American Month Ends with John Kerry - & Hate Speech? - in UN Security Council, Humility on Syria, Samantha Power in the Wings

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 29 -- As the United States' month as President of the UN Security Council comes to a close, it's time to review it as best as we can. Secretary of State John Kerry came once, on a July 25 day trip, to chair the meeting on Africa's Great Lakes region.

  While there, the Democratic Republic of the Congo's foreign minister said that all rebellions in the region bear the same "genetic signature." 

  After diplomats from a number of member states complained this was hate speech, even "genocide talk," Inner City Press asked the US Mission to the UN if it had a comment. Apparently it had none, as least as of yet.

  And outside the US Mission on July 25, after a two hour wait for a 45 second photo op of Kerry and Syria oppositionist al Jarba, Kerry told Inner City Press he hadn't heard the comment. Fine - but it was in the DRC's written speech, and is on UN Webcast.  UN video here at 1:06:20 

 (The US Mission did, we note, provide a response from Kurtis Cooper about cholera in Haiti at the beginning of the month, and from Payton Knopf about the rapes in Minova in November by the Congolese Army near the end of the month, here.)

  Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo handled the presidency ably, held a number of stakeouts; Jeffrey DeLaurentis held one, and answered questions on Darfur. But what's been done on the seven peacekeepers killed there?

  Syria was and is the "big one." Interesting, at the General Assembly session on July 29, the US was humble. While the UK's Mark Lyall Grant and even France's fill-in for Gerard Araud went to the front and inveigh, Ambassador DiCarlo spoke from her seat, later in the meeting. Will this be Samantha Power's approach when, as seems sure to happen, she arrives?

  Among diplomats asked Monday by Inner City Press about Samantha Power, a number noted things she'd said at her confirmation hearing. That the US has nothing to apologize for about the Rwanda genocide struck some more than others as a false note, inconsistent with her book "A Problem from Hell." But what will she do, once at the UN? Watch this site.

Footnote: there are three mandate renewals to be "done" on July 30. Of them, Inner City Press is told that the Cote d'Ivoire renewal might, just might, have "explanations of vote," on the draw-down of peacekeepers and on "ICC issues." Others say it will just fly through without a single explanation. We'll see.

   

On Haiti Cholera, UN Ignores New Study & Recent Spike in Cases, But Thanks Inner City Press for Asking: UNaccountable

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 29 -- After the UN tersely denied the legal claims of thousands killed by the cholera the UN brought into Haiti, its spokesperson and its chief legal counsel Patricia O'Brien have told Inner City Press they have nothing more to say.

But because of how this conflicts with the rules of law and with accountability, both of which the UN preaches, Inner City Press has kept on asking, on July 26 and again today, July 29, about a new study and a new spike in cholera cases.

From the July 26 UN transcript:

Inner City Press: I’m sure you’ve seen the report put out by the four scientists who did the UN’s initial study of cholera in Haiti, and they’ve now issued a second report. They’re no longer in the employ of the UN. And they say that new evidence shows that it was pretty conclusively that the UN brought cholera to Haiti. So I wanted to know, since the UN has relied on their previous findings so much, what do they say to this new study? I’m hoping that you can say some way that it either relates to or changes in some way or just how should we read it in connection with the UN dismissing the claims on behalf of 5,000 people killed by the cholera.

Deputy Spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey: No, the claims continue to be not receivable. That said, as we have stated consistently since the beginning of the crisis, the Secretary-General and the UN remain fully committed to address the situation of cholera in Haiti. Significant progress has been made, mortality rates are down, we have been distributing all kinds of water purification kits, and we’ve been doing infrastructural work, building latrines, we’ve been distributing vaccines and we are also working very closely with the Haitian authorities to educate the Haitian people on how to avoid the spread of cholera. The Secretary-General continues to press Member States and philanthropic organizations to increase their contributions. The contributions for this year have only reached 23 per cent of the asking. We’re working very assiduously with Member States and philanthropic organizations to ensure that this money is received this year so that we can continue with this work. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.  Have a good weekend.

