Wednesday, August 7, 2013

As UN Stonewalls on Herve Ladsous Meeting with ICC-Indicted Bashir and Failure on Visas, Of "Kept Body" & Spoon-feeding Redux


By Matthew Russell Lee
  Ladsous doesn't answer Press questions, video here; now he appears to be gone from the UN
On the August 6 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked:
Inner City Press: on the visas for Darfur, I wondered whether Hervé Ladsous, when he met with President Bashir, said that one of the topics was letting in international staff. Did the issue of non-DPKO [Department of Peacekeeping Operations], or i.e., UNHCR staff, come up? And what else was discussed at that meeting, given a lot of interest, in UN officials meeting on a strictly necessary basis with ICC [International Criminal Court] indicted individuals? Thank you.
Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: On the meeting that Under-Secretary-General Ladsous had with President Bashir, I will check with my colleagues on whether there is anything further we could say on that.
  More than 24 hours later, there was no response at all. But Ladsous' spokesperson Kieran Dwyer did answer a question Inner City Press publicly asked Nesirky on June 24, about a whistleblower's complaint Ladsous received. First, on June 26, Inner City Press was told:
Subject: Your questions on Somalia
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 9:43 AM
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] innercitypress.com
The Department of Peacekeeping Operations does not discuss internal communications or emails received with media correspondents.
  Still, Inner City Press kept asking, including UN envoy Nicholas Kay (who replied it was a question "for New York") and wrote a five part series. Then Ladsous' spokesperson Dwyer spoon-fed a misleading half-admission to another correspondent.
  After Inner City Press noted it, Ladsous' office belatedly, just as the August 7 noon briefing was to begin, gave an answer to Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Nesirky.
  But no answer on Ladous' meeting with ICC indictee Bashir, what was accomplished on visas. And where IS the body, that Ladsous in Sudan bragged about keeping?
  Another Ladsous spokesman, Andre-Michel Essoungou, known for grabbing the UN TV microphone in December to try to avoid an Inner City Press question about Ladsous covering up the 135 rapes by the Congolese Army in Minova, was floating around on August 7, food related interchange with another Ladsous client.
  It is distasteful, just as Ladsous' meeting with Bashir was found by many to be disgusting. This is leading somewhere. Watch this site.
Footnote: After Andre-Michel Essoungou's December 2012 microphone grab and a complaint from the new Free UN Coalition for Access, the UN's Stephane Dujarric admitted it was wrong. But, he said, he has spoken -- not with Ladsous, but Essoungou. 
  Well, Essoungou interjected himself again recently, to steer a question to Agence France Presse. This is what allows and encourages the spoon-feeding. 
  No answers Wednesday afternoon as FUNCA raised, including in advance, the fact of 15 journalists with three seats at the Security Council stakeout, next to the "Turkish Lounge" with three tables and ten chairs, entirely unused. This lack of response can be called the Ladsousification of the UN. Watch this site.
  

   
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Amid UN's Somalia Scam, Envoy Kay Cites Puntland But Not Yet Jubaland, Press Intimidation


