Amid UN Scandal, Link to Kutesa Removed from Lykketoft's Page, UNCA Amnesia

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 11, update here -- The scandal unveiled in the corruption charges against former UN General Assembly President John Ashe, Francis Lorenzo of South South News and others continues to expand, including to Ashe's successor Sam Kutesa -- so much so that links to Kutesa's UN webpage and team have been removed from current PGA Mogens Lykketoft's site.

  This is in spite of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon trying to limit the UN's inquiry to only two groups, Sun Kian Ip and the Global Sustainability Foundation, to which Kutesa's wife is affiliated.

 Beyond those two groups the compromised positions of the others in the UN's orbit, including the South-South Steering Committee for Sustainable Development (SS-SCSD), the  International Organization for South-South Cooperation (IOSSC) and the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA) have come to the fore -- along with the Office (or at least website) of current PGA Lykketoft.

  On October 8, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

Inner City Press: about the overlap between Mr. John Ashe's staff and Mr. Lykketoft's staff.  There are many people, they work in the UN system, they work on thematic issues, that's understood.  But, the Chief of Staff of Mr. Ashe is working for Mr. Lykketoft, and she's named repeatedly in the indictment as going on trips to Macau, et cetera.  And so, I wonder, it was described here that this is an entirely different office because it's a new PGA, but is it a new office, and what can you say to that?

Spokesman Dujarric:  I think you should ask the President of the General Assembly.

  Inner City Press had been comparing, using the links on current PGA Lykketoft's website, the teams of Ashe, Kutesa and Lykketoft.

  But then the link to "Sam Kutesa," which until then went to the UN's page about Kutesa including his team on which Inner City Press previously reported, including the bid to post Kutesa's chief of staff atop the UN Department of Political Affairs Africa 1 division, suddenly changed, going directly to the current PGA's page. Now there is no link to information about Kutesa or his team. We've asked Lykketoft's spokespeople:

"This is a request for an explanation of the sudden non-function of the link on PGA Lykketoft's website to the page for his predecessor Sam Kutesa. Onhttp://www.un.org/pga/70/president/presidents-of-the-general-assembly/ the Sam Kutesa link previously led to a page, with a list of 'Team.' Now it lead only to the current PGA's page. Please explain - and separately, restore the link to Mr. Lykketoft's page (and comment on hold-overs, including from ex-PGA Ashe's team)."

  Last week, after Inner City Press asked Lykketoft about the use of his Office for the campaign of fellow Dane Helle Thorning Schmidt for the top post at the UN's refugee agency UNHCR, Lykketoft called it an "unfounded allegation." Actually, he acknowledged that Thorning Schmidt used a room in his Office for her campaign.

 Now, who is it that took down the link to his predecessor Sam Kutesa's PGA page and team? We'll have more on this.

  Both SS-SCSD and IOSSC have posted notices on their websites expressing shock at the charges against Ashe and Lorenzo.

 IOSSC says: "In light of recent events, Mr. Francis Lorenzo is suspended from his position as Executive President of IOSSC." (IOSSC is ostensibly an international organization with members like Sri Lanka, beyond Ashe's Antigua and Barbuda and Lorenzo's Dominican Republic; it echoes to IIMSAM, a group now in Dubai whose impermissible use of Diplomat passes Inner City Pressuncovered, even while as here there were attempts in the UN to cover up, here: IIMSAM with another former UN PGA.)

 On SS-SCSD's site, the link to John Ashe now says "The Page You Are Looking For Could Not Be Found."

 From other involved websites, compromising material is simply absent.  On UNCA's site, for example, there is nothing before 2013. But evidence remains on other groups' sites.

  Inner City Press yesterday published photographs from anUNCA award ceremony at which UNCA took Ban into a side room for photo-ops with the involved businessmen, after taking money from Lorenzo's South South News and giving SSN an award.

   While UNCA does not represent all journalists accredited to cover the UN -- Inner City Press for example quit the group in 2012 with another Executive Committee member and co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access -- the UN gives it a privileged position, a large clubhouse on the third floor of the UN and, automatically, the first question at press conferences.

  But is that appropriate, given that UNCA received money from South South News, “NGO 1” in the filing against Ashe? Not only did UNCA receive money from South South News: it gave the group an “UNCA award” at a ceremony at the high-ceilinged Cipriani's restaurant on December 15, 2011.

  Inner City Press, which did not quit UNCA in fully ripened disgust in 2012, was present on December 15, 2011 and witnessed, when Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came into Cipriani's, him being shepherded into a side room for photographs with Asian men in business suits who Inner City Press did not then recognize.