  That was the UN's line, that the claims of thousands of people killed were "not receivable." It's a model of unaccountability. But it is this UN's line.

On Monday, July 29, Inner City Press asked about a spike in cases:

Inner City Press: The Haitian Government has acknowledged that there’s been a spike in cholera just literally this month, they’ve put out statistics. And so I wanted to ask you this. You’d said on Friday, and I understood that nothing is changed by the new report, by the people that studied cholera before now, saying that the UN did bring it, but given the commitment that you expressed on Friday by the Secretary-General, is the UN going to release numbers? Does it keep track of the actual progress in terms of either decreasing or in this case, it’s been increasing, cholera in the country? What does it say about these new statistics that, despite the calls for funds, etcetera, that the problem seems to be getting worse?

Deputy Spokesperson Del Buey: Well, as storms arrive, obviously, the possibility of contamination of water rises. The UN is working very hard with the resources it has to put together a plan to help combat and eventually eradicate cholera from Haiti. As I said on Friday, I think our appeal has subscribed to 23 per cent, so obviously, we depend on the generosity of Member States and the generosity of philanthropic organizations to provide the funding, so that the UN, through PAHO [Pan American Health Organization], through the World Health Organization and through other organizations, can carry out this very important work. I’ll leave it at that. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

So each day the UN thanks Inner City Press for asking about Haiti. The questions will continue. And there are lawsuits coming. Watch this site.

   

As Brazil Gets Olympics Baton, No Questions on Spending, Ban Ki-moon Cites South Korea, UK Lobbied by Saudi

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 29 -- When the UK handed over the Olympic baton to Brazil with the UN's Ban Ki-moon and his empty track suit presiding, Inner City Press expected that at least a few questions would be taken.

  They had, after all, asked journalists to RSVP and put it in the UN Media Alert, unlike the morning's General Assembly briefing on Syria.

  A range of Permanent Representatives showed up: Sylvie Lucas of Luxembourg and her counterparts Costa Rica's Eduardo Ulibarri-Bilbao, Bolivia's Sacha Sergio Llorentty Solíz, Gabon's Nelson Messone, New Zealand's Jim Mclay, Kazakhstan's Byrganym Aitimova (an Olympian, who alsospoke at China's Li Baodong's farewell) and Saudi Arabia's Abdallah Yahya A. Al-Mouallimi and Kenya's Macharia Kamau (more on these last two later.)

  A riser for camera-persons had been set up; there were speakers for sound and UNTV was there. Ban Ki-moon, fresh from issuing a statement about the attack on a building housing Turkish personnel in Mogadishu, arrived and the speeches began.

  The UK's Mark Lyall Grant joked about "Big Ban" in front of Big Ben; Ban used the opportunity to talk up the 2018 Winter Olympics in his native South Korea, which Yonhap says he will visit for six days in late August. Brazil's new Permanent Representative Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado talked about trying to live up to London's standard.

  This was the question that with all due respect should have been allowed and asked: what does the UN make of the protests of Brazil's spending on the World Cup and Olympics? 

  Since Ban cited sustainability, does building a stadium in the middle of the jungle meet that definition? As the Games, and World Cup before then, get closer the questions will continue to be asked.

(As will why FIFA gave the World Cup to Qatar, with talk now turning to holding it in the winter due to heat. Or does Ban Ki-moon think it's "sustainable" to try to air-condition an outdoor stadium?)

At the end of the event, Saudi Arabia's Permanent Representative Abdallah Yahya A. Al-Mouallimi who spoke earlier about Syria was seen chatting up Lyall Grant on something. Inner City Press asked Kenya's affable Permanent Representative Macharia Kamau what brought him to the event. We always do well, he joked, we need commitments to get good starting places. Watch this site.

Footnote: the new Free UN Coalition for Access, whichcomplained of the hurdles the UN put up to covering the morning's General Assembly meeting on Syria, is proposing the the UN and where applicable member states make clear in advance when events will not allow any questions. While theUN's response for now has been, "your presence is not mandatory," followed by threats, we're expecting more on this. Watch this site.

