UN Evades Satyam Questions, Leaves ICC Loopholes, Uses and Defends the Past

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/un2satyam030309.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 3 -- Faced with the direct question of whether the UN continues to receive computer services from the scandal-plagued firm Satyam, through the UN-affiliated International Computing Center, UN Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq on Tuesday told Inner City Press to "ask Satyam."

Since the UN, and Mr. Haq, are funded by taxpayers, and had just purported to issue a blanket denial of continuing services from Satyam, Inner City Press asked if that belated denial included any services through the ICC, which has employees who work in the UN Headquarters building. Of one ICC employee who went out a high-floor window of the UN to her death a year ago, Mr. Haq said, "It was a grim morning for me. Her family was disturbed [about Press coverage], I heard from Security." At that time, the UN Spokesperson's Office told Inner City Press that the ICC was affiliated with the UN, but not a part of the UN Secretariat.

Does your denial cover services received from Satyam through the ICC, Inner City Press asked. "That is meant to be a systemwide answer," Haq said. But did you ask the ICC? No, he answered. He went on to defend the UN system's belated and halting disbarment of Satyam, disagreeing that the UN-affiliated World Bank didn't tell the rest of the system, saying rather that the World Bank delayed due to "due process." It should be noted that the UN continued contracting from ostensibly disbarred aviation and construction firms, like Corimec.

Previously, Inner City Press had posed the question in writing to Angela Kane, the head of the UN's Department of Management, which oversees procurement. Ms. Kane wrote back, on this, to ask the "at the noon briefing... I just cannot respond to individual queries in view of the heavy demands on my time." Inner City Press then posed the question, about Satyam services to the UN through the International Computing Center, to the acting head of the Spokesperson's Office, Marie Okabe.

At the noon briefing on March 3, Inner City Press asked Ms. Okabe, does the UN receive computer services through the International Computing Center from Satyam, the so-called Indian Enron? Ms. Okabe said that while she didn't "have the guidance" with her, an answer had been sent to Inner City Press earlier in the day. Video here, from Minute 12:59.

That claim was repeated in a subsequently email:

Subj: your questions at noon
From: unspokesperson-donotreply@un.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 3/3/2009 12:44:43 P.M. Eastern Standard Time

You asked several questions at noon, one of which (concerning Satyam) was answered in an email sent to you earlier today

Regarding allegations on corruption in Cambodia, this continues to be a topic we are pursuing with the Cambodian Government. We continued our high-level discussions with the Cambodian Government on 23 February on all issues related to the ECCC; Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Peter Taksoe-Jensen represented the United Nations. The discussions also focused on the work of the Joint Sessions, which are working to establish a mechanism to address the allegations of corruption.

Regarding the reported request from Bangladesh -- The United Nations has received a request, conveyed to our Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, for assistance regarding investigations into the mutiny last week. That request is being studied.

But check as Inner City Press could, there was no e-mail response on the Satyam question received earlier in the day. Inner City Press went and asked Ms. Okabe, who referred the question to Farhan Haq. Haq said he sent it at ten in the morning, then acknowledged it had been sent to a different -- incorrect -- email address. He resent the following, which makes no mention of the International Computing Center, the UN-affiliated entity in Inner City Press' question:

From: unspokesperson-donotreply@un.org
To: Inner City Press Sent: 3/3/2009 1:28:33 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: Fw: Questions on Satyam

-----Forwarded by UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply/NY/UNO on 03/03/2009 01:28PM -----

We were informed by our Procurement Division that Satyam was suspended in January. As per Procurement Division practice, a communication has been sent to the UN procurement system (including peacekeeping missions) and the procurement extranet site is now updated.

We also have the following information from UNDP about Satyam, received at the end of January:

UNDP's most recent contract with Satyam was signed in December 2007 for consulting work on its information systems. The contract went through the normal competitive process. This contract was set to expire after one year (November 30 2008). In October of 2008, media articles appeared on irregularities in Satyam's work with the World Bank. UNDP approached the World Bank and Satyam proactively to find out the details of the alleged irregularities. As a result of these conversations, UNDP took a decision not to renew Satyam's contract and began to evaluate the phase out while minimizing the risks to our information systems. UNDP currently has 11 Satyam technical consultants working on its information systems.

UNDP does not manage the UN Global Marketplace (UNGM), it is managed by UNOPS. We are in the process of having the misleading or erroneous information contained on IAPWG's site removed as it unfortunately creates this perception. UNDP can flag vendors in the UNGM should it experience problems and is currently in the process of doing so. It is worth noting that UNDP's review of the published World Bank list of barred vendors did not turn up Satyam's name, in spite of such references in the media to Satyam having been debarred.

In light of the most recent information regarding Satyam, UNDP, like many other companies and organizations, will not be continuing its business with them and is currently looking for a replacement.

But the question to the UN was and is, "Does the International Computing Centre, for any of its work for the UN Secretariat, use services from Satyam?" Inner City Press, in forwarding the question to Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe after Angela Kane declined to answer it, added, "Marie, please consider the question whether Satyam does business with or for the UN system through the International Computing Center a question for the Secretariat's Spokesperson's Office, even for ICT/Mr. Choi."

There followed a response from Farhan Haq that did not even mention the International Computing Center, before which he did not ask or even seek to ask the ICC for any response. The goal seems to be to make the question go away by answering other questions, and to dredge up an incident in which the UN tried to dictate how the press covers death -- the New York Times, it should be noted, has displayed freshly killed people face-up on its front page, with nary a peep from the UN, which went into a frenzy when a New York Times columnist said the UN pulled security from its sometime-envoy George Clooney -- in an attempt to discourage or evade basic factual question about the UN doing what it say. We will have more on this.

Footnote: in fairness, Haq is said to be among the more articulate of the UN spokespeople. We note, however, that he has previously refused even on camera to answer basic questions about the UN's currency exchange losses to Myanmar's Than Shwe regime, and about the admitted irregularities with the UN-affiliated tribunal in Cambodia. Click here for a story byeond today's about the Cambodia Tribunal and about the UN Information Center in Tokyo. On that, we're told by a Tokyo source that last week in the Japanese legislature (Diet)

in reply to the question of Mr. Nobuto Hosaka of the Social Democratic Party of Japan, the Minister of Foreign Affaiirs, Mr. Nakasone, made the following remarks in connection to the Japanese government's decision to decrease 10 million yen from its contribution to UNIC Tokyo:

1) He regrets the advance payments made by UNIC Tokyo in violation of UN financial rules.

2) The Japanese government proposed to the UN to quickly take appropriate action against those staff members who took part in the advance payments. (It was the first time the Foreign Minister referred to appropriate action against staff members.)

3) He also expressed regret concerning the 5 million yen time deposit kept at UNIC Tokyo, and said this was conveyed to the UN.

We'll have more on this, as well.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2satyam030309.html

UN's Top Lawyer Patricia O'Brien Refuses Questions on Cambodia Tribunal, Ignores UN Logo Misuse

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ola1cambodia030309.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 3 -- The UN's new top lawyer, asking Tuesday about the funding and corruption crisis at the UN-affiliated genocide tribunal in Cambodia, refused to answer any questions about it.

At a press conference at UN headquarters in New York, Patricia O'Brien purported to respond to twenty minutes of questions about the so-called Hariri Tribunal, concerning the deaths of some two dozen people in Lebanon. The Cambodia tribunal, already plagued by allegations that local Cambodian staff paid bribes to get their jobs, is threatened with closure according to its top judge due to a lack of funds.

