After Staff Union “No Confidence” in Ban, Walk-Out of Meeting with Graisse

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 5 -- Is it any wonder that the UN can't mediate in the Middle East, Congo or Koreas, if it can't even speak to its own staff?

  After the UN Staff Union voted “no confidence” in Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, his outgoing head of the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management Jean-Jacques Graisse has been trying to meet with the Publishing Section.

  From the third sub-basement they had complained, with evidence, that the UN intended to eliminate their jobs. Then when Hurricane Sandy hit, the UN took advantage. Now this.

  After that Unit, Unit 5, said again, “no confidence,” Graisse on April 4 sent this out:

Date: 04/04/2013 04:18PM

Subject: On behalf of Acting Head of DGACM Mr Graisse - to all staff of the Publishing Section

Dear Colleagues:

Earlier this week, I invited the DGACM staff representatives and the President of the New York Staff Union to meet with DGACM management tomorrow, Friday, 5 April to discuss the matters related to the Publishing Section. Regrettably, the representatives of Unit 5 (Publishing Section), declined my invitation, and, as a consequence, so did the other DGACM staff representatives.

Therefore, I invite you to a general staff meeting tomorrow at 3 p.m. in room NLB-7. All DGACM staff representatives, President of the New York Staff Union as well as officials of the Department of Management are hereby also invited.

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Jean-Jacques Graisse

  Inner City Press went and staked-out the meeting. Some from Unit 5 went in, but there was tension in the air. 

  While they were inside, Inner City Press covered the beginning of a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions with a European-heavy group of big wigs in from the UN's mission in Cote d'Ivoire. We hope to have more on that.

Suddenly the Unit 5 crew came out. We walked out, they told Inner City Press. “No confidence.” And so it goes at the UN.

Footnote: If Ban's spokesperson's office hadn't hit the new low of refusing to even take questions, perhaps this interim report could have had more.

On Haiti, Ban Called Cholera Claims “Not Receivable,” Spox Won't Receive Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 5 -- When the UN held its noon briefing on Friday, Inner City Press told Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey that it would ask a question about Haiti after one about Sudan.Video here, from Minute 23:33.

  When Ban tersely denied claims for the UN bringing cholera to Haiti, Inner City Press repeatedly asked for the legal basis for dismissal. 

  Del Buey and lead spokesman Martin Nesirky refused to provide the basis, but at least they allowed the question to be asked.

But on April 5 the UN went further. After saying he would look into Inner City Press' Sudan question, Del Buey turned to another reporter and said “last question.” Video here, from Minute 24:18.

  Inner City Press asked what the timing problem was, that the Haiti question could not be asked.

  Del Buey said, we've spent a lot of time here.

  Well. Two days before, by holding his briefing at the same time as US Ambassador Susan Rice took questions by the Security Council, Del Buey escaped with only two questions asked, a six minute briefing.

  Friday's was less than half an hour, much of it taken up by Nesirky calling in from Madrid to promote a forthcoming YouTube video featuring Ban Ki-moon (and the courageous Pakistani schoolgirl Malala).

  So the UN doesn't have half an hour, after bringing cholera to Haiti and killing at least 5000 people? Or how about sexual abuse?

  The victim of a mock rape by UN Peacekeepers from Uruguay has applied to enter to US, one hope in order to sue or otherwise hold the UN accountable. His lawyers Jayne Fleming and Robert Rubin have filed an application for humanitarian parole for him with the US Department of Homeland Security.

  What does the UN think of this? Seems like it might be a spokesperson's job to take, and maybe even answer, this question. But not in Ban Ki-moon's UN, apparently. If Ban can say the claims of having killed 5000 people in Haiti are “not receivable,” why receive a question? Watch this site.

UN Refuses Press Qs on Haiti, Congo Rapes & Raid, Mad about De Mistura Scoop?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 5 -- That UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey almost never has answers to questions is one thing.

  But on April 5 Del Buey decided he wouldn't even let questions be asked. 

 Del Buey simply refused to take Inner City Press questions on Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo, countries in which the UN has peacekeeping missions (mis) run by Herve Ladsous costing $800 million and over $1 billion, respectively. To this low has Ban Ki-moon's UN sunk.

The first speaker at Friday's noon briefing was Ban's main spokesman Martin Nesirky, who been gone all week in San Marino, Andorra, Monaco and now Madrid. 

  The purpose of the call-in was to describe and promote a call Ban made -- by Skype! -- to Malala, the courageous schoolgirl shot be extremists in Pakistan.

   Nesirky said clips from the call would soon be uploaded to YouTube.

