On Sri Lanka, Inner City Press Again Asks Ban Ki-moon Spox Of Sirisena Backtracking on International Involvement, Canned If-Asked

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 30 -- Sri Lanka represents one of the lowest points of the last decade at the UN, from inaction in 2008 and 2009 to cover-ups since.  On January 27, 2016, Inner City Press which covered UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Sri Lanka in May 2009, asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about Ban's failure now to follow up, transcript here:

Inner City Press:  I wanted to ask on Sri Lanka, I've been meaning to ask for a few days.  The President, Sirisena, gave an interview with BBC Sinhala and said:  "There is no room for foreign involvement in the proposed judicial mechanism to investigate war crimes," which is totally contrary to the resolution sponsored in Geneva by the Government.  What does the Secretary-General think of this reneging on international involvement…?

Spokesman:  I will take a look at the interview and get back to you.

 Two days later, there was nothing - except an NYT editorial - so Inner City Press asked again on January 29, transcript here:

Inner City Press: On Sri Lanka, I asked a couple days ago whether there's a DPA (Department of Political Affairs) response to President [Maithripala] Sirisena saying no foreign judges in the war crimes inquiry.  Do you have any answer?

Spokesman:  Yes, I do... On Sri Lanka, the Secretary-General understands that the discussions in Sri Lanka on the transitional justice mechanism, including the judicial component, are ongoing.  Broad-based national consultations are about to kick off, and they will help inform the modalities of the mechanisms.  The Secretary-General also recalls that the Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka, cosponsored by the current Government, affirms the importance of a credible justice process and international participation in the judicial mechanism.  He remains hopeful that the Sri Lankan Government stands by its commitments and fully implements the resolution.

  Apparently if Inner City Press, Ban's spokesperson would not have read out this If-Asked. We'll have more on this.

On January 25, ICP asked Ban's spokesman Dujarric about the arrest of a journalist:

Inner City Press: in Sri Lanka, since, again, given the Secretary-General's long involvement in this issue, a journalist who went into exile based on death threats.  Sasi Karam Puni Maruthi [sic - it's Sasikaran Punniyamurthi, apparently the UN won't even use Google] has returned and, upon his arrival, was arrested by the government.  It's a little unclear… basically it seems like arresting a journalist for what he wrote.  Is this something that DPA [Department of Political Affairs] or peacebuilding…

Spokesman:  I will look into it.  I had not seen that report.

  But nine hours later, nothing. Nor on Sirisena backtracking on international involvement in any accountability for 2009.

  After Ban's spokesman also left Iner City Press' January 7 question about reports of torture under new President Sirisena, late on January 7 Ban Ki-moon issued a statement of pure priase for Sirisena. On January 8, Inner City Press asked Dujarric to explain, video here, transcript here:

Inner City Press: the statement on Sri Lanka.  I'd asked, I guess, Monday and yesterday.  Yesterday I asked you about these new reports of torture that at least two groups say have occurred even under President Sirisena, and people there are also marking, you know, the seventh year of a killed journalist, Lasantha.

So I'm wondering, it seemed like a pretty, he can write whatever he wants, but what is the answer to the Secretariat's review of… of torture allegedly occurring in the last year and of unsolved cases of dead journalists, et cetera?

Spokesman:  You know, obviously, unsolved cases of harassment and killings of journalists need to be solved and the perpetrators need to be brought to justice.  On the reports of torture, I know our human rights colleagues are aware of the reports put forward by the NGOs that you'd mentioned

From the January 4 transcript, video here:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you something on Sri Lanka, which is that, in the last couple of days, the President [Maithripala] Sirisena has said that there's no requirement of a special court for events in later stages of the conflict and also has announced some parcels of land to people in the north, but there seems to be a demand by the Tamil National Alliance that the military disoccupy land, that… private land that it continues to be in.  What's the UN's response to that?  What's the UN's, I guess, involvement, including through the peacebuilding commissioner and any other way…

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:  I'll have to check… [cross talk] I don't have an update.  I'll check.

  Three day later, nothing. On January 7, Inner City Press asked about reports of torture in Sri Lanka in the last year, under President Sirisena.Video here, transcript here:

Inner City Press: there were two reports issued yesterday about torture in Sri Lanka, not in the past but in the last year as well while Mr. [Maithripala] Sirisena has been in the Government, a UK-based group and a South Africa-based group, very detailed reports including, like, locations that they found.  What is… I mean… I guess…

Spokesman:  I will… I will check.

  While not answering any of those questions, on the evening of January 7 Ban Ki-moon issued a statement of pure praise of Sirisena, here. Has Ban's UN turned the corner on Sri Lanka or not?

Even as Ban and his spokespeople declined to answer basic follow up questions about Sri Lanka, about who in his Executive Office was informed of peacekeepers raping children in the Central African Republic, and about Burundi, his UN Correspondents Association now known as the UN Corruption Association, having charged $6000 for seats next to Ban, continues to promote him - without questions, literally.

