With UN Chief Investigator Charged with Retaliation, OIOS Spins

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 31 -- While the UN refuses to answer Press questions about charges against its chief investigator Michael Dudley, on Monday the UN Spokesperson sent the press a defensive statement from the Office for Internal Oversight Services, disputing that there has been a fall off in cases pursued.

But Dudley himself in a case closing memo stated that outside contractors and even UN staff as soon as they retire are of less concern, to put it diplomatically.

More than a week ago, prior to the US House of Representatives hearing on UN corruption, including the issues surrounding Mr. Dudley, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky:

“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?”

After at first ignoring the question and declining to even acknowledge it, finally Nesirky's deputy Farhan Haq responded that “On Michael Dudley's case, the case is ongoing before the Dispute Tribunal and we would have no comment as it proceeds.”

But the question was, “will the UN be reassigning him to other duties during the investigation?” It is inappropriate for the UN to not answer that one way or another, particularly as regards its chief investigator.

For now we note that in connection with the House of Representatives hearing, GAP urged

“That the UN Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services appoint a qualified Director to the OIOS Investigations Division (OIOS/ID), the unit responsible for the investigation of misconduct and whistleblower cases. OIOS/ID has been without a permanent director for more than three years and the current acting director is under investigation for allegedly retaliating against two whistleblowers.”

Here is OIOS' statement sent out Monday by Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office, on which we will have more:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply ]at] un.org
Date: Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 10:11 AM
Subject: Note to correspondents from the Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS)
OIOS Response to PTF Caseload Follow-up Articles

With regard to recent misinformation appearing in the press on the matter of Procurement Task Force (PTF) cases transferred back to the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) following the expiration of the PTF’s mandate, the current Under-Secretary-General of OIOS, Ms. Carman Lapointe, has set the record straight, indicating that:

· The 175 cases handed back to OIOS translated into 162 cases, once duplications and consolidations were sorted out;

· Of the 162, sixty-two were closed within six months by a Transition Team established to ensure continuity—a team primarily comprised of eleven former PTF members;

· Fully 123 cases were closed by the end of November 2009, within eleven months of the end of the PTF;

· Today, only ten cases remain "open", all in the lowest priority category as determined by the PTF itself and subsequently confirmed by former PTF members on the Transition Team;

· No outstanding PTF investigation was closed by the Transition Team, or subsequently by OIOS, without justification for doing so being documented by the investigators and approved by OIOS management.

Furthermore, no cutback in the pursuit of investigations into corruption and fraud has occurred. All reports of any such activity continue to be investigated as a high priority, given their potential for financial loss and damage to institutional integrity.

Ms. Lapointe replaces former OIOS chief Inga Britt-Ahlenius, who has just published a book savaging Ban Ki-moon's leadership. One assumes that Ban's office is keeping a closer eye on OIOS and its new chief. So will we.

Inner City Press has received a number of anonymous telephone calls defending Mr. Dudley, and would be eager to hear more -- especially on the record. Watch this site.

As Egyptians Push for Change, UN's Ban Ki-moon Warns of “Political Instability”

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 30 -- As in Egypt protests calling for Hosni Mubarak to leave continue, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Addis Ababa was quoted that Egyptians “have the right to express their visions, in demonstrations, but all these should not lead to social instability and political instability.”

Even in front of the empty UN in New York, hundred chanted “Mubarak must go.” The call is to end 30 years of rule under an emergency law allowing censorship, even if that was deemed politically stable. Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky, asked Friday by the press if Ban thought the emergency law should be eliminated, declined to answer the question directly.

Midday on January 30, Inner City Press queried Nesirky and his deputy Farhan Haq about the status of the UN system's programs in Egypt, including a program which NGOs have criticized “as ineffective, complaining that it has BANned credible human [rights] lawyers from giving lectures to the police because of their political opposition to the NDP, and instead invites MOI officials complicit in torture to give human rights presentations.”

But five hours later, there were no answers nor acknowledgment of the questions about the UN in Egypt.

Even Ban's quote against political instability hadn't been distributed, perhaps understandably, to the UN press list by his Public Information and Spokesperson's office, which in the interim had sent the Press anodyne “read outs” of Ban's meetings with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- with no mention of Egypt.

With Kagame, Ban discussed only sexually based violence, and not counter reports of genocide and war crimes in Eastern Congo.

