In Central Asia, UN Office Ignores Human Rights While Presiding Over Car Bombs

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 7 -- As the UN bragged of counter terrorism on Tuesday, its envoy to Central Asia Miroslav Jenca dodged questions about use and misuse of the label of terrorist in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and the first suicide car bombing in Central Asia, last week in Tajikistan.

Inner City Press asked Jenca what he and his Regional Office in Turkmenistan are doing to protect the rights of ethnic Uzbeks chased by pogroms into Uzbekistan, only to be detained by the government of Islam Karimov as terrorists?

Even before Jenca could reply, the UN's helpful director of Counter Terrorism Jean-Paul Laborde cut in to remind that human rights are the domain of High Commissioner Pillay, and Jenca need not answer. He did not. Video here.

But the protection of human rights, on paper, is the Fourth Pillar of the UN's “Counter Terrorism Strategy.” Of course, the UN can't even define terrorism. But they sense a freight or gravy train moving on the concept, and so they get on board (or Laborde, as one wag put it.)

For months the UN had dodged on the question of whether Jenca and his office are involved in the investigation of the causes of the violence in southern Kyrgyzstan. Tuesday Inner City Press asked Jenca himself. He said this is beyond the mandate of his office.

Since his office is hardly involved in the major issue of water wars between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, what exactly is he doing? Watch this site.

In Wake of Ethnic Cleansing, Dubious Kyrgyz Referendum Supported by UN -- and U.S.?

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un7kyrgyz061610.html

UNITED NATIONS, June 16 -- Despite over 100,000 ethnic Uzbeks having been forced by violence out of Kyrgyzstan, the UN's man in Turkmenistan Miroslav Jenca has said the UN supports still holding the country's post-coup referendum on June 27.

Inner City Press asked UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq on June 16 is this might not be rewarding ethnic cleansing, and whether the UN believed that those who had to flee Kyrgyzstan should be allowed to vote in the referendum:

Inner City Press: with this number of people displaced and shooting still going on, what would the UN say to those who say that an ethnic minority that’s being targeted here won’t be able to vote in the referendum, thereby rendering it less than legitimate?

Associate Spokesperson: As far as that goes, yes, Mr. Jenca does believe that the referendum needs to go ahead. Our Electoral Affairs Division also is supportive of this. We realize the challenges, given the level of displacement, but the Electoral Division is in touch with the relevant electoral bodies in Kyrgyzstan and we’re trying to see what alternatives can be done to make sure that people exercise their right to vote.

Inner City Press: Do you believe that the 100,000 Kyrgyz citizens now in Uzbekistani camps should be allowed to vote in the election?

Associate Spokesperson: We believe that all steps should be taken to make sure that all of the Kyrgyz population can vote. The question, you’re right, there is a very strong logistical challenge at this stage, and we’ll have to see how that can be resolved. But our electoral people are in touch with the relevant authorities in Kyrgyzstan on this.

Inner City Press: Mr. Jenca, from his statement that it must go forward, it seems like he thought that it’s been resolved, or is he saying that it should go forward if it’s resolved or…?

Associate Spokesperson: He believes that, at this current stage, there is a series of options, all which have their difficulties and their problems. And the best way forward is to continue with the referendum, and try to address all the various challenges that have been caused by this displacement.

The referendum would install Roza Otunbayeva -- a former UN staffer -- in power through 2011, and approve Constitutional changes. To do so weeks after ethnic cleansing raises questions. What is the position of the United States, whose Robert Blake is headed to Bishkek this week? As Uzbeks call it ethnic cleansing or "attempted genocide," what does the US war crimes off, or Samantha Power, have to say?

More from the rest of the UN transcript:

Inner City Press: on this readout of the Secretary-General’s call with Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan. Am I misreading it? Did he ask that the border be opened so that people there that still are facing violence are able to cross or did he not?

Associate Spokesperson: Just to read back the readout, which we just got, he said that he highly appreciated Uzbekistan’s constructive efforts in addressing the alarming humanitarian situation in Kyrgyzstan, particularly in opening the border for refugees and providing for their care despite limited resources.

Inner City Press: Why did they report that it was open at first and then it was closed? Is it open or closed?

Associate Spokesperson: As we’ve said in the last couple of days, there were contradictory reports on this. We’ve been getting information on UNHCR, and like I said, the Secretary-General just earlier today spoke with President Karimov and this is the readout that I have.

Question: [inaudible] what about this report that this crisis was deliberately triggered off, that report by the United Nations?

Associate Spokesperson: This is from comments that were made by my counterpart at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville. I’d just refer you back to Mr. Colville’s remarks, where he talked about identifying five specific incidents of attacks a few days ago. And that’s part of the public record that we have in our briefing notes from there.

How can the UN say that an attempted genocide or ethnic cleansing was planned, without saying who planned it? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un7kyrgyz061610.html

In Central Asia, UN Ban Blind to Corruption, Skips Prisoners Rights and Water Wars

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
www.innercitypress.com/ban1centas040310.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 3 -- As the UN's Ban Ki-moon traipses Central Asia, what of political prisoners, UN hiring scandals and simmering cross border conflicts? Apparently for the UN Secretary General, these don't exist. Before Ban started his trip, Inner City Press asked why the UN was not even to solve the dam-based conflict between Tajkistan and Uzbekisan. Don't call it a conflict, Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky said. What what should it be called?

As Inner City Press has reported, Uzbekistan opposes the Tajik dam so much it shut the country's border. Why isn't the vaunted Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia involved?