  UNCA head Giampaolo Pioli, who tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN for accurately reporting that Pioli had accepted rent money from Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's ambassador, then gave a "UN screening" on a war crimes denial film in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium, has issued this, only to those who pay UNCA money, leaked by a disgusted UNCA member:

"Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would like to meet with UNCA members and all UN correspondents for the New Year's visit this Wednesday, Jan 6th, 2016 from 10:35 to 10:50 am in the UNCA room. It will be an opportunity for him to say a few words to all of our colleagues and to exchange his best wishes. There will not be a Q&A session but as in every year it is a great occasion to be together. Please attend."

 Well, no. Providing a rah-rah session with no Q&A is pathetic. And, "all correspondents" will not enter the UN Corruption Association, which charges money for access to Ban. But there are questions, including on Sri Lanka. For now, the January 6 "event" was canceled, so Ban could speak to / at the press from the UN Security Council stakeout, without taking questions.

The former President of the General Assembly John Ashe and four others have been indicted, Ashe for buying documents from Ban's UN Secretariat.

Ban's envoy to Libya Bernardino Leon was exposed by leaks as having taken instructions and then a job from the United Arab Emirates.

And Ban's head of UN Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, is listed in UN Dispute Tribunal documents as having tried to cover up child rapes in Central African Republic by peacekeepers from his native France.

  Inner City Press, which Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric did not call on despite calling two separate times on the same UN Correspondents Association scribe, asked audibly, “Do you have any update on the John Ashe indictment? Bernardino Leon? These were major developments this year.” Vine here.

  But Ban refused to answer the question. He walked out of the briefing room, shaking hands scribes. The press conference began with Dujarric setting aside the first question for the head of UNCA, who thanked Ban for attending an event on Wall Street for which UNCA charged $6,000 to sit with Ban. This is the UN Corruption Association.

  A question on or to cover up the sexual abuse scandal was arranged, with Agence France Presse congratulating Ban for this response to the sexual abuse scandal. (Senegalese Babacar Gaye was urged to resign, Ladsous who on camera linked the rapes to “R&R," video here, remains in place.)

Ban read out a wan answer on Burundi; his deputy spokeperson refused an Inner City Press question on Burundi at the previous day's noon briefing.  We'll have more on this.

Ban once promised monthly press conference but his last one was three months before, then nine months before that. On September 16 with the UN being less than successful in mediating in Yemen and Libya, Syria and South Sudan, accused of rapes in Central African Republic and killing 8,000 in Haiti with cholera (after 40,000 died in Sri Lanka with little response from the UN), Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was asked, What is your legacy?

  That question, nor none of the other 11 Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric selected, did not refer to the rape scandal, much less deadly cholera or the Sri Lanka report released earlier in the day in Geneva, after months of delay and supposed concern by Ban.

  Inner City Press asked, before the press conference ended and then again before Ban left the room, “Anything on Sri Lanka?” But there was nothing. Ban's spokesman Dujarric didn't even allow Inner City Press to put a question to UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, who covered up rapes in DR Congo, Darfur and now CAR.

  Most recently, Ladsous linked rapes to a lack of “R&R,” rest and relaxation, video here.

Dujarric himself cut off Inner City Press questions on what Ladsous said, and declined to answer on Reddit in an “Ask Me Anything.” (He didn't say he's ANSWER everything, one wag pointed out.)

  But even beyond the scandals, Ban did not in his opening statement mention Somalia, or CAR, or Darfur; none of the questions selected by Dujarric was about Africa. (One wire points out Africa was part of a UN-at-70 question; noted.)

    Inner City Press also tried to ask about Burundi -- nothing - and South Sudan, on which we are preparing a story.

  It was Voice of America with the “What is your legacy” question. Ban said he'd answer next year. Inner City Press might answer sooner. Watch this site.

Inner City Press Asks UN Youth Adviser Ahmad Alhendawi About UNpaid Interns, Youth in Syria &Yemen Talks

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 30 -- Amid mounting questions about the UN using only unpaid interns, favoring the most affluent, Inner City Press asked Ahmad Alhendawi, Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, about the issue on January 30.  Video here.

Alhendawi told Inner City Press there is a dialogue, there is an openness; he said he is not an expert in human resources issues but directs groups of intern to the right people to speak to in the UN system. It seems that, like with getting a UN Freedom of Information Act, Ban Ki-moon will not do it; it should be asked of (candidates to be) the next Secretary General.

  Inner City Press also asked Alhendawi about how the new Security Council resolution on youth is impacting the UN's Syria and (non-existent?) Yemen talks. In Geneva now, for example, how many youth did de Mistura invite? Alhendawi said it's a new resolution but will have an impact. We'll continue to cover this.

Back on November 10, 2015, a group of interns tried to raise the issue inside the UN. But UN Security first told them they could not display their (small) signs, then tried to prevent photographing and filming of the muted protest by the Press. 

On November 13, Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about why it has been told not to film, why the interns' (small) signs had been prohibited and about the substance of the protest, that unpaid internships mean only the most affluent can intern with the UN. Video here and embedded below.

  UN deputy spokesperson Haq first tried to say photographing had not been hindered. Inner City Press replied, We “were told not to take any, I was there.”

  Then the UN's Haq said the UN Security officers had said not to photograph them, that they had not given consent.

  Inner City Press pointed out that by this logic, covering a protest could be stopped by Security officers standing in front of it. In any event, even just outside the UN it is entirely legal to film police officers. Does the UN say that its Security Officers, even while they are breaking up or dispersing a protest, can't be filmed? Apparently so.