With Sarkozy, Ban did not bring up Tunisia nor Egypt, but rather Lebanon, Haiti and Cote d'Ivoire. The interest of the UN under Ban in democracy seems to some to be limited to one country, and not extend to Tunisia, much less Egypt (or Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria -- or Myanmar). Watch this site.

As in NYC Police Guard UN Mission of Egypt, UNDP Banned Rights Advocates

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- As protests continue in Egypt, even in New York Egypt's Mission to the UN is guarded by police, some brought down from The Bronx. Inside an otherwise empty UN, Inner City Press fields messages from the Egyptian diaspora responding to its reporting earlier on Saturday, some pointing to UN system complicity in Mubarak's repression.

Take for example the UN Development Program's work with Egypt's police, called BENAA, founded by Murabak's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to a UNDP website yet to be taken down as some have been, “media and Civil Society Organizations have been targeted, including the crucial group of university students.”

But a Wikileaked US embassy cable in a non-highlighted portion admits that

“NGO contacts have privately criticized the UNDP project as ineffective, complaining that it has banned credible human [rights] lawyers from giving lectures to the police because of their political opposition to the NDP, and instead invites MOI officials complicit in torture to give human rights presentations.”

So the UN system in Egypt “BANned credible human lawyers from giving lectures to the police because of their political opposition to the NDP, and instead invites MOI officials complicit in torture.”

No wonder then that BAN Ki-moon is so silent on whether Mubarak's 30 year emergency law allowing censorship should be eliminated.

Egypt UN Mission Jan 29, 9 pm, cops from 50th Precinct, (c) MRLee

UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, notably, was in Yemen earlier this month praising the government, as if the protests there and in Tunisia and elsewhere were not taking place.

There is more to be said about the UN's system's work including with BENAA, which lists as supporters the Ford Foundation, EU and members and others. Watch this site.

Amid Egyptian Protests, UN Dormant, Ban Ki-moon Silent on Emergency Law

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- Chants of “Mubarak must go” echoed Saturday against the white metal walls of the UN's temporary North Lawn building on 1st Avenue in Manhattan. But the UN was empty.

Both Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his Deputy, Asha Rose Migiro were out of town. And the UN system has had little to say or do about the calls for an end of censorship and repression in Egypt.

Friday in the UN's noon press briefing, Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky was asked if Ban thought that Egypt's 30 year old emergency law should go. Nesirky said that "one of the ground principles of democracy is to protect and ensure the freedom of speech of the people," but refused to directly comment on the emergency censorship law.

Earlier this month, Ban had little to say about Tunisia. He did not send an envoy to the country -- a decision taken, Inner City Press is informed by well placed UN sources, on the advice of Ban's chief of staff and Myanmar envoy Vijay Nambiar.

The UN Security Council did not meet on January 27 or 28, and has not scheduled any meeting for January 31, the last day of Bosnia's quiet presidency.

US President Barack Obama called Mubarak and talked to or at the press for four minutes on Friday, but did not mention the UN, just as he did not mention it and Darfur in his State of the Union speech earlier in the week. -- all men -- but not Susan Rice, his Ambassador to the UN.

On Saturday Obama held a meeting on Egypt with "his national security team" which included eleven people

In an interview for CNN's show GPS with Fareed Zakaria, the prime minister of the Permanent Security Council member United Kingdom David Cameron called Mubarak a “friend of Britain... We’ve worked together over many issues, not least the need to combat Islamic extremism.”

A week ago and on Saturday morning, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Nesirky when Ban will act on the request by the UK, Mexico and others that he replace Nambiar with a full time envoy to Myanmar.

Nesirky by press time did not answer that, nor a request for UN comment on Myanmar affirming the disbanding of the political party of Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Sat Jan 29 by empty UN, Ban comment on emergency law not shown (c) MRLee

And so as people take risks to oppose repression from Tunisia to Egypt and elsewhere such as Yemen, the UN is increasingly silent, un-transparent, marginalized. Saturday's chants echoed off empty UN buildings. How long can this go on? Watch this site.

From the UN's January 28 transcript:

Correspondent: Egypt. Does the Secretary-General concur with Ms. Pillay that the 30-year-old emergency law should be lifted and then that investigations should be conducted into the use of excessive force and the reported deaths of five civilians participating in the protests?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, clearly, it is obvious that where there are reports of excessive use of force, that those reports should be investigated. I think that is fairly clear. Yes?

