomat's connection with his or her country cannot be off limits or considered "insinuation."

  Amazingly, though, when Ban did a question and answer session with 15 mostly Gulf and Western correspondents,afterward no tape or transcript was provided, despite aformal request from the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which is focused on opening up the UN to the press and public. And it was confirmed that none of the 15 even asked about Feltman, Ukraine and the Nuland leak. How not?

  Carman Lapointe of the Office of Oversight Services was there, even though the Secretariat says it can't speak for her of OIOIS, even refusing yet to say if OIOS is appealing the UN Dispute Tribunal decision which recounts that Michael Dudley of OIOS investigations acknowledged altering evidence after Inner City Press uncovered the distribution of Valium by UN Medical Service personnel with no New York State licensed. Is there immunity for that? 

 Has the UN received and accepted process of the legal papers for bringing cholera to Haiti? This was asked at the February 13 noon briefing. It will be a litmus test for accountability, and for transparency. Watch this site.

   

From Somalia, Nick Kay Answers on Sanctions Verification Proposal, But UN In NY Won't Say Where Mahiga's Lessons Are

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 12 -- Nicholas Kay in Somalia replaced Augustine Mahiga as UN envoy was he left on June 3, 2013. 

  On March 12, Inner City Press asked Kay to state any benefit he has gotten for Mahiga getting paid for nine months now as a US Under Secretary General, for his "lessons learned."

  New UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric on March 10 called these nine months a "short while;" he was asked to describe what another stealth USG Iqbal Riza does and returned only with a four word title, inserted in brackets into the transcript, no follow-up: "[The Spokesman later said that Mr. Riza was a Special Adviser to the Secretary-General.]"

  Kay on March 12, even on Twitter, responded: "In my personal view Mahiga did a great job as SRSG. Not able to comment on his subsequent appointment."

  While appreciated, there's a follow-up: what Dujarric calls Mahiga's "lessons learned," paid at a USG rate for nine months now, are presumably to benefit the UN in Somalia. That is, Kay. What are the lessons learned?  Where are the lessons learned?

  Inner City Press also asked Kay for his view on the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group proposal to include a verification team in the UNSOM. 

 This question, UNSOM responded to: "Res[olution] 2142 asked for recommendations within 30 days. Team is coming to look at all options."

  Neither AMISOM nor Kay answered this follow up, quoting the most recent SEMG report: "what of getting banned from Villa Somalia & Villa Baidoa on January 23?"

  Still, there was a response to both questions, even from Somalia, even by Twitter. Ban Ki-moon's new spokesperson Dujarric, by contrast, at this first in-person briefing on March 10 promised answers, then inserted Riza's four word title into the transcript.

  On Twitter, the French Mission to the UN congratulated "le Francais" Dujarric; on Ukraine, Dujurric tellingly praised a French spokesperson's "analysis" of Crimea - but no answers on France still selling Russia Mistral warships. This is the new UN, at least the new UN Headquarters. Where is Mahiga?

When Mahiga was replaced last June by Kay as the UN's envoy in Somalia, little was said of where Mahiga would go next. 

   Inner City Press on March 8 reported that Mahiga was given a little known Under Secretary General position, called "Under-Secretary-General, Mediator-in-Residence, DPA’s Mediator Debriefing and Lessons Learned Program."

   Inner City Press asked several well-placed UN officials who had, until asked, no idea that Mahiga had stayed with the UN, much less at the USG level. "Incredible," said one source who requested anonymity to keep his own UN position.

  On March 10 Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's new spokesperson Stephane Dujarric (who previously spoke for Kofi Annan) about this quiet job-giving, to Mahiga and also Margaret Vogt formerly the UN envoy to Central African Republic. Inner City Press also asked what former Annan official Iqbal Riza is doing, still on the payroll under Ban Ki-moon.

   Later in the briefing Dujarric was handed a piece of paper ("Oil for Food," one long-time correspondent joked) and he read out on Mahiga and Vogt that the Department of Political Affairs sometimes keeps outgoing envoys on, for lessons learned.

  Are they paid, as Mahiga is listed, at the Under Secretary General rate? And in the case of Mahiga, for nine months and counting? And what about Iqbal Riza? 

Mahiga shakes with Ban: (well) before "secret" USG post, by UN Photo

   The affable Mahiga was panned by Somalis inside the country and in the diaspora, for example during this Inner City Press reporting trip to Minneapolis in 2010.  More recently, Mahiga was the (only) source for US Voice of America story about Somalia, here.

