UNITED NATIONS, May 27 -- As the UN belatedly wades into the migration crisis debate, its until now part time Special Representative on Migration Peter Sutherland took Press questions on May 27.
Inner City Press asked him about those migrants who die not on the water but for example in the desert in Niger, and whether the United States' resistance to internationalizing its issues with migrants from Mexico and Central America led the UN to avoid holding, for example, a General Assembly meeting about the topic. Inner City Press also asked Sutherland about this other job, as outgoing chairman of Goldman Sachs. Video here.
Sutherland answered this last question first, emphasizing that the UN post he took in 2006 from Kofi Annan was “pro bono” -- without pay. But isn't it a full time issue?
Sutherland declined to comment on the US, adding that “the Administration” is helpful on UN migration issues. He's a nice guy, but refusing to comment on the elephant in the room, and simultaneously serving the UN and Goldman Sach (and before that BP) is a telling symbol of today's UN. He still might accomplish something on the issue - we hope so.
Back on May 11 before the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini briefed the UN Security Council on May 11 on the EU's proposal to try to stop unauthorized migration to Europe from Libya, Angola's Permanent Representative Ismael A. Gaspar Martins stopped and told the press that you don't deal with refugees with bombs.
So when Mogherini came to take questions at the Security Council stakeout, Inner City Press with hand raised sought to ask her about this view. Video here and embedded below.
After questions were handed to Reuters, two Italian media and the New York Times, and Agence France Presse got a question answered by blurting it out, Inner City Press asked about Angola's view.
Mogherini told Inner City Press, "we discussed this and share the view that there is no military solution."
Inner City Press said, what about attack helicopters?
Mogherini said, "We're talking about a naval operation."
But that of course can involve military force, including airstrikes by attack helicopters. But no follow-up was possible. While an African journalist had his hand up the whole time, more Italian journalists were called. A Kurdish journalist who asked about Iraq was told by Mogherini that she only answers on topic.
Afterward, as before, Mogherini did a separate stakeout only for Italian media, Inner City Press tweeted photo here, rebuffing the only question asked in English, then leaving.
Back on April 28 when Mogherini came to take questions outside the Security Council, it was announced that after the "international" media, she would do a separate stakeout just for media from her native Italy.
Then the questions handpicked for Mogherini were all Western and Gulf (Saudi), particularly on the issue of Iran. An Iranian journalist was rejected. Chosen were Reuters, NYT, BBC jumping in and France 24, specifically selected, with a copycat Libya question.
At the end - or, before the Italian only stakeout -- Inner City Press asked, Sudan, Burundi, anything? But there was not. Nor on Western Sahara, on which EU members earlier on April 28 pushed a resolution without human rights monitoring for a UN peacekeeping mission, MINURSO.
On Sudan, the questions are obvious: over 90% vote for al Bashir, cover up of Tabit rapes. But in Burundi, the EU's Patrick Spirlet has been quoted that the EU will give 80 elections observers - even as radio stations are closed and people killed. What's the answer?
Maybe they're just getting it together.
The Security Council - with its EU members - will hear about Burundi on April 28. Watch this site.
(The new Free UN Coalition for Access challenges such one-sided use of the UN Security Council stakeout. The old UNCA, UN's Censorship Alliance, won't. It is run by Giampaolo Pioli of Italy.)
On April 27 Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq, and got in response an "if-asked." Transcript here
Inner City Press: On Burundi, over the weekend, the ruling party nominated the current president for a third… to run for a third term. And there have been crackdowns by the police, the closure of a radio station, Radio Public Africaine, and others… I'm wondering other countries have spoken. What is the UN's response to what's happened?
Deputy Spokesman Haq: Yeah, we're following the situation in Burundi very closely and we're deeply concerned over the violence over the weekend, including of a number of deaths following the announcement that the president would seek a third term and we urge a swift investigation into the violence. Said Djinnit, the Special Envoy for the Great Lakes is in Bujumbura to convey the UN’s concerns and work with all parties on defusing tensions.
Perhaps as Ban does more and more, he will "outsource" the rest of the UN's reaction to Geneva, while he for example cavorts with those who, like in Burundi, go after independent journalists.
In Burundi, the RPA was raided and told to stop live-streaming the crackdown.
Where is the UN Security Council, and its "pen-holder" on Burundi, on this?
UNITED NATIONS, May 5 -- When UN aid official John Ging held a press conference at the UN in New York about his recent visits to Chad and Niger, Inner City Press asked him about displacement in Niger - and also the airstrikes on Yemen, and delays in aid to Nepal. Video here.
