On North Korea, UN Security Council Meets, Ban Ki-moon Takes No Questions, Russia Says "Cool Heads"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 6 --  After North Korea announced it had tested a hydrogen bomb, at the UN a Security Council meeting was called for 11 am. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon read a statement at the UNSC stakeout at 10:30 am, taking no question as usual.

   UNTV fed out B-roll of Ban meeting with his advisers -- Kim Won-soo and Jeff Feltman formerly of the US State Department, Vine here -- and Ban canceled a previously scheduled (also “no questions”) appearance that Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access critiqued here.

  Russia's Ambassador Churkin on his way into the Security Council at 11 am said, “Cool heads, cool heads.” The UK's Deputy Permanent Representative Peter Wilson spoke (Periscope video here), as did Japan's Permanent Representative.

Back on December 10, 2015, for Human Rights Day there was a UN Security Council meeting about human rights in North Korea. This comes as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon canceled a November 25 visit to Western Sahara because he thought he could go to North Korea, which still hasn't happened.

 After the meeting on December 10, Inner City Press asked UK Deputy Permanent Representative Peter Wilson, and then High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid al Hussein, about a Ban Ki-moon trip.

The UK's Wilson said his country would like to see dialogue. When Inner City Press asked Zeid if he'd discussed Ban's trip with him, Zeid said no.

 So on December 11, Inner City Press asked Ban's Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, transcript here:

Inner City Press: At the stakeout after yesterday's meeting on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the question arose to Prince Zeid whether he had discussed with the Secretary-General, the Secretary-General's possible trip to DPRK in terms of a human rights component to it.  And he seemed to indicate that the two had not discussed it.

What I wanted to ask you is, one, is that the case?  And two, what is the place, what would be the place of human rights in not… obviously the trip hasn't taken place yet, but in terms of clearly he has said that negotiations are under way and I saw Mr. Kim quoted to that effect, what is the place of human rights in such a trip?

Deputy Spokesman:  Human rights has a place in all of the Secretary-General's travels and it would do so in this case as well.  Regarding specifics, that will have to wait until when a trip is arranged, and there's nothing further to say about that.  We've been trying to make preparations when it's feasible, but there's nothing further to announce at this point. Have a good weekend, everyone.

   One is left wondering what would be the agenda of a Ban trip to North Korea - and what the US, which sponsored the December 10 meeting, thinks of such a trip. While it is difficult to get a USUN answer to the question, other ambassadors have told Inner City Press that Japan is against such a Ban trip. We'll have more on this.

 On December 10, there was a vote on whether to hold the meeting at all.

 On the way in, Venezuela's Ambassador said he was against the meeting; China's Deputy merely smiled.

 Inside, after a speech by China demanding a vote, and a Samanatha Power speech, the vote was held: the nine requesters in favor, four against (including Russia), and two abstentions (including Nigeria).

 Soon it was said Japan and South Korea - but not North Korea - would participate in the meeting, and OHCHR Zeid and USg Feltman would brief. Feltman's briefing is online here.

 Zeid, as fast transcribed by InnerCityPro (OHCHR will have full text) said:

"The abduction of foreign nationals, forced disappearences, and a litany of other violations have not been halted or reversed by the government of the DPRK. There is no accountability and no independent judiciary. Millions of peole in the DPRK are denied basic rights. They are not allowed to move freely or speak about injustices, they are not allowed to follow their faith, they are denied access to information. The commission of inquiry describes the appalling nature of the political prison camps where people, including children, have been starved, tortured, raped. Hundreds of thousands have died in these camps…they are believed to contain 80,000 to 120,000 prisoners.

The report said that “the gravity, scale and nature of the human rights violations reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.” The new office in Seoul has begun collecting testimony from people who have left the DPRK and deepening evidence. During my visit I met defectors, men and women, and their personal experiences were harrowing. My concern over the threats issued by DPRK and media against the office in Seoul—it is wholly unacceptable to issue threats against a UN office.

3 types of allegations : victims and witnesses spoke to severe treatment of detainees – no access to lawyers, inhuman conditions, torture during interrogation. Food insecurity is an ongoing concern. The systemic failure of the distribution system hasn’t been addressed. Women in the DPRK are subject to violence and discrimination, and there’s a lack of awareness that such violence is unacceptable. Restrictions on movements across the border with china had a negative impact on women, and augmented risk of detention for those who try to cross border.

The family reunions were a welcome development and should be regularized. We’re organizing a workshop on the human rights implications of separation of families. Most have reached an advanced age. Those selected for previous reunions have no possibility of maintaining contacts.

The matter of international abductions is a cause of very grave concern. The establishment of a special investigation committee in the DPRK was positive but no info has been provided since then on results. The fate of abductees must be established. OHCHR organized consultations on human rights and abductions, followed by a visit to Japan.

This year the GA may call on the SC to take action by referring the matter to the ICC which I believe to be essential. Any call must go hand in hand with dialogue with government of DPRK. My office has continued to engage with authorities. There are signs that the governemnt is making tentative efforts to engage, and I welcome the invitation to visit the country. My office is engaged with the office to explore modalities. The systemic failings heighten international anxieties. More must be done to ensure respect. I thank you."

 It is a serious issue, but there are questions about the staging. The UN called it an "urgent" meeting, below, when it was well known for five days. Two defectors were bought to speak - but in the private clubhouse of a Correspondents Association.

Surreally, this UN Corruption Association was the venue on December 10 for two North Korea witnesses, Grace Jo and Jung Gwang II, whose handlers instead of booking the UN press briefing room which any member state can do, put them behind the closed doors of UNCA. Since UNCA under Pioli engages in censorship, here, perhaps it was not only ironic but appropriate.