As Inner City Press asked what the UN is going to do, Ms. O'Brien said she would not answer any questions on that or any other non-Hariri Tribunal topic. Inner City Press followed up, will there be another opportunity to ask these questions? I am not undertaking any further commitment of availability, Ms. O'Brien said.

Several comparisons came to mind. The Cambodia tribunal deals with more than a million deaths, while the Hariri Tribunal deals with two dozen. On the latter, however, the UN has good news, or thinks it does. Its corruption-plagued tribunal, the UN would apparently prefer just went away.


Of this UN-assisted tribunal, "a report surfaced last week on the German legislature's Web site alleging that a top U.N. tribunal official had acknowledged the kickbacks and accused a senior Cambodian administrator of corruption. The head of public affairs for the tribunal refused to comment on the report."

Ms. O'Brien's predecessor Nicolas Michel, while more focused on Lebanon than Cambodia, nevertheless answered questions about Cambodia. Ms. O'Brien, since being awarded the UN's top legal job, has rarely if ever been available to the media. She came to one press conference and left before taking any questions.

Two weeks ago, Inner City Press approached Ms. O'Brien in the hallway of the UN, after a ceremony in which she and two dozen other Under Secretaries-General signed "accountability" compacts with Ban Ki-moon. Inner City Press told Ms. O'Brien of recent instances of corporations publicly using and misusing the UN logo and name to promote their business. Previously, when Inner City Press had raised such cases to the UN Office of Legal Affairs, which Ms. O'Brien now heads, some actions had been taken. Ms. O'Brien instructed Inner City Press to proceed as it had in the past.

Inner City Press e-mailed to Ms. O'Brien, at her UN-listed address, a half-dozen examples of corporate use of the UN logo. Having no response, Inner City Press sent the examples again, on the eve of Tuesday's press conference. Still no response, until the terse statement that only Hariri Tribunal questions about be entertained, and no other Q&A opportunity was envisioned.

The UN is ostensibly a public organization; in any event, Ms. O'Brien's salary is paid by taxpayers all over the world. While Ban's UN talks about accountability and transparency, even its top lawyer appears to resist or oppose both. We will have more on this.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ola1cambodia030309.html

In UN, Protests to Nairobi Post Switch From Woman to Man, Gender Balance Comes Last

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un3unon030209.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 2 -- On a day the UN called for "greater gender equality and women's empowerment," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon replaced the female chief of the UN Office in Nairobi, Tanzanian Anna Tibaijuka, with a German man, Achim Steiner.

While Ban's Deputy Spokesperson, after two days of questioning from Inner City Press, still declined to confirm the switch, not only Steiner but later the UN's Under Secretary General for Management Angela Kane confirmed the switch. No rationale for the seeming hypocrisy -- "do as I saw, not as I do" -- has been offered. The local UN Staff Union has protested in writing, and now prepares an in-person protest.

Monday night in UN Headquarters, Inner City Press asked Ines Alberdi, the chief of the UN's women's agency UNIFEM, for her views on the switch from Anna Tibaijuka to Achim Steiner. "I can't answer you," Ms. Alberdi said. "I am not aware." (No estoy al tanto.) Inner City Press, after commenting on the irony to Alberdi as to the woman she'd replaced at UNIFEM, asked Alberdi about Anna Tibaijuka. She replied, "I don't know her." (No la conozco.) Ms. Alberdi promised to look into it, and Inner City Press will publish her response when it is received.

[Alberdi spoke Monday night at the launch of a Gender Equality Fund, "housed" at the UN but with the Government of Spain making funding decisions, along with UNIFEM. Spain gave $67 million for the Fund, as it had given other monies in the run-up to Alberdi being appointed. To some it appears that the UN's hierarchy is Money, Nationality and only then, Gender Balance.]

Obtaining answers from the UN is becoming more and more difficult. Monday, hours after Achim Steiner in an Al Haig moment had announced he had taken over from Ms. Tibaijuka, Ban's Deputy Spokesperson still declined at the noon briefing to confirm it. Inner City Press posed the question, and three others, to the USG for Management, Angela Kane, saying that while not wanting to bother her, no answer was given at the noon briefing. Ms. Kane responded:

Subj: Re: Hi, Press questions re UN Office in Nairobi, ICC/Satyam, thnx
From: Angela Kane
To: Inner City Press
CC: Marie Okabe [Deputy Spokesperson]
Sent: 3/2/2009 6:17:15 P.M. Eastern Standard Time

[Q: who is in charge at UNON right now?]

Mr. Achim Steiner was designated Director-General of UNON, effective 1 March.

[Q: Does the International Computing Centre, for any of its work for the UN Secretariat, use services from Satyam?]

Re ICC, you will have to ask them directly.

[Q: Also, how many individuals within the Department of Management have you authorized to be extended beyond their retirement age? What offices do these individuals work in? And what are the reasons that you have authorized these individuals to be retained on the payroll beyond their maximum retirement age?]

Re individuals beyond retirement in DM, I have asked for the precise information, as I have only my own recollection which is anecdotal. I wish we had the ERP system already in place - it would be easier to get the data.

[Q: Finally (for now), about the UN's arrangements with Aramark, did they provide for price increases even as commodity prices decline? Is the UN's contract with Aramark public, can it be viewed? If not, with all due respect, why not?]

Re Aramark ( or any other restaurant/coffee shop operation), I have yet to see the decline in commodity prices reflected in customer pricing. We always try to hold the line on increases, as I am sure you are well aware. And finally, could you please ask your other questions at the noon briefing? - I just cannot respond to individual queries in view of the heavy demands on my time.

While these same-day answers were appreciated, it was remembered that Ban's Special Advisor urged "write positively about Angela Kane," and Ms. Kane herself later said, "write positively about the Organization." Partial written answers, and no answers at all at many recent UN noon briefing, make writing positively about the UN more difficult. Inner City Press followed up:

Thank you for these answers. While henceforth all DM questions will be asked at the noon briefing, just to follow-up on these, does the response mean that all of the UN's contract with Aramark is withheld from the press and public? Will you or the OSSG provide the retiree figures? And re UN Office in Nairobi, is Mr. Steiner physically in charge (is there no OIC) and are you aware of the staff protest(s) to this change?

Marie, please consider the question whether Satyam does business with or for the UN system through the International Computing Center a question for the Secretariat's Spokesperson's Office, even for ICT/Mr. Choi.

And so it goes at the UN. We will have more on these matters, including as responses are received.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un3unon030209.html

UN Peacekeeping, in Bashir Run-Up, Pitches Haiti, Dodges Chad Fees and Lubanga

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/dpko1leroy030209.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 2 -- With UN Peacekeeping under fire from Sudan to Congo, its two largest missions, agency head Alain Le Roy told the Press on March 2 that there is "good news" in Timor L'Este and Haiti, elections to be held in Afghanistan, pay-offs and run-offs averted in Chad. Inner City Press asked if Chad's president Idriss Deby had tried to charge the UN for the airstrips the European Union mission has built in his country, as several Security Council ambassadors have said in confidence.

Le Roy said it was difficult, but the outcome is that Chad will re-claim some of the airstrips built by the EU. We do not pay, he said. But at a closed-door Troop Contributing Country meeting in late 2008, several member states complained that Chad was charging landing fees. Transparency only goes so far at the UN.

Le Roy's main pitch was about Sudan, in the run-up to the expected indictment of Omar al-Bashir for war crimes on March 4. Le Roy said the UN plan to keep moving peacekeepers in, from Egypt and Senegal, even Thailand and Nepal, to reach 80% staff-up by June.

