UN's Barcena Reportedly "Declares War on Staff," Pro - Management Slate Predicted

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/dm1war051908.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 19 -- In what has been described as a UN staff rebellion, the Staff Union on May 16 served a two-page complaint on the Ban Ki-moon administration, specifically criticizing his outgoing and incoming chiefs of Management. What was Management's response? According to the Union's Second Vice President Richard Dellar, outgoing chief Alicia Barcena called him on Monday and said, "This is a declaration of war."

In fairness, Inner City Press offered Ms. Barcena the opportunity for over eight hours to deny the quote or explain it. She did neither. Request for an update on her accountability and freedom of information proposals likewise went unanswered. The interpretations of the reported "war" comment include her perhaps working on a pro-management slate for the Union, just as she came to a meeting one time and spoke, she said, as a staff member.

Her successor, Angela Kane, was asked to comment on the critical letter, to state her position on no-bid contracts and on a Freedom of Information policy for the UN, and to come and briefing the press corps. She did not respond to the first three of these requests. If and when a briefing is held, we'll report on all her answers.

Inner City Press was asked, by one who took part in Kane's selection, to "write positively" about her. If no answers are given, this becomes more difficult. On that front all we can say for now is that her getting the top Management post is being spun as the triumph of "mobility," the UN term for staffers moving from one job to another, especially leaving headquarters for the field. To be deputy chief of a UN mission, even in Eritrea, is not the mobility that is accessible to most staff. But Ms. Kane moved around, from the library through Conference Services and the Eritrea mission, to Political Affairs and now this. It's time to do a briefing, and lay out a plan for the future.

For now we note that the Staff Union on Monday added to its web site a cartoon, of Ban Ki-moon as a music conductor with headphones on. The caption is "i-Ban for non-listeners." There seems little point for now to seek comment on the cartoon, if neither Ms. Barcena nor Ms. Kane deigned to comment on the more detailed letter, and other questions aren't be answered. And so it goes, in the House of Diplomacy.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/dm1war051908.html

At UN, Mystery of the Disappearing Myanmar Visit Story Remains Unresolved

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1newsmyanmar051908.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 19 -- As the death toll mounts in Myanmar, clamor grew for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit the country. On May 18 at 6 p.m., the UN News Service put online and e-mailed out a story that Ban's spokesperson Michele Montas "announced today that Mr. Ban is scheduled to arrive in Myanmar on Wednesday for a three-day visit" and quoting Ms. Montas, with a question mark, that "the whole purpose of the trip? is to accelerate the pace of disaster relief." This story was later taken down from the UN's web site. Sources tell Inner City Press that the Spokesperson's office complained to its affiliated UN News Service around 8:30 p.m. on Sunday night about the story. But did the UN News Service make up the quote it used? That seems unlikely.

At Monday's noon briefing, a hybrid journalist / blogger asked Ms. Montas why the story was taken down. "There was some uncertainty yesterday afternoon," she replied. "That's why they took the story down." Video here, from Minute 14:30. Montas added that the story was put back up on Monday because things are going as scheduled. The blogger, taking names in journalistic best practice, quoted a staffer in the Spokesperson's Office "that the UN took down the story because they were 'not in a position' to confirm whether the Secretary-General would be traveling to Myanmar."

The on-off-and-on again publication raises a number of questions, three of which follow. First, as above, if UN News Service published a story with Ms. Montas' unequivocal quote about the trip Sunday at 6 p.m., did the uncertainties arise between 6 and 8:30 p.m.?

Second, is it appropriate for the UN Secretariat to give exclusives -- in this case, a dubious exclusive -- to its own in-house News Service?

Third, is it within the bounds of journalistic, or even public relations, best practice to simply "take down" a story that has already been posted? Journalistic ethics aside, not only was it cached, other websites picked up and continued to run the UN News quote, with the question mark inside it, even after the UN took it down -- click here for Google search of the quote. Rather than uncerimoniously try to "take down" an already-posted article, most outlets would run a correction, and ideally explain the correction as well.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1newsmyanmar051908.html

At UN in NY and Geneva, Ban Ki-moon Under Fire, on Contracting, Hiring and Justice Reform

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ban1reform051608.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 -- While televised disasters in Myanmar and China lead to calls for the UN action or intervention, within the UN system itself dissention is growing. The refusal of Myanmar's top general Than Shwe to even take a call from Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon was described by UN Staff Union president Stephen Kisambira to Inner City Press on May 14 as reflecting a loss of authority and respect for the entire UN. Following a meeting the next day, Kisambira on May 16 sent a scathing two-page letter to BAN Ki-moon, which Inner City Press is putting online here.

The letter complains among other things of abuse of authority and of impunity, and of the failure of BAN's new proposed system of internal justice to hold managers accountable. At Friday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked BAN's spokesperson to respond to this critique of the Secretariat's proposal, in light of an even more specific complaint filed with the General Assembly's Budget and Legal Committees, available here. The Spokesperson said BAN might not have the letter yet, and in any case it is under discussion and so there will be no comment. Video here.

The Staff Union's letter also complains that Ban "appointed to the post of Under-Secretary-General, Department of Management not someone with solid managerial credentials and proven managerial competence but an insider with a mediocre performance record."

Inquiries into the basis of this critique yield stories of complaints against Ms. Kane stretching back to her time in the UN Library, a tale that when sent as the number two official in UNMEE in Ethiopia, the then-number one threatened to resign, and most recently dissatisfaction within the Department of Political Affairs, where she had been Assistant Secretary General. "To get her out of DPA," this source said, anonymous because fearing retaliation, "they promoted her to USG [Under Secretary General] This is how it works at the UN. But why didn't Germany submit someone from outside the UN?"

While it was widely understood that the USG for Management position was slated for a German -- Joachim Ruecker, the German head of the UN Mission in Kosovo was another candidate -- a pattern has emerged in which developed countries like Germany and Japan submit for "their" senior UN posts people near the ends of their careers, while developing countries, for whom posts are more difficult to get, submit some of their best.

A senior UN official, with a central role in approving or delaying appointments even down to the D-1 level, when asked about the letter on Friday evening said he had not seen it, but was surprised at the criticism of Ms. Kane. She came up through the ranks, he said. Staff should see it as an inspiration.

But the dissatisfaction is not limited to the Staff Union at UN Headquarters in New York. Recently, the UN Staff Union in Geneva joined its New York counterpart in pulling out of the Staff Management Coordination Council, which the current USG for Management had said was the only body she could negotiate with (and has declined to comment on Geneva's drop-out, since). Now, the Geneva Staff Union's Xavier Campos has issued a critique of the Secretariat's justice proposals and lack of responsiveness, which Inner City Press is putting online here.