  Pressed on the substance of the protest, Haq said that it is entirely up to the General Assembly; there was no sense that Ban Ki-moon is even asking the GA for any change.

  The November 10 protest in rainy New York was preceded by one in Brussels, “standing up for those who cannot afford working for free;” in Geneva on this theme shoes were lined up on the street.

This comes at a time when Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's UN is moving to give raises to its Under Secretaries General such as Herve Ladsous, who linked peacekeepers' raping to their lack of “R&R” and “distraction.”

Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access (FUNCA) have previously asked the UN about this issue and covered it, as has VICE News, which was on the scene Nov 10.

Inner City Press on September 4 again asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about it, video here, transcript here:

Inner City Press: I have been meaning to just follow up on this.  The letter that was written to the Secretary-General by unpaid UN interns in New York and Geneva, seemed like it was responded to by USG [Under-Secretary-General Yukio] Takasu.  It's not clear — I guess I wanted to ask you.  Is the Secretariat saying that it's an administrative instruction some time back that precludes them from paying interns from the developing world, so that the pool can become more diverse?  Or are they really saying that the GA has definitively made it impossible?  Is there any consideration in asking the GA to address the issue?

Spokesperson Dujarric:  It's a valid of question.  I haven't seen the letter.  I need to take a look at it.  Nobody has shared it with me.  Nobody tells me anything here.  You know, I think on the issue of interns, it is also — I think it's also important to remember that the UN has a global presence, not in every country in the world, but almost every country in the world, and we do take interns locally, so I think there's also… obviously there's a greater mass of interns at our Headquarters station, but we do take interns… most UN offices take interns in different places, which doesn't include the need to travel.  Let me look in the letter and I'll get back to you.

Inner City Press:  Can you get data on that?

Spokesman:  Probably not, because I don't think it exists.  

  Really.

Back on August 11, Inner City Press asked Dujarric, video here, UN transcript here:

Inner City Press: I'm sure you've seen this story about the New Zealand intern at the UN in Geneva living in a tent.  I want to ask sort of a more fundamental question, which is that what would the UN say to those who say that by having so many entirely unpaid internship, it basically, it… it limits this possible career step of learning to only the most affluent people…?

Spokesman Dujarric:  I think it's a very valid point.  The debate around the payment of interns is one that's been going on for some time.  We are not in a position to pay our interns.  It's too bad in a way, because I think it does limit the opportunity to those who are able to pay their own way and house themselves.  Unless the General Assembly changes those rules, there is no change in sight.  What's important is that any internship be used as a learning opportunity for the intern and not be used as, you know, as free labour or as a substitute for work done by staff.

Inner City Press:  Okay. Is that something that the Secretary-General has ever raised to the GA [General Assembly] or…?

Spokesman Dujarric:  I'm not aware of that.

    Back in May 2013 an internship in the UN was auctioned off, ultimately for $26,000, in a process extensively covered and questionedby Inner City Press. The UN said it was embarrassed by the auction or the "optics," and resisted Inner City Press' questions about the sale.

After Inner City Press asked several times about it, the description of the internship being auctioned was "amended," as the UN spokesman put it, to read:

"Take advantage of this exclusive opportunity for a 6-week internship in NYC working for Bruce Knotts, Chair of the UN-NGO Committee on Human Rights. You will gain inside knowledge of just how the UN really operates and have tremendous opportunities to make invaluable connections. This truly is the ultimate internship opportunity for any college or graduate student looking to get their foot in the door!"

The auction, on CharityBuzz.com, said it was to benefit the RFK Young Leaders. Press inquiries to that entity and its parent, the RFK Center, did not yield any answers. But today, at least, we have a detailed answers about how such internships or grounds-passes work, from the Director of the UN Department of Public Information's Outreach Division, Maher Nasser.

  Inner City Press, along with another DPI question to which it is still awaiting the answer -- why was UNTV shut off while Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat was giving a speech on Monday morning -- asked Nasser, "I heard when you told DPI-NGO orientation that it makes the UN look bad, and that the UN is not obligated to let the person ('m. alam') who purchased the internship into the building. Is that the case? And you could keep me informed on this, when the purchased internship is to begin and what the UN / DPI does?"

  To his credit, Nasser provided Inner City Press with the most detailed UN response to date on the auctioned internship:

Subject: Question re the auctioned internship, thanks
From: Maher Nasser [at] un.org
Date: Mon, May 20, 2013 at 2:38 PM
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] InnerCityPress.com

Hi Matthew, On the internship issue, as you know from the relevant website, this was for an internship with an NGO, not an internship at the UN. The optics of it and use of the UN's image implied otherwise, which is why I flagged it in the orientation with newly associated NGOs as something that hurts the UN and is not acceptable.

Every NGO associated with DPI is entitled to only six yearly passes, two of which are for youth representatives. The names to whom the passes are issued are provided by the president/head of each NGO. By providing the names, the NGO certifies that these names represent the NGO concerned. Up till now, we have had no reason not to grant a pass to people designated as representing an NGO. An old system of temporary passes issued throughout the year was discontinued by DPI several years ago.