   

On Syria in General Assembly, Talk of Chemical Weapons Witnesses Killed While UN Plays Hide the Ball

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 29 -- When the Syria Commission of Inquiry's chairperson Paulo Sergio Pinheiro briefed the UN General Assembly on Monday morning, it had the feeling of a ritual, one that the UN made it difficult to cover.

  It was supposed to be in the Trusteeship Council Chamber at 10 am. Inner City Press arrived there at the same time as UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant -- but the room was shut. Even he had not been told of the move.

  Running to the North Lawn building, where the new General Assembly hall has banned the press from the floor up to a Media Booth with no table and no interpretation, Pinheiro had already begun. His fellow Commissioner Carla Del Ponte, who previously spoke of strong suspicions the rebels used chemical weapons, was again not with him.

  But Pinheiro did cite the recent execution of soldiers in Khan al Asal, and named the opposition armed group responsible.

  Syrian Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari when he spoke said these executions were to eliminate witnesses to the rebels' use of chemical weapons there, just as the UN's Angela Kane and Ake Sellstrom reached a still undisclosed agreement about probing such use.

  Ja'afari derided petrodollar policies and sexual jihad; he chided Pinheiro for not describing the Al Nusra Front as a terrorist group. As Inner City Press has reported, Al Nusra is not on the UN's list of child soldier recruiters, either.

  While Ja'afari spoke, the UK's Lyall Grant took notes and tweeted (including a responsive tweet to Inner City Pressabout Somalia, here) then got up to speak. He cited sexual violence; he echoed the EU's Thomas Mayr-Harting that the rebels' abuses do not match in scale or intensity those of the government.

  France was not represented by Gerard Araud, who on July 26 claimed the immense majority of GA member states recognized the Al Jarba groups as the only legitimate representative of the Syria people but did not cite chemical weapons.

   Instead Araud's stand-in for France cited the ICC, whileHerve Ladsous the fourth Frenchman in a row atop UN Peacekeeping met this month with ICC indictee Omar al Bashir.

Turkey spoke of keeping its borders open (Ja'afari said they let terrorists flow into Syria). Qatar's speech was translated, on the webcast heard in the hallway, as citing "crimes wars" -- while the rebels it funds commit them. 

  Saudi Arabia's Permanent Representative said they embrace in full the Pinheiro report -- perhaps because it does not cover which countries are funding the armed extremist rebels.

  Ban Ki-moon met Monday morning with Angela Kane, but by the time of the noon briefing there was no read-out. Some wondered why.

  Inner City Press ran from the North Lawn to the briefing to ask why the UN Media Alert did not even list the meeting, no Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit staff were there, and there was no interpretation in the Media Booth, which theFree UN Coalition for Access raised to the Department of Public Information back on June 10, still without any action.

  During this Syria meeting, the UN Correspondents Association used the room the UN gives them, S-310, to host the Club des Chefs des Chefs -- those who cook for heads of state. 

  UNCA 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS was with the chefs -- she had already fronted for Saudi-based Syria oppositionist al Jarba on Friday, it was time for other spoon feeding.

  The one UNCA Executive Committee member at the noon briefing did not raise the lack of access, or answer why an UNCA intern has a press pass while actual journalists are being threatened. and in another case were banned from using a "focus booth" then taken by the intern of the UN Censorship (and Spying) Alliance. So it goes at this UN.

   

In UN, Gushing About Monarchs' Chefs Poisoned by Murky Finances, UNCA Spies, Bokassa Echo

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 29 -- Three days ago, inquiring into financial practices and favoritism in the UN, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's outgoing deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey about Room S-310 being locked up by the UN Correspondents Association, used for "briefings" only publicized to those who pay it money -- on that day, about Syria.

  Del Buey replied, "we’ll check on that and get back to you." But three days later, still with no answer to that simple financial question, word leaks or oozes that UNCA is at it again, this time even lower down the food chain.