Another of the Staff Union's complaints concerns insurance. When Inner City Press asked the Spokesperson about these complaints, there was no response. About wider insurance issues, including reported mis-mangement of the UN's Malicious Acts Policy, questions were put in writing to the top two officials of the UN Office of Legal Affairs, without any response. Then the questions were submitted to the Spokesperson's Office, which re-submitted them to the Office of Legal Affairs. Again no answer. Here are (some of) the questions:

"please state whether the UN collected on its Malicious Acts Insurance Policy after the 2003 Baghdad bombing, please state whether the UN has collected on its Malicious Acts Insurance Policy after the 2007 Algiers bombing. Please state the amount of premiums paid by the UN for its Malicious Acts Insurance Policy for 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and year-to-date 2008. Please confirm or deny that Lloyds of London is the UN's MAIP insurer, and if applicable for how long it has had this contract and how it was selected. Please state who is responsible and accountable for the decision to take out the UN's Malicious Acts Insurance Policy."

None of these questions, posed in writing more than 50 hours ago, has been answered.

The complaints are not limited to those who work for the UN. The member states in the General Assembly, all of whom are members of the GA's Budget Committee, have increasingly criticized the Secretariat's contracting practices and delay in making proposals public. When Inner City Press asked for a response or explanation, none was forthcoming.

There is no question that the situation in post-cyclone Myanmar cries out for attention. But one has to keep one's own house in order, as a precondition to acting effectively on the world. The issue of the still-unexplained delay of more than a week by the Secretariat in approving New York staff's request to raise money to help those in Myanmar, while those in Vienna were already raising money, is small but symptomatic. It is still not too late, it is hoped, to turn things around. But it is getting later.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ban1reform051608.html

On Violence from Zimbabwe to East Timor, UNDP Says One Thing But Does Another

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/undp1violence051608.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 -- One assumes that the UN system is adverse to violence and those who commit it, but the UN Development Program this week evinced an attitude more nuanced or conflicted. In Timor Leste, following the mass violence in 2006 which left 37 dead and 100,000 people displaced, the UN's own Commission of Inquiry named former Defense official Roque Rodriguez as a person who should be prosecuted for distributing weapons to those who did the killing. Two years later, UNDP has hired Mr. Rodrigues as a security consultant, which even the UN's Office of Legal Affairs has criticized. On May 13 at the UN's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked the Spokesperson

"In East Timor, there is this controversy where Roque Rodrigues, who is recommended by the UN Commission to be prosecuted, has now been hired by the UN as a Presidential Security Adviser. Supposedly, there is an OLA memo to ASG Mulet saying this is a bad thing for impunity. Can you confirm that such a memo exists and can you explain why the UN would hire a person that the UN itself says should be prosecuted?"

Spokesperson: Well, I think that, [according to] the last contact I had with them, the situation was being investigated and they were trying to find out what happened and what are the charges against this gentleman. At this point we don’t have the results of that investigation and we should find out very soon.

Inner City Press: Just to be, I felt that he was actually named in this UN Commission of Inquiry as someone who should be prosecuted.

Spokesperson: Yes, he was and how he got hired and how it happened, that is what is being investigated.

[She later added that Mr. Rodrigues was not a United Nations staff member. He was on a special service contract for UNDP.]

This bracketed addition to the UN's transcript was amplified to Inner City Press by UNDP's new spokesman Stephane Dujarric: "Mr. Rodrigues was contracted on an individual basis under a project in support of the office of the Timor-Leste President. He does not have any UN status, and indeed the question of his contracting is currently under discussion between the mission in Timor (UNMIT) and UN headquarters. "

But Inner City Press later on May 13 asked UNDP's spokesman some simple follow-up questions:

"Is UNDP paying Rodrigues' salary? You say that Rodrigues "does not have any UN status." What do you mean, he is a contractor, right? Isn't this his status -- he holds a SSA contract with UNDP? Or are you referring to privileges and immunities; that he has no such status, given that he is a contractor? Did the Govt of Timor Leste specifically request that UNDP hire Mr. Rodrigues as a consultant? If so, which official made this request?"

Dujarric notified Inner City Press on the afternoon of May 14 that he would not be able to answer the questions that night, presumably due to a need to seek information in Timor Leste. But more than two days later, there still is no response to these questions about why UNDP has as a contractor a person the UN itself has said should be prosecuted for participating in illegal violence.

Even when it is quoted in support of "anti-violence," UNDP's approach is open to question. In Harare, the Herald newspaper controlled by the Robert Mugabe government this week quoted UNDP's "Resident Representative Dr Agostinho Zacharias that 'We welcome reports that the authorities are intensifying the anti-violence campaign, we encourage them to continue to do so and ensure that violence is totally removed in all parts of the country... there are also reports indicating that MDC supporters are also resorting to violence and intimidation. This state of affairs is unacceptable to the UNCT.'"

For the UNDP's resident coordinator to be, on behalf the rest of the UN, "welcoming" the Mugabe government's "anti-violence campaign" seems more than a little strange. The UN Spokesperson said that Zacharias' written statement is available, but did not answer if the UN or UNDP has sought any correction of Mugabe's newspaper's use of Zacharias' comments. The Spokesperson called Zacharias' comments "balanced." But in some cases, particularly of violence, balance is not what's called for.

Rather than address these issues, UNDP's Ad Melkert on Friday presented himself to the press as a major opponent of cluster bombs. But why has UNDP hired as a security consultant a person the UN itself should be prosecuted for passing out weapons for mass violence? To be continued.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undp1violence051608.html

At UN, Leaks Show Budget Process Is Broken, Germany Claims $41 Million for Lebanon Ships

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2acabq051508.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 15 -- The UN's budget process is broken, the Secretariat and the General Assembly both pass the buck, and no one seems to be willing to talk about it. Halfway through the month in which the Budget Committee must vote on $7.5 billion of peacekeeping missions, many of the proposals and reports are not available. Who or what is to blame?

On Thursday Inner City Press asked the spokespeople for the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly about letters Inner City Press obtained between the chairman of the Budget Committee and the Under Secretary General for General Assembly and Conference Manhattan, DGACM. In the first, Chairman Hamidon Ali, permanent representative of Malaysia, complains to outgoing Management chief Alicia Barcena about the slow-down, rejecting all arguments for why the Secretariat and the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) do not make documents available. The response, not by Ms. Barcena but rather Shaban Shaban of DGACM, shifts the blame to ACABQ and to the department of peacekeeping. But is that any proposal to improve all this?

Inner City Press asked the spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon, who came in promising reform,

"I don't want to call it a rebellion -- but people are saying, how can all this money being asked for of the Fifth Committee, with documents that have not even been turned in yet for the peacekeeping missions. Is there, one, why are they being turned in late, and what is the plan to try to make things work better?"