With reference to the six names provided, and as I said above, this has not happened in the past, if we find out that someone had to pay or buy a slot on that list, we would take it up with the concerned NGO and depending on the feedback, not endorse that name for a pass.

In view of the case of the auctioned internship, we are preparing language to be added to the forms to be completed by DPI associated NGOs to avoid such possibilities in the future.

  So at a minimum, the "m. alam" on whose behalf $26,000 was bid for this internship might not be endorsed for a pass to actually enter the UN. Would they get a refund? And what do the UN-NGO Committee on Human Rights and the RFK Center have to say? Watch this site.

Footnote: While we await another division of DPI's promised answer to the Free UN Coalition for Access about how and why UNTV shut off during Saeb Erakat's speech, we note complaints received about the press corps move-back to the Secretariat building, particularly among broadcasters about special charges, special deals, special inquiries. The DPI official in question is aware of several of these complaints; watch this site.

Inner City Press Asked & Showed UN Climate Adviser Pasztor UN Fake Recycling,UNCA Garbage

By Matthew Russell Lee, Expose series

UNITED NATIONS, January 30 -- While the UN purports to be recycling, its garbage cans with separately holes for glass, paper and waste in fact have a single bag behind them: nothing is separated. 

After exposing the fake recyclining on January 22, and asking UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about in on January 25 (he said everyone can see it's fake, so it's OK), on January 29 Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's Special Adviser on Climate Change Janos Pasztor about it. Video here.

  To his credit, after the briefing Pasztor came with Inner City Press to see one of the fake recycling garbage cans, directly in front of the door of the UN Correspondents Association. Looking in through the separate Glass, Paper and Waste openings and seeing inside a single garbage bag, Pasztor agreed that it was and is totally unacceptable.  We'll see.

   Later on January 29, the response of UNCA -- whose president Giampaolo Pioli was right there when Pasztor was shown the scam -- was not to recycle, but to simply remove the top of the garbage can.Tweeted photo here. This is today's UN, and those who are supposed to watch it. We'll have more on this.

  Inner City Press also asked Pasztor about the $100 billion in the Paris Agreement on climate change, and what percentage might just be market rate loans, even to coal projects. Video here. We'll have more  on this, too.

Video here.

 On January 22, Inner City Press tweeted a phototweeted a photographof the faux-recycling garbage can on the UN's third floor. 

 On January 25, Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the fake recycling. Video here. Dujarric said that everyone can see it, then that he was going to lunch. Video here.

  But not only is this fake recycling contradictory to the UN's and Ban's ostensibly environmental positions - it also appears, from responses Inner City Press has received, that many people are not aware of this particular pretense by the UN. From the UN's January 25 transcript: 

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about recycling at the UN.  I noticed that these cans that are, that exist that have circles for glass and plastic, paper and waste, when you look into them, there's just one bag.  So, it seems like it's all mixed, and it's not actually being separated or recycled.  Is that true?  And if so, what's the point of having the separation?

Spokesman:  Well, if you've seen it, I have no doubt that it's true.  I can look into the situation and… I can look further into the garbage recycling issue.

Inner City Press:  I think the question really is, is it misleading to pretend to be recycling if you're not?  If you're just not, just say you're not.

Spokesman:  I think anybody can look, when you throw something into the garbage, anybody can look and see what's going on.  On that note, I'm going to have lunch. 

Then after interaction, Inner City Press broadcast the garbage can live on Periscope, preserved on YouTube here.

Isn't this hypocrisy? Why didn't the media using this scam garbage can -- CBS, Voice of America, Foreign Policy, Reuters and AFP from down the hall, the UN Correspondents Association right next door -- say anything about this?

  Inner City Press, aware of UNCA's and these media's attempts to censor and even through the investigative Press out of the UN, filmed it and puts it online here. 

Amid self-congratulations about the Paris Agreement on climate change, several environmental groups even inside the conference site on December 12 were critical. But when UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon took three softball questions from correspondents at the UN on December 14, it was another stage in Ban and his enablers' use of the UN to campaign for a Nobel Prize. The first question was, by CBS, to ask Ban about his legacy. 

The next, by the outgoing vice president of the UN Correspondents Association -- selling seats with Ban for $6000 on Wall Street -- was, There is criticism, what is your response? But not a single criticism was listed: the easiest question possible. The last was, from UNCA's earlier in the day question, was What should be do?

  Inner City Press asked loudly about corpses dumped in the streets over the weekend in Burundi, where several UN member states are warning of a new genocide, and on which Ban and his office have yet to comment. Ban had no response - he returned to say he will brief the General Assembly; his spokesman said he will take more questions on December 16: also pre-selected?

  Later in the day, Ban and his UN Censorship Alliance which sells access with him will be reviving and re-establishing UN corruption in the wake of the indictments of former President of the General Assembly John Ash, Sheri Yan, the founder of South South News and Ng Lap Seng. Watch this site.

On COP 21, earlier on December 14, Inner City Press asked at the UN climate change press conference which replaced the noon briefing and all other topics about developed countries skirting responsibility and liability, and of the Trans Pacific Partnership undercuts efforts on climate. The answer was of a Twitter feed nearly uniformily positive. The UN, apparently, hears and answers only what it wants.

