Amid Calls in Nepal for UN to Stay, Ban Reassigns Landgren, Limits Talks to Asset Disposal

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 3 -- Amid calls from some in Nepal for the UN to stay, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has re-assigned his top envoy from Nepal, Karin Landgren, to another rudderless UN Mission, in Burundi.

Inner City Press asked the UN for its response to the request that it stay in Nepal to deal with the rebel fighters still in the cantonments. The UN responded:

Date: Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 1:16 PM
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Subject: Answer
To: Inner City Press

On Nepal

"We received the letter from the Government of Nepal on 3 January and will respond. We have been in detailed discussions with the government over the disposal of UNMIN assets."

By limiting the discussion to the “disposal of UNMIN assets,” the UN Secretariat has already in essence answered the letter, in the negative: No. The same was true of re-assigning Ms. Landgren to replace Charles Petrie in Burundi, when there were still two weeks to go in the UN's Nepal mandate.

The UN Security Council is slated to hear from Ms. Landgren on January 5, the second working day of Bosnia's Council presidency.

But Ban has already pre-determined things with his re-assignment of Ms. Landgren.

Some used to think the UN had done a good job in Nepal. Its manner of leaving now seems to disprove that.

Is it any wonder that troubled Burundi demanded the shrinking of the UN's Burundi mission from 450 staff to a mere 60? And when WILL Charles Petrie re-surface in Somalia, and wearing what hat? Watch this site.

At UN, Experts Change UK's Nepal Draft, UN's Role Clipped, Government's View Enshrined, Council's Process Studied

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/un2nepal012208.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 22 -- The UN's resolution on Nepal, which had been scheduled to be adopted Monday, has been pushed back to Jan. 23. In closed-door meetings, China and others objected to a UK draft, saying that in the draft, the UK was trying to go beyond what Nepal was requesting from the UN. Inner City Press has obtained documentary evidence of the changes, including changes from the first draft to the final one put "in blue" on Tuesday night. Click here for the changes to the initial draft, which included dropping "urges all party to take full advantage of the expertise and willingness in UNMIN to support the peace process" and "stressing the need for co-ordination and complementarity of efforts between the mission and all the UN actors in the UN area." Here's the UK's draft Nepal resolution, Page 1 and Pages 2 & 3.

In fact, the final / "in blue" version of the resolution even drops the reference to the UN's Human Rights Office in Nepal. Also dropped is the call on the government of Nepal to recognize the capacity of UNMIN Police Advisers to advise the national police on security. While the draft called said that the Secretary-General should take into account "the views of the parties," the final version says only "the views of the government of Nepal." This is how sausage is made. The place of its making in this instance was Conference Room Six in the basement of the UN. Reporters stood out front on Monday, but only to cover a meeting of Arab Group ambassadors about Gaza. Those from the Security Council countries who negotiated and changed the Nepal draft worked in obscurity, but the changes are quite telling.

Back on January 10, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson that, "there is a report in the Indian press that these rebels in the Terai region, they say, 'Even Ban Ki-moon is aware of our demand for a separate homeland in the Terai region'... is he aware of that?" Spokesperson Michele Montas responded, "He has not received any official communications on that." But what does official communication mean? Watch this space.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2nepal012208.html