Question: My other question was concerning Ms. Pillay’s call for the end of the state of emergency that legalizes censorship and enhances police powers and so forth.

Spokesperson: Well, the Secretary-General said very clearly this morning that he believes that one of the ground principles of democracy is to protect and ensure the freedom of speech of the people. And he also spoke about the need for freedom of expression and association to be fully respected. Yes?

Question: Thank you. Is the Secretary-General worried of any kind of domino effect, because of what has happened in Tunisia and what is going on now in Egypt? Is he worried because the Arab world order is in danger now?

Spokesperson: He has made very clear… he has spoken today about Egypt, but not just about Egypt. He spoke about Tunisia and Egypt and indeed elsewhere. And the key point is that leaders in the region should understand that it is an opportunity to address legitimate concerns that the people in those countries have. And it is through dialogue with the people that the leaders can better understand what the people of those countries aspire to, what they wish for. And then they will be better able to address the challenges that they all face. But the key thing is that this should be done without violence and through dialogue.

Question: Has the Secretary-General taken note of the incarceration and house arrest of Mr ElBaradei? Does he have anything to say about that?

Spokesperson: I was asked a similar question just earlier, and the Secretary-General is aware of the reports — and there are differing reports out there. He is aware of the reports that there are, and if I have anything further on this topic then I’d let you know a bit later.

Watch this site.

At UN, Ban's Claim of 99% Public Financial Disclosure Called “Metaphorical”

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 28 -- Rather than admit that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon misspoke when he claimed two weeks ago that 99% of his officials have made public financial disclosure, Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky told Inner City Press on Friday, “I wouldn't get hung up on the ninety nine percent figure as a mathematical absolute, because it is also a metaphorical expression, that nearly everyone” disclosed. Video here, transcript below.

But this claim of 99% transparency has been Ban's response to questions about the UN's lack of accountability under his watch. On January 14, Ban told the press that “now ninety nine percent of senior advisers of the United Nations have declared their financial assets publicly on the website.”

Inner City Press reviewed the UN's web site and found that this was not the case. On the eve of hearing before the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee about the UN, Inner City Press published a list of the many Ban officials who instead of making even basic disclosure state that “I have chosen to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed by me in order to comply with the Financial Disclosure Program.”

The officials not making public disclosure range from Ban' two Sudan envoys Ibrahim Gambari and Haile Menkerios through Rule of Law chief Dmitry Titov to Ban's close ally and envoy to Cote d'Ivoire Choi Young-jin.

The lack of public disclosure came up at the House of Representatives hearing on January 25, and Inner City Press that day and each day since has e-mailed Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky with this request:

“Please explain Ban Ki-moon statement that 99% of his officials have made public financial disclose in light of the actual, much lower figure on [the UN website], with non public disclosure by inter alia Gambari, Choi Young-jin, Jan Mattsson, Greg Starr, Iqbal Riza, Terje Roed-Larsen, Said Djinnit, Mr. Diarra, Ajay Chhibber, Haile Menkerios, Ray Chambers, Peter Sutherland, dead links Nicolas Michel and Achim Steiner, only "outside activity" and no finance or clients for Alexander Downer, Douste Blazy, etc.”

Nesirky, who on January 21 after Inner City Press asked about the UN's seeming failure to comply with its own Regulation 1.2 said he wouldn't answer any more questions until Inner City Press somehow acted “appropriately,” never answered this e-mail question.

At the UN noon briefing on January 28, Inner City Press finally asked Nesirky directly about Ban's statement that 99% of his officials have made public financial disclosure.

Nesirky began by dodging the questions, saying that "financial disclosure means to disclose to the United Nations what your assets are and so on. And then it is fully within the rights of the individual to elect or not to elect for that to be publicly disclosed. And I think you will see that in the vast majority of cases, this is publicly disclosed."

But Ban specifically used the word “publicly” on January 14, saying that “ninety nine percent of senior advisers of the United Nations have declared their financial assets publicly on the website.” Click here for footage of Ban's claims from a recent piece on Swedish TV including Inner City Press and a FAC hearing witness.

Inner City Press on January 28 asked Nesirky if Ban considered disclosing a refusal to make public any financial information to be “public financial disclosure.”

This is when Nesirky told Inner City Press, “I wouldn't get hung up on the 99% figure as a mathematical absolute, because it is also a metaphorical expression, that nearly everyone” disclosed. Video here.

