On Syria, UN's Geneva II Planning Ignored Davos, Watch Convention and Hotel Rooms, France Cheap on Sarin

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 4 -- After months of delay, the UN announced a day for the Geneva II talks on Syria: January 22, 2014.

Now it emerges that long scheduled for that day is a major watch convention in Geneva, and the World Economic Forum. Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says there will not be enough hotel rooms.

At the UN's December 4 noon briefing in New York, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq about it:

Inner City Press: a logistical question about Geneva II. Mr. Brahimi has said that somehow all the hotels are already booked at that time, due to the World Economic Forum and some watch convention, and so, he said it may be moved. Can you confirm that that’s true? And two, weren’t the scheduling of the World Economic Forum and this watch convention known at the time that the day was announced? What would you say to those who say it’s kind of bad planning?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Well, as for the planning, we are planning it, as you know, we have been planning to hold it as soon as we can hold it, and we are, and that continues to have been the case when we set the date for 22 January 2014. We would have liked to have been able to hold it sooner, but this is when we believe we can get the parties and we can get the responsible countries all to agree on.

Regarding where it is held; ultimately, it is not as important where the conference will be held, but that it is held. What we want to do is get the parties together; whether that happens in Geneva or in the area around Geneva is not as crucial as having the parties together. And that’s what we are focusing on.

 And what is France focused on? Ban Ki-moon's November 27 letter listed a number of countries having contributed money to the UN and Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons trust funds -- but France was not among them. 

 So later on December 4 at the UN Security Council stakeout Inner City Press asked French Ambassador Gerard Araud:

Inner City Press: A UN staff member has been killed yesterday. Was he a staff of the Mission or another UN staff? Also has France made a contribution to the OPCW trust fund?

Amb. Araud: On the first question, you have to ask Mrs Kaag what was the exact status of the personal you are referring to. As President of the Security Council, I expressed our political and moral support to what the Mission is doing and expressed our strong condemnation of any attack. Mrs Kaag has described in a very personal and moving way all the risks the local personal is taking by simply traveling through the city of Damascus, and crossing the lines to do their job.

As for France, we have provided technical assistance to the Mission.

That is, no money. And no hotel rooms. Watch this site.

   

Annal of Manipulation: Ban Ki-moon Flashed Photo of Syria Report After Inner City Press Was Told, Don't Photograph Talking Points

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 16 -- So desperate is the UN to be relevant after the US and Russia cut their Syria deal that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon flashed the first page of his chemical weapons report and had it published on UN Photo on Sunday.

The UN has not complained that media from SkyNews to blogger Brown Moses have blown up the photo and reported that sarin was used.

But two years ago Ban's spokesperson admonished Inner City Press at a photo op, Don't take photographs of talking points. Apparently UN Photo can - authorized by Ban Ki-moon?

Monday morning in front of the Security Council a crowd gathered. The report was due to be put on line, Ban Ki-moon to brief the Council after they heard, ironically, of Libya. That was another big item at the UN, now largely ignored as it didn't work out so well. But Gaddafi is dead. Is that what Ban means by accountability? Watch this site.

   

On Syria, UN Spokesperson Doesn't Know if US Shared Evidence, Says Ban Ki-moon Golfs with UK Too, Not Only South Korea: Impartial?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 1 -- After UN chemical weapons inspector Ake Sellstrom spoke with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday morning about Syria, Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky took questions from the press.

One of the elephants in the room was John Kerry, or at least his announcement earlier in the morning that the US' lab tests of hair and blood samples from Ghouta show the presence of sarin.

Inner City Press asked Nesirky to comment on the US moving or saying it moved so much more quickly, and if the US has shared any of this evidence with the UN. To the latter, Nesirky later said that he didn't know. (It seems strange that it wouldn't come up on Ban's call with Sellstrom, but maybe in The Hague as on the UN's internal EZTV system CNN can't be heard.)

On the former, Nesirky said the UN is unique capable of conducting an impartial investigation, clarifying that this involved chain of custody. Inner City Press asked that since the US speed also involved faster lab work, did this mean Ban found the fast-labs less than credible? Nesirky returned to his prior answer.

Gulf media questioned why, if two Syrian officers are accompanying the samples, there are not two representatives from the rebels, presumably from Team Jarba. Nesirky replied that this was what had been negotiated.