An NGO from the United States pointed out that President Barack Obama is pushing the Trans Pacific Partnership, which will undercut climate change efforts; Obama's “climate change hiatus” after the failure of the Waxman Markey bill failed in 2009. 

  An NGO from the Philippines called the agreement less concrete than in the past; another called it a “huge disappointment” on human rights. But there was Ban Ki-moon, talking about all his travel in the past nine years (and, one surmised, campaigning of a Nobel Peace Prize, with an eye on the Korean peninsula). A stream of press releases ensued; we'll have more on this.

  Back on November 20 in the run-up to the talks, Inner City Press asked UN official Janos Pasztor if commitments on adaptation funding will be increased, about corporations making sometimes dubious pledges in connection with CoP21 and specifically about requests that the Green Climate Fund not accredit HSBC or Credit Agricole, given their track records.

  Pasztor earnestly answered the questions, though he said he was unaware of the request to the GCF about the two banks (see here); he also said that while the march planned in Paris for November 29 has been canceled by the government, marches can be held elsewhere - in other countries.

   Agence France Presse, before other journalists got even one question, cut in with repeated “follow-ups.” France is branding CoP21, while now limited civil society participation - except for corporations.

  Relatedly, when the UNFCCC held a press conference in Bonn earlier in the week, the corporate media in the room had no questions, then few questions. But the selection of questions submitted by social media trended toward Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Climate Group; press questions submitted by Twitter and email were never answered. We'll have more on this.

On October 13 Inner City Press asked Pasztor about criticism of the OECD's claims about developed countries' progress toward $100 billion in 2020, and about the IMF's or Christine Lagarde's call for a carbon tax.Video here.

  Pasztor replied that at the meeting in Peru, finance ministers had raised questions about the OECD's methodology, which he said the OECD Secretary General had responded to. He called Lagarde's proposals “an important way that countries can address this issue.”

  Back on September 21 the 2015 Equator Prize winners were announced at a UN press conference featuring Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Baldwin, UNDP's Helen Clark and UNFCCC's Christiana Figueres, about whose 3 degree Celsius prediction Inner City Press asked last week.

 Inner City Press asked Figueres about her fellow UN official Janos Pasztor's prediction that current Intended Nationally Determined Contributions would equate to 3.5 degrees. She did not disagree; UNDP's Helen Clark said the INDCs are not ambitious enough yet.  

  Given UNDP's direct work with governments, Inner City Press asked Helen Clark about, for example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo being accuses of going soft on illegal logging, for example on Lebanese-owned firm Cotrefor. Video here.

  Alec Baldwin cited Canadian tar sands, and also ExxonMobil (earlier on September 21, Inner City Press asked about BNP Paribas funding coal power plants). Climate Week began... 

  Inner City Press on September 17 asked UN's Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change Janos Pasztor whether INDCs to date would raised temperatures by 3 degrees Celsius, as Christiana Figueres has said, or 2.5 degree as the Guardian has an unnamed UK official saying.Video here.

  Pasztor's answer to Inner City Press included "3.5 degrees;" Figueres' spokesperson chimes in this is the difference between frying and cooking. But who was the Guardian's anonymous "merely warming" source?

  Amina Mohammed, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Post-2015 Development Planning, spoke about financing issues, on which Inner City Press asked about how to count if the $100 billion goal is reached by 2020. 

Back on August 11 after the climate change announcement of Australia, Inner City Press on August 11 asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about it, video here, transcript here:

Inner City Press: in the statement about the countries coming out with their climate change targets, Australia came out with one.  It's sort of become a touchstone, many people are saying there's no way it would lead to 2°C…

Spokesman Dujarric:  First of all, we very much welcome countries that issue their INDC.  It's an important step, and we very much hope that all Member States will do so.  They really need to be seen as a floor and not a ceiling.  They're a starting point.  There will be discussions prior to Paris.  There will, obviously, be discussions in Paris.  People are free to, obviously, express their opinion on certain countries' INDCs, but for our part, we're glad we have them, and we do see them as a starting point in the discussions.

Back on June 18 when the UN gave a climate change briefing by UNDP's Cassie Flynn, and Jo Scheuer, on June 18 Inner City Press asked about the under-funding of the Least Development Countries Fund, and if South Korea is backsliding in its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. Video here.

  The answers, on film, were to promote other funding vehicles, and to say that South Korea has still yet to file its INDC.

Back on June 4 the UN's Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change Janos Pasztor held a press conference and Inner City Press asked him about unspent funds at the Clean Development Mechanism in Bonn, and about reported backsliding by South Korea on its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions on greenhouse gas reduction.

  Pasztor said that the CDM is still needed; he said country have committed not to backslide. Video here. (South Korea had yet to submit its INDCs, it seems). Inner City Press asked Pasztor to provide a comment, if he has one, once South Korea's filing is made.

Back on May 5, Inner City Press asked him about criticism of the Green Climate Fund, including at the recent Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Video here and embedded below.

  Specifically, why will the "Green" Climate Fund provide financial for coal-powered plants? Pasztor replied that some felt that an exclusion for coal would have been divisive. On statements at the PFII that the UN is helping to "monetize" nature, Pasztor replied that most states feel differently. But what about the indigenous?
  