 The new Free UN Coalition for Access, founded by two defectors from the increasingly corrupt UNCA, pursued the question of why information about the North Korea UNSC meeting was withheld from the press and public. UNCA said nothing, took defectors behind closed doors.

  As of 8 am, the day's UN Journal does not list it; nor does the UN Media Alert nor the Security Council's online Program of Work. The last of these may explain it: after the Council's closed door meetings on Western Sahara (listed) and Turkey on December 8, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the press that the US should have disclosed the intended North Korea meeting when formulating its Program of Work for December, when the US is President.

  Inner City Press has checked with another Security Council delegation, which said it is a good argument, but not enough to "stop" the meeting. But enough to have the meeting UNlisted, even six and a half hours before?

  The UN has an archaic, anti-public game under which "Arria formula" meetings of the Security Council are not listed in the UN Journal, sometimes not even on the blue signs outside the meeting. The Free UN Coalition for Access thinks that sending diplomatic signals by withholding information from the public is not what the UN, ostensibly about "We the Peoples," should be about. We'll hare more on this.

Update: at 10:30 am, the UN sent out this: "URGENT Message from the President of the Security Council  The President of the Security Council wishes to inform the members of the Council that a public meeting in connection with the agenda item “The situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” will be convened today at 2.30 p.m. "

  But it was no surprise - it was known since December 5, and December 8.

Then this was (mis) added:  “02:15pm   LIVE   Stakeout 2nd floor outside the Security Council Chamber:
 10:00am   LIVE   Security Council 7575 meeting:  Briefing: the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”

 10 am? This is what happens when the ball is hidden...

 It is (well) explained online, without excusing the UN Media Alert misleading (and UNTV mis-timing) --

" The UN Journal for the day the Council convened to take up the situation in the DPRK contained no notice of a Council meeting on that topic (Journal No. 2014/244).  This also had been the case when the Council held the formal meeting on 15 September 2006 at which the procedural vote on the agenda item relating to Myanmar was put to a vote (Journal No. 2006/178).  In contrast, Journal No. 2005/142 did contain a notice of the meeting at which the procedural vote on the agenda item relating to human settlements issues in Zimbabwe was put to a vote.  This is explained by the fact that between the 2005 notice in the Journal and the lack of notice in 2006 and 2014, the Council had adopted its Note by the President, S/2006/507.  Paragraph 1 of that Note (and of the subsequent Note S/2010/507) states:  “The provisional agenda for formal meetings of the Council should be included in the Journal of the United Nations provided that it has been approved in informal consultations”.  Notice for the 2006 and 2014 meetings therefore could not be included in the Journal because the Council members had been unable to reach consensus beforehand." [Link]

 But why did the UN Media Alert not list this known meeting? FUNCA will pursue.

For more than a month there have been rumors, stoked in some cases by the UN, that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon may visit North Korea.

 To some it seemed strange, right after the UN's Third Committee enacted a resolution about human rights in North Korea. What that country might gain from a high level UN visit might be clear -- showing that the resolution didn't mean much -- and some surmise that the Korean Peninsula is increasingly Ban's focus. But what would be in it, from a Ban-to-DPRK visit, for the resolution's proponents?

  On December 3 the Spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the UN Hagar Chemali issued a statement that “last year in December the UN Security Council convened for the first time in history to discuss the human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Today, Chile, France, Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States have requested another meeting of the Security Council to examine conditions in DPRK and their effects on international peace and security. As President of the Security Council for the month of December, the United States will now work quickly to schedule this meeting. We will provide additional details as soon as we have them.”

  Now, again from Ms. Chemali, this: "We intend to convene the Security Council meeting on the situation in the DPRK on Thursday, December 10 at 2:30 PM. We are currently working with the Secretariat to explore the availability of senior briefers from DPA and OHCHR. We will update on briefers as soon as we have more details."

  In the US Mission's December 3 statement, Ambassador Samantha Power said: “A year ago, the Security Council met for the first time on the widespread and systematic human rights violations being committed by the North Korean government. Having placed the issue on the Security Council’s agenda last year, we believe it is critical for the Council to continue to shine a light on the abuses in North Korea and speak regularly about the DPRK’s human rights situation – and what we can do to change it – for as long as the crimes committed there persist.”

   For now we can say, this would seem to make a Ban Ki-moon visit to DPRK (even) less likely, at last in December. And in January, when Uruguay is set to be UN Security Council president? Watch this site.

Back on November 17 when Ri Hung Sik, Ambassador at-large of the Democratic People's Republic of Korean, held a press conference at the North Korean mission, he said that he had heard nothing, nothing at all, about UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visiting North Korea, which Yonhap ascribed to a senior UN source.

Even when asked a leading question about a hypothetical Ban trip, Ri Hung Sik said Ban's UN would have to improve its relations with DPRK. Inner City Press is putting the audio online here, and embedded below.

 Inner City Press ran back to the UN and asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric, transcript here:

Inner City Press: here was just a press conference at the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) mission, and there their minister, Ri Hung Sik, asked about the Secretary-General's possible reported trip, said he's heard nothing about it at all and that there are many rumours on the internet.  He also said that this South Korean national security law that makes it illegal for South Korean citizens to speak positively of the DPRK… that's how he described it… should be looked at by the UN.  So I wanted to know, what is the Secretary-General's view of that law?  And if that's an accurate description, is he bound by it?

Spokesman:  I'm not aware of the law.  As far as Ban Ki-moon, he is the Secretary-General of the United Nations and is doing his duty as such.