So at the UN, a claim by Ban Ki-moon that 99% of his officials have made public financial disclosure is just a metaphor.

From the UN's transcript of January 28:

Inner City Press: In his last press conference in here, the Secretary-General said when asked about the [Inga-Britt] Ahlenius book, that 99 per cent of officials have made public financial disclosure. And just having looked at the website of disclosures, it doesn’t, that number is not the number. The number of his officials including Mr. Choi [Young-jin] of Côte d'Ivoire, [Ibrahim] Gambari, [Haile] Menkerios, Said Djinnit, Michael Williams, whom you mentioned, they have all filled out a form saying “we chose not to disclose”. So, I just… I have been trying to figure out, what is the 99 per cent figure based on? Does he include people that say “I won’t disclose” as having made a public disclosure? Or, what is the actual number?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Financial disclosure means to disclose to the United Nations what your assets are and so on. And then it is fully within the rights of the individual to elect or not to elect for that to be publicly disclosed. And I think you will see that in the vast majority of cases, this is publicly disclosed.

Inner City Press: When he said public, that’s the phrase that he used — he said that 99 per cent of my officials have made public financial disclosures. So, is that… that’s not what he meant? He meant that they have actually… they have made disclosure to the UN?

Spokesperson: Well I think also I wouldn’t get hung up on the 99 per cent figure as a mathematical absolute, because it is also a metaphorical expression meaning nearly everyone, okay?

Inner City Press: But, Mr. Choi, does he think that Mr. Choi, kind of a close ally, long-time person that he has worked with, does he think that Mr. Choi should publicly disclose? Would he call on him to publicly disclose?

Spokesperson: Again, this is a matter for the individuals concerned. Okay, yes?

No, not okay. Watch this site.

As UN Takes $2m for Mines from Association Silent on Its Budget, Excludes Press, Writes It Own Feel Good Story

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 28. updated -- In covering the UN, Inner City Press is often asked by UN officials to “write more positive stories,” and tries to. Friday in front of the General Assembly, it was suggested that a ceremony later that morning in the Indonesian Lounge next to the GA would provide some “feel-good” news.

“Just get someone from MALU” -- the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit -- “to escort you,” Inner City Press was told. Ten minutes before the ceremony, to mark a $2 million contribution from the International Road Transport Union (IRU) to the UN Mine Action Service for use in Afghanistan, MALU arrived.

Inner City Press was escorted to an area just outside the Indonesian Lounge, where two bottles of champagne waited along with a half dozen glasses. In the front part of the lounge, Inner City Press was greeted by the Permanent Representatives of Kazakhstan, Iraq and Chad.

Then a representative of the Mine Action Service arrived, calling himself “Lee,” and said that he was sorry to inform Inner City Press but “some Ambassadors” did want it to cover the ceremony. Not to worry, he said, Mine Action director Maxwell Kerley would give an interview after the ceremony.

Inner City Press walked to the entrance of the ceremony and was told by the head of the UN Department of Peacekeeper Operations Rule of Law office Dmitry Titov that the event was private. But behind him, there was a television crew and a still photographer in front of the microphone.

Inner City Press objected that the UN is not free to allow in some accredited journalists and not others. “They are getting paid,” was the response. Inner City Press asked who they were, and after several refusals to answer was told they were from Zvezda TV, and are accredited by the UN and its MALU.

A woman from Peacekeeping came out and said no answer could be given until the ceremony was over (and could no longer be covered by Inner City Press). She said she would call Protocol.

Inner City Press waited until the ceremony, filmed by the Russian TV crew, was over. The Mine Action spokesman Lee, believed from the UN's staff roster to be Edward Lee Woodyear, then brough Maxwell Kurley over.

Kurley said that the Russian TV crew was making a documentary about the International Road Transport Union. Inner City Press asked who had thought to direct the donation to Afghanistan, the UN or IRU? We suggested Afghanistan, Kerley said.

Minutes later, deputy Secretary General of the IRU De Pretto told Inner City Press that his organization had suggested Afghanistan, as it has an interest the entire Silk Road. In order to put the $2 million into context, Inner City Press asked what the annual budget of the IRU is.

I'm not going to tell you, De Pretto answered.