  Pasztor in his opening statement had praised the UN Pension Fund for now investing in "green equities" and "green bonds." Since the UN has responded to Press questions about irregularities alleged at the Pension Fund by emphasizing how separate and independent it is, Inner City Press asked Pazstor if the UN Secretariat had brought about this Pension Fund decision.

 Pazstor replied that the Pension Fund answers to the Secretary General and that "she" - Carolyn Boykin, presumably - had made this decision. We'll have more on this, after noting Pasztor by no means the least responsive UN official...

 When last September 21 the People's Climate March assembled at Manhattan's Columbus Circle, there were anti-corporate puppets in front of the Trump International Hotel and Tower, speeches by coal miners and from the Marshall Islands.

   Many called on the UN to do better. But UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon joined the march mid-way, at Radio City Musical Hall with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Senator Chuck Schumer was on hand, walking by a Bronx contingent chanting how Fresh Direct has broken its promises.

  Inner City Press' 90 second video of the march is here.

  The UN's or "BKM" (Ban Ki-moon) Climate Summit will feature Cargill and Walmart, Credit Agricole and Bank of America. The last of these is the first, in terms of funding mountain top coal removal. These are the contradiction. Inner City Press tweeted photos on@InnerCityPress. More to follow.

  The night before the People's Climate March, the UN buildings on First Avenue lit up with photos and footage of trees and fish and written messages. It is called "illUmiNations." Inner City Press video here.

   Inner City Press late on September 19, after covering the Ukraine,Iraq, Ebola and Iran nuclear meetings inside the UN, went out and found a sort of trial run for the screening taking place on First Avenue, alreadylined with NYPD cement blocks. Photo here.

   Looking back at the UN's press release for the upcoming "VIP Press Screening" -- hard to know how they could exclude non-VIPs from it, or why they would want to -- there were laudatory quotes about UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and: 

Obscura Digital has staged similar large-scale architectural mapping projection events on the Sydney Opera House, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. For examples of previous work, please visit the following link http://wdrv.it/1tx7Emd.

 In that video compilation, well worth watching, there are also corporate projects for Coca-Cola and YouTube owned by Google, with history at the UN. 

  A message Inner City Press photographed on September 19, here,  was "In nature's economy, the currency is not money but life." Is this true of Coca-Cola?

   There are questions about the UN's UNcritical approach to corporations and corporate "partnerships."

   In the run up to the UN's September 23 Climate Summit, the UN put out a media advisory promoting the participation of 14 corporations ranging from Saudi Aramco through Cargill, McDonald's and Walmart to Bank of America and Credit Agricole. 

  Inner City Press on September 16 asked Summit promoter Robert Orr how these 14 were selected for listing in the media advisory, and if the UN had reviewed their wider record. For example, the recent court decision involving Cargill and child slavery in Cote d'Ivoire, or Saudi Aramco not allowing employees in Saudi Arabia to protest.

   Orr mentioned a luncheon during the summit about carbon pricing and the UN Global Compact, a branch of the UN which repeatedly says it does not enforce substantive standards, only encourages reporting and dialogue.  Well, Saudi Aramco did not respond to the complaint about “employees allegedly dismissed after being detained for participation in civil rights protests in Saudi Arabia.”

   And what of the environment? Bank of America has been the number one funder of mountain-top removal coal mining, but Ban Ki-moon made it chairman the chief of his Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

  On behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access, Inner City Press asked that those making commitments, like the 14 corporations named, hold question and answer sessions during the summit. We'll see.

On UN Rapes in CAR, Inner City Press Asks Banbury, UN Says 29 Cases, Burundi Answers To Come

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 30 -- Amid a litany of rape charges against UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, Inner City Press on January 27 asked the UN Spokesman to confirm new allegations in the Central African Republic. The spokesman declined.

On January 29, first High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid then this same UN spokesman issues statement about (what else), new rape charges in CAR. But even these lists do not appear to be complete, omitting alleged rapes that UN officials have spoken about involving UN peacekeepers from Burundi, the Republic of Congo and Gabon.

  Inner City Press asked Assistant Secretary General Anthony Banbury about these still unreported cases, and why it was him and not the head of UN Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, who was answering for the charges at the UN's January 29 briefing. Banbury said reporting is getting fast; he also said he “doesn't buy” that anyone fears retaliation if they report sexual abuse charges. Video here.

  Given that even an official at the rank of Ander Kompass was pursued in the UN “legal” system for reporting, the claim seemed strange. Another reporter said it was not credible; the spokeman said that's not a question and the briefing was over.

  Banbury, visibly upset, shed tears during the briefing. But again, why isn't Ladsous as the person responsible, named in the Deschamps report as having failed to vet contingents subsequently charged with rapes, the one answering questions?

  In the briefing, video of which Inner City Press will be posting, the UN set aside the first question for a representative of the UN Correspondents Association, and then two UNCA board members: none of these questions involved the head of peacekeeping Herve Ladsous. We'll have more on this.