  The "Club des Chefs des Chefs" -- literally, 25 of those who cook for heads of state -- will set up shop in the room the UN gives UNCA, along with an also locked-up pantry, a separate office and even a focus booth used by a non-journalist UNCA intern to whom at the request of UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS the UN gave a "P" Press pass. 

  Falk then made the introduction to Ban's deputy Jan Eliasson as "one of our interns."

  This breaking news, or breaking eggs, event was of course not announced even to all UN accredited resident correspondents. It was "leaked" to the Free UN Coalition for Access by one of UNCA's disgruntled members.

  Then it was confirmed on the Twitter feed of a long time UNCA officer followed by a mere dozen UN correspondents, but at least two anonymous accounts set up by UNCA Executive Committee members to troll Inner City Press. (UNCA's anonymous social media campaign picked up on Saturday July 27).

  The UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit also followed. Its boss also in charge of UNTV -- which they screen the chefs, as UNCA asked them to do for Syria oppositionists? -- told FUNCA that Room S-310 would be left unlocked and the "UNCA Pantry" was just a notation on a blue print. Right.

  Worse, UNCA first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters truly leaked an internal anti-Press document to this UN Accreditation official, three minutes after promising not to do it. Audio here, story here; document headed "you didn't get this from me" here. This has still not be acted on.

   This is called spying for the UN. There is something rotten cooking in this kitchen, alongside the gushed-out presence of "White House top chef Chisteta Comerford and, yes, "Her Majesty the Queen's chef Mark Flanagan." The murky finances and spying poison the atmosphere. Watch this site.

Footnote: the talk of chefs for heads of state bring to mind the Europeans who sauced up human flesh for France's Central African Republic strongman Bokassa - more on this in connection with the Mads Brugger film "The Ambassador," which UN staff say includes, yes, Inner City Press, which reports on CAR and the ongoing CAR Alarm...

   

On Syria, French Ambassador Araud Omits Chemical Weapons, AFP Makes Much of Them: Ladsous Pro Quo

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 28 -- Is the issue of chemical weapons use in Syria just a bargaining chip, flashed and then forgotten? Midday on Friday July 26 after a closed door meeting with Syrian oppositionists, French Ambassador Gerard Araud emerged, made a statement and answered questions. But he did not even mention chemical weapons.

  French Mission transcript here; Inner City Press analysis here.

  At 11 pm Friday, the UN e-mailed out a vague "joint statement" by the "Government of the Syrian Arab Republic, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs [Angela Kane] and the Head of the United Nations Investigation Mission," Ake Sellstrom.

  It was one line: "The discussions were thorough and productive and led to an agreement on the way forward." Inner City Press tweeted out this comment, as vague as US Secretary of State John Kerry's claim about an agreement to talk between Israel and Palestine.

  But while French Ambassador to the UN Gerard Araud showed by his silence how peripheral or unhelpful to the Gulf and Western cause the chemical weapons issue has become, Agence France Presse for example found a way to turn the one line into a whole story: add a quote from one of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's four Associate Spokespeople. This is how this UN works.

  AFP, by contrast, did not cover the UN's culpability for killing 5000 people in Haiti by bringing in cholera, which Inner City Press asked about at Friday's UN noon briefing; nor the many scandals swirling around Herve Ladsous, thefourth Frenchman in a row to head UN peacekeeping.

  This too is how this UN works: faux UN briefing by non-media organizations which spy for the UN, to allow Saudi backed oppositionists to try to lay the groundwork, as Araud did, for a switch of UN seat as France has engineered elsewhere. But you won't read that in Agence France Presse. Watch this site.

Footnote: while many were dismissive of it, the footage taken in real time by Russian state television reporter Anastasia Popova at Khan al Asal becomes more pertinent - or does it? We'll see.

   

On Syria, France Misrepresents UN General Assembly Vote & Doctors Transcript, Jarba's Saudi Speak, UNCA's Faux "UN Briefing"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 28 -- After a closed door meeting with Syria oppositionists, French Ambassador Gerard Araud came out and claimed that the Syrian National Coalition is the only legitimate representative of the Syrian people, in the eyes of the immense majority of member states of the UN General Assembly. French Mission to the UN transcript here.