From outside UN Lounge, Kerley & De Pretto, Titov blocks camera (c) MRLee

Inner City Press asked, are you a non-profit? Yes, De Pretto said, but in Geneva, not the United States. He said that the American Truckers Union is part of the IRU. Inner City Press asked if IRU has a position on Mexican trucks in the US. We are against protectionism, De Pretto answered.

Kerley said that the $2 million will not be subject to competitive bidding, but rather proposals from five local NGOs. The work of removing mines, at least in this case, is not done by the UN. On his way out, Chad's Permanent Representative told Inner City Press dismissively that his country doesn't use the use for mine removal, “we deal with the Canadians bilaterally,” cutting out the middle man.

Update: that's apparently what the UN wants to do, cut out the middleman of an independent press. Hours after excluding such Press from its ceremony, the UN's News Service published this.

Inner City Press still wants to cover positive UN stories. Watch this site.

At UN, Ban Ki-moon in Turbulence Blames Roth for Human Rights Critique, Puts Orr on DC Despite History

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 -- Some troubles have hit Ban Ki-moon after four years and a month as UN Secretary General.

As he seeks a second term he has been accused of being weak on human rights, while the UN and its Human Rights Council have been pilloried in the US House of Representatives.

Ban has been portrayed as a bad manager and even corrupt by former UN investigator Inga Britt Ahlenius, in response to which Ban claimed that 99% of his officials publicly disclose their finances.

This is patently false: even Ban's close ally and architect of his becoming S-G, Choi Young-jin, refused to make public his finances. Ban has gone to Davos. In New York, Inner City Press has for days after for an explanation or retraction of Ban's 99% claim, but has gotten no response.

To counter the growing storm in the Republic led House Foreign Affair Committee, Ban has reportedly tapped former Democratic aide Robert Orr. But how will he face off or even meet with Committee chairperson Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)?

She issued a press release about the investigation of the UN's acting top investigator Michael Dudley. When Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky for the status of the case against Dudley, the belated response was only that “On Michael Dudley's case, the case is ongoing before the Dispute Tribunal and we would have no comment as it proceeds.”

In Washington the word on Orr is that he designed for Kofi Annan the Human Rights Council “solution.” Since both Republicans and Democrats on today's Foreign Affairs Committee are critical of Orr's brainchild, it seems ill advised for Ban to make Orr the point man. But this is Ban.

The picture that emerges is of an Executive Office of the Secretary General in which Kim Won-soo and to some degree Vijay Nambiar advise Ban. Others have been marginalized into being mere notetakers, synthesizer of the cables that come in to the UN from the field.

The small team around Ban, when faced for example with the criticism leveled by Human Rights Watch about Ban's weakness on rights in such places as Sri Lanka, China and Myanmar, is not to listen to or think about the critique, but to personalize things. So it is all blamed on HRW director Ken Roth, with much complaining that Roth was given access, but that this will not continue. Faced with tough questions, it seems, Team Ban retaliates.

Sample advice that Ban receives is for example to not get involved in Tunisia, and to say even less about protests in Egypt than the Obama administration does. This of course conflicts with Ban's exhortations in the name of democracy in Cote d'Ivoire, to which he sent his ally Choi Young-jin as envoy.

Team Ban seems to think that their stand on Cote d'Ivoire is a high point of their four years, a platform for a second term. Meanwhile more and more African country peel away from the position -- South Africa, Ghana, Uganda. Will Ban put this genie back in the bottle at the upcoming African Union summit? Watch this site.

In NYC, While Snow Is Plowed This Time, Summons Strike Is Revealed

By Matthew Russell Lee

NEW YORK CITY, January 27 -- With a snow day declared in NYC on Thursday, the plowing performance of Michael Bloomberg's administration was put to the test.

In late December streets went unplowed for days. Many said that Sanitation Department managers ordered a slow down to protest job cuts and demotions.

While Thursday found that most streets were better plowed, some were not. In The Bronx, bus service was entirely suspended. Queens' 40th Avenue, for example, remained covered in a foot of snow.

When Inner City Press inquired, the Sanitation Department blamed it on a taxi company parking its vehicles in the street and said they could be towed.

A Sanitation Department worker confided that the protest of Bloomberg's job cuts had been refusing to write any summons for the month of December, denying the City revenue. “It was a Christmas present,” he said.

The taxi company on 40th Avenue is in a section of Long Island City sometimes called Dutch Kills. It was re-zoned to allow for the construction of a number of seemingly out of place hotels.