   But why did Team Ban play it so coy on Yonhap's report? Now late on November 17, the UN has issued this more specific denial:

"In response to questions asked about a report from Xinhua and the Korean Central News Agency stating that the Secretary-General would be travelling to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea next week, the Spokesman had the following to say: The Secretary-General will not be travelling to the DPRK next week. He will be in New York most of the week and then travel to Malta for the Commonwealth Summit. From there, he will go to directly to Paris to attend CoP21. The Secretary-General has repeatedly said that he is willing to play any constructive role, including traveling to the DPRK, in an effort to work for peace, stability and dialogue on the Korean Peninsula."

  Before Inner City Press left the DPRK mission on November 17, it asked Ri Hung Sik for his view of UN Special Rapporteur Marzuki Darusman and when or if UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid will visit North Korea.

  Of Darusman, Ri Hung Sik said he met him only once, and that it seems Darusman does not speak his own words, or think his own thoughts. Of Zeid, he said the discussion is of technical cooperation, but no date was given. Video here.

   During the press conference, there was no question, as at a prior DPRK press conference, about Donald Trump...

On Syria Chemical Weapons, Inner City Press Asks UN's Kim Won-soo of Airstrikes' Impact

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 2 -- The Security Council proceeded on Syria with a briefing about the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) on the use of chemicals as weapons Syria on December 2, after which the UN's acting High Representative for Disarmament Kim “Mr. Jim” Won-soo spoke to the press. Periscope video here, InnerCityPro.com fast transcript below.

 Inner City Press asked if there'd been any impact of the increased airstrikes on Syria on the JIM's work.

Kim Won-soo replied, "Their work has already started. Because their work is building on the work done by OPCW fact finding missions. So fact finding missions have already submitted their report, and it will be transferred to the JIM. And we will build up fact finding mission’s  work to get additional information."

 Here's more from InnerCityPro.com's fast transcription:

Kim Won-soo: They are now contemplating a visit to Damascus first, now that they are fully operational from November 13.

Q: So they haven’t been to Damascus yet?

Kim Won-soo: Not yet. But they will.

Q: Before Christmas?

Kim Won-soo: Pretty soon.

Q: The team will be from OPCW, Interpol?

Kim Won-soo: They're professional investigators, drawn from all the partner organizations like OPCW, WHO...

Q: How many are there?

Kim Won-soo: The total strength is around 25 but professional investigators about eight.

Inner City Press: Any impact of the increased airstrikes on Syria on their work?

Kim Won-soo: Their work has already started. Because their work is building on the work done by OPCW fact finding missions. So fact finding missions have already submitted their report, and it will be transferred to the JIM. And we will build up fact finding mission’s  work to get additional information.

Q: You said there was going to be somebody from the JIM based in Damascus?

Kim Won-soo:  As a liaison, embedded in the political mission. We have already mission there, so…

Q: Is that a UN mission?

Kim Won-soo: Yeah, UN mission. We have a Special Envoy, somebody from the JIM will be embedded in the UN mission in Damascus.

Q: And on top  of that, the investigators are going soon to Damascus?

Kim Won-soo:  Because they now begin their substantive work. Depending on their work, they will decide where they will visit and how their work will proceed. But now, they are doing analytical work of the findings provided by the fact-finding mission, and also they are now starting consultations with the member states.

Q: When will the [Security] Council get a report?

Kim Won-soo:  Already three reports by OPCW fact finding missions have been circulated.

Q: But I’m talking about the JIM.

Kim Won-soo: JIM will submit the first report, 90 day report, so it’ll be February 13, 2016. Because they became operational November 13. So the first report to the Council will be made February 13, 2016.

Q: And the visit to Syria would be to do what?

Kim Won-soo:  Well, now Status of Mission agreement is the first thing to be concluded. So it is almost being now finalized. So based on that agreement, the modus operandibetween the Syrian government and the JIM will have to be sorted out. Cooperation has already started. We don’t foresee any problem in finalizing the SOMA agreement.

  And here, from Kim Won-soo's October 7 appearance, transcribed here by InnerCityPro:

  “On Syria chemical weapons, the Security Council has been briefed by High Representative for Disarmament Kim Won-soo. He has informed that the process of dismantling and destroying the Syrian chemical arsenal, as declared, is almost successfully completed, more than 98 percent.

  “Now the efforts are concentrated in investigating and establishing responsibilities for alleged attacks, using chlorine. These attacks are unacceptable, in the view of international legislation and the Security Council resolutions, inter alia 2118 and 2209. The Council members welcomed the nomination of Ms Virginia Gamba as head of the joint investigative mechanism, and expect that this mechanism will be fully operational soon.

  “Mr. Kim reaffirmed that his office is committed to have the JIM mechanism fully in function hopefully as soon as possible. He assured that he is working in coordination with OPCW to select the most appropriate staff to guarantee a professional and independent mechanism. Mr. Kim requested support of the UN members to ensure the necessary funds to make the JIM fully operational. He insisted on two occasions on this need.”

   Roman Oyarzun Marchesi was asked about the Russian draft resolution - he said he had been in the consultations all day - and Inner City Press asked if in the Central African Republic consultations UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous had given any update on the allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers in CAR. No, was the answer. Periscope video here.

Back on August 7 after long negotiations between the US and Russia, the UN Security Council on August 7 adopted a resolution to establish a so-called accountability mechanism for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Outside the Council before and after the unanimous vote on August 7, Russia's ambassador Vitaly Churkin referred to a Presidential Statement he said may be adopted early next week, to support UN envoy Staffan de Mistura's work.

  Inside the Council after the vote, Syria's Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari began his speech with a reference to the 70th anniversary of the US dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He went to to say the UN never investigated the use of chemical weapons, by rebels he said, in Khan al Asal.

   In its resolution the Security Council “recalls that in its resolution 2118, it decided that the Syrian Arab Republic and all parties in Syria shall cooperate fully with the OPCW and the United Nations.” It seems doubtful that ISIS will cooperate.