  Inner City Press asked what the claim was based on, given the multiply amended language of the last Qatar drafted resolution voted in the GA. Inner City Press' question cited as an example Brazil. Video here, from Minute 5:06; see Inner City Press story and exclusive publication of Brazil's Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti's two letters to Qatar, here.

  But the French Mission to the UN's "transcript" of the stakeout press encounter, here, omitted the reference to Brazil. It also omitted the Araudian claim of a "scientific education" and about "any mathematical system" -- a claim that Russia's Vitaly Churkin mocked minutes later at the same microphone.

  Beyond the mathematical fact that 107 of 193 member states is not an "immense" majority, Araud misrepresented what the 107 votes were for. Qatar's drafted wanted to "support" the Arab League giving Syria's seat to the opposition, but this ran into widespread opposition in the GA and requests to “avoid language on the recognition of any opposition group at the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.” 

  So to get votes -- there was still widespread abstention -- this was changed before the vote to "welcome" the switch and only "in this regard," in regard to political transition. Others like Malaysia wanted only to "note" the switch.

  But after those changed to procure votes, Araud made the claim he did, on video. Will this cost him and Qatar votes if they try another Syria or other resolution?

  The Syria oppositionists led by Saudi supported Ahmad Al Jarba, after a faux "UN briefing" which the "they / Reuters spy for the UN" dubious UN Correspondents Association led by Pamela Falk of CBS publicized only to those which pay money to UNCA, went on to tell a media also funded by Saudi Arabia that they'll try to get the Syria UN seat, probably in September. Will the same chicanery be tried? Nous allons voir. Watch this site.

   

For-Pay Syria Session Called "UN Briefing," UNCA Breaks Rules, Anonymous Trolls

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 -- The Alliance between this UN and the United Nations Correspondents Association is not only one of censorship but also now of fraud.

  On July 26 at noon Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's outgoing deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey a simple question: was the upcoming presentation by Syrian opposition figures in UN Room S-310, given by the UN to UNCA, a "UN Briefing" or not?

  UNCA only e-mailed its notice to those who pay it money;throughout July 26 not only UN accredited correspondents who choose not to join the discredited UNCA but also some member states criticized the Syria opposition session.

  Del Buey said he would answer this simple question, but more than a day later: no answer. Instead, after Inner City Press in its name and that of the new Free UN Coalition for Access asked the question, the UNCA Executive Committee related trolls re-started their anonymous social media campaign: UN Cowardice Association.

  Meanwhile, after UNCA inappropriately asked the UN to stream its private for-pay briefing over UNTV, it put it online in piece, labeling it "Special UN Briefing."

  At the beginning, UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk claimed this was a briefing for the "UN press corps" -- but it was not, it was only publicized to those who pay money to UNCA. This is fraud.

  The UN's Department of Public Information participates in this fraud. DPI insists that only journalists can go into the UN press briefing room, and that only journalists with eight clips can get a "P" Press pass to the UN.

  But as Inner City Press has reported, shown on film and now had informally re-confirmed, DPI has given at least one non-journalist UNCA intern a Press pass, and entry into the briefing room and stakeout area. 

  The non-journalist intern set up shop in the locked "UNCA" Room 310, and in a so-called focus booth that was supposed to have UN phone service to the Peacekeeping missions.

Actual journalists have been told to leave these focus booths, and even had their UN entry pass de-activated after being found working there. But the UNCA intern is there.

  UNCA has an employee, also given a "P" Press pass, of whom it is not clear there are eight clips. This is the organization which tries to get thrown out of the UN journalist who actually ask questions and publish articles. 

  The mockery of DPI's purported rules occurs as DPI cites a rule it passed with UNCA, Banning signs, to threaten Inner City Press with suspension or withdrawal of accreditation for hanging a FUNCA sign on the door of its shared office. (This door was blocked on Friday by the backwash of UNCA's dubious "Special UN Briefing.") UN Censorship Alliance.