Inner City Press asked about the protest over the weekend by the UN's top man in Sudan, Ashraf Qazi, claiming he was misquoted that he gave information against Bashir to the International Criminal Court. Le Roy clarified that only "regular" information could be provided, reports already completed, "mostly" for the Security Council.

Inner City Press had asked about the ICC's case against Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga, in which UN Peacekeeping gave information it demanded be withheld from the defense. These did not sound like "regular" reports. Nor would Le Roy confirm or deny, as Inner City Press requested, that the Congolese government of Joseph Kabila in March 2007 asked the UN to help arrest indicted war criminal Bosco Ntaganda, who is now working with rather than against Kabila's rag-tag forces. Again, transparency only goes so far at the UN.

Still and all, Le Roy is one of the better informed UN Under Secretaries General who are trotted out to brief the Press. Inner City Press has asked UN spokespeople about reports that Poland plans to pull out of UN peacekeeping missions, without any on-the-record response. Le Roy on March 2 said that Poland plans to stay in Chad until October, and that its reasons for pulling out are financial.

The reality is that the UN pays countries for their peacekeepers. In fact, these payments are reported to have played a role in the deadly coup attempt in Bangladesh. The border guards who are said to have plotted the coup "make about $100 a month. Their resentment has been heightened by Army officers heading the border guards, who do not participate in United Nations peacekeeping missions, which bring additional pay."

Thus, UN Peacekeeping can and does impacts in countries well beyond those in which it has formal peacekeeping missions. There have been no public updates on sexual abuse charges pending against contingents from Morocco, Sri Lanka and India. The previous official on the "zero tolerance" beat, Jane Holl Lute, is now in line to be the number two at the UN Department of Homeland Security. (Her "war czar" husband recently spoke at the University of North Florida.) Where are the updates? Once again, transparency only goes so far at the UN.

Footnote: Le Roy mentioned "good news" from Haiti. That's not what a long-time Haitian journalist, standing Monday morning in the snow across First Avenue from the UN, told Inner City Press. In fact, some are alleging some UN complicity in the very crimes in Haiti being denounced. Ban Ki-moon, Le Roy said, is slated to travel to Haiti on March 9 and 10, with Bill Clinton. The snowy Haitian journalist has urged further investigations. We will have more on this.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/dpko1leroy030209.html

UN's Ban Hands Nairobi Office to German, Union Protests, Pemba Sidelined

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ban2unon030209.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 2 -- Handing management of the UN's African hub from a Tanzanian to a German, the UN's Ban Ki-moon has quietly named Achim Steiner to the top post at the UN Office in Nairobi, Steiner confirmed in an e-mail on March 2. In New York, Ban's Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe dodged the issue on February 27, and on March 2, after Steiner's confirmation, told Inner City Press her Office "has nothing" on the topic.

In fact, Ban's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar if not Ban himself is aware of strong opposition to the shift to Steiner from the UNON Staff Union. In a February 26 letter to Ban, UNON union president Rhoda Atana protested the upcoming shift away from Tanzanian Anna Tibaikuka as, among other things, "against the principles of gender balance you have been promoting."

Inner City Press has exclusively obtained a copy of the letter and places it online here.

Ms. Atana wrote that she was advised, rather than confront Ban during his stop at the UN-affiliated International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, to deliver the letter to Vijay Nambiar. Days later in New York, Ban's deputy spokesperson said she "ha[d] nothing" on either the switch to Steiner or the Staff Union letter protesting it.

As Inner City Press reported exclusively on February 28, previously "the [UNON wa]s headed by a Director-General, at the Under-Secretary-General level, who is the most senior Under-Secretary-General among the Heads of the United Nations Programmes headquartered at the duty station, namely, UNEP and UN-Habitat."

Thus, the Director-General of UNON was Anna Tibaijuka. She wrote the UN's report on Robert Mugabe's "Operation Take Out the Trash" in Zimbabwe, and finessed questions about the UN taking sides in the contested election in Kenya between Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki.

Now, under the Bulletin Ban quietly put out and that went into effect on March 1, "the Office is headed by a Director-General, at the Under-Secretary-General level, designated by the Secretary-General from among the heads of United Nations programmes headquartered at the duty station, namely, UNEP and UN-Habitat."

Inner City Press noted that following the recent ceremony in which Ban's Under Secretaries General signed "compacts" with him, Tibaijuka did not sign a compact to remain as head of UNON. Others note that Ban's USG for Management Angela Kane is German, as is Achim Steiner, who has been placed above Tibaijuka in Nairobi.

All this takes place against a backdrop in which Ban sought to eliminate the post of Special Advisor on Africa, a move opposed by the Group of 77 and China and the Africa Group. In the budget debate in December 2008, the General Assembly directed Ban to henceforth appoint a new Special Advisor on Africa, which he has yet to do. Ban's team has not explained either that move, nor this one. Some call it, diplomatically, tone-deaf, or surmise that Ban is badly advised.

At the UN's noon briefing on February 27 Inner City Press asked Ban's Deputy Spokeswoman Marie Okabe

Inner City Press: in yesterday’s Journal there was an announcement in a new Secretary-General Bulletin about how the UN Office in Nairobi is organized. And it is my understanding that it actually would result in currently the most senior of HABITAT or UNEP is running the Office in Nairobi, and that the new policy the Secretary-General would get to choose between the two. Is that accurate and is it his intention to switch Nairobi from Ms. Tibaijuka to Mr. Achim Steiner?

Deputy Spokesperson Okabe: If the Secretary-General’s Bulletin is what you read that’s all I have for you right now.

Inner City Press: Well, what’s the rationale of changing the existing policy under which an African official runs the Africa office of the UN to a policy that would have it the other way?

Deputy Spokesperson: I have nothing beyond what you read in the Bulletin.

Then on March 2, after Steiner sent out an e-mail, below, that he has the job, Ms. Okabe still said she "has nothing" on the switch, or the Staff Union letter. Steiner wrote, Monday afternoon in Nairobi but hours before the UN's noon briefing in New York, that

The Secretary-General has issued a new Secretary-General's Bulletin on UNON effective 1st March 2009 and has designated me as Director General of UNON.

Every transition inevitably creates a certain sense of anxiety and expectation - and I am writing first to bring to your attention the Secretary-General's decision... I believe in continuity while reforming and enhancing our capacity to deliver effectively and efficiently on our mandates... We have learnt many lessons and I intend to build on and further develop the reforms initiated by Ms. Tibaijuka.

In fact, a memo accompanying the Staff Union letter to Ban says that by removing Ms. Tibaijuka from the top post, he is sending the message that "impunity reigns at the Nairobi duty station." Impunity is not limited to Africa.

Footnote: As the UN's Ban Ki-moon traveled through Tanzania last week, elders from the island of Pemba advocating succession wanted to present him with a petition to that effect. The Tanzanian foreign ministry announced it had discovered and disrupted the "plot."

On February 25, Inner City Press asked Ban's Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe about "this report that a threat was found against the Secretary-General, not a threat but a... to disrupt his visit to Tanzania by these Pemba elders. One, is that something that the UN can confirm? And two, what history does the UN system or Secretariat have with this Pemba issue in Tanzania?"

Ms. Okabe replied, "I have seen the press reports, and I have not heard anything in what I've read that would be affecting his travel plans."

Since the UN's Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro was previously Tanzania's foreign minister, it seemed that unlike Ban's deputy spokesperson, she might have some knowledge or a comment. Ms. Migiro was slated to speak with the Francophonie organization. Inner City Press sought information about the meeting but was told it would take place outside of the UN, with no press. Inner City Press asked a senior Migiro staff to please get a comment, even a formal no-comment, from her about Pemba. Days later, none has been provided. Nor when Inner City Press asked at the UN noon briefing, for response by Ban or Migiro, was any response given.