  Shepherding Ban for this (compensated) photo op with dubious businessmen was Giampaolo Pioli, then as now the president of UNCA. South South News interviewed Pioli that night, bragging of the UNCA award it got / paid for, screenshot from video here.

    (For context it must be noted too that Pioli rented one of his Manhattan apartments to Palitha Kohona then granted Kohona's request as Sri Lanka's Ambassador to screen his government's war crimes denial film “Lies Agreed To” in the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium: this precipitated Inner City Press quitting UNCA, in full disclosure.)

   How can UNCA be given first questions to ask about a scandal involving South South News, from which UNCA took more then to which it gave an award? And what are the other implications?

  (In terms of Mr. Ng's desire for photo ops, Inner City Press is informed that he separately wanted a photo with US President Obama, and paid six figures to a middleman - who disappeared with the money. UNCA on the other hand, one wag noted, delivered Ban Ki-moon for photos at Cipriani's.)

  UNCA, it should be noted, has been and is open to business interested beyond Mr. Ng and South South News. Another UNCA awards ceremony was sponsored by a company called “Acoona;” the Italian oil company ENI pays the group money.

But UNCA's South South News connection, given what has been disclosed and charged this week, should at a minimum and as a first step disqualify UNCA from first questions from the UN, and from the continuation of its role.

Wider, and going forward in this series, limiting UN investigation to OIOS - whose director of investigations Stefanovic has resigned, Inner City Press hereby exclusively reported on October 9 - looking at only two NGOs is laughable. The scandal is expanding: there is a pattern here, pattern and practice. Watch this site.
   

After Ukraine Reinstates Ceasefire in MH17 Zone, Statement "Blocked" as Unneeded, Unlike on Libya?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 7 -- After Ukraine's government declared on its website a suspension of the ceasefire in the zone of downed flight MH17, required by UN Security Council Resolution 2166, Russia's Mission to the UN circulated a draft press statement on this "intended violation" of the resolution.

  Ukraine's mission to the UN then wrote to the Security Council to say that the ceasefire was back on. On that basis, member Lithuania for example said the statement as drafted wasn't needed, asking why issue a statement about a statement, or even, a statement about nothing?

  One could flash back to Resolution 1973 about Libya -- citing Gaddafi's statement about Benghazi, the use of force was authorized, and used. If Gaddafi had said, I didn't really mean it, or even, I'm joking, would that have stopped things?

  What was done during the suspension of the ceasefire, and what's being done just beyond the crash one, remain to be seen.

After late-night wrangling, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on July 21 on downed flight MH17.

  Resolution 2166, which Inner City Press put online here, among other things noted “the crucial role played by the International Civil Aviation Organization in aircraft accident and incident investigations and welcomed the decision by ICAO to send a team.”

    After the vote and speeches on July 21, the foreign minister of the Netherlands, with the most victims, and Australia came to the Council stakeout. The Australian mission took the role of choosing questions, given the first one to an Australian correspondents from Reuters, the next to the Sidney Morning Herald, and the last to Kosovo media. The Free UN Coalition for Access asks, Is this balance?

  Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop said this should be the last such incident, because its perpetrators will be found. But isn't there a wider issue of non-state actors seeking advanced weapons, for example in Syria?

  Here is what Bishop said inside the Security Council; but shouldn't there have been more balance in the questions she took while at the UN?

   In its resolution, the Security Council demanded that “all military activities, including by armed groups, be immediately ceased in the immediate area surrounding the crash site to allow for security and safety of the international investigation.” 

  But what about Kyiv's continued "anti-terrorist operation" beyond a 40 kilometer radius?

   Amid questions of why MH17 was flying over the East of Ukraine on July 17, after a Ukrainian military plane has already been shot down at 21,000 feet, the Security Council resolution “urges all parties to the Convention on International Civil Aviation to observe to the fullest extent applicable, the international rules, standards and practices concerning the safety of civil aviation in order to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.”

  Reportedly, flights now go over Syria, and permission has been sought from Iran. 

   Late on July 20, Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Russia would support a draft with providing for a independent, impartial investigation.

   As a pointed precedent, he cited the US' downing of a airplane in 1988. (That killed approximately 300 Iranian passengers). 

  On July 21 in the Security Council, he brought up a downing over the Black Sea by Ukraine, and said they haven't taken responsibility and shouldn't be in charge of this investigation.

  On July 20 Australian Ambassador Gary Quinlan arrived at 10:55 pm, stopping to say there is no reason any Council member should not support the earlier draft.  Video here. .