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 7 -- On the day the UN belatedly admitted, if only to a friendly scribe, to Inner City Press' exclusive June 22 report on the UN's role in sharing genetic information from Somalia with the US FBI, the UN answered the previous day's Press questions on Puntland and journalists' safety.
  But the UN has still not commented on Jubaland's Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Madobe)'s critique of the government in Mogadishu, delivered at the Kismayo airport, or even disclosed which private military contractor it uses for armed guards.
Inner City Press: In Somalia, there’s been a pretty high-profile announcement by Puntland that they are severing all relations with the central or federal Government. They say that they violated the power sharing in the Constitution. So since there’s UNSOM [United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia] there, I’m wondering, do they have any response, or are they going to try to put things back on track? And there’s been two incidents with journalists, one being a journalist, Mascud Abdulahi Adan, was blocked in the Mogadishu airport from going to get surgery on a bullet in him, in Kenya, and given the [UNSC] debate and what the Secretary-General said, I’m wondering if the Mission or the Secretary-General was aware of that. And also, a journalist was attempted to be assassinated in Kismayo, Abdikhadar Iman Dhaqane. It seems like a lot of things are taking place there, and I’m wondering what the Mission and Mr. Nicholas Kay have to say about them.
Spokesperson Nesirky: I’ll check.
  And at 11:30 am the next day, half an hour before reading it out at the day's noon briefing, Nesirky's office e-mailed the following responses which we therefore publish in full:
Subject: your questions on Somalia
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 11:30 AM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Concerning your question on Puntland, we have the following from UNSOM: “SRSG Kay is aware of reports that Puntland's leadership has unilaterally decided to sever ties with the Federal Government of Somalia over a number of concerns including interpretation of constitutional provisions and implementation of federal arrangements. He will use his good offices to continue dialogue with both the Federal Government and the political leadership of Puntland as they seek mutual understanding on these and other key issues."
Regarding the evacuation of the injured journalist who was shot in Kismayo, UNSOM as the following information: "The journalist was evacuated to Nairobi hospital for surgical treatment on Monday 5 August after the National Union of Journalists (NUSOJ) obtained clearance from the Ministry of Information for his travel. UNSOM will follow up with NUSOJ on the condition of the journalist and to better understand why a journalist working with a non-government owned radio station (Radio Dalsan) would need a letter from the Ministry for emergency medical evacuation."
On the attack on a journalist also in Kismayo: as with all similar cases, attacks against journalists are unacceptable and journalists should be able to carry out their work free of intimidation.
This last is a nice statement. While smaller, but inside the UN's own headquarters, consider this UN communication to Inner City Press, about merely hanging the sign on the door of its shared office of the Free UN Coalition for Access, which works on the defense of journalists, in Somaliland,Somalia, in the UN and elsewhere (On August 5, 6 and so far on August 7, the below have not responded to basic press access questions raised) --

Subject: signs on the door
From: Hua Jiang [at] un.org
Date: Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 3:52 PM
To: Inner City Press
Cc: Stephane Dujarric [at] un.org, Isabelle Broyer [at] un.org
Dear Matthew,
We have taken note that you have not until now remove the signs on your office door as per the United Nations Guidelines on Media Access, despite repeated requests communicated to you by emails and verbally by DPI officials.
We reserve the right to take actions according to the Guidelines which stipulate that those violate the rules may have their accreditation withdrawn or suspended.
Best
Hua Jiang
Chief, Press Service, UN DPI
  Of the two individuals cc-ed, the first received and even solicited, including to his private non-UN email address, stealth requests to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN from Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, Agence France Presse,Voice of America and others. 
  The second led a non-consensual raid of Inner City Press' office on March 18, 2013, took photos of the Press' desk and bookshelf and shared them beyond DPI (they later appeared in BuzzFeed, leaked by a “Concerned UN Reporter” account after BuzzFeed called Ban's spokesman for comment on the raid.)
We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

    
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In UN's Somalia Scam, Weeks After ICP Asked, Ladsous Admits UNMAS David Bax' DNA Sharing with US -- to Friendly Scribe


By Matthew Russell Lee

"a detailed complaint from an UNMAS whistleblower in Somalia that the head of UNMAS in Somalia provided genetic information from bombings to [United States] intelligence agencies and also moves around Mogadishu with armed guards from that group, Denel, that we were talking about.I also e-mailed several of them and asked for a comment; I haven’t received anything."
Answer: Well, we’ll have to check on that for you, Matthew, we’ll check with DPKO [Department of Peacekeeping Operations].

In the weeks that followed, Inner City Press put the question to UN envoy to Somalia Nicholas Kay -- who referred the question back "to New York" and to Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky. 

  Inner City Press got more information and published it. But no response from Ladsous or his lead spokesperson Kieran Dwyer, nor from Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky.

  After the Free UN Coalition for Access raised the question, the UN on June 26 told Inner City Press:
Subject: Your questions on Somalia.From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.orgDate: Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 9:43 AMTo: Matthew Russell Lee [at] innercitypress.com
The Department of Peacekeeping Operations does not discuss internal communications or emails received with media correspondents.
  Now Dwyer has provided an answer -- to Colum Lynch of "Turtle Bay," Foreign Policy and the for-now Jeff Bezos / Amazon owned Washington Post. (Is he not a "media correspondent?) This without any notice to Inner City Press, either by DPKO or Ban's Spokesperson's office.

  Dwyer claimed, on camera, that he and his office do answer Inner City Press questions. Video here. Dwyer acknowledged that Ladsous refuses to answer Inner City Press questions (apparently in response to Inner City Press asking him about his public and leaked statements as France's Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN during the Rwanda genocide, arguing for the escape of genocidaires into Eastern Congo, or Inner City Press' coverage of Ladsous' drones).