  It is that the Executive Committee of UNCA has show disdain for freedom of the press, asking in 2012 that articles and photographs about Sri Lanka and French officials be taken off the Internet then seeking ouster from the UN for resistance to censorship.

  UNCA First Vice President Louis Charbonneau of Reuters has been shown to have given an internal anti-Press UNCA document to UN accreditation official Stephane Dujarric three minutes after stating this would not be done. (Audio here.) 

  This is called spying for the UN: this UNCA is a fraud, particularly when it comes to any claim of supporting freedom of the press or defending the rights including due process rights of journalists.

  The UN's room S-310, it was said before the move-back, would be open to all UN accredited correspondents, not locked, or key with the UN Spokesperson's Office. But UNCA keeps it locked, or its "Press" Passed intern inside, when not in the "focus booth" taken from other journalists.

  The UN has been formally asked to explain the July 26 briefing and claims made since; it has yet to respond on that or on how it violated its own stated rules about who gets a "Press" pass and entry into briefings. This is the UN Censorship Alliance. Watch this site.

Footnote: now comes word, not from any e-mail from UNCA, that while the UN Spokesperson's Office still can't or hasn't explained the status of these sessions publicized only to those who pay money, the next "newsmakers" on tap at the UNCA private club are the "Club des Chefs des Chefs" -- those who cook for heads of state. UN Culinary (or Corruption?) Alliance.

   

On DRC's "Genetic Signature" Line, UN's Ban Won't Comment, Kerry "Didn't Hear," France Mute

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 -- In the UN Security Council on July 25, the Democratic Republic of the Congo's foreign minister Raymond Tshibanda said that rebellions in the Great Lakes region for years have "all bear the same genetic signature" (la meme signature genetique).

Given the mass killing of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994 and events since, this line was quickly seen, including by diplomats from UN Missions including that of the United States, but only not for attribution, as hate speech or worse.

Inner City Press went to the UN's July 26 noon briefing and put the question to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's outgoing spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey:

Inner City Press: Yesterday, possibly even while this briefing was taking place, the Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in his prepared remarks that he read in the Security Council, said that rebellions in the Great Lakes region all bear a similar genetic signature. And many people have seen this as a problematic statement given the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and its ethnic basis. And so what I wanted to know is, the Secretariat, do they have any comment on the use of what some people see as hate speech inside the Great Lakes meeting of the UN Security Council?

Deputy Spokesperson Del Buey: No, we’re not going to comment on that, Matthew. If people find it offensive, it’s up to them to take it up with the Congolese authorities.

  This hands-off approach stands in contrast to cases in which Ban Ki-moon has chosen to criticize comments, like those questioning who did Nine Eleven, about about the Boston bombing, by what Ban described as an independent special rapporteur. Given the resonance of genetic signature to genocide and the number of people killed, why take this approach here? Convenience?

  Outside the US Mission to the UN on July 25, Inner City Press asked Secretary of State John Kerry about his Congolese counterpart's reference to "genetic signature." Kerry stopped and ask for clarification, then replied that he heard the Congolese minister's comment. He was chairing the meeting.

UN video here at 1:06:20 

A written request to the US Mission to the UN for comment, including Tshibanda's prepared speech and a link to the video as delivered, has yet to be responded to (although there was an oral update).

A similar question, including on the Intervention Brigade slated to be run by Frenchman Herve Ladsous in Eastern Congo, has gone entirely unresponded to by four French Mission spokespeople, including Frederic Jung.

  The UK has told Inner City Press they are looking into the questions with their DRC expert. Still, delegates from other UN and Security Council members marvel at what was said, and the lack of response. "They want to pretend they're solving things there, so they just let it go," one said.

  To be fair, Inner City Press asked a member of the Congolese delegation about the comment, expect to have its meaning spun as has to done to Inner City Press on Twitter. But the Congolese delegate told Inner City Press, No, that was exactly what we intended, we did not want to say it more directly. And even then -- would Ban, or Kerry, or the French or UK mission, have responded to any way? Watch this site.