Spokesperson: I don't have an answer for you, but what I can do is ask people responsible for the budget to come and explain the process to you, and how this happened, but as you know, the process is being discussed right now in the Fifth Committee. And we usually do not -- we can give you background information on how the budget is dealt with, but specifics are of course right now in discussions in the Fifth Committee, so we would not get involved.

Inner City Press: I was just surprised because the Chairman of the Fifth Committee wrote to Alicia Barcena saying what's going on, and the response he got is from the DGACM. So, I'm trying to understand who is really responsible for providing these budget proposals to the Budget Committee?

Spokesperson: I would put your question to the Controller's office.

But there are no answers.

Nor from the Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly:

"There's this letter dated 22 April from the head of the Fifth Committee, the Ambassador of Malaysia, to a slew of Secretariat officials complaining about, I guess the treatment of the GA. But I wanted to know -- the President of the GA is not cc-ed. Is he in the loop, is he aware of the letter, does he support [the Chairman of the Fifth Committee]?

Spokesperson: The President is aware of the letter, but the letter is not addressed to the President. And, let me again refer to something that you and I discussed last week when this issue came up. You asked about the lateness of reports, etc. and the involvement of the President, and I did mention to you that, as has been traditional, the President, once he's back, he will most likely meet with the Chair of the Fifth Committee to discuss how discussions are going on, including on this issue of lateness of reports and all the other issues. So the President is aware of what is going on.

Inner City Press: Just a question to you, whether ACABQ, is there some requirement that the members actually attend meetings, if a certain amount of time goes by without a member actually appearing to do the work, what happens?

Spokesperson: I cannot answer for anything that relates to the work of ACABQ.

The allegation is that the vice chair of ACABQ has not attended in several months, and the Belgian member for weeks. And so it goes at the UN.

Footnote: from a document picked up in the Budget Committee, Inner City Press asked, "on a handout about amounts owed to governments, under letters of assist, it says that Germany is owed $44.7 million. Can you say what this is for, and, if it is for naval for UNIFIL, how much Germany has been paid, beyond what's still owed to it?"

Three days later, UN Peacekeeping replied: "Germany has Letter of Assist (LOA) claims totaling $44,666,419 of which $$40,790,696 is for Germany's contribution of naval vessels to UNIFIL. The remaining LOA claim of $3,875,723 is for LOA claim certified and in Accounts Payable for UNTAC (Cambodia)."

And now you know...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2acabq051508.html

At UNDP, Whistleblower Says Somalia Contracts Steered to KPMG, Previous Complaints Unresolved

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/undp1wbsomalia051408.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 14 -- Another whistleblower about alleged wrongdoing inside the UN Development Program surfaced on Wednesday, Dr. Ismail Ahmed, detailing among other things UNDP's steering of contracts about Somalia to KPMG without competitive bidding. Inner City Press sought comment on this specific allegation and others from UNDP Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who replied that " We take Ismail Ahmed's allegations seriously and that's why we're examining them thoroughly. I will not get into the details of responding to Mr. Ahmed's accusations at this point as this would prejudge the outcome of the investigator's work."

But Ahmed had so little confidence in UNDP's in-house investigators that he took his evidence to the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services. (Since OIOS is currently under fire for botching or whitewashing an investigation into UN peacekeepers trading gold and guns with rebels in the Congo, to choose it over UNDP says much about UNDP.)

The issue was raised at the UN's noon briefing on Wednesday, to Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq, who said

"UNDP now has a new legal framework to process exactly these types of cases. The new Ethics Adviser is part of this new framework. There are two separate issues raised by the person involved in this case; issues of retaliation and issues of corruption. Those two issues are being dealt with separately. On retaliation, the Office of Audit and Investigation has investigated the claims and has now submitted its report to the UNDP Ethics Adviser. He will review the issue for possible action. And there’s also a possibility, as you asked, for having that case reviewed by the UN Ethics Office.... At this stage, the report is with the UNDP Ethics Adviser, as I said, and he’ll review the issue for possible action and bearing in mind that it could then go on to be reviewed by the UN Ethics Office. No decision has been made on that level yet. Yes?

Because of the number of whistleblowers and unresolved questions about UNDP have continued to mount -- for example, Mathieu Koumoin from Cote d'Ivoire, who alleges UNDP's diversion of funds from Africa to Canada- and Europe-based firms, now as presented exclusively by Inner City Press has his Joint Appeals Board panel re-shuffled and remains in limbo


Inner City Press then asked

"The report that was supposed to be done about the North Korea whistleblower many months ago was supposed to be finished by the end of the year, then it was said by the end of March, now we're in May. What’s the status of that report, and why hasn’t it been finished and released?

Associate Spokesperson: It hasn't been released. The work is still being done. We'll try and find out when it can be completed, but, as you know, there've been a number of procedural delays.

Question: Can we find out -- the three members of it -- can we get a read on what they're being paid, and whether they've been paid throughout and whether the inquiry taking this long has resulted in extra costs, I guess?

Associate Spokesperson: Well, those costs would be evaluated once the report is turned in. But, at this stage, we don’t know how long it takes, how much work is involved in writing the report until it's complete.

But how much the panelist are being paid per month is already known -- it does not require waiting to the already twice-delayed completion of the report. Inner City Press asked:

a request that might make your job easier, if you have a UNDP person come and give a briefing.

Associate Spokesperson: There's a brand new UNDP person, who I am sure you know, and you can talk to him at any time. He loves to talk to you guys.

Inner City Press: Maybe he’ll do it from here, so you’re not the one...

Associate Spokesperson: Oh, he's familiar with this podium, but I think he'll talk to you somewhere else.

The indication is that these long-promise regular briefings by and Q&A with UNDP will begin in September. In UNDP time, if the past is any guide, that might mean 2010. Neither UNDP's Kemal Dervis nor Ad Melkert have made themselves available for questions in some time. Watch this site.

Footnote: to move UNDP's argumentation forward, if nothing else, while some not-yet-complicit UNDP arguers seem to believe that Ahmed's claim is clan-based, UNDP itself continues to cause offense to many clans, as evidence for example by this quote: "All women from the different tribes in Somalia were invited in the conference which conducted by UNDP and UNOPS and we are left behind and that is absolutely inhuman," said Asha Malaq Mahdi a member of the Banadiri women. Click here for more, and here's hoping for a new era of forthright answers, if not behavior, at UNDP.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undp1wbsomalia051408.html

In Wake of UN's Darfur Contract with Lockheed, Promotions and Partying But No Peace

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un4procure051308.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 14 -- The Security Council was told on Wednesday that only 26% of the approved UN positions for peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region have been filled, due in large part to "harsh living and working conditions in Darfur." Back on October 15, the UN quietly went public with a no-bid $250 million contract with U.S.-based military contractor Lockheed Martin for camps and infrastructure in Darfur. Now, seven months later, there has been little deployment, little work by Lockheed Martin, and an amateur assault on Khartoum by Darfur-based rebels which is seen as undermining future whole-hearted deployment.