  Meanwhile rebel groups elsewhere are requesting advanced weapons. On July 18 the Syrian Coalition rebels put out a press release that they should be given "advanced weapons."

   Here is what the Syrian Coalition, until recently headed by Saudi backed Ahmad Al Jarba and now headed by Saudi backed Hadi Al Bahra, said:

“Louay Safi, spokesman for the Syrian Coalition, said earlier that the connection between the Assad regime and ISIS has never been so intimately interwound as it is today with the progress being made by regime forces near Aleppo and that of ISIS in Deir Ezzor. These advancement have not been interrupted by a single clash between regime forces and ISIS, which proves the existence of full coordination between them.” Safi attributes the setbacks suffered by Syrian rebels to the reluctance of the friends of Syria group to provide the rebels with the advanced weapons that can tip the balance on the ground.”

  What about, “in the air”? The Syrian Coalition continues:

“Furthermore, Safi agrees with the former U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, who blames the rise of extremist groups in Syria on the Obama administration’s hesitation to support the moderate opposition forces. The military situation is very critical, as regime forces are about to laid siege on Aleppo. But even if Assad’s forces recapture Aleppo, the crisis will not be over. (Source: Syrian Coalition)”

  So, what of the US announced plan for $500 million to “vetted” Syrian rebels?

Also on Syria, on July 14 when the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on humanitarian access to Syria, its Operative Paragraph 11 said the Council “affirms that it will take further measures in the event of non-compliance with this resolution or resolution 2139 (2014) by any Syrian party.”

 Afterward, Australia's Permanent Representative to the UN Gary Quilan emphasized at the media stakeout that resolutions are binding, that the Council had affirmed that it will take measures if not complied with by the parties. Video here, from Minute 2:10

  Inner City Press sought to ask a question about a statement inside the Security Council by Russia's Vitaly Churkin, and Quinlan agreed to take the question. Inner City Press asked Quinlan to respond to Churkin saying that the resolution “doesn't plan for automatism” in sanctions or the use of force, that any such steps would require the specific consideration of the Security Council and “convincing evidence.” Video of Churkin's statement here, from Minute 25.

  Quinlan replied that what Churkin said was correct, then said that while there would have to be a further decision by the Security Council about what measures to take, the decision that some measures would be taken has already been made. Video here from Minute 18.

Readers can draw their own conclusion how meaningful it is to claim that a decision to definitely act has been made, if another vote including veto powers is required.

Footnote: Asking this question was not easy. The first question was given to Voice of America; the second taken by the whip of the UN Correspondents Association's president, sometimes writing for the Huffington Post. She then tried to keep the UN Television boom microphone operator for giving the microphone to Inner City Press -- even as Ambassador Quinlan said, “Matthew... what Ambassador Churkin said was correct.” 

  This UNCA, becoming the UN's Censorship Alliance,seems to believe it can block questions (as well as having tried to get Inner City Press thrown out after its reporting about Sri Lanka, here). The new (and resulting) Free UN Coalition for Access opposes this.

  To come full circle, acknowledging deft diplomacy by Australia and its co-leads Jordan and Luxembourg on this resolution, it is sometimes hard not to note the contradiction of Australia returning asylum seekers from Sri Lanka after only “reviewing” their claims on a ship. Inner City Press has asked Ambassador Quinlan about this, and we hope to have a story on the topic soon. Watch this site.

UN Free Press, Italy Talks of Blocking Websites, Jordan of Registering Them

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 27 -- When the Foreign Ministers of Italy and Jordan came Thursday to speak of religious tolerance, the Italian mission's press note referred to "diffusion of the video Innocence of Muslims." Inner City Press went, to ask about censorship not only in Jordan but Italy.

  Inner City Press asked minister Giulio Terzi about his comment that "It is absolutely legitimate for governments to block sites that include... incitement to hatred." Inner City Press asked, how would this be decided? By whom?

  Terzi replied that Italy "believes in freedom of speech and expression and of thought... My reference was to, when I was asked, the crime of blasphemy, considered by national criminal code, could be pursued though impeding access to contemporary way of communications."

  That is, blocking websites. Is that freedom of speech and expression and of thought?

Jordan has recently required hundreds of websites to register with the government, which as Inner City Press asked, has been seen as undermining freedom of the press.

The Foreign Minister of Jordan Nasser Judeh replied that this "press and publications law has nothing to do with freedoms or the right to free expression, it has a lot to do with regulation." He said there are "website that are not registered." Oh. Watch this (proudly unregistered) site.