 And on this: it was said that the UN Peacekeeping "Conduct and Discipline Unit" will answer all journalists' questions. Inner City Press inquired how and sent questions to the designated spokesperson. Later in the afternoon the following arrived:

"Regarding the questions you asked at the latest noon briefings on sexual exploitation and abuse and on Burundi, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations has the following answers:

Q: What is the status of each of the cases listed out by Deputy SRSG Diane Corner in her briefing to the Press Briefing Room? What is the status of the cases attributed in the Washington Post of January 11, 2016 to U.N. officials involving “peacekeepers were from Gabon, Morocco, Burundi and France. The prostitution ring they allegedly used was run by boys and young men who offered girls 'for anywhere from 50 cents to three dollars,' and, as I asked Jan 27 and today, any allegations in CAR involving peacekeepers from Republic of Congo?

A: Since the establishment of the mission in April 2014, we have recorded 29 cases of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers. Investigations on three cases have been concluded and one was substantiated. Four alleged perpetrators have been repatriated. All other investigations are ongoing and more data will be included in the SG's forthcoming report on Special measures to prevent from sexual exploitation and abuse, including country-specific information.

Q: Beyond sexual abuse, what is the status of the deployment (or nor) of the Burundian officials I have asked the Spokesman about, including Niyonzima and Rusheshe?

A: UN Peacekeeping is looking into the files of these two individual. We will have something to say on this issue in the coming days."

 So will we.

Having been told by sources of more rapes by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, Inner City Press on January 26 reported them and on January 27 asked the UN's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric to confirm them - but wouldn't. UN transcript here. Video here.


 Now UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid on January 29 says:

"UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said Friday he was extremely alarmed at continuing allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of minors in the Central African Republic (CAR) by members of foreign military forces. The alleged crimes mostly took place in 2014, but only came to light in recent weeks."

  So what is the protocol of UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, who linked the rapes to "R&R," here? How many more do they know about?

The UN report on rapes in the Central African Republic, released on December 17, found that UN Peacekeeping's Under Secretary General Herve Ladsous “illustrate[s] the UN's failure to respond to allegations of serious human rights violations in the meaningful way.”

 Ladsous has yet to take any questions about the report -- this as Inner City Press exclusively hears from sources of yet more sexual abuse cases in CAR, involving DR Congo AND Republic of Congo, and changes of abuses will in detention.

 On January 27, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about these new charges, transcript here:

Inner City Press: on CAR, I've heard there's a new round of sexual abuse allegations found by the Mission involving soldiers from the Republic of Congo and DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo].  Is that the case?  And what's the… why… if you haven't yet announced it, why haven't you?

Spokesman Dujarric:  I don't have anything to share with you at this point on this.

Inner City Press:  What's the protocol for the Mission going public when it becomes aware?  Because I've heard of this from pretty…

Spokesman Dujarric:  This Mission has been extremely proactive in sharing publicly allegations.  So, when we're ready to do so, we will.

 We'll see.

 On January 26, a new proposal on the systemic problem of UN peacekeeper sexual abuse was made by Code Blue: to take the UN’s "oversight of every aspect of peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse out of the hands of the UN Secretariat and place it under an external, independent management board," as Stephen Lewis put it.

  Inner City Press asked Lewis' co-founder Paula Donovan about retaliation against whistleblowers, and about Ladsous having on camera linked the rapes to "R&R," here.  Donovan replied that the board would decide how to have eyes and ears on the ground; she called the linking of rapes to recreation "appalling." It's the type of thing an oversight board would act on, she said.

 Following up about the UN merely handing a victim of sexual abuse in one of its camps in South Sudan the contact information of the alleged abuses, Inner City Press asked if that would be coverd by the proposal. Donovan said it would or should cover every single instance where any part of the UN system was implicated in alleged sexual abuse.

  Inner City Press then went to the day's UN noon briefing and asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the proposal, and when Ban's response to the Deschamps report will be out. Video here.

On January 5, Ladsous mission in CAR issued a press release about yet more allegation of sexual abuse of minors by its peacekeepers, below.

 On January 18, Inner City Press managed to ask UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson about the report -- the UN Deputy Spokesperson appeared intent on not allowing the question, but Eliasson to his credit took it. Video here, UN transcript here:

Inner City Press: The UK Ambassador mentioned sexual abuse.

DSG: Yes.

Inner City Press: He did. And so I wanted to know…

DSG: I did also.

Inner City Press: So, since that report came out about the Central African Republic, what has the Secretariat or the 38th floor done to ensure that in the future if a UN staffer becomes aware of child rape, that it goes to the right people?

DSG Eliasson: This is very serious. As you know, the Special Representative in Central African Republic resigned, was asked to resign. One of the others who were named by the Deschamps group, panel, was considered to have abused authority has left the United Nations, retired.  And we have a group set up right now, led by the Chef de Cabinet - Edmond Mulet - that is going to work very, very quickly on following up the recommendations of the panel. Mr. Mulet and his group will report to the Secretary-General by the end of this month.

We will look into both issues of individual responsibility, but also primarily on the systemic problems. This reminded me of my reaction to the Sri Lanka tragedy back in 2009. The panel came to the conclusion that it was systemic failure, so we drew the [conclusion] to that – we need to have a systemic response. That was the origin of Human Rights Up Front.  This time also the Deschamps report talks about, almost in the same language – systemic reactions. I also expect, or we also expect, Member States again to draw the conclusions from this.  In so many cases we have passed on to the Member States very damning reports, but very little sometimes has been done by Troop Contributing or Police Contributing countries. So we need to have nation states following up these [inaudible].

