IMF Loan to Sri Lanka Should Not Serve "Quasi Military" Purpose, UN Official Says

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/imf2srilanka032709.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- A day after the Sri Lankan government's as well as the Tamil Tigers' killing of civilians was criticized in a session of the Security Council, the purpose of its $1.9 billion loan request to the UN-affiliated International Monetary Fund was questioned at the UN.

Two weeks ago in Washington, Inner City Press asked IMF spokesman David Hawley to describe any safeguards that the loan proceeds wouldn't be used in connection with the government's military actions in north Sri Lanka or its detention camps for internally displaced people. Mr. Hawley said that negotiations were continuing.

Since then, the IMF has received extensive written opposition to the loan request as made, most of it quoting the Sri Lankan Central Bank's statement that the aim of the IMF loan is to "continue with the resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the Northern Province, and the continued rapid development of the Eastern Province," which it deems key "not only to uplift the living standards of the people in the areas affected by the decades long conflict, but also to successfully implement the government's efforts to bring a sustainable solution to the conflict."

UN's Jomo Kwame Sundaram, use of Sri Lanka's IMF loan not shown

On March 27, Inner City Press asked the UN's Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant Secretary-General on Economic Development at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, about Sri Lanka's application for an emergency loan from the IMF and the resulting controversy. He replied that IMF loans generally shouldn't be used for "military or quasi-military purposes." It seems clear that the government's "resettlement" camps serve a quasi military purpose. What then will happen on the loan request? Watch this site.

Footnotes: Inner City Press asked asked Jomo K.S., in the run-up to the G20 meeting in London, for his views on the different proposals of the Stiglitz Panel on which he serves and of Ban Ki-moon, whom as an ASG he also serves. His answer was a model of diplomacy, that the reason Ban would not repeat his $1 trillion call while at Wednesday's stakeout interview with Gordon Brown was that Ban was being "a gracious host."

Some opine that it's Gordon Brown that wants to be seen as saving the world. At Friday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson if it is true that the World Bank's Bob Zoellick, who for more than a month has been promoting his own proposal that 0.7% of rich countries' stimulus packages be devoted to poor countries, called Ban to ask him to not come out with the trillion-dollar request. Ban's spokesperson said they had spoken, and that she would try to get a read-out. For now, an Inner City Press debate on these topic will appear over the weekend here.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/imf2srilanka032709.html

At UN, Stiglitz Hits Bonuses and Subprime, Says 1% of Bailout Straight to Poor Countries

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2stiglitz032709.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- In the run-up to the G20 meeting in London, economist Joseph Stiglitz spoke at the UN against irrational incentives in the financial services field -- read, the AIG and Citigroup bonus -- and in favor of the idea of a Financial Products Safety Commission, like the agencies conducting pre-release reviews of medicines and even electronics such as toasters.

Stiglitz noted that banks rush to exploit lower income and minority Americans with subprime loans has now damaged economies all over the world. And, we note, rather than accountability, those who engaged in predatory lending and securitizing have received bailouts. Whether any of this will be meaningfully addressed by the G20 is not known.

The UN's main pitch at the G20 is, with some vagueness and confusion, a request for $1 trillion. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made the request in a March 20 letter to G20 participants, then found himself unable to repeat the number when standing on camera next to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The next day, however, when Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson Michele Montas is despite the seeming backtrack Ban stands behind the $1 million figure, she said yes. She acknowledged that most of the $1 trillion is money already promised, but noted that Ban is asking for $25 billion on top of pre-existing ODA commitments of $100 billion, and that the rest of the trillion includes, for example, lending by the International Monetary Fund.

The Secretary of what's become known as the Stiglitz Commission, appointed by President of the UN General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockman, answered Inner City Press' question to Stiglitz about Ban's $1 trillion idea. He did not address the number, but rather to whom such money should go: directly to lower income countries, he said, and not to intermediaries like the World Bank -- or the UN or UN Development Program.

What Stiglitz' views are on providing cash with no conditions to governments like those of Myanmar or North Korea is not known. The IMF has been asked about conditions on a $1.9 billion loan it is negotiating with Sri Lanka, the proceeds of which the government has said may be used for camps for internally displaced people from which the IDPs cannot leave or receive visitors, even from family members: detention camps. Using a percentage of the bailouts to fund interment would give a new meaning to the UN system phrase, "Vulnerability Fund." To be continued.

Footnote: several reporters at Stiglitz's March 26 press conference joked afterwards about his lines that he not only predicted the financial meltdown, but also wrote the first academic paper supporting micro-lending. This last claim seems dubious, unless one discounts academics in, for example, Bangladesh. Maybe with whatever turns out to be their share of the requested $1 trillion, Bangladesh can more widely promote its scholars.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2stiglitz032709.html

At UN, Sri Lanka Accused of Shelling Civilians, "Friendly Censure," Security Council Diplomat Says, LTTE Also Condemned

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unscsri1lanka032609.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 26 -- The UN Security Council's second session in a month on the conflict in Sri Lanka was a "friendly censure" of the government, according to Jorge Urbina, the Ambassador of Costa Rica, a member of the Council. Following a closed door session at which Sri Lanka's Mission to the UN showed pictures of the conflict zone, U.S. Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo said that Sri Lanka has been shelling areas with civilians, near to hospitals. She said that the camps for internally displaced people, which she called interment camps, would only be funded by the UN for three months. Video here.