   But do departing UN envoys have a right to stay on in little known USG positions? As another source asked, Is Alan Doss still getting paid somewhere by the UN?

  This comes in a UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon which, even as it evades responsibility for cholera in Haiti, talks a lot of accountability and even transparency. How many other "secret" USGs are there? We'll have more on this.

   When UN Secretary General performed the annual ritual signing of the Compacts with his Under Secretaries General on February 13 amid the snow, three USGs were not present either in person or on video: Angela Kane, Joan Clos of HABITAT, and Jeffrey Feltman. 

  Given the recently leaked audio of US official Victoria Nuland recounting how Feltman "got" Ban to sent Robert Serry to Ukraine, it seems worth asking with all due respect: where is he?

  Those present posed for a group photograph, tweeted hereby Inner City Press, and then came up one by one to sign their Compacts and shake hands with Ban and his deputy, Jan Eliasson. For the first signer, former Egyptian Permanent Representative and now Special Adviser on Africa Maged Abdelaziz, Ban didn't stand up, so the handshake was repeated at the end.

  Ban, introduced by his chief of staff Susana Malcorra, made much of transparency, of making all this available through the press to the public. But a quick review of Ban's "financial disclosure" web site finds, for example, that Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous has refused to make any public financial disclosure, stating that "in accordance with General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/238, I have chosen to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed in my financial disclosure statement."

  Ladsous also refuses to answer Press questions, most recently on what the UN position is on Ugandan troops remaining in South Sudan, and before that about the mass rapes in Minova by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army. Video compilation here; UK coverage here.

  Ban's Children and Armed Conflict envoy Leila Zerrougui was there; by contrast, her Office made the inconvenient report that the Free Syrian Army recruits and uses child soldiers, and she has offered the Press an interview about it. Also there, on screen from Geneva, was Navi "Half Term"Pillay who had the honesty to report on January 20 that the French decision to first disarm the ex Seleka in Central African Republic put Muslim communities at risk.

  The UN should be open, and questions as with Feltman about a former diplomat's connection with his or her country cannot be off limits or considered "insinuation."

  Amazingly, though, when Ban did a question and answer session with 15 mostly Gulf and Western correspondents,afterward no tape or transcript was provided, despite aformal request from the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which is focused on opening up the UN to the press and public. And it was confirmed that none of the 15 even asked about Feltman, Ukraine and the Nuland leak. How not?

  Carman Lapointe of the Office of Oversight Services was there, even though the Secretariat says it can't speak for her of OIOIS, even refusing yet to say if OIOS is appealing the UN Dispute Tribunal decision which recounts that Michael Dudley of OIOS investigations acknowledged altering evidence after Inner City Press uncovered the distribution of Valium by UN Medical Service personnel with no New York State licensed. Is there immunity for that? 

 Has the UN received and accepted process of the legal papers for bringing cholera to Haiti? This was asked at the February 13 noon briefing. It will be a litmus test for accountability, and for transparency. Watch this site.

  

UN Says Under Secretary General Post to Mahiga for Lessons Learned - But For 9 Months Now? Of Margaret Vogt & Iqbal Riza

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 10 -- When Augustine Mahiga was replaced last June as the UN's envoy in Somalia by Nicholas Kay of the UK, little was said of what Mahiga would go next. 

   Inner City Press on March 8 reported that Mahiga was given a little known Under Secretary General position, called "Under-Secretary-General, Mediator-in-Residence, DPA’s Mediator Debriefing and Lessons Learned Program."

   Inner City Press asked several well-placed UN officials who had, until asked, no idea that Mahiga had stayed with the UN, much was at the USG level. "Incredible," said one source who requested anonymity to keep his own UN position.

  On March 10 Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's new spokesperson Stephane Dujarric (who previously spoke for Kofi Annan) about his quiet job-giving, to Mahiga and also Margaret Vogt formerly the UN envoy to Central African Republic. Inner City Press also asked what former Annan official Iqbal Riza is doing, still on the payroll under Ban Ki-moon.

   Later in the briefing Dujarric was handed a piece of paper ("Oil for Food," one long-time correspondent joked) and he read out on Mahiga and Vogt that the Department of Political Affairs sometimes keeps outgoing envoys on, for lessons learned.