   Churkin in his post-vote speech inside the Council said that “the existing mechanics of the UN and OPCW do not have a mandate to identify those participating in such acts. Moreover, we became witnesses of the many politicized statements in this regard, which were clearly meant to be propaganda. It was necessary to eliminate this gap, which was done with the adoption of today’s resolution... Any efforts in the Syrian area must be in line with assisting a search for a political solution to the conflict.”

   Inside the Council, US Samantha Power delivered this speech. At the stakeout, questions were given to Reuters, Al Hurra (really, France 24, by mistake), and Voice of America. (We'll have a separate piece on Power's response to the Press' final question about Burundi. For now, here'sprevious stakeout, sit-down.

   After the meeting ended, on the steps leading out from the UNSC stakeout, Churkin said “I hope it will translate into our continued joint work on the political front. We are working, I think very well, on a PRST [Presidential Statement] in support of Staffan de Mistura’s efforts. I hope it will be adopted...” More on InnerCityPro.com.

As UN's Valerie Amos Leaves, Last King of Scotland in Club Valerie, Aid in Evolution: Inner City Press Review

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 14 -- When it emerged thatValerie Amos was leaving the UN and her post as Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, the focus turned to who would replace her: David Cameron's first choice Andrew Lansley, or one of Cameron's two second choices, Caroline Spellman or Stephen O'Brien, would get the (UK) post. 

  The shift in interest wasn't entirely fair to Amos, who while sometimes reliably following the line of her country, which has now held the OCHA post three times in a row, also showed independence, most recently by chiding if only implicitly Saudi Arabia for trying to politicize aid to Yemen, which it has bombed.

  But that was made up for on May 14, when a large area outside the General Assembly on the UN's third floor became "Club Valerie," complete with a jazz band, Beyonce by video and Forest Whitaker in the flesh.

  This last was a propos -- one of the speeches said that Amos had toured with Idi Amin, who Whitaker played in "The Last King of Scotland." 

 The first speech was by UNICEF's Tony Lake, relaying Amos' love of the Tottenham Spurs (while offering her a jersey of F.C. Barcelona, with its UNICEF logo.)

 Then came Ban Ki-moon; his security detail hushed the crowd while he spoke. He said he hope the journalists present would also come to his farewell  - then conflated all of them with the increasingly divisive and discredited UNCA, now known as the UN's Censorship Alliance, including on one of Ban's low points, Sri Lanka.

  Kung-hwa Kang recounted a story of Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore, coming back to set things straight, adding that she doubts Amos will do that, instead looking forward.  She declared this the biggest party in New York City in the year 2015 so far.

  Amos herself spoke movingly, recounting a story of trying to get into Homs in Syria, generously shouting out her Syria Humanitarian Coordinator who was present, adding that she wished her parents had been alive to see her get the OCHA post.

  Amos' niece, who had introduced the speakers, added details about Aunt Val, calling her an idol growing up, like a mother. She screened a re-make of Beyonce's "I was here " video, turned into "Valerie Was Here with footage of Amos in Pakistan, Jordan and in North Korea, with Ban's adviser - now on disarmament - Kim Won-soo. The video cut off, and acting moved into what has been known as the Ex-Press Bar but should perhaps be renamed, at least for some time, Club Valerie.

  But was Amos' successor Stephen O'Brien present?

  Inner City Press was first to report Cameron's begrudging submission of the alternate candidacies of Spellman and O'Brien, and the victory of O'Brien, as credited in the Telegraph, UK Channel 4 and IRIN (which was spun off from OCHA under Amos' watch). 

  Inner City Press offers this admitted partial recap:

   After taking over the OCHA post in 2010, following fellow Brit John Holmes (he of passionate ambivalence about the Tamil Bloodbath on the Beach in Sri Lanka), Amos started quietly. In 2011 when Tony Blair visited the UN, it was by her side. But she branched out: for example into Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan in Sudan, on which she always to her credit took questions.

  On Syria, Amos was unwilling ever before ISIS' takeover in Iraq to talk about OCHA operation in Raqaa; she did however get into specifics on aid workers killed and kidnapped.

   In 2014, she told Inner City Press she was disappointed by MSF's criticism of the UN in Central African Republic. But given that in 2015 it is revealed that the UN system -- not OCHA -- helped cover up rapes of children in CAR by the French Sangaris forces, and that Amos' fellow USG Herve Ladsous pushed to get the whistleblower who revealed this fired, according to a UN Dispute Tribunal rule not contested by OHCHR (only Ladsous denies it), we'd bet MSF was right.

  This is the balance, this is the dance: the MSFs and Aids-Free Worlds of the world tell the truth, and the range of UN USGs push back, some as colleagues, others like Ladsous as unaccountable drone. 

  Amos was and is no drone, that we can say. We wish her well in future endeavors. We will have more on this.

   

UN Confirms Inner City Press' Feb 25 Scoop, Mr. Kim Won-soo To Head UN Disarmament, Replacing Angela Kane

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive confirmed

UNITED NATIONS, Marhc 24 -- On February 25 Inner City Press exclusively reported that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's senior adviser and right hand man Kim Won-soo was in line to replace Angela Kane atop UN Disarmament.

  Inner City Press published the story, and asked the UN Spokesman, in the UN Press Briefing Room, to confirm it. 

Inner City Press' scoop was credited, for example here.

 Now on March 24 the UN has done just that  - Kane is out, and Mister Kim is in, as "acting" head of Disarmament, including with its North Korean portfolio. 

On February 25, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Dujarric:

Inner City Press: I did want to ask you. We did it on Kubiš. So now I want to ask you this one. Whether you can confirm that Mr. Kim, Kim Won-soo, is a candidate to replace Angela Kane at the top UN disarmament?