  We will have more, too, on DSG Eliasson's reference to the UN's failure in Sri Lanka. At the January 19 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq if Mulet's report at the end of January will be made public. Video here.  We'll see.

Earlier in the month,  Inner City Press asked the Permanent Representative of New Zealand and of Uruguay, President of the Security Council for January, about the report(s). Video here.

Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen of New Zealand expressed concern. Ambassador Rosselli of Uruguay said in his national capacity that allegations should be dealt with has his country had, apparently a reference to Haiti. It appears the Security Council will take up this matter.

  Earlier at the January 5 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric if now Ladsous, in the Security Council right then on CAR, would belatedly answer questions, since the firing / scapegoating of former mission chief Babacar Gaye clearly didn't end the rapes. From the transcript:

 I wanted to ask but CAR, since you have this new report.  One, I guess I’d like to… since Mr. [Hervé] Ladsous is briefing the Security Council today about CAR and has yet to answer any questions on the CAR sexual abuse allegations report… I guess it’s a timely request… can he do a stakeout, take questions on it?  Because it seems like Babacar Gaye was fired, but the problems go on.  So this is a request.  It seems like a reasonable one

 But as noted (and Vined, here), Ladsous did not answer.

 Back in December, once the report came out from under embargo at the noon briefing Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric what Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will do about the findings against Ladsous, and that he escaped the “abuse of authority” moniker only because “the mandate of the Panel is to assess whether an abuse of authority has occurred in connection with the Allegations.”

 Since the abusers Ladsous let into MINUSCA were not the French troops who are accused of rape -- these troops are not in MINUSCA -- Ladsous' malfeasance is not “in connection” with the Allegations. But is it acceptable?

  Dujarric seems unfamiliar with the report; he implied that the third person found to have abused authority was the Ethics Officer, when it was a lower level official in CAR. Inner City Press asked what this all says about Ban Ki-moon's management, along with the John Ashe / Ng Lap Seng and Bernardino Leon scandal, a question Dujarric did not allow Inner City Press to asked Ban himself on December 16. “Those are your words,” Dujarric replied. Yes, they are.

  When the Panel's three members held their press conference, Inner City Press asked about Ladsous' failure to vet and his linking of rapes to “R&R.” Video here.  Marie Deschamps said pointedly she wouldn't comment on Ladsous' remarks; Yasmin Sooka said these are crimes for punishment, not recreation.

  As the last question, Inner City Press asked what it had wanted to ask Ban, and tried to ask Dujarric: what does this say about Ban's management? Video of Q&A here. Didn't Ban's chief of staff Malcorra, criticized in the report, do it for Ban? Didn't the “senior official” who ostensibly let the rape information die on the vine in the 38th floor work in an atmosphere created by Ban's nine years? We will pursue this.

And this: if OIOS' Lapointe was wrong, isn't James Finness, who continues the OIOS campaign? While the UK has spoken, where is France, given Sangaris and Ladsous?

  As to Ladsous, the finding was made even though the three authors of the report do not mention, and apparently have not yet seen, the notes from Ladsous' October 1, 2015 meeting about the CAR mission withBurundi's Vice President, in which Ladsous said he is “pragmatic” on human rights, in Burundi and by extension elsewhere, nor Ladsous' September 11, 2015 on-camera comments linking the rapes to “R&R,”video here.

  But Ladsous still as of December 17 holds the senior UN position into which France, which has chosen the last four heads of UN Peacekeeping, put him in September 2011. How much longer?

By contrast, the former head of OIOS Carman Lapointe, of whom the panel finds an abuse of authority, is conveniently gone, as is Babacar Gaye, who worked for Ladsous at the CAR mission.

  Perhaps it was easier for the panel to make the formal finding against people who had already left the UN by the time the report was released.

  One wonders: if responses like Ladsous' legalistic (and largely false) November 2 letter were received so long ago  by the panel, why did they withhold the report all the way until December 17, the day AFTER Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's rare (and last of the year) press conference?

  High Commission Zeid, of whom it is said he was slammed in the report, in fact gets the same treatment -- critical, but no formal abuse of authority -- as Ladsous, who is airbrushed out and conditions access to information and answers about Peacekeeping on positive / false coverage.

 The same finding is made with regard to former Chief of Staff Susana Malcorra. Will the critical language hurt what chance she has, as a non Eastern European, to try to follow Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General?

 More generally, how does all this criticism reflect on the tenure of Ban Ki-moon? The report does not mention the concurrent scandalsregarding UN Secretariat documents purchased by now indicted Ng Lap Seng through former President of the General Assembly John Ashe, nor Ban Libya envoy taking instruction and a cushy job with the UAE while representing Ban on and in Libya.

  In December 2015, Ban allowed those who cover him, at least the UN Correspondents Association, to sell seats with him for $6,000. And it is these same who have airbrushed out Ladsous and others.

  The Panelists -- Marie Deschamps, Hassan Jallow and Yasmin Sooka -- leave unnamed a senior officer in Ban Ki-moon's office (finding that he misspoke when he said he had informed Deputy Jan Eliasson), without saying if the officer remains in the same position. We'll have more on this.