Inner City Press checked out the Holiday Inn on 39th Avenue and found it virtually empty. Still, no one but guests is allowed to use the pool. Chunks of ice fell off the building into the largely empty parking lot.

On the other side of 40th Avenue are the two large holes dug by the MTA to extend the Long Island Railroad to Grand Central Station. Some work proceeded despite the declared snow day.

On the other side, a scrap metal company from Pennsylvania had a truck full of large pipes, behind the old Pam-Am Building, now a Department of Education facility mostly empty for the day.

It was to the Astoria section of Long Island City that Bloomberg came after the small intervening snow storm, to nosh on lemony Greek soup in a Ditmars deli with Peter Vallone.

40th Ave in LIC, afternoon of Jan 27, plowing not shown, (c)MRLee

While that end of Long Island City was quickly plowed this time, 40th Avenue remains unplowed as well as misplanned. It is urban archeology that may explain it - and even provide some solution.

Forward looking footnotes: the location of the old Queensboro Arena, venue of boxing announced by Harry Balogh, remains in the haze of Dutch Kills' history. There are numerous dormant construction site in the area now, of builders who threw down foundations to purportedly get grandfathered into the rights to build more hotels to sit empty. We'll see.

While US Claims to Push China on Iran Sanctions, Oil Calls the Tune, GIT Prof Says Chinese Army Wants a Nuclear Iran

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 27, updated -- During Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked to the press about China's compliance with US sanctions on Iran.

She said that “there are some entities within China that we have brought to the attention of the Chinese leadership that are still not as, shall we say, as in compliance as we would like them to be.”

But how hard is the US actually pushing? On January 27 Inner City Press asked China expert -- and resident -- Professor John W. Garver of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs of Georgia Institute of Technology about China's compliance.

Garver said that while China has an economic interest for now in being seen as respecting US unilateral sanctions, China's oil and historical relations with Iran make compliance unlikely.

“China has decided it will cooperate with the international community,” he told Inner City Press, “but it won't give the US all that it wants.”

Garver pointed out that even under the Shah, China had close relations with Iran, to “stop what was then called Soviet expansionism.” More recently, he said, China has tried so far without success to link the US cutting back support to Taiwan with it voluntarily complying with the US unilateral sanctions on Iran.

Inner City Press asked Garver to compare China's approach to Iran to its evolving Sudanese foreign policy. Garver called Iran much more important to China, given its greater economic development.

“From a Chinese perspective,” he said, “Iran is simply a far more important country than Sudan, or Angola, with what the Chinese call comprehensive national power.” He acknowledged that for now, Angola is the number one supplier of oil to China.

He analogized China's relations with Iran with its support of Pakistan, neither of which he predicted China will abandon. “It's not going to cut Iran loose, because Iran is too important.” By standing with Iran during its “hour of need,” he said, China “builds capital in Tehran as a country that is willing to pursue an independent line... despite American outrage.”

Given China's relative silence compared to Russia in the UN Security Council on the stand off in Cote d'Ivoire, Inner City Press asked Garver about China's position on Angola ally Laurent Gbabgo. Garver said he had not prepared for that question. The call was sponsored by Realite-EU, with an announced focus on Iran.

Garver opined that there are “hard realists” in the Chinese military who favor Iran getting nuclear weapons. He listed two reasons for this. First, if oil producing Iran is able to “stand up” to the United States, it makes it a multi-polar world.

Second, if the US is caught up in fights with Iran, it is less able to be a player in the “Western Pacific,” where China's most immediate interests lie.

Garver said that Hu and his successor have to take this hard realist view and the military into account. Follow up is pending. Watch this site.

As in Gabon Obame Seeks UN Support, Echoes of Cote d'Ivoire & UNDP in Yemen

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 -- In Gabon opposition leader Andre Mba Obame declared himself his country's real leader -- taking a page from Alassane Ouattara in Cote d'Ivoire -- and sought both UN recognition and protection.

In the latter, his precedent may have been the UN mission in Guinea Bissau, where an indicted drug kingpin enjoy UN protection for months a year ago. Inner City Press has repeatedly asked the UN why it protected a drug kingpin and was told, in essence, it was hard to get him to leave.