Spokesman: I will not. Because I do not know. Thank you very much. Have a great day.

On March 6 Inner City Press asked Dujarric:

Inner City Press: now that Angela Kane has confirmed that she's leaving the disarmament post publicly, I wanted to ask… I'd asked whether Mr. Kim is in fact a candidate. Are there women candidates in that and what's the process?

Spokesman: As you know, the process will be open, and when the selection process is made, it will be announced.

Inner City Press: Is it a policy to have a woman candidate in the final three in each of these?

Spokesman: When the candidate is announced, we will announce it

   As Inner City Press first reported, Kim had applied for an Assistant Secretary General position in the Department of Political Affairs. But, sources tell Inner City Press, Under Secretary General of DPA Jeffrey Feltman put the kibosh on that. Kim would report directly to Ban Ki-moon, whose campaign for election and re-election as Secretary General Kim essentially ran.

   Inner City Press previously reported on January 30 that along with Kim, another candidate for the DPA Assistant Secretary General post -- whose interim holder spoke with week, for example, with the foreign minister of the Maldives after the jailing of former president Nasheed -- was Dmitry Titov. It is again confirmed that this was plan - but we're told it is no longer. Miroslav Jenca got the post, and Bulgaria's Dragonov took over Jenca's Central Asia post. So who will be the next SG?

  Some question Kim Won-soo of South Korea holding the UN's Disarmament post, given the nuclear standoff with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North Korea. 

  Kane has had a long tenure in the UN, in such duty stations as Eritrea and, before Disarmament, in the Department of Management. As recently of February 23, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarricabout a controversy in UMOJA during Kane's tenure as Under Secretary General for Management, on which Inner City Press has also exclusively reported:

Inner City Press: you may remember a Paul van Essche was an UMOJA official that ended up leaving his job due to irregularities in his CV, etc.  He recently then was rehired by UNICEF as the head of information technology and it’s my understanding that he quit once the connection was made to the prior problem on this side of the street.  I wanted to ask you whether the Secretary-General called Anthony Lake about this and whether it’s true that Mr. van Essche, despite leaving the job after 10 days, is receiving six months’ salary for his troubles.

Spokesman Dujarric:  I think that’s a question you’d need to address to UNICEF.

Inner City Press:  The reason I’m asking here [cut off by Spokesman]

Spokesman Dujarric:  I’m not aware of any contact between the Secretary-General and Mr. Lake on this issue.

  Kane leaving the Disarmament post would seem to increase the odds of her fellow German Martin Kobler getting the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs post which the UK has held twice in a row. (Inner City Press' exclusive reporting on the OCHA race has been credited by, for example, UK Channel 4, here.)

   Kobler has not, however, fulfilled his vow that the Mission in the Congo under his command would neutralize the Hutu FDLR militia as it did the largely Tutsi M23 group. There is also an unresolved scandal, first exposed by Inner City Press,  in that mission and the one in Haiti, both run by Herve Ladsous, in which UN Police position were sold for money by an Ivorian diplomat who Inner City Press continues to see inside the UN.

   Inner City Press was first to report that Nickolay Mladenov would replace Robert Serry as UN Middle East envoy, that that Jan Kubis would replace Mladenov in Iraq, confirmed on February 24, nine days after Inner City Press reported it. Now that. Watch this site.

   

UN's Kim Won-soo Eyed to Head UN Disarmament, Upping Martin Kobler's OCHA Odds, Sources Tell Inner City Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 25 -- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's senior adviser and right hand man Kim Won-soo is in line to replace Angela Kane atop UN Disarmament, sources exclusively tell Inner City Press.

   As Inner City Press first reported, Kim had applied for an Assistant Secretary General position in the Department of Political Affairs. But, sources tell Inner City Press, Under Secretary General of DPA Jeffrey Feltman put the kibosh on that. Kim would report directly to Ban Ki-moon, whose campaign for election and re-election as Secretary General Kim essentially ran.

   Inner City Press previously reported on January 30 that along with Kim, another candidate for the DPA Assistant Secretary General post -- whose interim holder spoke with week, for example, with the foreign minister of the Maldives after the jailing of former president Nasheed -- was Dmitry Titov. It is again confirmed that this was plan - but we're told it is no longer. As to who will get this ASG post, we'll have more.

  Some question Kim Won-soo of South Korea holding the UN's Disarmament post, given the nuclear standoff with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North Korea. 

  Kane has had a long tenure in the UN, in such duty stations as Eritrea and, before Disarmament, in the Department of Management. As recently of February 23, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about a controversy in UMOJA during Kane's tenure as Under Secretary General for Management, on which Inner City Press has also exclusively reported:

Inner City Press: you may remember a Paul van Essche was an UMOJA official that ended up leaving his job due to irregularities in his CV, etc.  He recently then was rehired by UNICEF as the head of information technology and it’s my understanding that he quit once the connection was made to the prior problem on this side of the street.  I wanted to ask you whether the Secretary-General called Anthony Lake about this and whether it’s true that Mr. van Essche, despite leaving the job after 10 days, is receiving six months’ salary for his troubles.

Spokesman Dujarric:  I think that’s a question you’d need to address to UNICEF.

Inner City Press:  The reason I’m asking here [cut off by Spokesman]

Spokesman Dujarric:  I’m not aware of any contact between the Secretary-General and Mr. Lake on this issue.

  Kane leaving the Disarmament post would seem to increase the odds of her fellow German Martin Kobler getting the Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs post which the UK has held twice in a row. (Inner City Press' exclusive reporting on the OCHA race has been credited by, for example, UK Channel 4, here.)