In this context, and with the UN Procurement Division making its presentation to the Budget Committee, it is time to review the Division's largest contract in years, the no-bid contract to Lockheed for infrastructure in Darfur. Following controversy about the lack of competition, a group of contract managed from Spain has been brought in, to manage the contract.

Even while the Office of Internal Oversight Service belated conducts the General Assembly-mandate investigation of the "extraordinary measures" enacted for the Lockheed contract and the UNAMID Mission, many of those most involved in awarding the contract have been celebrating and getting promotions.

Dmitri Dovgopoly, a Ukrainian national intimately involved in the awarding of the contract, was subsequently rewarded with a promotion to the D-1 Director level. (Sources say he used his influence to procure another P-5 post in the Controller's unit for a close friend.)

Chantal Malle, who was head of Procurement's Darfur unit when the contract was awarded, was rewarded with a much sought-after posting to Cyprus, as chief procurement officer there.

Paul Buades, the acting head of the Procurement Division, involved not only in the Lockheed no-bid contract but in tweaking the request for proposals at the request of the French mission to the UN, is in limbo, waiting for a D-2 promotion said to be stalled on the desk of Deputy Chief of Staff Kim Won-soo. While that accountability still hangs in the balance, it remains to be seen if the General Assembly's Budget Committee will follow through on the concerns it has expressed about the no-bid contract to Lockheed and other irregularities. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un4procure051308.html

Chasing the Flame with Cheese Cubes, US Progressives at UN Launch Campaign Funded by eBay

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1fondue051308.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 13 -- Under a red light and with a broken microphone, the founders of eBay and the celebrated biographer of Sergio de Mello launched a campaign Tuesday night in the UN's Delegates' Dining Room. Samantha Power, with the requisite jokes about her falling-out with Barak Obama's campaign, announced the Freedom from Fear Social Action Campaign, to which eBay's founders Pierre and Pam Omidyar are contributing $350,000 as a matching grant. Those who are expected to match it were invited to an event about Power's book about de Mello, "Chasing the Flame."

The goal is to make Americans care more about foreign policy, by jazzing it up with de Mello's story. The campaign's first steps, or "products" as Power called them, are an HBO documentary and a feature film based off the book. Power spoke of synergy between Borders bookstores and the AMC movie theater chain: after a screening, a foreign policy professor could be in the bookstore to talk about it. Perhaps there'll be an affiliated line of coffees, one wag mused as the sunset reflected off the mirrored buildings on Long Island City.

Beyond the joke about Power being exiled from the Obama campaign for overly energetic criticism of Hillary Clinton as "a monster," Obama's name came up repeatedly. The audience was told they must be chomping at the bit, and not only the cheese cubes, to get to a television and watch the night's West Virginia primary results. Power described de Mello, or at least one of his phrases, as "Obama-esque."

Not mentioned was Obama's letter to U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad earlier this year, demanding that the U.S. not support any statement about the blockage of Gaza until the statement also condemned Hamas. Power mused about the responsibility to protect, mentioning "Burma, Darfur and Iran" and speaking of bringing "law to lawless places." She said that "if China is to change" and be "brought in," it will happen "in capitals."

It was a decidedly less diverse audience than one usually finds at events in the UN Delegates' Dining Room. To a sociologist's eye, these were affluent Americans, loyal supporters of all things UN without really following any of it too closely. The on-again off-again microphone was joked about -- "this is not a metaphor for the UN," Power said. But perhaps all of it is, a metaphor...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1fondue051308.html

"Responsibility to Protect" Does Not Apply to Myanmar, UN's Expert Tells Inner City Press, But Older Rights Concepts Do

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/r2p1myanmar051208.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 -- Is the bleak situation in Myanmar following Cyclone Nergis a crime against humanity, which could trigger the doctrine of "responsibility to protect" as enacted in the UN in 2005? French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on May 7 said the concept should be invoked. France's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Jean-Pierre Lacroix on May 12 said that his country might "introduce a text" to that effect to the Security Council the following day. But the UN's special advisor on Responsibility to Protect, Edward Luck, in an on-the-record written response to questions submitted by Inner City Press, diplomatically disagrees with Kouchner and France.

Inner City Press asked, Does R2P apply to this case in Myanmar? Mr. Luck responded:

No, in my view and based on my limited knowledge of events on the ground there, it would be a misapplication of responsibility to protect (RtoP) principles to apply them at this point to the unfolding tragedy in Myanmar. As you know, the Outcome Document of the 2005 Summit limited their applicability to four crimes and violations: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing. We must focus our efforts on implementing these principles in these four cases, as there is no agreement among the Member States on applying them to other situations, no matter how disturbing or regrettable the circumstances."

Given the arguments advanced by France and others, Inner City Press asked, could non-response to a natural disaster rise to the level of a crime against humanity? Luck responded:

"Whether a non-response, or in this case a partial response, to a natural disaster could qualify as a crime against humanity is a matter to be debated by legal scholars and jurists. It seems to me, however, that larger and well-established human rights principles are at stake here. A state has fundamental responsibilities for the welfare of the populations on its territory that have long preceded the development of the concept of a responsibility to protect."

Also in light of France's and the U.S.'s allusion to food-drops, Inner City Press asked, where would a food-drop fit in? Luck's answer, less on R2P, rebutted the food-drops on five separate grounds:

"On a purely practical level, it is hard to see a food drop accomplishing much. One, it could add to chaos on the ground as people struggle over such aid drops. Two, much of the area is now under water. Three, it would do nothing in terms of supplying the critical missing element of humanitarian and medical personnel on the ground. Four, targeting could be a real challenge. And five, the violation of Myanmar's airspace could well increase the government's suspicion of the outside world."


Since some have said, even in R2P applied, that force would be the "last step," Inner City Press asked, what would be the series of steps to apply R2P in such a case? Luck's response was shorter, and more telling: "We have yet to develop a clear decision-making process or standard operating procedures for implementing RtoP decisions." Who the "we" is that will develop such standard operating procedures is not yet clear.

Since the official UN document announcing Luck's appointment says he would be paid "When Actually Employed," at the pro-rate hourly Assistant Secretary-General rate, but Luck has said he gets $1 a year, Inner City Press asked, which is it, and, since the appointment, what have you been doing under this mandate? How many hours? Luck did not answer the second part of this question, only reiterating that "my letter of appointment says $1 per year." He has joked, not without humor, that some people say he's overpaid at that rate.