(Flashback: after the UN raided Inner City Press' office on March 18, on March 19 a UN supervisor wrote to demand that the after raid video be removed from YouTube as a “first step.” This request, about which Inner City Press answered questions from the Department of Public Information which led the raid, has never been withdrawn.)

  As a question to Nesirky, Inner City Press asked him to confirm the Vatican's report that Ban will visit Pope Benedict in Rome on April 9, and to confirm a visit to and appointment of Staffan De Mistura, currently deputy foreign minister of Italy as UN envoy to Mali, “as we have reported.”

“Who's we?” Nesirky asked.

“Inner City Press,” was the answer. Nesirky would not even confirm the Vatican visit. Mighty dangerous, the Vatican.

After Nesirky spoke about Ban's time at the UN World Tourism Organization, Del Buey read out announcements then said he would take questions. 

 After leaving Inner City Press for last, as has become the norm, Inner City Press said for planning purposes that it would ask questions about Sudan, Haiti and the DRC -- all countries in which the UN has peacekeeping missions (mis) run by Herve Ladsous.

  After saying he didn't know about a Small Arms Survey report on South Sudan, Del Buey turned away and told another correspondents, “last question.”

  Why? Inner City Press asked.

  Del Buey seemed to say because he'd been in the room too long. But he took very few questions -- in fact on April 3 he managed to hold his briefing right during Susan Rice's stakeout, taking only two questions in a record low six minute briefing. Is he tired?

  The UN's Censorship Alliance, known as UNCA, never challenges the decline of access to information at the UN. The most recent posting on its glassed-in bulletin board is from February 1.

Meanwhile DPI, from the non-UNCA bulletin board won through advocacy by the Free UN Coalition for Access, recently tore down every flier, saying they were too old, including a critical flier from late March.

  The president of UNCA Pamela Falk of CBS took photos of the March 18 raid, then issued a legal threat to Inner City Press not to write about it.

To this as the UN descended. As to the questions Del Buey refused to taken, much less answer, watch this site.

UNder Ban, Mistura for Mali, Staff as Selfish, Stonewalling, Raiding Press

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 5 -- As UN big wigs gather tellingly in Europe, there are several elephants in the room. The hottest job in the UN system, envoy to Mali, is slated to go to another European, Staffan De Mistura. Click here forexclusive of April 3 from Inner City Press.

  European are on a roll in Africa, at least through the UN of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He's given Europeans the top posts in the Sahel, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire -- Bert Koenders, chilling this week in New York well in advance of today's session of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions.

  Meanwhile, the UN Staff Union in New York has voted “no confidence” in Ban Ki-moon. Who on the Chief Executives Board will dare ask about it, without immediately dismissing it as somehow proving Ban's strong leadership? 

  What kind of a leader calls those who work for him as levels lower that the CEB “selfish”? Who will ask that?

  Just as Ban's advisers are too timid or self-interested to ask him tough question, Ban does not ask his Under Secretaries General to answer critical questions from the Press. 

  Herve Ladsous has been allowed to openly refuse to answer Inner City Press questions, on UN Television, even having the UNTV microphone seized to try to avoid questions about rapes in the Congo. Video here. Zero tolerance indeed.

  On March 18, Inner City Press' office inside the UN was raided, without notice or consent, by the Department of Public Information. Apres raid video here.

  Either they or those they let in, from the UN Censorship Alliance known as UNCA, took photographs of Inner City Press' desk and bookshelf and gave them anonymously to BuzzFeed.com.

  In fact, the photos were leaked, directly to the BuzzFeed reporter, immediately after Ban's Spokesperson's Office got a call about the raid from the reporter. How did that happen?

  Has there been any accountability, for Ban's UN's descent into dictatorial anti-press tactics? Not yet. DPI won't even disclose who it let into the Press' office. Watch this site.

UNCA's Falk, Even on Pro-UN TV, Says “No Questions on ICP,” Raid Photos

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 4 -- While the originator of the raid on Inner City Press' office at the UN on March 18 was the Department of Public Information, we have noted that the president of the United Nations Correspondents Association, Pamela Falk of CBS, was on the scene taking photographs.

  Now Falk has taped a UN propaganda vanity television show, "Global Connections" by Bill Miller -- but said before the taping, according to multiple witnesses, No questions about Inner City Press, no questions about “internal matters.”

  What is internal about censorship? About abusive legal threats against the freedom of the press?

  On March 22, photographs from inside Inner City Press office, of its desk and bookshelf, were published on BuzzFeed, provided by an anonymous account, “Concerned UN Reporter.”