On February 26, Inner City Press asked a follow-up

Question: On the Secretary-General’s trip in Tanzania, the Foreign Ministry there had said that the Pemba elders were going to try to give him a petition. And now it’s reported that Fernandez-Taranco, the country representative, has met with the elders. Was the Secretary-General made aware of the issues that the people from this Pemba Island were trying to raise and did he or Deputy Secretary-General Migiro have any comment or knowledge of what was…?

Deputy Spokesperson Okabe: I am sure that he, like you, reads press reports on various issues. I have nothing on that. There is nothing on his schedule today.

The UN's country representative met with the elders, then claimed there was no relation to their desire to confront Ban, and that the Tanzanian government has everything under control. Among the elders' gripes are a lack of water and of electrical power -- and political power. We will have more on all this.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ban2unon030209.html

At UN, BASF Dodges W. Sahara Phosphorus Fall-Out, Global Compact's PetroChina Denial

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ungc1pcbasf030209.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 2 -- When the UN Global Compact held a meeting on "current anti-corruption efforts by its corporate participants" last week, there were more than a few ironies. Chosen by the Compact as its corporate participant and thus poster-child was the chemical firm BASF. But when Inner City Press asked BASF's chief compliance officer Eckart Suenner about alleged irregularities in his firm's export of phosphate from the contested territory of Western Sahara, and the firm's refusal to make public an expert opinion it claims legitimates the transfer, Suenner dodged the question.

Not only at the press conference on February 26, when he said while he hadn't heard about, BASF has policies on "dual use and stuff," but in the three days since Inner City Press sent him evidence of the refusal of Anne Forst of BASF's "Sustainability Center" to provide the expert opinion, no response from BASF has been received. Video here, from Minute 24:44. The inquiry focused on a shipment of 25,000 tons of phosphates from the Bu Craa mines in Western Sahara, carried by the ship Novigrad to the harbor of Ghent.

While the Global Compact claims to be moving toward increased transparency and credibility, its board recently dismissed a detailed complaint against PetroChina and subsidiaries for their activities in Sudan. Faced with widespread protest of the dismissal, the Compact's Sir Mark Moody-Stuart has written that the issue will be re-visited at an upcoming meeting of the Compact's board.

Inner City Press on February 26 asked when this will take place, and for the views on the matter of another participant, Jermyn Brooks, head of Global Private Sector Programs of Transparency International. Global Compact Executive Director Georg Kell argued that PetroChina is not a member of the Compact, only its subsidiary CNPC is. Video here, from Minute 17:20.

In fact, the opposite appears to be true. In any event, should Compact participants be hiding behind a shell game of subsidiaries, in which all members of a conglomerate can cite an affiliate's membership in the UN Global Compact, but the most controversial parts of the company can say it was not them who joined?

TI's Jermyn Brooks, who gave a detailed answer to Inner City Press' question about gray money being used to bolster the reeling banking sector, at least admitted he was "ducking" the PetroChina question, saying he doesn't have enough information. When he does, and when the Compact board revisits the question -- Kell would not give a date -- we will have more on these matters.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ungc1pcbasf030209.html

On Sri Lanka, UN Meeting Called One-Off, UK Makes No Proposals, Holmes Differs from Ban

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsc9srilanka022709.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 27 -- After the Security Council's closed-door meeting on Sri Lanka, Council president Yukio Takasu emerged to tell the Press that that conflict, in which more than 2000 civilians have been killed so far this year, will not be a Council agenda item going forward. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, even before the meeting began, called the briefing by UN humanitarian chief John Holmes a "one-time" event. Video here, from Minute 6:45.

While in London UK Foreign Minister David Miliband spoke about publicly about a strategy of proposing a Council resolution on Sri Lanka, in New York UK Ambassador John Sawers did not even propose a Presidential Statement. He left the Council stakeout after taking a single question, ignoring Inner City Press' question about what Minister Miliband had said. By contrast, even knowing albeit late that it would be vetoed, the UK and U.S. put forward a sanctions resolution on Zimbabwe last year. (US Ambassador Susan Rice was not at Friday's meeting, and no US representative came to the stakeout to speak.)

Inner City Press has obtained a copy of Holmes prepared remarks to the Council's closed-door session, and puts it online here. Whereas Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on February 23 called for a suspension of fighting and for political discussions to bring an end to the conflict, Holmes on February 27 spoke of tackling underlying political issues only "after the end of the fighting."

It appears that the UN Secretariat's public call is undermined by a more private green light to the Sri Lankan military's offensive in north Sri Lanka.

Holmes also dodged the question of whether UN money would be use for camps the Sri Lankan government in building in which Tamil people who flee the bombs in the conflict zone would be detained until at least the end of 2009. Inner City Press also asked Japan's Takasu, who had mentioned international humanitarian law, about the camps, and his lengthy answer did not address the legality of the planned detentions. Video here, from Minute 6:25. Nor did he answer whether it is the government which is keeping media from covering the conflict. (While under no restriction, at the post-meeting stakeout interviews, while Bloomberg News was there, other wires including UK-based Reuters were not present.)

Inner City Press asked Holmes about reports that he used the Sri Lankan government's Minister of Resettlement as his translator. Holmes admitted that this happened, then said "you should credit me with enough intelligence" to assess what people told me, surrounded by the military's armed guards. But locals say that while a woman spoke of her son abducted by the Army, Holmes was told she'd said her son was killed by the Tamil Tigers or LTTE.

Holmes told the Council of various assurances the government gave him. But when Inner City Press asked if he had proof the government has stopped using heavy weapons, he admitted he did not. He went on, as he did but only initially in Gaza, to note that it is "hard to distinguish civilian and LTTE cadres." Video here, from Minute 4:30.

In fact, Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders put out of field report of February 26 describing how a " family spent days in a bunker without food and water. Out of desperation, and despite the shelling, they left their bunker to get some food when three out of her 15 family members were killed on the spot." This is the situation which the UN's humanitarian operation is, some say, glossing over, because of politics in the Security Council.

Inner City Press asked outgoing Council president Takasu about these politics, to explain why for example in Sudan the Council does not demand that the Justice and Equality Movement, which recruited child soldiers and used them in an assault on Omdurman last year, lay down its arms before urging Khartoum to refrain for retaking rebel held land and negotiating with JEM. Takasu tried to say that the Council's approach to Darfur and Sri Lanka is consistent. Video here, from 14:13.

Why, Inner City Press, is Sudan then on the Council's agenda, and Sri Lanka is not? The answer is politics. This topic is explored on an online debate, following-up on the one linked-to below, that will go online this weekend.

Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc9srilanka022709.html

UN's Ban Moves to Switch Top Nairobi Post from Tanzanian Tibaijuka to German Steiner

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ban1unon022809.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 27 -- The UN's Ban Ki-moon, just as he travels through Africa, has quietly changed a rule allowing the removal of Tanzanian Anna Tibaijuka as head of the UN's Office in Nairobi and her replacement by a German, Achim Steiner. Secretary-General's Bulletin 2009/3, which was published on February 26 and which Inner City Press asked Ban's Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe about on February 27, changes a previous rule.

Until now, "the Office [wa]s headed by a Director-General, at the Under-Secretary-General level, who is the most senior Under-Secretary-General among the Heads of the United Nations Programmes headquartered at the duty station, namely, UNEP and UN-Habitat."