   Kobler has not, however, fulfilled his vow that the Mission in the Congo under his command would neutralize the Hutu FDLR militia as it did the largely Tutsi M23 group. There is also an unresolved scandal, first exposed by Inner City Press,  in that mission and the one in Haiti, both run by Herve Ladsous, in which UN Police position were sold for money by an Ivorian diplomat who Inner City Press continues to see inside the UN.

   Inner City Press was first to report that Nickolay Mladenov would replace Robert Serry as UN Middle East envoy, that that Jan Kubis would replace Mladenov in Iraq, confirmed on February 24, nine days after Inner City Press reported it. Now that. Watch this site.

   

On UN's 38th Floor for Compacts, Of Jobs for Sale in Haiti & DR Congo, Of Myanmar & Missing Nambiar, Ladsous and Lack of Accountability

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 13 -- When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon signed 29 “compacts” with senior UN officials in his 38th floor conference room on February 13, there was an elephant in the room. 

  Herve Ladsous, in charge of UN Peacekeeping, has overseen and seemingly covered up a scandal in which position in the missions in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo were sold for money. See Inner City Press exclusive report here.

   Ladsous has refused, since Inner City Press asked about corruption, to answer any Press questions. Video compilation here, most recent here. But on February 13, as Inner City Press rode a UN elevator up to the 38th floor chatting with another Under Secretary General, Ladsous got on the elevator. Silence descended.

   In the conference room, as Ban's officials assembled, outgoing Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said, “Where are all the women?”  (Later the envoys on Children and Armed Conflict and on Sexual Violence in Conflict arrived, group photo here.)

  Amos is leaving in March, and the UK proposed as her replacement -- thinking it owned the position in the same way France owns UN Peacekeeping -- Andrew Lansley, now opposed by more than 70,000 people, see Inner City Press story here.

  During the signings, Yuri Fedotov by video made the first or best joke - he signed two contracts but “only one salary,” he quipped. Joan Clos of HABITAT from Nairobi, too, made a joke, saying “Okay” then being told his Compact hadn't yet been signed.

   At the UN noon briefing two hours later, Inner City Press asked why Vijay Nambiar, Ban's Special Adviser on Myanmar and presumably still an Under Secretary General, had not signed a compact. Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Nambiar might be on travel. 

  But in the side room Inner City Press was led through, a table was set with Nambiar's name on it. We'll have more on this - and on Nambiar's praise of the Burmese government but silence so far on its revocation of voting rights for the Rohingya Muslim minority.

  On Ban's side of the table was his senior adviser Kim Won-soo, whom Inner City Press has reported is in the running, alongside Dmitry Titov, for the Department of Political Affairs position vacated by Oscar Fernandez Taranco (who after meetings in DC about Bangladesh was present Friday and signed his compact).

   Ban in his speech emphasized that journalists can see these Compact and will hold the UN accountable. That is in part the reason this report is being written this way. Inner City Press notes that in Ban's “public financial disclosures,” Ladsous' name goes to an error message: no file. 

 Accountability, the new Free UN Coalition for Access posits, inevitably must involve answering questions. Watch this site.

   

Excusive: For UN's Deputy Political Post, Russia's Titov & South Korea's Kim Won-soo Compete, Inner City Press Is Told

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, January 30 -- A currently open top UN job is Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, under US Jeffrey Feltman. Inner City Press is exclusively informed that competing for the post are Kim Won-soo, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's long time senior advisor, and Russia's Dmitry Titov.

   Inner City Press, always greeting Mister Kim in the hall and on January 29 in the River Club reception thrown by Chile's UN Mission, is informed that Kim would like to follow Ban back to South Korea as a possible foreign minister, but wants to re-establish his profile for that.

  On the other hand, of the Permanent Five members of the Security Council, Russia may have the fewest UN posts. France owns UN Peacekeeping, the fourth in a row being Herve Ladsous who refuses all Press questions. Videos here, here (Jan 22) and here (Vine).

 China has DESA -- but, we hear, still has a candidate for ASG of DPA;  the US had DPA through Feltman. The UK may be losing Humanitarian Affairs - click here for Inner City Press' latest exclusive on that -- but then reaches out for the top envoy post in Iraq. But Russia?

  Another way to view it is, the UN Secretariat's one-sidedness on Ukarine, between US Feltman and Croatian Ivan Simonovic, left the UN on the sidelines on the Ukraine issue. Could Titov as the number two in DPA turn that around? It could. Watch this site.

   

At World Cup in Brazil, 60% of UN Security Council But Only 16% of UN Member States Will Play: Of Malvinas and Migrants in France

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 1 -- In the upcoming World Cup in Brazil later this month, nine of the 15 members of the UN Security Council will participate. So 60% of the Security Council's members will be there, while only 16% of the UN's 193 member states will be.

  Of the five Permanent members of the Security Council, only China won't be there. Of the Group of 4, only India will be absent. Of countries on the Council's agenda, present in Brazil will be Iran and Cote d'Ivoire, Bosnia and Greece (arguably on due to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia “name” issue).

  In Group B, Security Council members Australia and Chile will face off, June 13 in Cuiaba. In Group H, Russia and South Korea will play there on June 17 (South Korea was president of the Security Council for May; Russia is president in June.)

  There are few ideological battles, at least in the first round. Iran is not in in Group G with the United States -- G is for Germany, and Portugal too -- and the UK and Argentina and the Malvinas / Falkland Islands dispute are in different groups.

  In Group E, France and Ecuador might at least disagree about regime change and the treatment of migrants, when they play June 25 in Rio. Watch this site.

Footnote: In New York, recently Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's golf buddy (along with the UK and South Korea) San Marino's ambassador set up another pick-up game, seemingly including Ukraine's long-time Permanent Representative Yuri Sergeyey, next to Ban's legacy striker Kim Won-soo. To some, there seems to have been even less diversity in this group that at the World Cup...