Pamela Falk rather than explaining why she was taking photos issued a legal threat to Inner City Press to not even ask the question, from her CBSNews.com e-mail address.

  Inner City Press wrote to CBSNews' Up to the Minute, and higher, to ascertain if the threat was from CBS. The only response so far? “Ask Pamela Falk.”

  Well, no. Under Falk, UNCA strategy is to initiate a verbal exchange with Inner City Press, as Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse did on March 8, then claim when there is a verbal response -- “lapdogs” -- to feel threatened, as Reuters' correspondent did. No more.

  When Falk for whatever reason agreed to appear on the “Global Connections” show, produced by a UNA-USA person with whom Inner City Press has never exchanged a hostile word, one would think it would be open.

  But before the filming began, Falk said loudly, no questions about Inner City Press or “internal matters.”

  Hey, Inner City Press which was repeatedly elected to the UNCA Executive Committee quit in disgust after 2012 attempts to throw it and other journalists out of the UN. With another elected UNCA Executive Committee member who quit in disgust, Inner City Press founded the Free UN Coalition for Access.

  Now, as the UN raided Inner City Press' office, Falk ghoulishly takes photographs, refuses to comment to a web site to which her UNCA leaked photos, then tells even “Global Connections” television she will not answer any questions.

  This is free press? This is UNCA? This is the CBS of Edward R. Murrow? A fish rots from the head. It's time for a change. Watch this site.

UN Sheltered Bissau Drug Kingpin, Reuters & AFP Don't Say, Lapdogs

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 4 -- When accused drug kingping Bubo Na Tchuto was snatched off the coast of Guinea Bissau one might have expected the wires that covered it, Reuters and Agence France Presse, to note that the UN provided shelter for Bubo Na Tchuto for three months.

After all, the UN admitted putting him up, before the most recently coup. Inner City Press and the then-LUSO correspondent at the UN repeatedly asked UN envoy Mutaboba about sheltering Bubo Na Tchuto, including on UN Television.

But no. Neither wire services' stories mentioned it. Reuters, in fact, quoted the UN as get-tough on drugs.

This is no surprise: both AFP and Reuters have been willing, apparently in exchange for access or simply out of laziness, to become pass-throughs for UN officials like UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous.

After four months of questions from Inner City Press about 126 rapes in Minova from November 20 to 22, 2012 by the Congolese Army which Ladsous' DPKO supports, Ladsous spun the two wires first with an ultimatum then some “assurances” that have yet to be disclosed.

But AFP's Tim Witcher and Reuters' Louis Charbonneau wrote both up with no context, making it appear that the UN was getting tough -- as now echoed by both wire services in the case of Bubo Na Tchuto of Guinea Bissau.

  Witcher of AFP, working with Charbonneau's supervisee Michelle Nichols, filed pretextual complaints with UN Security, and DPI, about being called lapdogs after Witcher cut into a conversation of Inner City Press with another journalist, hissing "lies and distortion." Can one claim to feel threatened in such circumstances? The UN is a circus of censorship.

    Both Witcher and Charbonneau are on the Executive Committee of UNCA, now known as the UN Censorship Alliance. To get to use the UN to raid their critics, have the two committed to write superficial articles which don't question, much less criticize, the UN? So it appears.

UN Mine Action Lacking in Myanmar, UN Scruples Lacking in Sri Lanka

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 4, updated -- While the UN talked Mine Awareness on Thursday, a country for which it has a full time envoy, Vijay Nambiar to Myanmar, has very little Action on Mines.

  Inner City Press asked a UN panel about Myanmar, and about UNDP turning over mine action to the Sri Lanka army, depicted in the UN's own reports as engaged in war crimes.Video here from Minute 14:34.

  The UN's Dmitry Titov, now on the Rule of Law, gave the historical view on Myanmar, saying the UN has been “trying to engage Myanmar” but “so far, has not seen considerable response.”

  UN Mine Action's Paul Heslop tried to put a more positive gloss on it, while passing the issue to UNDP: “There is engagement with the government with regard to setting up Mine Action Program,” it is at an “early stage” with “UNDP taking the lead.”

They passed the microphone, if not the buck, to Timothy Horner of UNDP, who said there is a “lot of confusion on presence of mines in Myanmar.

  On Sri Lanka, ignoring the war crimes aspect, he said that UNDP works on mines in 23 countries, has been up to 40. “It's all about capacity,” and said, and handing over to governments.

He acknowledged that “Sri Lanka hasn't signed the treaties,” but said it is responsible for the safety and security of its citizens.