A UN source alleging corruption in the UNRCCA notes

On the website of the Center, there is not a single word about the Dam. but there is a tender announcement for the fitness equipment for the gymnasium at the UNRCCA building - the former elite Demiryolchy Hotel. The question is whether the procurement of the fitness equipment is reconciled with the UN budget rules and regulations, or whether it is a good UN background for the unsolved Dam conflict.

http://unrcca.unmissions.org/ the left click Tenders http://unrcca.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=4319

At Tnders page you could see translation: The Regional UN Center (UNRCCA) announces the tender: Fitness equipment for the gymnesium)

http://unrcca.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=4319&ctl=Details&mid=4408&ItemID=8098

http://unrcca.unmissions.org/portals/unrcca/gym.pdf is set of pictures.

Meanwhile

Miloslav Jenca (Slovakia), SRSG and head of UNRCCA, has published an article “Developments in Central Asia and the role of the UNRCCA” in International Issues & Slovak Foreign Policy AffairsIssue no.02 /2009, Publisher: Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA)

The curiosity is that it can be read only if the reader would pay 25 Euro (€) in advance (from each the price of Jenca’s article would be taken). Click here. the UN staff in general and of Jenca’s status in particular are not supposed to publish the UN related staff for money (not saying about other connotations).

Turkmenistan would be the first country in the SG tour – 2 April (would SRSG Jenca inform the SG of the fitness equipment tendered – especially of the ball to play at the beach?

In the Fall of 2009, Inner City Press asked and was given the run-around about a hiring scandal in this Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia. Inner City Press posed this question in writing:

In a message dated 8/27/2009 3:50:47 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, montas [at] un.org writes:
Please refer your DPA questions to Jared Kotler

I've been referred to you for a response to the allegations below concerning hiring in the Regional Center in Turkmenistan (the United Nations Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia).Also, please tell me when Jan Egeland's job with DPA ended, what he did during his tenure and how much he was paid.

on the RCPDCA, while here is more to this story, but let's start on deadline with confirmation or denial of the below:

During 2005-2007 Mr. Miloslav Jenca, Slovakia , worked in Tashkent as the OSCE Head of Office/OSCE Project Co-coordinator in Uzbekistan together with Ms. Polina Pomogalova , Uzbekistan , as his local general support staff:

http://www.osce.org/uzbekistan/photos.html?lsi=true&src=22&limit=6&pos=36

Mr.Jenca at OSCE, Uzbekistan

http://www.osce.org/documents/eea/2007/10/27048_en.pdf

Ms. Polina Pomogalova at OSCE, Uzbekisan, page 3

In December 2007 the UNRCCA ( United Nations Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia) was inaugurated by Lynn Pascoe, DPA in Ashgabat.

In April 2008 Mr. Miloslav Jenca was appointed UNRCCA Head and SRSG, (“…Mr.. Jenca, currently the Director of the Office of Slovakia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, recently served as head of mission for the OSCE centre in Tashkent , Uzbekistan …”)

Soon after this Ms. Polina Pomogalova was appointed the Personal Assistant to the SRSG Jenca at UNRCCA: see the UNRCCA web site:

http://unrcca.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1995

“…Ms. Polina Pomogalova, Personal Assistant to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General Ambassador Jenca…”

Question: How could it be that Polina Pomogalova without a single day of the UN experience was shortlisted for an interview by PMSS while other candidates with the extensive UN experience in Central Asia and technically cleared to the positions of this category were not included? How could it be that the UNRCCA interview board recommended exactly Polina Pomogalova? The answer seems clear: she was the protégé of SRSG Jenca and it was he who had arranged everything.

Again, there is more to this story, but let's start on deadline with what is the UN's / DPA's . the Center's response?

The majority of the above was simply never responded to, just as the UN's Department of Political Affairs refused to respond to or address nepotism and hiring scandals in its Africa II unit and the Central African Republic. This lack of accountability extends to the UN's approach to human rights.

As Ban left on April 1, Inner City Press asked his Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq if Ban would visit political prisoners:

Inner City Press: In terms of the Secretary-General’s trip through Central Asia, I’m wondering, various groups, including Human Rights Watch, have said this is an opportunity for him to address issues such as, in Uzbekistan, the failure to prosecute anyone for the Andijon massacre, as well as the abuse of political prisoners, religious minorities and others. What is the place of the issue of human rights in the Secretary-General’s trip, and specifically, is he going to raise Andijon while he is in Uzbekistan?

Associate Spokesperson Haq: I’m not going to get ahead of the Uzbekistan portion of the trip before it happens. What I will say is: it’s always clear whenever the Secretary-General visits countries that human rights, international humanitarian law and other norms are always part of what he discusses with his interlocutors. He certainly plans to do that over the course of his trip to Central Asia. And one of the things that he is going to do in the various countries that he visits is to reach out to civil society. As you know, civil society organizations have been developing in many of these countries. We will provide you with the details of those visits as they transpire. There is nothing really to say about them just yet.

Inner City Press: There are fairly high-profile, what are called political prisoners, although the Governments disagree in both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and I am wondering, does he have, when he says he’s going to reach out to civil society, can you say whether he’s actually asked to meet any imprisoned political figure?

Associate Spokesperson: I wouldn’t give the itinerary, the precise itinerary, of his meetings just yet, but we’ll provide those details as they arise. But certainly, he will be meeting with civil society, and the sort of concerns he brings on all of his trips he will also bring on this one.

But what, for example, of the HIV activist imprisoned by Uzbekistan which called his UNICEF-funded pamphlet blasphemous? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ban1centas040310.html