   

At UN, Staff Union Protests Ban's Mobility, Of Double Standards, Spin and Scribes

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 20 -- While the UN continues to  preach transparency, democracy and even lack of censorship around the world, in two elections held in December inside the UN, disputes and decay were the rule, and have grown ever worse since.

   Now on March 20, even as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon refuses to recognize any UN Staff Union, the ticket which received the most votes in December held a protest outside the Budget Committee. Inner City Press tweeted photos here & here.

  The topic was Ban's "mobility" proposal, which is in front of the Committee "without any counter-proposals from staff," as the flier handed out at the protest put it.

  While this proposal would send staff to far flung duty posts, the protesters said without regard to family situations, Ban has advisers who dodge his "five year" mobility rule by simply changing job titles but remaining in New York. Protesters mentioned Bob Orr, who has his own proposal in front of the Budget Committee, and senior adviser Kim Won-soo.

   In any event, even as the Secretariat tries in essence to break the Union, the actions continue. Inside the budget committee, Management chief Yukio Takasu presented an update on the Capital Master Plan renovation, which the protesters said would spend yet more money on security while some of them are being laid off, pending an arbitration decision.

  Back on March 11, new UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric tried to put his own headline on the protests.

  He said it was only about the Publishing Section -- which Inner City Press has covered since the UN used Hurricane Sandy as an excuse to eliminate jobs -- but the problems under Ban run much deeper.

  Dujarric on March 10 called the continued pay at the Under Secretary General level for Augustine Mahiga a short stint, closely aligned with a board of correspondents who clapped for him, and for Ban Ki-moon. It's a new development, and one in which the Free UN Coalition for Access will not participate. Last video here.

  On March 11, Dujarric dodged on a new Haiti cholera case filed in Federal Court in Brooklyn; he talked about "protection of minorities" being upfront. But on March 10 he said he hadn't watched the brutal footage of Tamils being killed by the Sri Lankan Army; there has still been no comment by the Secretariat.

  Back on February 11, despite a Staff Union election have been conducted including in the UN Lobby in December, since Ban's Secretariat has not recognized the winners a call for new Polling Officers went out. This despite a meeting earlier that day at which the caller did not disclose this course of action. The next day, UN Security had to be called to try to put down the dispute.

  Also on February 11, having moved to break the UN staff union by citing alleged irregularities in voting, the UN Secretariat held a closed door meeting with Permanent Representative on Ban Ki-moon's "mobility" proposal, which the union opposed. The meeting was not in the day's UN Journal, and was not on UNTV. 

  Then as noted Ban Ki-moon held a lunch and "secret" question and answer session, with no question about Ukraineand the UN's derivative role, with what's become the UN's Censorship Alliance, despite its leadership openly violating the group's own constitution, which they recently put back online, by not having the required financial meeting in the first half of January, as promised in an email disclosing a donated Samsung television subsequently denied by UNCA 2013-14 president Pam Falk of CBS.

   Nor has the Ukraine-less Q&A at this lunch been disclosed to the wider press corps or public, despite a formal request from the Free UN Coalition for Access:

a tape or transcript of what the Secretary General said today this lunch: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BgOCAllCUAAwTxU.jpgSince the photo shows tape recorders, this is a request to be informed if any embargo was placed on what the Secretary General said. If not, this is a request including on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access for an explanation, why this was not provided to all correspondents, and for the tape (or transcript) forthwith.

  What Nesirky's office did after that was to email out Ban's prepared remarks, with no question and answer, much less what is understood as his comments on crimes against humanity. (Since Ban was silent at the time on those in Sri Lanka, some ask, is it any wonder? Click here for UNCA's "leadership" on Sri Lanka.)

   How can the UN cite rules against one group, the union, while ignoring them on another? The answer is that the union fights or pushes to hold Ban accountable, while the UNCA leadership does not. So one is broken, the other lunched with.

  Most telling are direct censorship efforts by Louis Charbonneau the UN bureau chief of Reuters, with its Permanent seat on UNCA's board. He got Google to ban from its Search a complaint he filed with the UN trying to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, (mis) using the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act as diagnosed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. That's straight up censorship, and it's enough, well, to lose your lunch. But not today, apparently.

  More contrast: in the UN Staff Union election, in which an incumbent sought to stay on despite term limits, there werecharges of illegal polling, and an attempt to stop paying the Elections Services Company.

   Now, the ticket that came out on top in the election has written to UN Department of Management chief Yukio Takasu for a statement if he and the UN recognize this union leadership.

   Takasu presided over a Department of Management town hall meeting at which impacts on staff members were discussed -- but without a recognized union?

   Inner City Press is informed that in the UN facility in Valencia, for example, contract workers will re obtained through the UN Office for Project Services. Union-busting and outsourcing, at the UN.

  On December 17 Inner City Press published the results,putting the document online here:

Winner with 430 votes: Ticket 1 [They have thanked voters]

President Stephen Kisambira (DESA/PD)

First Vice-President Emad Hassanin (DGACM/MPD/PS)

Second Vice-President Leonid Dolgopolov (DSS/DSSS/SSS)

2d place with 231 votes: Ticket 2

President Nadir A. Dirar Bashir (DGACM/MPD/PS/DTPU)...

  We will continue to cover that showdown, which is at least competitive. Even more decayed is the United Nations Correspondents Association or UN's Censorship Alliance. 

  To compare: while the UN uses a dispute about the legality of the December election to refuse to recognize those who came out on top in the union election, the fact the UNCA has again violated its own Constitution, only today put back online, by not holding a meeting about its finance in the first half of January is ignored by the UN. Because UNCA serves this UN.

   It's simple: the UNCA Constitution Article 7, 1, states "The Association shall convene an annual Membership Meeting during the first half of the month of January."