Ging called what's occurring in Yemen "inhumane;" he praised aid worker in Niger doing much with little. Diplomatically, he acknowledged bureaucratic hurdles in Nepal after the earthquake, saying that outgoing OCHA chief Valerie Amos raised the issue there. And what of Amos' incoming replacement, Stephen O'Brien also of the UK? We'll have more on that.
Ging said it was NOT an OCHA study, and referred Inner City Press to a response made earlier in the day in Geneva by David Nabarro. On the non-numeric point that the UN system was slow to respond, Ging to his credit agreed, adding that MSF was beating the drum but the UN was slow.
Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Ging for his candor, and for doing Q&A briefing after his trips, which other officials - notably Herve Ladsous - do not do.
Inner City Press also asked Ging about the IMF's action announced in the morning; Ging said it was what the leaders of the three most impacted countries asked for, they should be supported.
UNITED NATIONS, February 26 -- “It is absurd that Lebanon has no access to World Bank grants because it is considered a middle-income country,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres' prepared remarks to the UN Security Council on Syria on February 26 said.
When he delivered the remarks, he added in Jordan. So Inner City Press, when Guterres came to the Security Council stakeout after the meeting, asked him about this addition, and if he -- and UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Kyung-wha Kang beside him -- would be pushing for a change at the World Bank, which is official a part of the UN “family.”
Guterres replied that development assistance should taken into account this new world, where Lebanon and Jordan but also Chad, Niger and Cameroon with respect to Nigeria, and Ethiopia and Kenya with respect to Somalia, are the “first line of defense for global collective security.”Video here.
Lebanon's Ambassador to the UN Nawaf Salam told Inner City Press, "This is unfortunate indeed," here.
UNITED NATIONS, January 19 -- With Boko Haram reaching beyond Nigeria, Chad has sent its forces into Cameroon. Inner City Press on January 19 asked Chad's ambassador to the UN if his country wants a UN resolution and UN funding.
Yes, he said, unfortunately the Security Council has yet to ask but is expected to adopt a Presidential Statement later on January 19 (see below.)
A Presidential Statement, of course, doesn't provide any funding for soldiers.
Back on December 8, Inner City Press reported on the push by Chad, Cameroon and others to get a UN Security Council resolution. They hoped for it that month, but later other Council members told Inner City Press of resistance from members who wanted to see more details; theses sources complained of Security Council double standards.
Chad, which already expressed anger that the UN's "Sahel" office is not headquartered in one of the Sahel countries and at being taken for granted by, among others, its predecessor as Security Council president, still seems ready to push for a resolution - and funding.
The Presidential Statement read out past 6 pm on January 19 urged more planning, while praising Chad or at least the vote in Chad's National Assembly. The rush was before a January 20 meeting in Niger. What's that phrase? "Show me the money."
The Security Council's January 19 Presidential Statement, S/PRST/2015/4, "takes note of the decision of the Lake Chad Basin Commission Member States and Benin to operationalize the Multinational Joint Task Force, including through the establishment of a joint Headquarters and the deployment of national contingents, to conduct military operations against Boko Haram.”
It "welcomes the vote by the National Assembly of Chad on 16 January 2015 which authorized Chadian armed troops and security forces to assist Cameroonian and Nigerian soldiers in the fight against Boko Haram terrorists.”
And it “welcomes plans for a regional meeting in Niamey, Niger, on 20 January 2015 to discuss the regional response to the threat posed by Boko Haram. The Security Council urges the LCBC Member States and Benin to undertake further planning toward the sustainable, viable and effective operationalization of the Multinational Joint Task Force.”
UNITED NATIONS, December 22, more here -- During the three working weeks of Chad's UN Security Council presidency for December -- the week between Christmas and New Years is off -- the country held a dozen question and answer stakeouts, more than most Security Council presidencies, as urged and tallied by the Free UN Coalition for Access.
Nine were by Chad's Permanent Representative to the UN Mahamat Zene Cherif, one by his Deputy and two by Chadian Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat. Inner City Press asked questions at each of them, sometime yielding only the answer, That did not come up in consultations, and sometimes a bit more.
A resolution for a five country force against Boko Haram, involving Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger and Benin was not adopted, with others wanting more information. We will be pursuing whether it will be adopted under January's president, Chile.
Chad's End of Presidency reception, held early on December 22 in a large room in what's called the Teachers (or TIAA-CREF) building on Third Avenue, was well attended, complete with pasta and an open bar, large screens with Chadian flags in the front.
When Mahamat Zene Cherif held his Program of Work press conference as Security Council president on December 2, Inner City Press asked him about a vote on a Palestine resolution during the month, and about the rights of refugees from the Central African Republic.