  But this is false. Inner City Press asked this question on June 24, in public, transcript here. And Ban's Spokesperson's office said they would ask DPKO. Then, weeks later, DPKO gave a canned answer to Colum Lynch. 
 This has happened before. As simply one example, Inner City Press pursued the murder of a UN Security officer in Afghanistan, Louis Maxwell, in a series of either stories, quoting his relatives that the UN was engaged in a cover up
 Then the UN decided to respond to the scandal, not by answering Inner City Press' question, but by calling up their go-to Turtle. 
 Later, Lynch commiserated with Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, how unfair Inner City Press was. Charbonneau would go on, at least three times now, to try to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN -- including by leaking internal anti-Press UNCA document to the UN's top accreditation official three minutes after promising not to do so. Story here, audio here,document here.
 Inner City Press exposed this, with documents obtained under FOIA fromVoice of America. It was covered by, among others, the Guardian UK -- but not by Lynch. He explains:
"Why haven’t I written about your disputes with UNCA and the UN administration, of which there have been many. I have thought about weighing in on it. But given the complexities of your relationship with UNCA and the administration I’ve resisted the temptation of writing a hasty story. I simply have not been able to justify the commitment in labor – which in my view would require a major investment of reporting time, including reviews of thousands of your blog posts—to writing a lengthier piece. There are a lot of more impactful stories I don’t write because I can’t devote the time to it."
   So Lynch never reported for example that the head of UN Peacekeeping openly refuses to answer Inner City Press questions. He benefits from this.
  We have more to say about all this -- including a rebuttal of the attempt to rehabilitate Bax. For example:

  It's reported that "Bax established a relationship with the FBI to provide the Somalis with expertise on maintaining the integrity of the chain of evidence when handling bomb material" and then that "a senior official at U.N. headquarters insisted that the United Nations does not directly share evidence with the United States or other governments." This must be explained - in public.

The rehabilitation of Bax's corrupt running of the camp is laughable. Source: "he put everyone lives at direct risk for that."

On all levels, this is unacceptable. Watch this site - and this video


   
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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

As US Tells UN "All Governments Do Things That Are Secret," of Spies, Malvinas & Stonewalling


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 6, updated -- A UN day full of criticism of the US global spying program and, from Latin countries, of the UK's claims on the Malvinas or Falkland Islands ended at 8 pm Tuesday with a whimper rather than a bang.
  The United States, through its Number Three Ambassador to the UN Jeffrey DeLaurentis, said "All governments do things that are secret." And then, at least Tuesday, defend them only at the end of a debate when nearly everyone is gone. 
Later the US Mission e-mailed out DeLaurentis' reply, but online it was only Permanent Representative Samantha Power's prepared statement, here.
  Diplomats from three Latin American countries, exiting the Council, panned DeLaurentis' right of reply. It's up to you, one of them said, apparently meaning the press.
  Covering the meeting to the end, Inner City Press noted Sudan saying that it liked a segment of the Presidential Statement about helping national judicial systems. This, it seems, was a code word for a local trial of the country's ICC indictees, including President Omar al Bashir with whom the UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous met in July.
  UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant came back to say that there would be no bilateral talks with Argentina with "the Islanders" involved; he disputed Uruguay's minister's statement about UK illegal hydrocarbon searching near The Islands.
(Argentina's Permanent Representative Perceval replied briefly, that her government's position on Malvinas is well known, which she gracefully repeated to Inner City Press while leaving.)
  Lyall Grant also chatted amiably with Inner City Press, about Puntland in Somalia, but had nothing to add, past 8 pm, to his right of reply on Falklands / Malvinas. It was e-mailed out, and this was put online. It had the feeling of a ritual, even on the only recently revealed spying programs.
  Five Latin foreign minister came and met with Ban Ki-moon. In a question and answer Inner City Press put a portion of online here, Brazil's minister Patriota said that with this meeting, they had achieved their objective for the moment.
  He did not say, but Inner City Press does, that governments come to New York to say they raised an issue to the UN. Ban Ki-moon's lack of action on the issue, or asin the case of Edward Snowden, his seeming antipathy, don't really matter to the governments that visit. They raised the issue.
  Yesterday Inner City Press critiqued the UN Department of Public Information for issuing quite different "stories" of Ban's meetings with the ministers through its English and Spanish language UN News Center stories, here. Several Permanent Representatives commented on that on Tuesday. But will they raise it to the UN? Countries just use the UN Secretariat -- and vice versa.
As was said on the NSA spying, somehow it's up to the press.
Footnotes: The Free UN Coalition for Access posed a number of questions Tuesday to the Department of Public Information, from its UN Television and Media Accreditation and Liaison Units up to their supervisor, Stephane Dujarric.
  Why were reporters for the first time banned from using the south stairs by the Security Council stakeout? The UN and Dujarric never answered; the rope remained up but it was said that one might be able to work around it, as is now said of the Turkish Lounge. This DPI and UN like to leave things gray -- that way their favorites can use it, and others not. FUNCA objects.
  Favoritism with DPI runs two ways. The first vice president of the UN's Censorship Alliance, Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, gave UN official Dujarric an internal anti-Press UNCA document three minutes after promising not to do so. Story here, audio here, document here. Now, Dujarric has additional incentive for DPI to respond only to UNCA. But respond on what? Nothing is being fixed.
  Why was the video of the UN noon briefing not online even as of 3 pm? An answer on the giving of a UN post to a Ugandan figure questioned as recently as July 31 about financial irregularities was on the video and Inner City Press was asked by some in Uganda to send to link. Without the video archive going up on a timely basis, this was impossible. But why is it getting later? This question was never answered.
  DPI big shots left the UN while the Security Council meeting continued, without apparently caring how it could or would to covered. This is today's UN -- and FUNCA objects. Watch this site.