On January 26, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office what was happening in Gabon, and some hours later received the following back in response:

From: Deputy Spokesperson [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Jan 26, 2011
Subject: Re: Press questions: Gabon, withholding, 99% public financial disclosure, Somalia, Cote d'Ivoire, CAR elections (5th time)
To: innercitypress@gmail.com

On Gabon, we have the following: Mr. Andre Mba Obame, Leader of the “Union Nationale”, is in the UN compound, along with party leaders. Obame handed a letter to the Resident Coordinator requesting UN protection, stating that they fear for their lives if they step outside of the UN office. The Resident Coordinator is consulting with authorities on the ground and with UN Headquarters.

The government of Ali Bongo has dissolved Obame's party and blocked his TV station.

One difference in how this will play out, a cynic opined, is that Gabon happens to be on the UN Security Council and could make its voice heard. Watch this site.

Footnote: Obame and his band of 20 sought refuge in the UNDP building in Libreville. In terms of UNDP's position on democracy, while protesters in Yemen are now calling for Tunisia style changes, Helen Clark was just in Yemen for days, praising the government. Maybe the Yemeni government used her and the UN?

Despite Hearing of Death in Sri Lanka, UN Bragg Says No Contact with Ban's Panel

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 26, updated -- Hours after the UN belatedly told Inner City Press that its humanitarian deputy Catherine Bragg had no restrictions on her recent visa and trip to Sri Lanka, Ms. Bragg said that she has and apparently will have no contact at all with Ban Ki-moon's Panel on Accountability for war crimes, despite people in Northern Sri Lanka telling her about relatives killed in the war.

Inner City Press had put questions in writing to Ms. Bragg, including

“How much of the aid you are requesting would be distributed by or through the government? Did you hear anything about unfair distribution of aid? About why and how the IDPs / returnees were displaced? Will you pass any of this information to any other part of the UN -- the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, or the Secretary General's Panel on Accountability in Sri Lanka? When did you apply for a visa, how long was it for, and where there any conditions, explicit or implicit? Were there any negotiations (and if so, what was said)?”

Some but not all of these questions have now been answered, in a way that reflects the fragmentation of the UN system. Ms. Bragg and her spokesperson have for now declined to answer them in writing.

But the question remains to be answered: how could a high UN official like Ms. Bragg listen to people's stories about murder in a place like Northern Sri Lanka and not share the information with the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, or in this case the Secretary General's Panel on Accountability in Sri Lanka?

Even on the questions about disparities in aid distribution, Bragg's spokesperson provided an answer on Wednesday morning that the UN wouldn't “second guess the government” on aid distribution.

And Ban Ki-moon's UN apparently won't “second guess” on war crimes, either -- except for example by second guessing the International Criminal Court judges who have indicted Sudan's Ahmed Haroun for war crimes. The UN Mission in Sudan used a UN plane to provide transportation to Haroun to convene a meeting of the same type of nomadic tribes he organized in Darfur to burn villages down.

The UN is subject to second guessing for this, and now for listening to people in Northern Sri Lanka and then just sitting on the information. Why Ban's Spokesperson Martin Nesirky sat on Bragg's office's answers such as they were to Inner City Press' January 17 questions still remains unresponded to, as do numerous other factual questions submitted by Inner City Press.

On Wednesday he said that Ban's Panel's plan are still "under discussion.” Where -- in meetings of the UN alone in the North Lawn Building?

Nesirky said that the panel continues to discuss its interaction with Sri authorities. But Sri Lanka under Mahinda Rajapaksa has made it clear it will not deal with Ban's Panel, despite Ban having praised Rajapaksa's “flexibility.” Watch this site.

Fast transcript:

Bragg: During my visit, the panel never came up.

Ban Spokesman Martin Nesirky: As we've said, this is something under discussion, and the panel continues to discuss its interaction with Sri authorities. As you know, the panel said from the outset that a visit to Sri was not essential for the work it's carrying out, but it does seek to have interaction with various Sri Lankan actors.

Journalist: Do you have any plans to meet with the panel to talk about your trip?

Bragg: There has been no discussion so far about my meeting with them.

On Sri Lanka, UN Says Bragg Had Visa Without Restriction, Unlike Ban's Panel

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 26 -- On Sri Lanka, Inner City Press has belatedly gotten some UN answers to questions about humanitarian issues it asked more than a week ago.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the answers it provided today says it “cannot second guess the government” on the fairness of aid distribution, and won't comment on the government ordering the International Committee of the Red Cross out of Northern Sri Lanka, or imposing a burdensome registration process on other NGOs in the country.