Mahamat Zene Cherif said he is not yet seized of a draft resolution on Palestine but that it might happen. On CAR refugees, he said there are 100,000 in Chad and more in Cameroon. In his national capacity, he said they should be allowed to vote and participate in CAR, that will be a gauge of the process. He mentioned mobile voting places and a role for the UN.
Before these first questions of the press conference, Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access thankedMahamat Zene Cherif for the briefing. It has been absurdly argued that there is some rule or precedent that the old UNCA, become the UN's Censorship Alliance, gets a set-aside first question. From today, that is no longer the case. (Earlier on December 2, FUNCA asked the UN about censorship in Libya, here.)
Mahamat Zene Cherif fielded questions on North Korea (that was UNCA's, as second), Libya, Security Council reform, Syria, Ebola and others. He announced that only that morning five soldiers from Chad were injured in Mali by a mine: news, when a Troop Contributing Country holds the Security Council presidency.
During the month, the Sahel, the African Union, the delayed Kosovo debate and Afghanistan, among others, will be considered, and covered on this site.
Amid calls for UN Security Council reform of the powers of the permanent five members, there are also slights among the elected ten members.
With Chad set to take over Presidency of the Security Council on December 1, on November 13 it bristled when this month's President, Australia, circulated a “Program of Work” for December, Chad's month.
Chad's protest, which multiple sources exclusively provided to Inner City Press and which it is publishing here in redacted form, tells the Australian Mission's Political Coordinator Michael Bliss that
“Chad is surprised by your email circulating the December POW. The procedure is that the mission assuming the presidency of that month is the one authorized to do so. We think it is a profound lack of responsibility by the Australian Mission. I hope that we will continue to respect ourselves as non permanent members of the Security Council.”
That is, Chad not only challenged the violation of procedures, but noted that it was one non-permanent member doing it to another.
The email of Michael Bliss of the Australian Mission angered those who provided it to Inner City Press. In a reference to Bob Geldof's “Do They Even Know It's Christmas,” Bliss wrote that
“in respect to that question asked long ago by Bob Geldof, and friends of some other Africans, the Chadian mission do know that it is Christmas time in the week of 22/12 but, I am told, has resisted SCAD's strenuous attempts to arrange the program so that scheduled work concludes by 19/12.”
SCAD is the UN Department of Political Affairs' Security Council Affairs Division. On the one hand this seems to be a problem between member states, elected members of the Security Council from different continents, of different religions and different cultures. Inner City Press reached out to the Australian mission and understands that the joking reference was to wanting a quiet Christmas, and is now to their credit acknowledged as ill-considered.
But on the other hand, Inner City Press is informed, others up to the level of Permanent Representative wonder who gave Chad's Program of Work to Australia - whose Bliss said it came from "off the back of a truck." Which truck? We'll have more on all this.
UNITED NATIONS, August 27 -- When Chad's Permanent Representative to the UN Mahamat Zene Cherif came to the Security Council stakeout on August 27 about the Council's just-adopted Presidential Statement on the Sahel, Inner City Press asked him about changes from his first draft.
Specifically, hadn't his draft proposed that the operations of the UN's Sahel envoy not been in Dakar but rather one of the Group of 5 Sahel countries? Hadn't the draft proposed that the envoy be upgraded to Under Secretary General, given the mandate to interface with heads of state?
Mahamat Zene Cherif to his credit acknowledged these changes, saying that keeping the operation in Senegal -- provisionally, he called it -- was a purely financial decision.
Inner City Press notes that while there are often complaints against trying to address political issues in the UN's Fifth (Budget) Committee, in this case the P3 donor countries used the Security Council to impose budget discipline.
From the Security Council stakeout Inner City Press went to the August 27 UN noon briefing and asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric why Ban only proposed the Sahel envoy as an Assistant Secretary General based in Dakar. "Because," was essentially the answer on the first; on location, Dujarric said it made sense. UNOWA is based in Dakar.
Mahamat Zene Cherif also spoke in the Security Council on August 27 with the African Union's view of the Council's Darfur resolution. He is more candid than many and should do more stakeouts. Back on March 7 Inner City Press asked him about those who have had to flee Central African Republic into Chad. Shouldn't they be able to return to CAR?Video here and embedded below
Mahamat Zene Cherif said while Chad will not force anyone back, they should be able to return. He said that eighty percent of the Muslims have been chased out of the CAR.
How can elections be held this way, he asked.
Inner City Press asked if perhaps those displaced could vote even while in Chad. Mahamat Zene Cherif said the UN could check the feasibility, but that Chad would hope the displaced could return to CAR.