  Are they paid, as Mahiga is listed, at the Under Secretary General rate? And in the case of Mahiga, for nine months and counting? And what about Iqbal Riza? 

Mahiga shakes with Ban: (well) before "secret" USG post, by UN Photo

   The affable Mahiga was panned by Somalis inside the country and in the diaspora, for example during this Inner City Press reporting trip to Minneapolis in 2010.  More recently, Mahiga was the (only) source for US Voice of America story about Somalia, here.

   But do departing UN envoys have a right to stay on in little known USG positions? As another source asked, Is Alan Doss still getting paid somewhere by the UN?

  This comes in a UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon which, even as it evades responsibility for cholera in Haiti, talks a lot of accountability and even transparency. How many other "secret" USGs are there? We'll have more on this.

   When UN Secretary General performed the annual ritual signing of the Compacts with his Under Secretaries General on February 13 amid the snow, three USGs were not present either in person or on video: Angela Kane, Joan Clos of HABITAT, and Jeffrey Feltman. 

  Given the recently leaked audio of US official Victoria Nuland recounting how Feltman "got" Ban to sent Robert Serry to Ukraine, it seems worth asking with all due respect: where is he?

  Those present posed for a group photograph, tweeted hereby Inner City Press, and then came up one by one to sign their Compacts and shake hands with Ban and his deputy, Jan Eliasson. For the first signer, former Egyptian Permanent Representative and now Special Adviser on Africa Maged Abdelaziz, Ban didn't stand up, so the handshake was repeated at the end.

  Ban, introduced by his chief of staff Susana Malcorra, made much of transparency, of making all this available through the press to the public. But a quick review of Ban's "financial disclosure" web site finds, for example, that Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous has refused to make any public financial disclosure, stating that "in accordance with General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/238, I have chosen to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed in my financial disclosure statement."

  Ladsous also refuses to answer Press questions, most recently on what the UN position is on Ugandan troops remaining in South Sudan, and before that about the mass rapes in Minova by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army. Video compilation here; UK coverage here.

  Ban's Children and Armed Conflict envoy Leila Zerrougui was there; by contrast, her Office made the inconvenient report that the Free Syrian Army recruits and uses child soldiers, and she has offered the Press an interview about it. Also there, on screen from Geneva, was Navi "Half Term"Pillay who had the honesty to report on January 20 that the French decision to first disarm the ex Seleka in Central African Republic put Muslim communities at risk.

  The UN should be open, and questions as with Feltman about a former diplomat's connection with his or her country cannot be off limits or considered "insinuation."

  Amazingly, though, when Ban this week did a question and answer session with 15 mostly Gulf and Western correspondents, afterward no tape or transcript was provided, despite a formal request from the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which is focused on opening up the UN to the press and public. And it was confirmed that none of the 15 even asked about Feltman, Ukraine and the Nuland leak. How not?

  Carman Lapointe of the Office of Oversight Services was there, even though the Secretariat says it can't speak for her of OIOIS, even refusing yet to say if OIOS is appealing the UN Dispute Tribunal decision which recounts that Michael Dudley of OIOS investigations acknowledged altering evidence after Inner City Press uncovered the distribution of Valium by UN Medical Service personnel with no New York State licensed. Is there immunity for that? 

 Has the UN received and accepted process of the legal papers for bringing cholera to Haiti? This was asked at the February 13 noon briefing. It will be a litmus test for accountability, and for transparency. Watch this site.

   

UN Senior Advisor Kim Won-Soo's Wife Employed by S. Korean Mission, Envoy Larsen's Spouse Also Works for Norway, No Disclosure in Spousal Loophole

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un3findisclosed013008.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 30 -- While UN officials are prohibited from receiving benefits or housing subsidies from governments, the wife of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's chief advisor Kim Won-soo works for the South Korean mission to the UN, raising unanswered policy questions under and about the UN's rules. On January 24, UN deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe announced that, as Ban had requested, a number of his senior officials were making available online portions of their financial disclosure forms. Kim's form discloses a "house, joint with spouse, Republic of Korea." Income from the Korean Foreign Ministry is described as in the past, as is "Outside Activity" connected with the Korean Foreign Ministry. Kim's entry in the UN's list of senior officials names his spouse, Mrs. Park Enna. The UN's publication, Permanent Missions of the UN, lists as a Counselor for the Republic of Korea the same Mrs. Park Enna.