   
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Brazil's Patriota Answers Inner City Press on Eastern Congo, Criticizes NATO, Questions of Syria, Libya


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 6 -- Brazil is the country that championed "Responsibility While Protecting" in the wake of NATO's bombing of Libya; it is also the country of UN "cowboy" Force Commander in Eastern Congo Carlos Alberto Santos Cruz.
  Inner City Press asked Brazil's foreign minister Antonio de Aguiar Patriota about each topic, NATO and Eastern Congo, on Tuesday afternoon at Brazil's Mission to the UN. Video here and embedded below.
In his speech to the Security Council, Patriota had said that "under the leadership of Brazilian General Carlos Alberto Santos Cruz, MONUSCO will play its role in the protection of civilians. The military component, however, should be seen as a tool in support of a political strategy, and, as Special Envoy Mary Robinson mentioned, 'one part of a comprehensive approach that embraces security anddevelopment.'"
Inner City Press asked Patriota what he thought of theabortive disarmament ultimatum announced by them: Carlos Alberto Santos Cruz and the Tanzanian commander of the Intervention Brigade. Patriota first asked who this "they" was, then on script said it was part of a consensus Security Council resolution.
The Intervention Brigade was, but it not clear that the ultimatum was. Rwanda continues to say that Mary Robinson was not informed in advance of the ultimatum; the Free UN Coalition for Access has asked Mary Robinson's foundation is this is true, without a response yet.
  Patriota said that the Congolese conflicts have been "festering too long," with "women suffering violence of all kinds." This is true. But if for example the rapes in Minova were committed by the Congolese Army, the 41st and 391st Battalions, how is continued UN support to these units designed to end or even limit such harm?

  In a quote sure to please some, Patriota said that there should be diplomatic pressure on countries instigating and fueling conflict. That is his position, which one assumes applies equally or more to those countries arming and funding rebels in Syria, for example.
  Patriota praised agreements in Addis Ababa, but said they were "not implemented."
  On NATO, Patriota said the ambiguity is created by its non-inscription as a Chapter 8 regional organization, and its claimed right to project force beyond the borders of its members. Patriota asked, what if other countries banded together this way? 
   What indeed. He did not answer about Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Memorandum of Understanding with NATO; see Inner City Press exclusive story here. That has yet to be disclosed - something the Free UN Coalition for Accessintends to work on, including via its advocacy for a UN Freedom of Information Act. Watch this site.

   
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As Sudan Ejects 20 UN Staff from Darfur, What Did UN's Ladsous' Meeting with ICC Indictee Bashir Accomplish?