In terms of credit, since French Ambassador Ripert on May 7 told Inner City Press that Bernard Kouchner "invented R2P 20 years ago," Inner City Press asked Ed Luck, is that your understanding? Who else deserves credit? Luck replied diplomatically

"I have no comment on the quote from Ambassador Ripert. However, it is worth noting that the concept of responsibility to protect represents a conceptual evolution from the earlier notion of humanitarian intervention. The former was first coined as a term in the 2001 ICISS report, though it can trace its intellectual roots to the concept of 'sovereignty as responsibility' developed by Francis Deng and his colleagues at the Brookings Institution in the mid-1990s and the 2000 Constitutive Act of the African Union."

To this, we'll add a few more names, including Lloyd Axworthy, Ramesh Thakur, and Mohammed Sahnoun of Algeria. Bernard Kouchner? Bonne chance, as they say. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/r2p1myanmar051208.html

Some Companies Involved in Myanmar Are Also Missing in Action In Cyclone's Wake

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ocha4myanmar051208.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 -- In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, questions are growing about which companies have been doing business in Myanmar, and how they are responding to the mounting death toll. On Monday Inner City Press asked UN Humanitarian Coordinator John Holmes about a series of companies, several of them members of the UN's high-minded Global Compact, which are listed as doing business in Myanmar: Germany's Siemens, Denmark's Novo Nordisk, France's Total and BNP Paribas, Japan's Mizuho and South Korea's POSCO Steel.

This last company, POSCO, which has a joint venture in Myanmar, is not a member of the Global Compact; Inner City Press had wanted to ask Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon about it, but he could only take three questions before leaving the hour-long briefing. South Korea's Pusan port was visited earlier this year by Mynmar's shipping tycoon Tay Za, head of the Htoo Trading Company, for the purchase of a tanker and a freight ship. Whether these are being used for aid after the cyclone is not known.

In BAN's wake, Holmes said he would welcome help from corporations, that contributions by those "heavily involved in Myanmar would be particularly appropriate." He quickly mentioned that Total has offered to "donate fuel free of charge." Video here, from Minute 37.

But Total, like U.S-based Chevron, has been under fire from human rights groups for its involvement in oil and gas in Myanmar. Are Total and Chevron, and the other companies, giving back enough?

Inner City Press has sent request for comment by e-mail to Japan-based Suzuki, which makes cars and motorcycles in Myanmar, which yet receiving any response. Likewise responses have yet to be received from POSCO, Novo Nordisk, Siemens and Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa, which along with owning in the UK Superdrug, 3 Mobile and luxury properties, operates a large port in Myanmar. We'll see.

Holmes was asked, by a major U.S.-based television network, whether he intends to resign. Appearing taken aback, Holmes said no, that the logic of the question escaped him. The questioner said that China has blocked Security Council action, that 100,000 people may be dead, and not enough is being done. Holmes said that China has sent aid, and that he is not considering resigning.

Inner City Press asked for his response as Humanitarian Coordinator to reports of Myanmar's general's putting their names on boxes of aid, as a form of propaganda. Holmes said he has seen the reports, that it is "to be condemned" as "totally hypocritical," but that it is undermined by the name of the actual donor remaining on the box (albeit smaller, Inner City Press pointed out). So should donors put their names more prominently on the boxes of aid? We'll see. Responses from corporations will be reported on this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ocha4myanmar051208.html

UN Covers Up Wasted TV Money, Gags Staff and Asks, "Are You with the Heritage Foundation?"

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1farkasdpi050808.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 8-- Over the course of many months and in stages, the UN bought six high-definition video cameras, but allowed them to sit unused in the basement gathering dust. They forgot to buy the lens, then bought the wrong parts. In any event, the UN Headquarters building is not wire to work with these cameras, and the signal had to be converted down to analog due to the lack of a digital switcher. There are no current plans to buy a digital switcher, at least until the several-year renovation of the UN building, and in the renovation plan, no money has yet been sought from the General Assembly for the new broadcast facility.

Whistleblowers told Inner City Press about the cameras, and this and other "wasted money," as they put it. Inner City Press sent e-mail questions on the matter, perfectly willing to have the allegations turn out to be false or over-stated. But the head of UN TV, Susan Farkas, rather than simply answer the questions, demanded a sit-down meeting, which took place on April 30 for slightly more than an hour. Along with admitting the delays with the cameras, "Do you work for the Heritage Foundation?" she asked Inner City Press, referring to a conservative think-tank in Washington which has been critical of UN waste, fraud and abuse. (The phrase appears in one of its reports.)

As exemplified by Ms. Farkas, there is a tendency at the higher levels of the UN to reflexively characterize any questioning, particularly about consistency or accountability, as being part of some vast right-wing conspiracy. Sometimes those making this accusation actually believe it.

But after Ms. Farkas was told that no, Inner City Press does not "work for the Heritage Foundation" (although what a left-leaning pro-whistleblower think tank the Government Accountability Project called the UN's attempts to disaccredit and censor Inner City Press from Google News were discussed there earlier this year), Ms. Farkas continued to try to convince those under her control in UN TV of some Inner City Press - Heritage Foundation connection.

An e-mail was circulated on May 1, the day after Ms. Farkas' statements transcribed below, in which UN TV staff were told, if they are asked by the press for any statistics or other information, to decline to provide it and to tell Ms. Farkas and the head of their unit. It's worth noting that UN TV is part of the UN's Department of Public Information, and that on May 1, while the UN was ostensibly celebrating World Press Freedom Day, within DPI a move was afoot to prohibit the provision to the press of even basic factual information. Click here to view the e-mail.

The statistics Inner City Press had asked for were the viewership numbers for World Chronicle, the UN TV show which was jettisoned in favor of Ms. Farkas' show, 21st Century. World Chronicle was able to cover such issues as Oil for Food and instances of abuse by peacekeepers, while 21st Century in 17 episodes has yet to mention either. Ms. Farkas' written response had been that World Chronicle had a "miniscule" viewership; on April 30, she said she had considered existing UN personnel, but decided she wanted "someone with more energy."

She chose Daljit Dahliwal. Asked how she selected her, Ms. Farkas said she ran into her at a cocktail party and decided she was the one. 21st Century writer Ms. Andi Gitow, Farkas knew from a previous job. She brought Ms. Gitow in, without competition, "against an empty post," as she put it. From there, Ms. Gitow's status was regularized. But no, Farkas claimed, there was no favoritism, all the hiring rules were followed.

Ms. Farkas known well beyond her own unit --including due to her unique status in the UN's e-mail system. Under the protocol, she was assigned the e-mailed address farkass@un.org, and had business cards printed up. Not liking the name, she got it changed to susan.farkas at un.org. "The only person in the Secretariat with an email address with a dot in it," one staffer said.