Questions about UN officials receiving benefits, directly or indirectly, from their governments have been multiplying this year. On January 10, Inner City Press published a story about a UN Development Program official, Eveline Herfkens, who was receiving housing subsidy from the Dutch government. At that day's UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Michele Montas about Ms. Herfkens, and if Ban as Secretary General believes that no UN official should receive housing or any other benefit from a government. "Definitely," Ms. Montas answered.

On January 15, after Ms. Herfkens belatedly admitted receiving the subsidy, Inner City Press again asked Ms. Montas about the prohibition's applicability throughout the UN, and whether any exceptions had been granted. Ms. Montas replied that "it is the rule that no staff member should receive... any subsidies from their own Government. All senior officials who requested were told that there was no way that the UN would accept exceptions and that there would be no subsidies to be accepted."

But what if the subsidy is given to or through the UN official's spouse? How is this possibility dealt with, and what safeguards and public disclosures are in place? On January 29, having conducted a review of the online public disclosures, Inner City Press asked UN deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe the generic question, without satisfaction, and asked about Mr. Kim's situation. Three times Ms. Okabe said she was looking into it, and was awaiting an answer. Similar information on other, less connected officials was provided much faster. But this one, clearly, was sensitive.

To broaden the inquiry, and in fairness to Kim Won-soo, consider that Terje Roed-Larsen, Ban's Special Envoy for the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, is listed as the husband of an ambassador with Norway's UN Mission, Mrs. Mona Juul. As an Under Secretary General, Roed-Larsen was asked by Ban to make a public financial disclosure, but his name is not including in the online list. Ms. Okabe has provided an explanation of the list, that "available on the SG's website is the current list of those senior UN officials who have elected to provide a public summary of their disclosure in accordance with the Policy on Voluntary Public Disclosure." Since the list includes, as participants, even officials like Oil for Food figure Iqbal Riza who marked his form "I choose to maintain confidentiality," it seems fair to conclude the Roed-Larsen has not "elected to provide a public summary" of any kind.

Again in fairness, there appears to be some misunderstanding by senior UN officials. Number two UN peacekeeping official Edmond Mulet, whose name is not on the list, wrote to Inner City Press on Wednesday that "I am not certain what you are referring to, since I made my financial report long time ago. I am now traveling and unable to answer your queries but I will ask my colleagues in NY to follow-up with you." The on-the-road response was appreciated, but no follow-up was received. UNDP, meanwhile, responded that official Kathleen "Cravero fully participated in the financial disclosure program. The PricewaterhouseCoopers External Financial Disclosure Office for the United Nations informed Ms. Cravero that... the electronic version of her disclosure form will be on-line shortly." But while there are other UNDP names on the list, without links to any forms, Ms. Cravero's name does not appear.

On January 29, Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff about the failures to file public financial disclosure. Amb. Wolff called this "regrettable." Asked if a government's payments to the spouse of a UN official violates the prohibition on housing subsidy, Amb. Wolff said, "That's a very good question" that deserves to be inquired into. But inquiries over two days with the UN spokesperson's office have yet to obtain a clear statement, or factual answers to the questions about the situation of, and the application of the rules to, Ban's Deputy Chief of Staff.

In a written response to Inner City Press' specific questions about UN officials' housing subsidies received by or through a spouse, Ms. Okabe provided a statements that "there is no need to publicly disclose their private interests." Inner City Press asked if Ethics Office director Robert Benson could come and provide a briefing to UN correspondents about the omissions in the financial disclosures. Ms. Okabe first said that given the written explanation, no briefing should be necessary, then the following day suggested that questions be put directly Mr. Benson directly, who she said was prepared to answer them. Inner City Press submitted such questions to Benson, but by deadline had received no response. Inner City Press reiterated to Ms. Okabe that questions about the public financial disclosures and employment arrangements of senior Secretariat officials should be answered by the Secretariat's spokesperson's office, on the record.

News analysis: That there is confusion as the UN implements even mild public financial disclosure may be understandable. But to fail to recognize or acknowledge that the exclusion of all spousal information may open a loophole that undermines the disclosure, and to fail to provide by midnight simple answers to factual questions posed before noon about potential conflicts of interest and government's arrangements with UN officials' spouses, is unacceptable. If and when answers are provided, they will be given coverage on this site. Developing.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un3findisclosed013008.html