Thus, the Director-General of UNON was Anna Tibaijuka. She wrote the UN's report on Robert Mugabe's "Operation Take Out the Trash" in Zimbabwe, and finessed questions about the UN taking sides in the contested election in Kenya between Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki. She has strong support from the UN staff who work in the Nairobi duty station.

Now, under the Bulletin Ban has just put out and that goes into effect on March 1, "the Office is headed by a Director-General, at the Under-Secretary-General level, designated by the Secretary-General from among the heads of United Nations programmes headquartered at the duty station, namely, UNEP and UN-Habitat."

It is noted that following the recent ceremony in which Ban's Under Secretaries General signed "compacts" with him, Tibaijuka does not appear to have signed a compact to remain as head of UNON. Others note that Ban's USG for Management Angela Kane is German, as is Achim Steiner, who is privileged by Ban's quiet switch.

This takes place against a backdrop in which Ban sought to eliminate the post of Special Advisor on Africa, a move opposed by the Group of 77 and China and the Africa Group. In the budget debate in December 2008, the General Assembly directed Ban to henceforth appoint a new Special Advisor on Africa, which he has yet to do. Ban's team has not explained either that move, nor this one. Some call it, diplomatically, tone-deaf, or surmise that Ban is badly advised.

At the UN's noon briefing on February 27 Inner City Press asked Ban's Deputy Spokeswoman Marie Okabe

Inner City Press: in yesterday’s Journal there was an announcement in a new Secretary-General Bulletin about how the UN Office in Nairobi is organized. And it is my understanding that it actually would result in currently the most senior of HABITAT or UNEP is running the Office in Nairobi, and that the new policy the Secretary-General would get to choose between the two. Is that accurate and is it his intention to switch Nairobi from Ms. Tibaijuka to Mr. Achim Steiner?

Deputy Spokesperson Okabe: If the Secretary-General’s Bulletin is what you read that’s all I have for you right now.

Inner City Press: Well, what’s the rationale of changing the existing policy under which an African official runs the Africa office of the UN to a policy that would have it the other way?

Deputy Spokesperson: I have nothing beyond what you read in the Bulletin.

Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ban1unon022809.html

UN's Ban "Did Not Know of Fowler" as Niger Envoy, Diplomat Says, Alleging Fraud

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un7fowler030109.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 1 -- Ten weeks after Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler disappeared in Niger while ostensibly serving as UN envoy to that country, in New York a diplomat of a Permanent Five member of the Security Council told Inner City Press that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "didn't know about Fowler's appointment as an envoy when he was asked," after Fowler's disappearance.

The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity as was the case in Inner City Press exclusive and subsequently video-verified report a month ago of Fowler being alive, said this means that mine-related business was being done through the UN without Ban's knowledge.

"You have a layer of quasi UN people," he said, "supposedly working for a dollar a year and the like. It is fraud." He added that attempts to delve into l'affaire Fowler are "being blocked... there are interests on the other side."

The diplomat approached Inner City Press at a reception on February 26 at the residence of Japan's Ambassador to the UN Yukio Takasu on East 62nd Street. Takasu served a Security Council president for February, and held an end of the month reception as is the custom. The previous anonymous diplomatic scoop, that Fowler "est vivant," came a month prior, at the end of presidency reception held at the French mission to the UN. Inner City Press hopes that further inside information does not have to await the end of March, when Libya's time at the Council's helm will end. Watch this site.

Meanwhile, a second video of Fowler and Louis Guay, as well as their UN Development Program driver, has reportedly been seen by AFP. Jeane Afrique runs a photograph of hostages. The Canadian Dominion reports on previous interventions by past and present diplomats from Ottawa in mining business disputes in Niger, including between Canadian and Chinese companies. The read-out given of the meeting last week between Prime Minister Harper and Ban Ki-moon, before Ban left for Africa, was vague if not evasive.

That business may be run through Ban Ki-moon's office without his apparently knowledge is raised by sources for another Inner City Press story this weekend, that a switch was quietly made in which the top post at the UN Office in Nairobi can be switched from Tanzanian head of UN Habitat, Anna Tibaijuka, to director of the UN Environment Program, Achim Steiner. Locals note that Ban's Under Secretary General for Management Angela Kane is German, as is Steiner.

As in their shifting responses to questions about Fowler's appointment and mandate, even on this rule change Ban's Spokesperson's office was evasive. At the UN's noon briefing on February 27 Inner City Press asked

Inner City Press: in yesterday’s Journal there was an announcement in a new Secretary-General Bulletin about how the UN Office in Nairobi is organized. And it is my understanding that it actually would result in currently the most senior of HABITAT or UNEP is running the Office in Nairobi, and that the new policy the Secretary-General would get to choose between the two. Is that accurate and is it his intention to switch Nairobi from Ms. Tibaijuka to Mr. Achim Steiner?

Deputy Spokesperson Okabe: If the Secretary-General’s Bulletin is what you read that’s all I have for you right now.

Inner City Press: Well, what’s the rationale of changing the existing policy under which an African official runs the Africa office of the UN to a policy that would have it the other way?

Deputy Spokesperson: I have nothing beyond what you read in the Bulletin.

Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un7fowler030109.html

At UN, Greece's Bakoyannis Called "Not Ready for Prime Time" by Some: Sri What?

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1bakoyannis022809.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 28 -- Dora Bakoyannis, the foreign minister of Greece, was unable on Friday to comment on the 2000 civilians killed this year in Sri Lanka. She came to speak to the Press outside the UN Security Council, which was holding a three-part session on the OSCE, peacebuilding and Sri Lanka. Inner City Press asked for her or Greece's position on Sri Lanka, the debate on which in the Council has concerned the right of a government to kill civilians while fighting a separatist or terrorist group.

"I will not comment on that," Minister Bakoyannis said, "I have to catch up with it." Video here, from Minute 5:01. Several Greek observers shook their heads, some embarrassed, some judgmental. Not ready for prime time was the verdict, they said.

Beyond such intra-Greek critique, the larger question which we hope going forward to explore is, Does a foreign ministry such as Greece's only take an interest in conflicts outside of their region while they are on the UN Security Council, or are aspiring for a seat?

When asked if Russia building military bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia would be helpful to her and the OSCE's attempts to keep a OSCE mission in these areas, Ms. Bakoyannis answered only that it "should be discussed within the OSCE." Video here, from Minute 4:54.

Ms. Bakoyannis did answer, or at least respond to, Inner City Press' question about Nagorno Karabakh, on which she has been quoted that a solution's to be found within the territory of Azerbaijan. She answered by referring to the Minsk process, trying to bring it to a close by the end of 2009. Video here, from Minute 2:11. This answer, but not the Sri Lanka no comment, was picked up by the ANA news service, here.

Staff of the Greek Mission to the UN, working around the clock during Ms. Bakoyannis' visit, were to accompany her to the airport after this Council appearance. The Mission is among the more responsive in UN world, on topics ranging from the riots to the intrigue around the U.S.'s planned use of a Greek port by the name of Lobster for weapons trans-shipment. To bring Minister Bakoyannis up to speed on major UN topics, at least those on the Council's agenda on the day that she is there, would be another step forward.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1bakoyannis022809.html

In Congo, Civilians Bear the Brunt as UN Attacks NGOs and Whistleblowing General Diaz

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/drc3ngos022509.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 25 -- In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is said that Rwandan troops are leaving today, to be followed by the end of the week by Ugandan forces involved in the ill-fated hunt for Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army that resulted in LRA killings of 900 civilians. But questions have arisen whether all of the Rwandans are leaving, and if the Ugandans will leave at all.