Nesirky graciously allowed Inner City Press a final question, which were two. First, about Germany providing a plane to fly the samples and team to The Hague. Yes, Nesirky said, what's the second. Actually it was related to the implication of the first: that for the UN to accept free service from some member countries might undercut its perceived impartiality.

Inner City Press asked about a statement by Ban Ki-moon in Sunday's New York Times, Sunday Routine column:

I try to play golf. I do not have a membership, so I’m invited by some friends. The Korean ambassador has a membership. The ambassador of San Marino, [Alexander] Bodini, plays at Deepdale in Long Island. That’s a very good place. Another is Manhattan Woods, with the Korean ambassador.

Inner City Press asked Nesirky how the UN would respond to the argument this undermines the UN's or at least Ban's perceived impartiality. Nesirky said Ban also golf with others; he gave the example of the UK (presumably Mark Lyall Grant, whose support of a particularly rough soccer team West Ham Inner City Press has previously reported.)

Inner City Press asked, as to Ban's social golfing, what about North Korea? Syria? Iran? Eritrea. There was laughter. Not that it is without humor, but why? Because the named countries or ambassadors don't play golf? (Inner City Press been jokingly asked if it thinks Syria's Ja'afari even knows how to play golf. But would Ban ask?)  Because of course Ban wouldn't golf with them? How are decisions made? Why aren't more disclosures made? Watch this site.

   

Exclusive: UN's Malcorra Met Syria on New Rep to Damascus, US Banking Blockage Raised, Sarin Suspicions

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 31 -- Syria's Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari was summoned Thursday to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff Susana Malcorra, topic undisclosed.

So at the May 30 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey:

Inner City Press: Syrian Permanent Representative [Bashar] Ja’afari said he wrote to the Secretary-General to complain about Robert Serry’s briefing, that it didn’t mention sufficiently from his view the Golan Heights and the kidnapping of peacekeepers. Can you confirm the receipt of that letter? And also, he was summoned to meet with Susana Malcorra, and I’d like to know, one, if it’s true, and two, what the purpose of the meeting was.

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, Matthew, I don’t have any information on the receipt of a letter that you refer to, and secondly, we don’t have any information on any meeting that may have taken place. As Mr. [Hervé] Ladsous said yesterday, the meeting between United Nations officials and members of the diplomatic corps of the Permanent Missions, we don’t usually report on them.

But we do, and exclusively: Malcorra's topic to Ja'afari was to notify or seek approval of a new UN system official in Damascus, for the UN Development Program. And Ja'afari raised again the UN's duty to ensure that the Host Country, the United States, made it possible for all UN diplomatic missions to have bank accounts. "They are trying to use it as leverage," Ja'afari told Inner City Press.

After reports of Al-Nusra arrests in Turkey, having sarin gas, Inner City Press asked Ja'afari what he made of it. He said, the US trying to distance itself from Al-Nusra.

When US Ambassador to Geneva Eileen Donahoe announced she had met Friday with the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Inner City Press posed the question: did CoI member Carla Del Ponte say anything about her "strong suspicions" of rebel use of chemical weapons, which the Al Nusra arrests in Turkey seem to support? So far, no response. It's called social media, not a one way street. Watch this site.

Syrian Rebels' Human Rights Record Spun by UN OCHA's ReliefWeb and IRIN, Run By UK's Amos

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 13 -- Should the UN be collecting and distributing statements to downplay armed rebel groups' violations of international humanitarian law?

  For the Syrian rebels, recently accused of sarin gas use and including groups affiliated with Al Qaeda which behead their enemies, that is what the UN's IRIN has done today, here.

  The article or argument is entitled "'Sometimes you cannot apply the rules' - Syrian rebels and International Humanitarian Law." 

  Actually the acronym IHL is used. The article appears on the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' "ReliefWeb" site, where what IRIN stands for it not spelled out or explained.

  The UN's OCHA is run by Baroness Valerie Amos of the United Kingdom, a country whose David Cameron government wants to arm the Syrian rebels. 

  The UK is given OCHA, just the way France has been ceded UN Peacekeeping in the form of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to hold the post (video here), and the US had the Department of Political Affairs, two times in a row now, from Lynn Pascoe to Jeffrey Feltman.

  The UN's argument has a first quote from "a former colonel now commanding a unit of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the northwestern governorate of Idlib, said he sees the regime's blatant disregard for human rights as all the more reason to commit himself to international norms. 'The abuses were one of the main reasons the revolution started, so of course we should respect humanitarian laws.'"