A fundamental question is whether it is the UN Department of Public Information's role to provide answers and information requested by the independent press, or to produce its own shows, in this case not clearly labeled as being UN products, under-reporting or omitting entirely any controversies or critiques which might, in fact, lead to improvements at the UN.

Ms. Farkas comes down for the second approach. I am not a journalist, she told Inner City Press. The UN pays us. We are not going to look into scandals of the UN. In an e-mail to Inner City Press before she demanded the meeting, she claimed her show 21st Century is "accurate and balanced" -- but at the April 30 meeting, she admitted that it is not journalism, and cannot or will not cover or even mention whole sides of the UN's activities.

The response to these inquiries was not only the written instruction to staff to not provide even statistics to the press -- the wasted money on the cameras was compounded in the course of the attempted cover-up or lock-down of information. Expensive headsets to use with the cameras had been bought, and were quickly dusted off once questions about the cameras' disuse arose. But they were the incorrect headsets. Rather than return and exchange them for the correct ones, staffers were ordered to cut the wires and splice on new outlets, thereby taking the equipment out of warranty.

"It was absurd," sources told Inner City Press, requesting anonymity in light of what they called Ms. Farkas' and the UN's predilection to retaliate against whistleblowers. "They wasted more money trying to evade your questions about their previous waste, then they told us to lie to you about it." And so it goes at the UN.

And here's how it went:

Susan Farkas: Before we start, let me just ask you a few questions.

Inner City Press: Go ahead, no problem.

Farkas: It's hard to tell from your questions what sort of you're really after... This thing about that you didn't get answers. If you read on, you'll see that I offered to meet with you. I said to you before, let's meet in person. I think that's reasonable.

Inner City Press: What may be unreasonable is the way the Spokesman's office played it is that the question was really directed to them. And they're in the business, or should be, I think, of providing answers. They're not supposed to provide roadblocks to answers.

Farkas: They're not expected to know this level of detail that you're asking for. And so they'd have to come to me to research it.

Inner City Press: Some things are just yes or no, like how much money. I think that they can answer it, and they shouldn't require you. I feel like journalistically, I shouldn't be required to say, well set up an appointment with my secretary, and then you'll get the answers. It's just a straight question.

Farkas: It took some research to get to the answers. I want to double check things before I send them. Alright, so now let's talk about the show. I find it astonishing that you think there's a story in the fact that we don't investigate the UN. That we don't do negative stories about the UN on "21st Century."... The UN pays us. The UN pays us to produce a program which promotes the issues that the UN cares about. And that's what we have done with "21st Century." The program's mandate is not to investigate the UN. Now when I say 'fair and balanced' I mean that if we have a story about a rape, we are going to get the victim, we're gonna try to get the perpetrator, we're gonna try to get people who can give us answers in that. It's not really relevant to say, and, by the way, there have been other rapes by UN peacekeepers. It was relevant, when we reported on Rwanda to say that the entire international community left Rwanda, and that included the peacekeepers, and that's where… we include negative material only when its very… when its relevant. We don't investigate. We are a UN body. I think it would be more of a scandal, frankly.

Inner City Press: My question is -- it goes back to this word 'fair and balanced' -- for example, in covering the issue of rape in Haiti, how is it not relevant?

Farkas: Because we were talking about a specific girl, and her incident, and the specific laws that had been changed, and how she's affected by it.

Inner City Press: It seems like you were saying that World Chronicle had a miniscule audience, and this has a much more serious audience. What were the numbers for that?

Farkas: We had 20 stations… for World Chronicle. That was a panel show where we had journalists asking tough questions. For "21st Century" we have 54 broadcasters in 33 countries, including BBC World. And as to your question as to why isn't the UN plastered all over it, people won't air it. People don't want an institution carrying a show about an institution. But if we cover stories about issues, and we work in UN angles to almost every story, either a reference to a treaty or a reference to a decision, or a UN official who is interviewed, or you see a shot of the World Food Program in the background, whatever it is. Not every story, but I'd say many stories, the UN angle is clear.

Inner City Press: Do you know when they actually broadcast it? Somebody raised to me that when the thing is actually broadcasting, at the front there is no mention of the UN. You could watch it all the way to the end…

Farkas: Don't you think it is up to the broadcasters to decide how they are going to deal with the disclosure issue? It is what it is. It is a disclosure issue. To say, this is a program that is produced by the UN.

Inner City Press: Do you remember when the White House was funding talk show hosts…

Farkas: Same thing, they get mail from us, you'll see the DVD package, it has "UN" all over it…

Inner City Press: But to the viewer, can you understand that if a viewer watched the show, and particularly if the broadcaster cut off the credits, which they're free to do, and in some cases do do, they would be watching a show that's actually produced by the UN…

Farkas: These programs are created to fit certain time slots. Yes, of course they can do it. Matthew, we send our material out free. We send a lot of material out. We send the "UN in action" out, UNIFEED, and "21st Century". The fact is that we lose control as soon as it leaves here… we have agreed written agreements where we ask the people to air the show regularly, air the show in a good timeslot, give us feedback, and that's the best we can do… I can't be responsible if someone takes a shot from that and puts it to some nefarious use. It's just a fact of life. If we put a big "UN" logo on it, or a bug as we call it…

Inner City Press: It's not so much that is nefarious. I just go back to the question of if a viewer watches a show, and at the end of it is unaware that it was produced by an organization…

Farkas: The responsibility, I maintain, lies with the broadcaster. As for what my mandate is, people have sat there and watched shows on HIV and rape. Peace issues, environmental issues. All these MDG related stories. Then I have done my job. I have raised consciousness. People have understood these stories in a slightly different way. That's what we are tasked with doing, is giving attention to the issues that are high on the UN agenda. And everyone of those stories fits into the agenda so far.

Inner City Press: So if the idea is somehow promoting the UN, there are some who would say that …

Farkas: That's what I'm saying, it's not our responsibility. You have to look at the journalists, the broadcasters, to see how they want to disclose that it's a UN product.

Inner City Press: What was the idea behind hiring an outside narrator that people would probably associate with an independent media outlet?

Farkas: We don't have anybody here who can do it. We don't have any on-air staff. We have nobody who has on-air experience in TV. We don't.

Inner City Press: Were some of the shows in the first season reshot?

Farkas: Yes. The BBC series was a totally new series. They needed a different length. You know, we had the first year. And they wanted a weekly series. And we didn't have the product. We had twelve shows. They wanted a ten-week series starting in January. So we had to recut some of them, we had to rewrite some of them, things had changed, there had to be new intros, it had to be a different length. And so, all the BBC shows were reshot. And she was paid, of course.