The day before, Inner City Press tried to ask French Ambassador Gerard Araud about a statement or report by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay that the French Sangaris force first disarming the ex-Seleka had left Muslim community vulnerable to attack by Christian anti-Balaka militias.
UNITED NATIONS, May 20 -- Those who claimed or actually through colonialism was dead, at least in the UN, take note: after fighting in Kidal in northern Mali, former colonial power France convened a UN Security Council meeting on the afternoon of May 20.
French Ambassador Gerard Araud skipped the earlier meetings about Norht Korea and Sudan, but arrived just before 5 pm to circulate a draft press statement of France's position, for the Council to adopt.
It wasn't immediately accepted, if nothing else to keep up appearances. While a few cosmetic changes were being made, Araud came to a very controlled stakeout: he did not take Press questions about Mali calling the MNLA the sole aggressors, and "narco-terrorists."
Now Inner City Press will go further: France is accused by many in southern Mali of having paradoxically sided with the MNLA, if only to oppose Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which France calls AQMI, and affiliates.
And that, sources say, is mostly about defending French Areva's uranium interests in Niger. That is, France's colonialism is not even to the benefit of its proxies in Bamako -- it is purely economic. And in Niger, Areva pays cheap with the government. So it doesn't benefit Africa at all. It is, after all, FrancAfrique.
This is part of why Araud will not take Press questions. During his last Council presidency in December, he grew progressively more shrill, notably when asked about France angling to get paid by other UN member states to run airfields in northern Mali.
Later he threatened to sue Inner City Press, for reporting an incident fully documented by the New York Police Department, on which Inner City Press had given Araud's mission the chance to comment before public. But under Araud, France's Mission to the UN did not want to comment -- it wanted to censor. So Araud, not having commented, threatened to sue.
Since then, Araud and his spokesman Frederic Jung have taken on the habit of Herve Ladsous, French deputy ambassador during the Rwanda genocide in 1994 -- try to keep the UN microphone away from the Press.
Araud's previous spokesman told Inner City Press to be sure to distinguish Ladsous, who wouldn't answer, from Araud who would. But now they are indistinguishable. And if only in light of the French government's claims about freedom of the press, they should both go. And not only to DC.
With that hanging in the air, Araud found it easier to deal with"interlocutors" on Twitter, for example on Mali, here. But May 20 at the UN, he did not address or follow the International Monetary Fund in questioning Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's purchase of a new Boeing 737 jet for $40 million. So what did the UN peacekeeping mission, Bert Koenders and Herve Ladous, know and when did they know it?
None of this is answered in the ham-handed UNSC press statement issued at 10 pm on May 20, of which Inner City Press publishes the full text:
Security Council press statement on Mali, 20 May 2014
The members of the Security Council strongly condemned the violent clashes in Kidal on 17 and 18 May in the context of the Malian Prime Minister’s visit in Kidal, which resulted in the death of Malian Defense and Security forces personnel, as well as eight civilians, including six government officials. They expressed their deepest condolences to their families as well as to the Government of Mali.
The members of the Security Council strongly condemned the unacceptable seizure by force of administrative buildings, including the Governorate, the taking of hostages by armed groups, notably MNLA, as well as the attacks on the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). They called for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of armed groups from the Governorate building and for their return to their previous positions in the framework of the cantonment process.
The members of the Security Council insisted on the need for those responsible for these actions to be identified and held accountable. They underlined that these actions undermine efforts towards peace and security in northern Mali, particularly in the region of Kidal, and constitute a grave violation of Security Council resolution 2100 (2013), which calls on all rebel armed groups to put aside their arms and cease hostilities immediately, and of the Ouagadougou Preliminary Agreement of 18 June 2013.
The members of the Security Council called on all parties to act with restraint and refrain from any further violence that could threaten civilians. They reiterated their support for the restoration of the authority of the Malian State over its entire territory, including in Kidal. They further reiterated that only a credible and inclusive negotiation process can bring long-term peace and stability throughout the country, respecting the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Mali. They called for the resumption as soon as possible of the cantonment process and of sincere peace talks between the Malian government and the armed groups signatories and adherent to the Ouagadougou Preliminary Agreement.
The members of the Security Council reiterated their full support to MINUSMA in the implementation of its mandate and the French forces acting in support of the Mission.
So, don't worry about the government in Bamako? Nor IBK's jet?
Despite speeches by Annick Girardin, the French secretary of state for development, what did France's outgoing ambassador to the UN Gerard Araud do or say about these issues during the Security Council trip to Mali that he led?
Actually, France has stealthily lined up to get paid by other UN member states for "air field services" in northern Mali through a letter of assist regarding which Araud refused to answer Press questions in December (then stopped answering Press questions altogether). So as one wag put it, France could get paid to service Air IBK -- if IBK ever visited and negotiated in northern Mali.