  How nice. The UN's IRIN says that "Jabhat al-Nusra (The Front for the Support of the people of Syria)... relies on a religious scholar among its commanders who provides guidelines that all the members adhere to." These include beheadings.

  As if in an infomercial, the UN's OCHA runs this quote: "'If we distribute food supplies, we go from house to house and check who is in need,' said Raed al Aliwi, the FSA commander in Hama. 'We don't ask about people's religion or political opinion.'" The article has no byline, only three sets of initials: "gk/ha/cb."

  It is helpfully noted that "the UK is also funding a programme by two consultancy firms to train rebels using an Arabic curriculum about international humanitarian law."

The problem here, not addressed in the article, is that whatever its other aspirations, IRIN is a project of the UN.ReliefWeb is run by UN OCHA, which is run by a UK official. These are problems. Watch this site.

UN's Eliasson Says Brahimi Will Stays On as Syria Envoy, of Kerry - Lavrov & Carla Del Ponte

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 9 -- After weeks of Lakhdar Brahimi saying he wanted to quit as Joint Special Representative on Syria, and reports that he'd said he planned to leave by the end of May, on Thursday UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson said his boss Ban Ki-moon asked Brahimi to stay on, "and he has accepted to stay on."

So was it all a ploy? Will the UN or Brahimi now claim that it was the threat of quitting that brought the US and Russia together to announce a plan?

There has been a lot of spin. After Monday's meeting between Ban and the Permanent Five members of the Security Council, reference was made to Brahimi's threat to quit. But since then, one of the attendees has denied that account, has even accused a particular Mission and pass-through media of "lying." (To give credit, Eliasson was responding to this media's question.)

  But now Brahimi is staying on! So what if its Carla Del Ponte said one thing -- "strong suspicions" of sarin gas use by the Syrian rebels -- and this was immediately attacked by the US and UK, and undercut by other parts of the UN system? (Click here for Inner City Press story & video.)

  The UN is relevant again, or feels itself relevant again! Click here for Inner City Press' latest on the pending General Assembly resolution, and watch this site.

On Syria Sarin, UN Ban Ki-moon Spox Criticizes Inner City Press, Won't Say If Sellstrom Has Got or Wants Del Ponte Info

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 7 -- Why is the UN so defensive about its probe(s) into chemical weapons in Syria? Video here from Minute 15:12.

  On Tuesday, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky did not answer Inner City Press' questions on whether Ban's prober Ake Sellstrom had received the information cited by Geneva-based rights prober Carla Del Ponte.

  Instead, Nesirky pulled out of a file a print out, and criticized Inner City Press' blog of the night before, which ran in full a response from his office, minutes after it was received, and noted

"it sure doesn't say that Sellstrom will consider the evidence his fellow UN system prober Del Ponte has and cited to. Last week, Nesirky told Inner City Press that Sellstrom would be willing to look at video footage collected by Russian state TV reporter Anastasia Popova. Why consider that, and not information from another UN system body? SHOULD these two inquiries be UNrelated?"

  These might seem like fair questions: should two UN system inquiries be consider "unrelated"? Getting more concrete, should Sellstrom simply wait and see what information is submitted to him? Or, at least in the case of information publicly cited by another UN system official, should he reach out and request the information?

  Nesirky after reading from Inner City Press blog not only would not answer if Sellstrom has received the information to which Del Ponte cited -- he would not answer if Sellstrom or Ban Ki-moon will EVER say if this information was received and considered. Video here from Minute 15:12.

  That goes or will go directly to the credibility of Sellstrom's report to Ban, and Ban's report to member states. So why get so angry that the question is asked? Nesirky ended the briefing and left, not allow other questions Inner City Press (and others, we assume) had prepared to ask. 

  These included questions refused by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, whose spokesman Kieran Dwyer on "World Press Freedom Day" cited Inner City Press' "blog posts" as the reason Ladsous won't answer. Video here. What next? Watch this site.

Footnote: Regarding the information or video footage of Russian state media reporter Anastasia Popova, after Inner City Press reported on her offer of proof, anonymous social media accounts associated by the UN Correspondents Association and Reuters immediately falsely accused Inner City Press of being in the pay of the Assad government of Syria, just as they've made false allegation about the defunct Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka, which led to death threats.

   This is the context. We'll have more on this.