Inner City Press: For both times? For the first time, and the second time?

Farkas: They are different shows! … The first twelve are the first cut, and then we did a separate tapings for the BBC series.

Inner City Press: And those, you don't put online?

Farkas: No. Those were on the BBC, and are different shows.

Inner City Press: Gotcha, gotcha. In one of the credits, it said "adaption" for 21st Century…

Farkas: We don't have the budget to have the number of producers we would need to produce all our own material, so we take material from all UN agencies… it started off that we had a lot of IRIN pieces, we had pieces that had already been used, or had been produced in the UN system. And we adapted them. Plus, there's a certain style of story-telling that we wanted, and so we rearranged some of them; we edited them down. So that's what we mean by adaptation. You saw Rockhopper; Rockhopper was paid by another agency. I can't remember which one. And they wanted some credit for that. And we have one coming up now from WIPO, of all people.

Inner City Press: They want to get paid?

Farkas: No, no, no… they DON'T want to get paid. There will be a production credit saying that they paid. We haven't paid anybody. We have had a couple of freelancers. We had this guy who was against a post. You know how that works?

Inner City Press: I think I do but I'd rather have you say how.

Farkas: We were recruiting someone, and while we were waiting for her to arrive, you can use a vacant post to hire someone, while you have the vacancy. So we did; we needed someone, and so Francis is a producer, and so we hired him to work here; he produced those pieces. So that was basically the deal on that.

Inner City Press: And there was also one called J.D…

Farkas: That was a group we worked with in Israel. That was the show where we.. I think it's the Jewish.. they were here yesterday… the Jewish Development Center… actually it's the Joint Development Center… and they gave us some help finding those kids... They give us a little production money.

Inner City Press: While we're on this money topic; the venture to Cannes… I just want to ask.

Farkas: Let me ask you a question. If this meeting were in Warsaw, would this be a question?

Inner City Press: I think so.

Farkas: You wouldn't call it a junket.

Inner City Press: I don't think we used the word junket.

Farkas: Let me tell you, I worked so damn hard at that meeting; I wish you could have been there to see it. Its not that much fun. I didn't go for two years. And you asked about the cost. Now that I didn't get. I told you, last year Carolyn went by herself; this year two of us went. The cost: there's a booth that all the UN agencies chip in on; it's all shared. There were ten partners this year. What do you want me to do? Dig out; figure out the expenses? The DSA is public record. What's the difference? I'm telling you, who went. Do you really need to know exact dollar figures? My DSA? Plus airfare?

Inner City Press: You were saying its impossible to get a post. An overarching thing is, there seems to have been a change in strategy. Would it be fair to say that when you came in, they had this moribund , seven country round-table show, and you had this other idea.

Farkas: Well, what happened is that we did a survey, and I saw the numbers, and I noticed for instance that the numbers in the survey weren't right. So I picked up the phone, and I called CNBC World, and said what is your audience? They said their audience is in the tens of thousands. So, as I looked at the list -- and there were cable broadcasters, cable channels, I reexamined it. And the fact that it is unilingual is a big drawback. Our job is to serve the world. So I didn't feel that doing a show for some small cable stations was achieving the reach that we could reach.

Inner City Press: When the shift was made... you’re saying...

Farkas: We decided we should find someone a little more lively... I ran into Daljit at a BBC party and had a chat with her.

Inner City Press: There are some, even that work here in the building, who say maybe it's a great show, but what does the UN get out of it? Why not make the interface with independent, outside broadcasters easier, let them make their own show?

Farkas: Our mandate is to promote issues that are UN priority issues.... It's not up to the UN to uncover scandal at the UN. That's not our mandate. Maybe if you want to call it self-censorship. I mean, we are UN employees.... Indigenous rights in Bolivia, we talk about the rights of the indigenous, we show the UN.

Inner City Press: Do you include... Evo Morales was here, he held a press conference, I covered it, and he was critical of the UN International Narcotics Control Board for trying to block the use of coca leaf... Or the DRC, or East Timor, did the UN pull out too fast --

Farkas: We haven't done it yet.

Inner City Press: Kosovo?

Farkas: It's so bloody complicated.. and it's not a visual story. It's a magazine show. And as you see I have been successful.(Gesturing at trophies). There's one more. You should be congratulating us.

Inner City Press: A special UN radio for the UN market?

Farkas: We have a lot of member sates, and the U.S. is probably the most important... The two P-2s are paid by the UN Foundation...

Inner City Press: How did the idea come about?

Farkas: The head of the UN foundation and I cooked it up in this room.

Inner City Press: Tim Wirth?

Farkas: Kathy. We have a problem here.. a lot of stations were not even covering us. There was Oil for Food, a combination of a conservative administration and a conservative media, they weren't even covering us.

Inner City Press: What's the policy of the show, in terms of showing dead bodies?

Farkas: We showed cadavers in Guatemala We weren't trying infer something from bags on their hands. You were implying it , right here... you didn't wait for the answer.

Farkas: Can I ask you a question? Let me ask you this straight out... You don't get paid by the Heritage Foundation? You seem determined to throw things at the wall, I can't help but think it's ideological. I'm not the only one who thinks that. I'm sure you're aware of that.

Inner City Press: I think there are two separate beats here. The Security Council, they think quite the opposite [of Inner City Press' approach]. But with the UN, they think anything that's critical is a right wing attack.

Inner City Press: Okay then, big picture... There was a policy switch, it seems to go back to Shashi [Tharoor]... was the switch ever presented to the Fifth Committee or the Committee on Information?

Farkas: Shashi has ongoing conversations with people. Ultimately there's no secrets from the member states.

Well, there shouldn't be...

Farkas: By the way, it's BCSS that handles the audio in the Committee on Information.

(a Broadcasting and Conference Support Section staffer is said to be preparing to moonlight at the Beijing Olympics).

Farkas: So do you have enough to write? What's the story?

Inner City Press: Decision were made, who made them, a process story, how this important world organization makes its decisions, how it operates.

And this is a piece of how it operates.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1farkasdpi050808.html

On Myanmar, OCHA's Holmes Gets the Memo, Ed Luck Missing in Action For Now on R2P

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ocha2myanmar050808.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 8 -- A day after UN Humanitarian Coordinator John Holmes said that Myanmar was beginning to cooperate, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad said "we're outraged by the slowness of response by the government of Burma." Inner City Press asked Amb. Khalilzad if Holmes is being forceful enough. "We'd like to have Mr. Holmes tell member states what the situation is... to urge and press" Myanmar to accept help. Video here, from Minute 6:08.