  And how about those killed in the “Blood Bath on the Beach”? Don't expect to hear about this from UNDP. Or really from the UN, anymore. This has been a low point of Ban Ki-moon's time as UN Secretary General. Watch this site.

Update: Later on Thursday was an event about landmines featuring UN Peacekeeping's stonewalling chief Herve Ladsous, who has refused to answer Inner City Press questions about accepting Shavendra Silva of Sri Lanka as an adviser, about safeguards not to spread cholera as in Haiti, about 126 rapes in Minova by his partners in the Congolese Army. The MC was Stephane Dujarric from DPI, which lets Ladsous spin on its UN Radio. Tick tock, tick tock.#Ladsous2013.

After Staff No Confidence in Ban, Graisse Can't Get a Meeting, Gettu in Wings

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 4 -- Fifty days after the UN Staff Union voted “no confidence” in Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Ban's outgoing chief of the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management Jean-Jacques Graisse can't even get a meeting with his staff.

  On March 28, Graisse wrote to Staff Union leaders as well as Ban officials Susana Malcorra, Catherine Pollard and Franz Baumann, asking for an “emergency” meeting on April 3. He said it concerned the “force majeure” event of Hurricane Sandy, which allowed the UN to move on plans to kill off publishing jobs.

  On April 2, Graisse's office asked, “May we propose to meet for an emergency DGACM staff-management consultation on Friday, 5th April, from 10 to 12 in the morning, in room S-1517, to discuss the current temporary situation resulting from the impact of storm Sandy with regards to the Publishing Section staff? Our invitation to President of the Staff Union to participate in the meeting if she finds it acceptable and useful remains open.”

After some back and forth, he was told that some in the Union, due to the no confidence vote of January 24, would decline to meet with him. And this turned out to be true:

As stated previously we intend to abide by the vote of no confidence taken by the EGM of the staff. It will be up to the staff to mandate us to meet with the management.

Just to remind all of our fellow DGACM we initiated a dialogue with Mr. Graisse when he first came subsequent to that meeting and the subsequent meeting that included Mr. Baumann, we went back and forth on the issue of the meeting record being falsified and our position being misrepresented. Despite repeated attempts to have this corrected by them and their refusal, this matter is now before MEU. The illegal actions by Mr. Baumann to restructure the Publishing Section without mandate and the pretext of a vague plan in an Annex of a budget proposal was the subject of tribunal orders of Suspension of Action and Interim Relief. To remind you, the Tribunal in Order No. 77 (NY/2013) of 27 March 2013 "order[ed] the Respondent to suspend the implementation of the decision to conduct a recruitment exercise via Inspira, or by any other means whatsoever, for 19 new posts in the Publishing Section, DGACM, for a period of 60 days from the date of this Order or pending a final determination of the substantive merits of the application, if sooner, or until such further Order as may be deemed appropriate by the Tribunal".

It is our position that DGACM has continually acted without regard to any mandates, rules, or staff rights. Let us not waste anymore time meeting with a management in which the staff has no confidence and continue to show bad faith to us. In calling for the meeting, Mr. Graisse stated that "[t]he urgency is dictated by the fact that a number of PS staff currently have no meaningful work assignments - a situation unacceptable to them as well to the management and Member States." This is not a cause for staff-management consultation, but an indictment of the incompetency and failure of the management of DGACM.

The DGACM management must show that it is sincere in establishing proper relations or willing to mend their ways and work to rebuilding trust and the confidence of the staff. Regrettably, I don't see this happening with the DGACM management of Mr. Graisse, Mr. Baumann, Mr. Olafsson, Ms. Chiulli, Mr. Nanadoe and Mr. Shpiniov.

And there you have it. But will it be different with Graisse replaced by Gettu? There's talk of businesses in Addis. Meanwhile Ban himself has been in San Marina, Andorra and Monaco. 

  Ban USG for Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous openly refuses to answer Press questions about spreading cholera and rapes by the UN's partners. 

 Ban's Department of Public Information raided the Press' office, while the president of the UN's Censorship Alliance Pam Falk of CBS took photos. Now DPI won't even give the names of those allowed by it to enter. So it goes at the UN. Watch this site.

UN Deaf, Dumb & Blind, Security Council 2 Days With No Wi-Fi

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 4 -- The UN claims it wants to help journalists report on its work. Forgetting for a moment their willingness to conduct raids on media offices, leading to the anonymous leaking of raid photographs, even on the most humdrum basics the UN under-performs.

  On April 3 while Inner City Press covered the UN Security Council, the UN's wireless Internet became weak and then stopped working all together. 

  After a complaint to the Department of Public Information's Media Accreditation and Liaison unit, it was said that the Office of Information and Community Technology would fix it.