DRC President Joseph Kabila is trying to remove the head of the National Assembly, who has raised questions about Kabila's invitation of foreign armies onto Congolese soil. Local leaders in Dungu in north Congo, where the LRA is still on the loose, are demanding that either the Ugandans or Congo's ragtag army stay and finish off the LRA, which they liken to a wounded lion.

Despite the claim that the UN Mission in the Congo, MONUC, is most focused on protecting civilians, they did almost nothing when the LRA began a wave of killing on Christmas of last year. Tuesday at UN Headquarters, Human Rights Watch's Congo expert Anneke Van Woudenberg told the Press that MONUC wasn't even informed of the assault on the LRA until hours before it took place.

Inner City Press asked Ms. Van Woudenberg for HRW's view on whether the United States, as a Permanent Five member of the Security Council which provided funding and planning to the Ugandan army, had a duty to give more advance warning to MONUC, so that civilians could be protected. Ms. Van Woudenberg responded that it was perhaps understandable that only a few people not involved in the planning would be told before the action started. But can it be that the U.S. doesn't trust the head of MONUC, Alan Doss?

Doss in recent weeks has adopted a combative approach, not to warlords but to the press and NGOs. His new communications chief, Kevin Kennedy, issued a stinging rebuke of a Medecins Sans Frontieres report about the north Congo killings. While the head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy upon his return from Afghanistan urged a more detailed response, the resulting letter to MSF was given little publicity.

On February 23, Inner City Press asked MSF's Sophie Delaunay if the group has any second-thoughts about the report, after the UN called it "unfounded." No, she said, the report is what happened in norther Congo, it was "outrageous" and it had to be said. MONUC is known to dispute even the titles of NGOs' reports on the Congo. MONUC will let no insult stand, it seems.

This applies equally to the damning report by Spanish General Diaz, who left MONUC after he found a less than friendly reception by Alan Doss. Inner City Press has asked for the UN's comments on Diaz's end of mission critique, and the response has been to vilify Diaz as a quitter, even as having had a nervous breakdown. But Inner City Press has heard that Doss never wanted Diaz, preferring instead an African general. MONUC didn't even pick Diaz up from the airport when he arrived. Spain's mission in Kinshasa had to do it, at the eleventh hour. It was hardly an auspicious beginning. Peacekeeping, indeed.

While the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes, when Inner City Press asked him about HRW's report this month of 100 killings of civilians by the fleeing FDLR military said "I hope it's not true," Ms. Van Woudenberg said that it's that the UN couldn't go out and do their own count for two weeks. She expects that Holmes will now confirm the report. We'll see -- Holmes will return to New York on Friday, from Colombia and a controversial government-controlled trip to Sri Lanka.

When the International Criminal Court screened its Prosecutor's opening statements again Thomas Lubanga in his old stomping grounds in Bunia, Ms. Van Woudenberg was there. She told Inner City Press that the room chosen was too small, and that students outside, some supportive of Lubanga and the UPC militia, began to make noise. The ICC cancelled the afternoon's screening, which was Lubanga's lawyers' chance to speak. The ICC ended up appearing to be one-sided. Ms. Van Woudenberg suggested they increase their outreach.

While Amnesty International has called on the UN Mission in Sudan, UNMIS, to refrain from helping transfer two of the LRA's leaders, both indicted by the ICC, to Uganda, HRW has yet to take a formal position on this. Ms. Van Woudenberg recounted her meetings with warlords from Laurent Nkunda to Bosco Ntaganda. The latter, she said, began with Rwandan forces of Paul Kagame back in 1991. In a uniquely Congolese trajectory, Bosco passed to the AFDL which overthrew Mobutu and tried the same with Desire Kabila, pere, then moved on to the UPC in Ituri before joining the CNDP, at first under and now over Laurent Nkunda.

Ms. Van Woudenberg told the Press that the Congolese government in May 2007 asked MONUC to help apprehend Bosco, who has been indicted by the ICC. Inner City Press asked if this request has been rescinded, now that Kabila's government wants to work with the CNDP. Ms. Van Woudenberg said it has not been revoked, and provides an opportunity. But with the UN system so invested in the regime of Kabila, to the point where only his opponents are indicted and delivered to the ICC, it's hard to imagine MONUC seeking to use a request that has been politically superseded in order to apprehend Bosco.

In fact, as Ms. Van Woudenberg confirmed, warlord Peter Kerim who killed and kidnapped UN peacekeepers in 2006 is now a colonel in the Congolese Army, and the UN says little to nothing about it. Ms. Van Woudenberg said that the Congolese government, at a minimum, was involved in brokering an impunity deal with Kerim. But was the UN also involved?

In the course of Ms. Van Woudenberg travels in Congo -- she is there seven months a year, she says -- she recently met Ugandan General Patrick in the town on Dungu. Gen. Patrick was involved in the UPDF's bloody forced disarmament campaign in Uganda's Karamoja region, in which the UN Development Program was involved. Gen. Patrick told her, I know Human Rights Watch, you are the ones who criticized us in Karamoja. And that is to HRW's credit.

Ms. Van Woudenberg's presentation was keyed to Ban Ki-moon's travel this week to the Congo. She said that Ban should "bang his hand on the table" on several of these issues. Somehow that's hard to imagine. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/drc3ngos022509.html

At UNDP, Selection Process Stays Secret, from Solomon Islands to Sierra Leone, No Answers

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/undp1clark022409.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 24 -- As Ban Ki-moon backslides on transparency about the UN Development Program, unanswered questions mount about how UNDP runs itself. At the UN's noon briefing on Tuesday, Inner City Press asked, "it’s been reported that Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, is in New York being interviewed for, they have called it a shortlist for the UNDP top position. It’s reported that 10 people are being interviewed; a panel will make three and then Mr. Ban will make the decision. Is that accurate, and who is on the panel?"

After Deputy Spokesperson Okabe answered, "I have nothing on the selection specifics," Inner City Press followed up, "since the previous Secretary-General did actually make the shortlist for this position public and I know that the Secretary-General has said he is going to be at least as transparent, if not more, what is the rationale for not releasing a shortlist?"

Ms. Okabe then tried again to move the discussion out of the briefing room, and off the record: "Matthew, we’ve had this discussion; if you want to have it later some more, that’s fine." But later on Tuesday, even a senior UN official who works on the 38th floor said that to fall short of Kofi Annan is not acceptable.

Inner City Press asked Ms. Okabe, "Do you acknowledge that it's less transparent than it was?"

Okabe replied, "No. No, I don’t acknowledge that it is less transparent. As we have told you several times already, the Secretary-General has reached out to Member States, he’s put an ad in the Economist, they’re going about this in a very transparent manner and, as soon as we have something to announce for you, we will. For the sake of the privacy of the individuals, we are not making that list public." Video here, from Minute 11:33.

While one UN official, who demanded anonymous treatment, later argued to Inner City Press that there are some candidates who do not want to be listed in case they lose, another scoffed that "at that level, they can't afford to have such thin skin. If they do, they shouldn't get the UNDP job anyway."

In recent years at UNDP, Kemal Dervis and Ad Melkert, his deputy and now candidate for the top job, fought to make the agency independent from the Secretariat, on ethics and whistleblower protection. The result has been more retaliation cases than elsewhere in the UN system, and UNDP officials moonlighting on the advisory boards of lobbying firms. Click here for Inner City Press' exclusive report.