  This didn't happen; instead, 2013-14 president Pamela Falk of CBS distributed November 25 minutes, which also directly referred to a donated Samsung television which UNCA later denied, stating as to the Constitution that

"It was noted that the meeting was a General Meeting, not the Annual General Meeting. The UNCA constitution requires an Annual General meeting that should be held in the first half of January; the date was set for January 14th. There was discussion and a vote for a meeting on December 5, but because the budget will not be completed until year's end, the meeting will be held, as the Constitution requires in January."

   Despite this acknowledgment of the requirements of the UNCA Constitution, the meeting was not held in the first half of January, or even in January at all.

  A Constitutionally-invalid meeting was finally held -- largely about, what else, another party, like the one held March 7 even as the Security Council meeting on children and armed conflict continued.

 Reporting on the Security Council is undermine by UNCA's laxity: there are fewer and fewer UNTV stakeouts, as potential speakers are diverted to private chats in the so-called Turkish Lounge. This happened on February 10, while the "new" UNCA fed quotes from French president Hollande's state dinner in Washington.

    Ban's UN hands the first question and more to UNCA, which does not challenge Ban. In 2012 its leaders tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, pointing at a factual article Inner City Press published about Sri Lanka, the UN and conflicts of interest.

  Ban's Secretariat now admits on Sri Lanka a "systemic failure" - his Deputy Jan Eliasson repeatedly says that -- but UNCA, which still has no rules against trying to throw journalists out of the UN, nor apparently any conflict of interest rules, makes no admission, no reforms.

  It demands the first question at press conferences even if it has nothing to ask, or the answers will never be published.

  Not surprisingly it is in decay. ng a 2009 trip to Sri Lanka with Ban Ki-moon and UK humanitarian chief Sir John Holmes not only didn't report Holmes on the record comment that he deleted all complaining emails from Tamils -- she said the Press reporting this "ruined" relations with Holmes for her and, for example, Reuters. Though over 2000 journalists are accredited at the UN, in December 2013 only 111 even tried to vote in the three days of polling -- and door to door demands to vote for -- the United Nations Correspondents Association. Seven of these ballots failed. The incumbent Pamela Falk of CBS, running unopposed, still managed to not get 26 of the 104 votes cast.

  But as a result of UNCA's "Ball" with Ban, she got herfashion photo in the NYT Styles section and made sure to hype it up, online and in the briefing room before being handed, only to waste, the first of four questions on the South Sudan crisis on December 23.

  Falk's vote total of 78 was lower than the 85 obtained in December 2011 by her predecessor, who was the one who first demanded that Inner City Press remove an article about Sri Lanka from the Internet, click here for that.

 The article UNCA "leaders" tries to censor reported on the previous financial relationship of Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative with UNCA's then president, in the context of this president screening in the UN the Sri Lankan government's war crimes denial film, without asking or the consent of Inner City Press then on the Executive Committee of UNCA.

  No reforms in UNCA were ever instituted after this.

 Inner City Press after withstanding a kangaroo court UNCA proceeding quit the organization and co-founded the newFree UN Coalition for Access, @FUNCA_info, to actually defend the right of free press and free inquiry in and about the UN system.

    In 2012 UNCA "leaders" tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, as documented by documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Voice of America asked the UN to "review" Inner City Press' accreditation; VOA said it had the support of Agence France Presse and Reuters, click here for that.

The Reuters first vice president of UNCA spied for the UN, giving them an internal anti Press UNCA document three minutes after promising not to (story here, document here,audio here). 

 While he has stepped off, the Reuters reporter he supervised (and who also tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN) campaigned to get on UNCA's board, demanded on camera in a UN noon briefing to all present, "Have you voted?" It's as if Reuters has a Permanent seat on UNCA's 15-member Executive Committee, like the P5 in the Security Council.

Here are the December 2013 results, compared to votes in December 2011 for the "candidate" or their predecessor

Dec '13 Dec '11

Prez: * 78 [85] Pamela Falk, CBS News TV and Radio

1st VP * 74 [79] Kahraman Haliscelik, TRT Turkish Radio & TV

2d VP * 48 71 Masood Haider, Dawn, Pakistan

* 48 [71] Sylviane Zehil, L’Orient Le Jour

3d VP * 55 [62] Erol Avdovic, Webpublicapress

38 Ali Barada, An-Nahar/France 24

Trez * 81 [71] Bouchra Benyoussef, Maghreb Arab Press

Sect * 79 [81] Seana Magee, Kyodo News

Members at Large:

* 57 1. Nabil Abi Saab , Alhurra TV

* 57 2. Talal Al-Haj ,Al-Arabiya News channel

22 3. George Baumgarten , Jewish Newspapers, Nation Media

* 50 4. Sherwin Bryce-Pease, South African Broadcasting (SABC)

* 51 5. Zhenqiu Gu, Xinhua News Agency

* 69 6. Melissa Kent, CBC/Radio Canada

* 56 7. Evelyn Leopold, Huffington Post Contributor

49 8. J. Tuyet Nguyen, German Press Agency DPA

* 67 9. Michelle Nichols, Reuters

41 10. Edwin Nwanchukwu, News Agency of Nigeria

27 11. Cia Pak, Scannews

*54 12. Valeria Robecco, ANSA

* 54 13. Sangwon Yoon , Bloomberg

  Some of the elected are new and their positions on UNCA Executive Committee members trying to get other (investigative) media thrown out of the UN, and the need to preclude this and UNCA leaders' anonymous social media trolling, are not yet known. (Some not elected were among the better / more diverse candidates.)

When the UN Correspondents Association leaders tried stealthy to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and have failed to institute any reform since, it became the UN's Censorship Alliance. Party on. Watch this site.