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 6 -- Now that Sudan has blocked the visas of, and "ejected," 20 UN staff from Darfur, additional questions are raised about what was accomplished by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous meeting with the country's International Criminal Court indicted president Omar al Bashir.
  The UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says it has apolicy of only meeting with ICC indictees on a "strictly necessary" basis. But little was said of the goals or "accomplishments" of Ladsous' meeting with Bashir.
  There is a breakdown in the system here. Human Rights Watch, which continues to brag about Bashir having left Nigeria, while citing the blocking of Bashir's airplane by Saudi Arabia, has said nothing about Ladsous' face time with Bashir.
  HRW chief Ken Roth characterized Bashir's trip to Nigeria as an attempt to "rehabilitate" himself. But doesn't face time with a UN official, even this one, similarly represent a rehabilitation attempt? How can HRW have nothing to say about it?
  Some say that, beyond the HRW's more and more obvious softness on the UN, which its UN lobbyist Philippe Bolopion previously of Le Monde and France 24 has admitted is in order to maintain "access" to the UN, the silence on Ladsous is related to HRW's Roth's support for his position on Eastern Congo and Rwanda.
  Inner City Press on Tuesday at the UN noon briefing asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky if the UN say any comment about Bashir's plane being blocked by Saudi Arabia. Ban tried to assuage Latin countries, which met with him yesterday, with a statement about the plane of Evo Morales. But there was no comment Tuesday at noon.
  Amid reports of at least one Sudanese soldier killed in Heglig, Inner City Press asked for whatever the UN knew about the clash. They're read the reports; they might have more. Inner City Press asked a Sudan Mission to the UN diplomat about it Tuesday morning, he called it a one time occurrence. Watch this site.

   
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UN "Without Accountability" on Haiti Cholera Cited by Yale, Spread by Herve Ladsous


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 6 -- With the UN still saying all claims it brought cholera to Haiti are "not receivable," the Yale School of Public Health and Yale Law School has joined the chorus concluding that the UN is both responsible and out of control.
Their study "Peacekeeping without Accountability" -- an accurate moniker for the tenure of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row atop DPKO -- says that "The U.N. must work to re-establish its institutional legitimacy in Haiti. 
 The role of the U.N. and MINUSTAH in causing the epidemic has created deep anger among the general public in Haiti, and the U.N.’s refusal to take any responsibility for its actions has eroded its already fragile reputation in the country."
  This erosion is global. How can the UN preach "rule of law" to others when it tersely dismisses all legal claims against itself? Herve Ladsous, the very face of impunity, has repeatedly refused to answer critical Press questions. See compilation video here. This has extended to his DPKO's support to Congolese Army units implicated in the mass rapes at Minova in November, 2012.
The study, done in collaboration with the Haitian Environmental Law Association (Association Hatïenne de Droit de L’Environment), notes that former "Secretary-General Kofi Annan acknowledged that the 'international responsibility' of the U.N. for the activities of its forces 'is an attribute of its international legal personality and its capacity to bear international rights and obligations."
But today's UN under Ladsous and ultimately Ban Ki-moon, along with the dismissal of the Haiti cholera claims, have yet to publicly acknowledge that their forces, particularly but not only their new Intervention Brigade in the Eastern Congo, are parties to an armed conflict and subject to the Geneva Conventions.
Legal footnote: the report cites LaGrand (Ger. v. U.S.), 2001 ICJ Rep. 466. It's time for litigation.

   
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As Puntland Breaks Ties & Journalists Under Fire, Where's UN in Somalia and Nicholas Kay?


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 6 -- What's wrong with the UN on Somalia, Kismayo and Puntland? Inner City Press at Tuesday's UN noon briefing asked for any UN comment on Puntland severing ties with Mogadishu, assuming there would be one. But Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky said he would have to check.
  Where is UN Envoy Nicholas Kay on this? Inner City Presshas tweeted at him, as it did on the still unanswered questions about the use of armed guards by the UN in Somalia: are they from Denel, which some say has a drone better than thecrash prone drone procured from Finmeccanica's Selex ES for MONUSCO under Herve Ladsous? Or some other company?
  There are also attacks on journalists: an attempted assassination in Kismayo on Abdikhadar Iman Dhaqane in Farjane, and the banning at the Mogadishu airport of journalist Mascud Abdulahi Adan from traveling to Nairobi for an operation to remove a bullet from his backbone.
   The UN had nothing on this as well, just after the speeches in the Security Council on protection of journalists in conflict.
  The Free UN Coalition for Access works on such issues, on Somalialand (click here) and elsewhere. What is the UN's position, for example on Puntland? 
 And where is the response, from Ladsous and the UN Mine Action Services, to the whistleblowers' unrebutted complaint that UNMAS' David Bax shared genetic information from bombings with US intelligence, through Bancroft Global near the same Mogadishu airport Mascud Abdulahi Adan was banned in? Watch this site.

   
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