UNDP's spokesman Stephane Dujarric has declined this year to answer questions about UNDP scandals in the Solomon Islands, and follow-ups on the lobbying moonlighting, reporting on which await the promised answers. While these pend, UNDP is named as "topping-up" the salary of a scandal-plagued judge in Sierra Leone, click here for that.

Relatedly, while the UN Millennium Campaign called in response to TV questions to claim it does not received funds through the UN system and "does not speak for the UN," since the Campaign's Eveline Herfkens was admitted to have violated rules prohibiting a UN staff member from taking money from governments, this claimed "no relation" with the UN seems strange. (Ms. Herfkens is still prominently displayed on the Campaign's website, here.

An Inner City Press correspondent notes that UNDP manages a trust fund called "EC Trust Fund for the European Millennium Campaign Against Poverty," pointed to budget documents showing that $350,000 was contributed to this UNDP trust fund. The correspondent states, "So I don't think it is accurate to say that the Millennium Campaign "receives no money from the UN system"; It is probably more accurate to say that UNDP launders money from UN member states to Eveline Herfkens' Millennium Campaign. Click here for UNDP's partially-retracted spin about Herfkens. In fact, UNDP itself refers to "the Campaign, which is financed by a trust fund administered by UNDP."

The next head of UNDP will oversee this strange entity, whose recent unaccountable advocacy a senior UN official has called little more than "a gimmick." What is Helen Clark's position on this? Ad Melkert's? Hilde Johnson's?

The Campaign's web site does not meaningfully explain the relations between the UN and the UN Millennium Campaign, much less publish the Campaign's budget. A requested paragraph on UN - UN Millennium Campaign connections, with an emphasis on the financial claim, has not been received. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undp1clark022409.html

As UN Bids Bye to Kumalo, Susan Rice Starts Behind Closed Doors, Malaysia's Jackfruit Diplomacy

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2diplomacy022409.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 24 -- There are many flavor of diplomacy at the UN, some open and some tinged with favoritism, the styles of the powerful or of underdogs of various hues. All were on display on Tuesday in the Delegates' Dining Room, at the well-attended farewell reception for South Africa's decade-long Ambassador, Dumisani Kumalo.

While a bass-led quartet played, Kumalo thanked the crowd and danced. Sudan had hosted a more exclusive lunch for Kumalo earlier in the day, at which it emerged that he will become his country's envoy to the Great Lakes region including Burundi. (When Inner City Press asked Kumalo about the posting, he joked that the Great Lakes "will be smaller when I'm finished with them.") Others say Kumalo should be made the UN's Special Advisor on Africa, now that current Under Secretary General Diarra is renouncing that post.

Inner City Press spoke with Diarra at Tuesday night's event, along with Ambassador Michel Kafando just returned from his native Burkina-Faso. There, he said, there are some few troubles on the horizon, the Tuareg and the disappearance of stealth UN envoy to Niger Robert Fowler. Diarra pointed out that Canada's prime minister Harper discussed l'affaire Fowler with Ban Ki-moon this week. Ban's subsequent stakeout comment was misreported as progress toward speedy release and resolution. And so it goes at the UN.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Malaysian mission's two week-long food festival filled this same room. A Malaysian diplomat, amongside answering questions about Sri Lanka, told Inner City Press his mission had contracted with catering firm Aramark and brought six chefs to New York. The diplomat's wife was in the kitchen, supervising some of the cooking. The plat du jour was jackfruit curry. Chef Ismael Ahmad -- his white apron literally said "Celebrity Chef" came out and joked that the jackfruit curry made his fingers yellow.

Lebanese diplomats dined with UNFIL's force commander; Deputy Secretary-General Migiro had the corner table, her security detail waiting by the dessert table with sticky rice with spicy coconut and, incongruously, Ricotta Salada cheese. Malaysia says that while some smaller countries balk at the price charged by Aramark, this open food festival is part of its outreach and public relations.

Another approach to diplomacy is being exhibited by the United States. Kumalo danced with the masses, and even Sudan's Ambassador speaks on the record, for example telling Inner City Press that he denied a visa to George Clooney for Sudan, asking him why he didn't go to Gaza. New U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, meanwhile, is slated to give an off-the-record presentation to some in the American press corps on Wednesday. When her predecessor Zalmay Khalilzad left, he sat down with nearly every interested journalist who covers the UN, and Mission staff subsequently negotiated what could and could not be reported.

Under Obama, one might have expected greater openness by the U.S. Mission. So far it does not seem to be the case. Some ascribe this to the new spokesman, Mark Kornblau, arriving from Zagat's only this week. But others speculate that Hillary Clinton wants to keep a lid on Susan Rice, both in access to Obama, and in access to the press. So who decided to make her first sit-down press availability so small, and off the record? Watch this space.

Footnote: Susan Rice's absence from Kumalo's farewell was excused, as she was in Washington to do the hand-shaking Cabinet-member walk before Obama's speech. Present for Kumalo at the UN were, among the P-5, Ambassadors Churkin, Ripert and Sawers (dancing), and China's Liu, who'd gone Malaysian earlier in the day. UN diplomacy takes time...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2diplomacy022409.html

As UN Pitches Wiretaps in Guatemala, Bus Murders Unsolved, Benazir Bhutto Panel Not Filled Yet

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1guatemala022409.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 24 -- A UN-sponsored prosecutor in Guatemala is advocating legalizing and expanding wiretapping in that country, it emerged on Tuesday. The head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, Spanish prosecutor Carlos Castresana, told the Press that he has assembled a team from Chile, Uruguay and Colombia and is going after the drug gangs known as marras.

Inner City Press asked about a statement by Castresana that he will expose the role of journalists in criminal conspiracies in Guatemala. It is undeniable that civil society is involved, Castresana answered. Asked to name other countries in which the UN might get so directly involved in judicial and investigative proceedings, Castresana told Inner City Press to "ask the Secretary-General."

After the briefing, a Department of Political Affairs spokesman declined to comment on the idea of a similar transition from a UN political mission to a judicial follow-up in, for example, Nepal. The countries would have to come and ask for help, he said. CICIG's funders include a slew of mostly Western European countries, the U.S and the Soros Foundation.

Inner City Press asked whether Castresana has made any progress on one of the two cases he first accepted from the government, that of a spate of killings of bus drivers. Castresana said that these killings, numbering over 130 in 2008, began as extortion schemes against the bus companies. The threats were delivered by gang leaders by cell phones, but wiretapping was not possible. Video here, from 45:37.

After the briefing, Castresana told Inner City Press that the problem was not any government resistance to wiretapping, but rather getting the phone companies to invest the funds necessary to allow systematic monitoring of communications.

How closely related to the UN's mission is advocating an expansion of wiretapping? A senior UN official told Inner City Press, on condition of anonymity, that there are increasing doubts about the wisdom of the UN's involvement in judicial processing. You can lose your focus, he said, citing the UN's role in establishing a tribunal for Hariri's assassins in Lebanon, and Ban Ki-moon's one-third complete naming of a panel on the Benazir Bhutto killing in Pakistan.