The questions OCHA provided answers to today were a subset of the Sri Lanka questions Inner City Press initially asked the Office of the Spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, OSSG.

Days before Ban Spokesman Martin Nesirky said he wouldn't answer any more questions from Inner City Press unless it acted “appropriately,” apparently meaning not asking about compliance with UN rules, he said “ask OCHA.” So on January 17, Inner City Press emailed the questions to OCHA's spokespeople.

Hearing nothing back from OCHA or Nesirky and his Deputy Farhan Haq to whom Inner City Press reverted with the questions, on January 26 Inner City Press asked OCHA deputy Catherine Bragg and them her spokespeople. OCHA said it had given answers to the OSSG. But, perhaps in implementation of Nesirky's threat, the OCHA answers were never given to Inner City Press.

Finally OCHA re-sent its capitalized answers directly to Inner City Press:

What does [the UN] say to the protests in east Batticaloa about allegedly inequitable distribution of aid?

WE CANNOT SECOND GUESS THE AID PROVISION OF THE GOVERNMENT, PARTICULARLY AS IT IS PULLING TOGETHER A COMPREHENSIVE POST DISASTER NEEDS ASSESSMENT. IN MAJOR DISASTERS, IT IS NOT ABNORMAL FOR SOME OF THOSE AFFECTED TO WISH AID PROVISION WOULD OCCUR IN A DIFFERENT MANNER THAN IT HAS DONE.

Also, as previously asked-- Does the UN have any comment on Sri Lanka's government ordering the International Committee of the Red Cross out of Northern Sri Lanka? http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91160

WE UNDERSTAND THAT ICRC IS CURRENTLY DISCUSSING THE FUTURE OF ITS OPERATIONS IN SRI LANKA WITH THE AUTHORITIES, AND HAVE NO FURTHER COMMENT AT THIS TIME. PLEASE REFER TO ICRC FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS.

Or, as previously requested, on the new rules requiring NGOs and INGOs tonregister with the Department of Defense, etc

A GOVERNMENT HAS A RIGHT TO KNOW WHICH NGOS ARE OPERATING WITHIN A COUNTRY, AND TO REQUIRE REGISTRATION. OUR CONCERN HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE ABILITY TO ACCESS POPULATIONS IN NEED OF HUMANITARIAN AID.

When did Ms. Bragg apply for a visa to Sri Lanka, when was it granted and are there any conditions on the visa, regarding where to travel, whom to speak with, etc?

I AM NOT AWARE OF ANY DIFFICULTIES IN OBTAINING THIS VISA NOR OR ANY TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS ON IT.

Ban's Spokesperson's Office, despite Ban's December 17 and January 14 statements that Ban's Panel on Accountability in Sri Lanka could travel to the country due to President Mahinda Rajapaksa's “flexibility,” has been unwilling to answer specific questions about visas for the Panel and conditions the government would impose. Now they have been asked other questions. Watch this site.

As Obama Speech Jumps from South Sudan to Tunisia, Skipping Darfur, Asia Ceded

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 25 -- Foreign policy was obviously an afterthought in President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday night in Washington. But why tell only the good news?

When Obama jumped from South Sudan to Tunisia, without even a mention of Darfur, a message was being sent. After November's election, Team Obama wants wins. The Republican response by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, as it turned out, did not mention foreign affairs.

So Obama did not mention Myanmar or Ivory Coast, much less the tens of thousands of civilians killed in Sri Lanka. Less than twelve hours after a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing mostly about corruption at the United Nations, he did not mention the UN.

The cameras several times panned to show Obama's UN Ambassador Susan Rice, as well as Transportation Secretary LaHood, who has come to the UN albeit to talk about texting and driving.

When Obama mentioned South Sudan, the cameras cut to John Kerry. Who would the cameras have shown for Darfur, after Kerry “de-linked” it from taking Sudan off the state sponsors of terrorism list?

One country, strangely, was mentioned four or five time in the speech: South Korea. The technology, the pedagogy and new free trade agreement, leading up to deals with Panama and Colombia.

The last two may represent an attempt to shore up the US sphere of influence, and that Myanmar and Sri Lanka, after Africa, is being ceded to China. Then Paul Ryan spoke only about money. And so it goes.