By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 25 -- Among the “urgent problems” at the UN discussed Tuesday in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, several major ones were missing, and others only superficially covered.
The UN's two large peacekeeping missions in Sudan are both embroiled in controversy. Darfur's UNAMID is accused throwing an “information blackout” over attacks on civilians, and accommodating Omar al Bashir, indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court, to the extent its chief Ibrahim Gambari considered handing over to Bashir five of his opponents, probably to be tortured.
The UN Mission in Sudan under Haile Menkerios recently flew in a UN plane Ahmed Haroun, indicted for war crimes by the ICC. Significantly, both Gambari and Menkerios, as well their Cote d'Ivoire equivalent Choi Young-jin and other Ban Ki-moon administration insiders, refused to provide the public financial disclosure which Ban said 99% of his officials do.
One might have expected, for example, Minority Leader Berman to raise issues about Darfur. But in fact, observers were surprised by Berman's lack of knowledge about the regional groups through which much of the UN's business is done. Those defending the UN often know little about it.
That so many UN officials chose to not disclose, and that the UN still has no Freedom of Information Act, are two of the many things that should change at the UN.
While Sudan was not raised enough, the House Foreign Affairs Committee did hear about “20,000” civilians killed in Sri Lanka, on which Ban's UN has done little while praising President Mahinda Rajapaksa's “flexibility.”
It heard about “Cash for Kim” in North Korea, and retaliation against the whistleblower who exposed it. This detailed testimony mentioned Inner City Press' reporting on the UN allowing the Than Shwe regime in Myanmar to over-charge the UN 20% of foreign exchange transactions, a tax on Cyclone Nargis aid that the UN never disclosed to its donors (until a UN whistleblower documented it to Inner City Press).
Afterward, it heard from the UN Foundation's Peter Yeo that the UN has
“moved aggressively to strengthen the ethical culture of the institution. The UN Ethics Office was created in 2006 and, in January 2008, all UN funds and programs created individual ethics offices or agreed to use the secretariat’s ethics office. Led by an American attorney, Joan Dubinsky, the UN Ethics Office oversees the new financial disclosure statements required of UN employees above a certain level and any UN staff with fiduciary responsibilities. Since 2007, the UN has mandated ethics and integrity training for all UN staff members and put in place new whistleblower protections.”
These are several inaccuracies here. The Ethics Office, under Robert Benson and now Joan Dubinsky, has yet to protect whistleblowers. Most recently, when Ban's adviser on genocide Francis Deng -- who served as a minister under a murderous Sudanese regime -- was challenged by Inner City Press for using UN staffers' time to work on sections of his own books, he said it was all cleared by the Ethics Office.
That this is the UN's specialist on genocide says it all -- but wasn't said at Tuesday (first) hearing on Ban's UN.
Footnote: After having asked Ban's spokesperson's office, Messrs. Nesirky and Haq, the clarify Ban's now disproved claim, and received back only this:
On the House of Representatives, what we have to say for today is:
The United Nations has always worked constructively with the United States, and we share the same goals: for a stronger UN, one that is efficient, effective, and accountable. That is why the Secretary-General has made strengthening the UN one of his top priorities since taking office.
The Secretary-General is convinced that a strong, effective and efficient United Nations needs the active and constructive support of Member States. To achieve that, he will continue to engage with the US Administration and with the US Congress on ways to ensure that the Organization can find solutions to today’s challenges, and deliver on the mandates given by it Member States.
Ban Ki-moon is quoted by Bloomberg, which he sought out, that Congressional Republicans' "only complaint they may have is the lack of much faster progress than they might have expected.” What specific areas of "progress" was the SG referring to? Namely, which areas does the SG acknowledge not having met expectations and for which progress should have been made "faster"?
Michael Dudley, the acting head of OIOS' Investigations Division, is under investigation, for among other things, retaliation and evidence tampering. Given that Ban Ki-moon says he prides himself on the transparency of his administration, what specifically are the facts surrounding the investigation process regarding Mr. Dudley, and will the UN be reassigning him to other duties during the investigation?
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