On the Pakistan panel, one name thrown around has been Peter Galbraith, who while a U.S. diplomat in the Balkans was, sources say, involved in evading arms embargoes in the region. The UN official told Inner City Press that while Galbraith, pushed for the post by Pakistan's government, may not be on the Bhutto panel, look for him to be named soon to another UN post. We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1guatemala022409.html

At UN, GlaxoSmithKline's Pricing of AIDS Drugs Raised, Clintons Press Flesh, Flex Muscle, IKEA Turns Indian Corner

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1gskdrugs022309.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 23 -- The UN's love affair with corporations became overheated on Monday, when commitments by pharmaceutical and furniture companies to disease prevention were praised without reference to their roots or limitations. With Bill Clinton slated to arrive later in the afternoon, the UN's own noon briefing was cancelled to allow, among others, GlaxoSmithKline to be praised by Kari Stoever of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Inner City Press asked about criticism of GSK by Medecins Sans Frontieres, for continuing to gouge on pricing on HIV/AIDS medications. MSF's Sophie Delaunay, the participant in the briefing to whom most questions ended up being directed, responded that GSK's exclusion of AIDS drugs was "not satisfactory." Video here, from Minute 32:20.

Later Inner City Press asked Ms. Delaunay about MSF's report criticizing the UN's own performance in Northern Congo as civilians were being killed by the Lord's Resistance Army. Ms. Delaunay called the situation outrageous. Video here, from Minute 43:40.

Of North Korea, she said that the UN's refugee agency UNHCR is incapable of guaranteeing safe passage from that dictatorship where, she said, nothing has improved for people since at least 2002. Off-camera, she told Inner City Press that MSF has not been able to access the conflict zone in Sri Lanka, click here for that story.

When Bill Clinton came to the UN in the afternoon, a handful of reported waited by the elevator. The UN's own photographers were whisked up for a photo-op with Ban Ki-moon. Afterwards Clinton stopped to shake hands but not to answer questions. A diplomat representing the Polisario Front of Western Sahara, approached by Bill Clinton, thanked him for James Baker's role in trying to mediate with Morocco. Afterwards he asked Inner City Press, "Did Clinton know who I was?" It seemed doubtful. "But he felt your pain."

The day ended with an upbeat tropical diseases reception facing over the East River in the Delegates' Dining Room, where corporate philanthropy was praised without equivocation. Omnipresent through the day were IKEA and UNICEF, with pamphlets about their partnership and children in India. Not long ago, IKEA was found using child labor in India. Perhaps they've turned the corner. UNICEF says it will take only six percent of the commitment. Meanwhile Bill's wife Hillary is said to be looking for a new head of UNICEF, at latest in 2010. Beneath the happy surface there are power games at work.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1gskdrugs022309.html

On Sri Lanka, as UN's Ban Calls for "Suspension of Fighting," No Council Meeting Yet

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ban9srilanka022309.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 23 -- With civilians in Sri Lanka trapped in escalating armed conflict, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday belated called for a "suspension in fighting." Ban previously told Inner City Press he couldn't call for a ceasefire because Sri Lanka is not on the Security Council agenda, and Ban has still not used the word "ceasefire."

Outside a February 23 meeting about Myanmar, Inner City Press asked Ban, "before, you said that you weren’t calling for a ceasefire because it wasn’t on the Security Council’s agenda. Now, having heard hopefully from Mr. [John] Holmes, what do you think should happen in Sri Lanka at this time?"

Ban's answer, written on note cards and subsequently put in the UN's website, "deplore[d] the increasing casualties among civilians trapped in the intense fighting between the government and the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] over the last several days and would strongly support a suspension of fighting for the purpose of allowing safe passage of the civilian population trying to flee the conflict." Ban called for "political discussions." Video here, from Minute 9:23.

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, whose John Holmes just visited Sri Lanka, now tells Inner City Press pointed that there is no request for a Security Council briefing on Sri Lanka, despite UK Ambassador John Sawers statement on February 20 to expect a Council briefing when Holmes arrives in New York.

Holmes apparently came and went from New York without speaking even to his spokesperson,* who a day later provided written answers to Inner City Press' questions, including confirming that Holmes accepted translation from the Sri Lankan government's Minister of Resettlement, and that no tape recordings were kept. Video, the UN has been told, shows a woman telling Holmes that her son was abducted by the Army, only to have the Minister of Resettlement mis-translate it as that her son was killed by the Tamil Tigers. Ban said that Holmes "had a very good visit to Sri Lanka."

*- the spokesperson later on February 23 told Inner City Press that "John Holmes flew straight from Sri Lanka to Colombia." Inner City Press was relying on the February 20 statement by the UN spokesperson that "Holmes is going to come here this weekend, and then he is going to fly again to Colombia. But we’ll try to get him to come and talk to you between those trips."

Here the full question and answer with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, as transcribed by the UN, followed by the UN's written answers to questions Inner City Press posed for John Holmes:

Inner City Press: Before, you said that you weren’t calling for a ceasefire because it wasn’t on the Security Council’s agenda. Now, having heard hopefully from Mr. [John] Holmes, what do you think should happen in Sri Lanka at this time?

S-G Ban: Mr. Holmes had a very good visit to Sri Lanka. He had meetings with many senior government officials, including President [Mahinda] Rajapaksa. The UN deplores the increasing casualties among civilians trapped in the intense fighting between the government and the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] over the last several days and would strongly support a suspension of fighting for the purpose of allowing safe passage of the civilian population trying to flee the conflict.

There is an urgent need to bring this conflict to an end without any further unnecessary loss of civilian life and destruction of Sri Lankan society. The United Nations renews its call on all sides to pursue serious efforts toward political discussion to achieve an orderly end to the conflict.

Here are the UN's written answers to questions Inner City Press posed for John Holmes:

Inner City Press: did [Holmes] speak with displaced or impacted people outside the presence of representatives of the government?

Answer: Yes. While during the visit, the opportunity of talking on his own was limited with so many people around, he made an effort and did speak to some people on his own with translation by UN staff. He also spoke with a number of UN colleagues and humanitarian workers who have regular contact on their own with IDPs and received their views.

Inner City Press: What evidence of violations of international humanitarian law by the Sri Lankan armed forces, as well as the LTTE, did he observe or become aware of?

Answer: Mr. Holmes expressed his concern about the significant numbers of civilians being injured inside the Vanni pocket by fighting between the GoSL and the LTTE and he met people to whom this had happened. He also met people whose escape had been hindered by the LTTE and is aware of civilians reportedly being shot by the LTTE as they try to escape. Furthermore civilians are possibly being held against their will inside the Vanni pocket.

Inner City Press: Did he participate in any discussions of extraction of people from Vanni by military aircraft? To where? With what countries' aircraft?

Answer: No.

Inner City Press: What were the interactions between Mr. Holmes and the Sri Lankan armed forces, including but not limited to travel, presence during interactions with displaced or impacted people?

Answer: Mr. Holmes met briefly with officers of the Sri Lankan forces during his visit including the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Holmes met civilians both with military officers present and on his own.

Inner City Press: Who did the translation(s) for him?

Answer: Different people at different times, including UN staff, and the government agent for Vavuniya who is a Tamil Sri Lankan and one time briefly (before a staff member assisted) through the Minister of Resettlement..

Inner City Press: Were tape recordings of what was said, in original language, kept?

Answer: no.

Inner City Press: Please list the individuals and organizations which whom Mr. Holmes met, and provide his schedule / itinerary.

Answer: In addition to UN, NGO and ICRC staff and representatives of member states, Mr. Holmes met the President, the Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights and the Secretary of that Ministry, the Senior Advisor to the President, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Secretary of the MoFA, the Minister of Resettlement, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Ministry of National Building and Estate Infrastructure Development, and the Umbrella Group in Vavuniya,

Inner City Press: In light of UK Ambassador Sawers' and others' statements Friday with regard to Security Council briefing after Mr. Holmes' departure from Sri Lanka, when would Mr. Holmes be available for such a Council briefing?

Answer: No request for a briefing of the Council has been made.

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