This and more forceful private messages were clearly received by Mr. Holmes. On Thursday in a more tightly controlled briefing to the UN press corps, Holmes referred to the authorities in Myanmar as an "isolated and suspicious regime" and expressed "disappointment." It was contrary to his presentation on Wednesday, and one wondered if the change was due to watching BBC, or to messages received from the host country.To try to get this question answered, Inner City Press remained with hand raised throughout Holmes' Thursday press conference. But Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe did not allow the question. After Holmes left, she said "I cannot speak for Mr. Holmes." Inner City Press asked for Holmes' views in an email to Ms. Okabe, but the views were not provided. He will launch as a flash appeal, as the UN phrase has it, Friday afternoon. We'll be there.

Ms. Okabe also declined to provide access to the Secretary-General's Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect, Edward Luck. Inner City Press asked for Luck's view, both by email and to Ms. Okabe, but none was forthcoming. Video here, from Minute 32:28.

Inner City Press: Can we have Mr. Luck, since he is the Special Adviser on this very topic?

Deputy Spokesperson Okabe: He is the Special Adviser, but the definition of the "responsibility to protect" is outlined at the 2005 World Summit, it is a well-known document.

But why then have a Special Advisor? This is a question the Fifth Committee (Budgetary and Administrative) asked, but has yet to have answered. Watch this site.

Footnote: UK Ambassador John Sawers, the Security Council president this month, acknowledged that R2P does not apply to responses to natural disaster, and told Inner City Press that a briefing has now been scheduled for next week on Somalia. Video here, from Minute 4:39. The Italian mission claims credit for setting it up. But will it be presented by those who have offered nothing but praise for the Transitional Federal Government, even while Amnesty International says the TFG is killing civilians?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ocha2myanmar050808.html

UN Hosts Environmental Smoke and Mirrors, Naomi Campbell, Indigenous Outrage

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2ireo050208.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 2, updated May 18 -- The UN was given over Friday night to a strange event, featuring Naomi Campbell, Heidi Klum and Patrick Dempsey. Purportedly its announced $450 a ticket cost benefited an environmental organization, the International Renewable Energy Organization. But the sponsor Paolo Zampolli told Inner City Press that he was not concerned that the group's Advisory Board is "under construction;" there is no mention of the group in Google News or Lexis-Nexis. Zampolli was speaking into a cell phone, surrounded by models. Inner City Press asked of IREO was going to apply to the Economic and Social Council for NGO status. No, Zampolli said, it will be an IGO, an International Governmental Organization. He mentioned the General Assembly, but subsequently said that the IGO application is to ECOSOC. GA President Srgjan Kerim was reportedly at the event. Anything is possible. [Mr. Zampolli says Kerim was there, along with "fifty to sixty ambassadors, and that he paid for the whole party, no $450 tickets were sold.]

Paolo Zampolli gave one business card to a UN functionary -- listing himself as co-chair of Paramount based in Soho, which uses models to sell lofts -- and another to Inner City Press, with a formal IREO logo, complete with UN-like laurels, on one side, and full UN map logo on the other. This seems an abuse of the UN logo, but who's counting? [Mr. Zampolli says that Legal, presumably the UN Office of Legal Affairs, signed off on this use of the logo -- so maybe it's OLA's fault.] A functionary said Zampolli began ID Modeling and then worked for Donald Trump. The 12-page pamphlet distributed was replete with typos and twice listed the re-use of fried oil in Fortaleza, Brazil. It also promoted Clear Blue 104 and Quinoa, "the gold of the Incas," for use in Egypt. In the crowd was Grenada's Ambassador Angus Friday, who one week earlier squired Naomi Campbell through the building. To the best of our knowledge, no cell phones were hurled.

One story below in the Express Bar, Caribbean music was thumping, rice and peas were served and applications for scholarship grants from the Trinidad and Tobago United Cultural Association were being distributed. This was the (keeping it) real UN, the working UN, moving in a parallel and separate world from the smoke and mirrors upstairs.

In the second floor Delegates' Lounge, the month-long absurdity of excluding non-permanent resident journalists and also interns thawed, people mingled without incident and word was that the originator of the ban was the Secretary-General's chief of communications, who has yet to communicate with the press.

All the way down in the basement, a near-riot ensued with the Permanent Forum on the Indigenous came to an end without many want-to-be speakers being given the floor. They rebelled, and security was called. Upstairs, the Organization's headquarters was given over to models and snake oil salesmen. Only at the UN.

Update of May 18, 2008 -- As noted above in italics, Paoli Zampolli states among other things that "Legal," presumably the UN Office of Legal Affairs, approved his use of the UN Logo. Duly noted.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2ireo050208.html

At UN, Ahlenius Is In Denial on Congo, Goes Slow on Lockheed Martin in Darfur Inquiry

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un5oiosmonuc050808.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 8 -- The UN's embattled chief investigator Inga-Britt Ahlenius, who refused to release two audits of her Office and declined to respond to questions about them, on Thursday denied each charge against her by rote, while saying that more detailed information would be provided in informal, that is closed-door, sessions. Before the UN's budget committee, Ms. Ahlenius contested "accusations that OIOS ignored, minimized or shelved allegations of serious misconduct pertaining to weapons trading in MONUC," the UN's Mission in the Congo.

"I would like to underscore to you, as I have to the Secretary-General, that these accusations against OIOS and the Organization are completely unfounded," she said. But many on the Committee were dubious, about this denial and about Ahlenius' various plans to pull investigators out of peacekeeping missions -- even more so, after the audits Ahlenius withheld were put online by Inner City Press here and here, describing a "lack of trust in investigative outputs," politicization, nepotism and a need for a "break from the past" at OIOS.

A task that the Committee assigned to Ahlenius in December 2007, to conduct an inquiry into the no-bid $250 million contract handed to U.S.-based military contractor Lockheed Martin of infrastructure in Darfur, she had yet to complete. She said, "in response to General Assembly resolution, A/62/232, requesting the Secretary-General to entrust to OIOS to undertake a comprehensive review of the use of extraordinary measures in [UNAMID], this review... will be presented to the General Assembly in the second resumed 63rd session." The Secretariat added, in its "note on the report on the activities of OIOS," that "the Secretary-General wishes to state that in approving certain administrative measures in the setting up of [UNAMID], he acted fully within his authority and did not approve any exceptions to the application of the Financial Regulations and Rules of the United Nations." We'll see.

Footnote: in fact, exceptions are everywhere. Not only did Ms. Ahlenius refer to Management chief Alicia Barcena someone she met in Kosovo, Ms. Danielle Coolen, to be interviewed for the UN's top procurement job -- now Ms. Barcena is pushing another candidate, Paul Baudes, reporting telling the Comptroller that she had raised Baudes' "case" directly to the Secretary-General. Procurement is full of exceptions, and the Oversight Office is no longer credible. What will it take to clean it up?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un5oiosmonuc050808.html