But on April 4, while Inner City Press covered the Council's session on Yemen, again there was no wi-fi. This time, for obvious reasons, Inner City Press bypassed the non-responsive and complained to OICT as the Free UN Coalition for Access.

(FUNCA's twelve and counting most needed reforms submitted to DPI as far back as February 10 have yet to be implemented by DPI; are even simple things at the UN un-reformable?)

OICT responded in writing: “We are aware of the wi-fi issue happening today. Yesturday [sic] it started in the early afternoon and we had it resovled [sic] shortly after. Today it started around 10:30 and we are working to resolve it.”

FUNCA replied that “it seems obvious that since the problem persists today, it wasn't really resolved or fixed yesterday. Can you state what the problem is, that OICT is trying to fix? Thank you.”

There was a response, but no answer: “The network team is handling the issue and the Helpdesk is not aware on the actual issue at hand.”

Things happen. This is the Security Council, two days in a row. Who's in charge here?

Footnote: As Inner City Press has asked, again without answer, there has been no chief of OICT since mid 2012. 

The Group of 77 has complained in the Budget Committee about the failure to fill the post -- Inner City Press reported that after the UN's failure during Hurricane Sandy, even to send an e-mail to member states, a more “political” OICT chief was sought. But it remains unfilled, and the UN lurches on. Watch this site.

On Haiti, Cholera & Nepal, UN Has No Safeguards, 9 Day Stonewall by #Ladsous2103

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 4, updated -- After the introduction of a strain of cholera from Nepal into Haiti killed thousands of people, currently a training for 800 troops from 23 countries for UN Peacekeeping missions is taking place... in Nepal.

  It would seem that UN Peacekeeping should have some safeguards in place, even though Secretary General Ban Ki-moon tersely dismissed legal claims about the cholera, calling them “not receivable.”

  But UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous has repeatedly refused to answer any Press questions, about Haiti, cholera, safeguards, rapes by his partners in the Congolese Army, anything.

  About the Nepal training, on March 26, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky

Inner City Press: Martin, I want to ask you about Nepal, there is beginning a two-week training; it is described as a training for UN peacekeeping missions of over 800 troops from 23 countries. Inevitably because outstanding allegation that it was Nepalese peacekeepers who inadvertently brought cholera to Haiti for not being screened, from, coming from a country in which cholera was prevalent at the time, what can you say to those who would say bringing prospective peacekeepers from 23 countries to Nepal might not be a good idea, absent some safeguards on DPKO’s (Department of Peacekeeping Operations) part on either screening or ensuring that what took place in Hait as is widely alleged doesn’t take place elsewhere. What’s your response?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I’ll check with DPKO.

On March 28, Ladsous again refused to answer Inner City Press questions at the stakeout broadcast by UN Television, run by the UN Department of Public Information.

On April 4, nine days after Nesirky said he would ask DPKO about any safeguards to not spread cholera again and kill people, Inner City Press asked the question again, this time to Ban's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey. (Nesirky is traveling with Ban in San Marino, Andorra and Monaco).

What safeguards does DPKO have?

  Del Buey said, we'll check with DPKO. Video here from Minute 7:25

  But that's exactly when Nesirky said on the question, nine days before. Inner City Press asked Del Buey, “Did you check with DPKO?”

  Del Buey said yes.

  So Inner City Press asked, in light of the nine day with no answer to this basic question, if it would be fair to say that Ladsous' DPKO has no safeguard.

  Del Buey now protested, no, don't put words in my mouth.

  But nine days after being asked, by Ban's spokesman, if there are any safeguards, to have disclosed none: what else can it mean?

  What several member states' representatives now say is that Ladsous not remain as head of DPKO. As one of them suscinctly put it, “It's an experiment that's failed, he'd not cut out for it.” #LADSOUS2013.

Footnote: just before Del Buey's “we'll check with DPKO” nine days after Nesirky said just that, there was a press conference about landmines at which another of Ladsous' spokespeople -- not the noted microphone grabber -- was present. But still, no answers. No answers at all. Even a post-Ladsous DPKO has been run into the ground.

Update: Ten minutes after publication of this article, and nine days after the questions were asked, this partial answer was suddenly sent:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply
Date: 2013/4/4
Subject: Answer to your questions
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Regarding your question about Nepal's training of peacekeepers from 23 different countries, our answer is: that's a US-led/funded training programme.

But it's explicitly FOR UN Peacekeeping missions. And in any event, the question is what safeguards DPKO has to ensure not spreading cholera and killing people. Total failure.