Back in January regarding gang rape charges against UN peacekeepers in Mali the UN told Inner City Press, "the Government of Chad has further advised the Department of Peacekeeping Operations that it has completed the national investigation."
And so on April 23 Inner City Press put the question to the UN's Mali envoy Bert Koenders. More than three months after the DPKO told Inner City Press the investigation was completed, Koenders said it will only be finished in "two or three weeks." Video here, from Minute 3:39.
Even though by his account the investigation is not finished, he said "we have found very little evidence of sexual violence by Chadian troups... at first glance some of the accusations have not bee proven."
While Koenders unlike Ladsous at least purported to respond to this question, and one about Dutch attack helicopters bound for Mali, there is a lack of clarity. Beyond the "completed" investigation by Chad, is there another, UN investigation? Are there preliminary findings based on which Koenders said what he did? As with the rapes in Minova in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by DPKO's partners in the Congolese Army, we will continue to pursue this issue.
Inner City Press also asked about the five Dutch helicopter's Mali's foreign minister Abdulaye Diop had told it about earlier in the morning. Koenders said, "We welcome contribution of Dutch government," specifying three Apache attack helicopters in May, and two transport helicopters in September or October.
Koenders cited all information fusion, being the ears and eyes on extremist groups. Earlier, Inner City Press asked Foreign Minister Diop if such information will be shared with his government, or only within MINUSMA and its troop contributing countries. Diop said he didn't know. So this, too, will require clarification
As an aside, later on April 23 the UN's envoy to Somalia Nicholas Kay complained of the lack of helicopters from the AMISOM mission. It left one wondering about how the UN is run: did the Netherlands give the copters to Mali because one of its nationals is the UN's envoy there? We hope to have more on this.
On April 23 when Inner City Press asked Malian foreign minister Diop for an update on dialogue in Kidal, and on the stated investigation of the shooting of civilian demonstrators there, he replied that he is too new in the position to answer on the probe. He said there is a new chief negotiator for the armed groups and what he called, in a Nixonian phrase, the "silent majority." Where did the last ten weeks go?
Back on January 16 the UN Spokesperson's Office sent Inner City Press this response, which does not answer the question of accountability. But here it is, in full:
Subject: Your question on Mali From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org Date: Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 3:23 PM To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
In response to your question about the follow-up to the allegations of sexual assault by United Nations peacekeepers in MINUSMA in September 2013, we have received the following information:
The Department of Peacekeeping Operations officially notified the Government of Chad of these allegations in late September. The Government of Chad officially responded, saying that it would take responsibility for the investigations. The Government of Chad has further advised the Department of Peacekeeping Operations that it has completed the national investigation, and the United Nations awaits advice on the outcome of the investigations and follow-up accountability measures as appropriate.
The UN is waiting for "advice" -- but will it ever make it public? How else can the UN's stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy be assessed?
On January 17, Inner City Press asked UN acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq about it. From the UN's transcript, video here and embedded below:
Inner City Press: On Mali, I wanted to thank you for this written answer you gave yesterday afternoon that Mali has said that its completed its investigation of the alleged rape in Mali by the Chadian troops. And it said that the UN awaits advice on the outcome of the investigation. And what I wanted to know is whether… what part of that is going to be made public, given both the human rights due diligence policy, etcetera? I appreciate you saying that the investigation is finished, but, has… did they clear the soldiers? Were the soldiers found guilty? Where does it stand?
Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: As we emailed to you, the Mission does await advice on the outcome of the proceedings. We know that there have been proceedings regarding the case. You know this is a case regarding sexual assault and so, we await further information from that. We’ll try to make public what we can of the information that we receive.
Inner City Press: So, they literally just told you that it’s complete, but…no indication on what was done? I guess I wonder when --
Acting Deputy Spokesperson: The information I have in the email that was sent to you is the information we have. If we have any further updates, we’ll share it with you at that point.
Two weeks later, nothing. So what will members of the Security Council ask, find and make public?
One of the UN's other too-few criticisms of military action in north Mail, the shooting into a crowd of protesters in Kidal on November 28, was disputed in the Security Council on January 16.
In a statement prepared like a defense attorney, trying raise reasonable doubt, Mali's Permanent Representative Sekou Kasse said that the UN Mission MINUSMA elements closest to the shooting were 400 meters away, precluding them from "objective" testimony.
The argument made was one must wait for the ballistic analysis ordered by the Malian government itself.Inner City Press asked Mali's foreign minister on April 23. Watch this site.