Top UN Humanitarian John Holmes, on the other hand, said he "wouldn't like to put a time" frame on how long the UN would fund these camps, from which IDPs cannot leave or receive visits, even from family members. Likewise, he declined again to confirm his own agency's figures of 2,683 civilians killed from January 20 to March 7, a number that only came out because the document was leaked to Inner City Press.

Holmes' equivocation, combined with UN Resident Coordinator Neil Buhne's even more pronounced placating of the government -- which has led senior UN officials in New York to say Buhle has been "captured" -- have led the Sri Lankan government to claim that no one in the UN has criticized their conduct in the conflict, neither from the UN Secretariat nor from UN member states. Following, most pointedly, the public on-camera statements of U.S. Ambassador DiCarlo, that claim has been debunked.

Inner City Press asked Sri Lanka's representative after the meeting to explain his Foreign Minister's claims. He said he would have to look into them. Asked when the newspaper editor locked up during the conflict would be put on trial or released, he said "I am not an astrologer." He said the Army is closer than one kilometer from the zone, but is holding back.

A senior UN official on March 25, the day before the Council meeting, said that the UN internally is increasingly worried of a "nightmare scenario" in which the government makes a final push, tens of thousands of civilians end up dead and "everyone blames the UN." At least in its worries, the UN shows foresight. Perhaps the beginning of wisdom is to worry about the right things.

U.S. Ambassador DiCarlo said the number of civilians trapped between the LTTE and the government number from 150,000 to 190,000. The UN's Holmes added the Sri Lankan government's figure, 70,000. We note that he also wryly stated, on his way into basement Conference Room 7, that "this meeting doesn't exist," a reference to its strange location, title and format, a concession by the Council to its members who wanted no briefing at all. Holmes has to deal with politics. The question is, when must humanitarian principles unequivocally win out?

French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, who spoke as he rushed out of the meeting, said that "both sides must comply with international humanitarian law." He added that the Sri Lankan government is asking countries with Tamil diaspora populations to make sure money is not donated or exported from their soil to the Tamil Tigers. How this would be implemented by the UK is not clear. UK Ambassador Sawers spoke briefly to the Press, but not on this point. Video through here.

The senior UN official who spoke to Inner City Press spoke of a strategy of making Tamils outside of the country aware they could be charged with crimes. If this is the UN's plan to help the civilians, the UN-enunciated "responsibility to protect" should begin at home.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unscsri1lanka032609.html

On Sri Lanka, UN Official Describes "Nightmare Scenario," Treaty Official "Knows Better"

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsri7lanka032509.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 25 -- While the UN allows Sri Lanka's government to claim that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who said that both the Tamil Tigers and the government might be guilty of war crimes, "is not the UN," in New York on March 25 a senior UN official described to Inner City Press what the UN is trying to do about Sri Lanka. The trapped civilians, who the official said are being shot at by both the Tamil Tigers and the government, must be extracted. But how?

The official described a plan to convince both the Tamil Tigers and the government, which have so far refused, to accept a cessation of fighting and international observers to get the civilians out.

What we are afraid of, the UN official said, is a nightmare scenario in which in a final drive against the Tigers, tens of thousands of civilians are killed and the UN looks guilty, like in Srebrenica. This must be avoided.

The official said that Norway has been trying to talk with both sides, quietly, to broker such a deal. But the UN is growing dubious that Norway has the necessary connection. The US, he said, offered its military strength but was rejected.

US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice on March 20 told Inner City Press that the US favors the Security Council getting full information on the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka. On March 25, Austria's Ambassador to the UN told Inner City Press that a way is being devised to let this happen.

The UN official also described what he called a strategy of letting "the Tamil diaspora" know that any support of the Tamil Tigers might subject them to war crimes prosecution. This gambit seems to ignore something that the Sri Lankan government and is supports brag about, that the country's refusal to join the International Criminal Court makes it -- and crimes on its territory -- unreachable by the International Criminal Court. The threat against Tamil Tiger supporters, then, must involve the War on Terror.

Recently long-time UN official Lakhdar Brahimi wrote an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune warning of the mounting dangers to civilians in Sri Lanka, and urging Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to demand access to the conflict zone and to appoint a special envoy.

The envoy named by the UK, Des Browne, has been denied entry to the country. Following Ban's meeting with the UK's Gordon Brown on March 25, Ban said that Sri Lanka was one of four country conflicts they discussed. The others were Sudan, Afghanistan and Myanmar. Brown offered some specifics on Sudan and Afghanistan, but nothing on Sri Lanka.

Inner City Press sought to ask for a read-out, but the two men took only four questions. Afterwards, Inner City Press asked both the UK Mission spokesman and Ban's spokesperson for a read out of the meeting, which will be reported on this site upon receipt, as well any response to the unanswered portion of the questions Inner City Press asked at the UN noon briefing on March 25:

Inner City Press: There was a statement by the Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka that the country has received no criticism from the UN of how it’s conducting its conflict in the north. He says that Ms. [Navi] Pillay, the Human Rights Commissioner, “is not the UN”, and apparently implies that, in the discussions between the President and the Secretary-General, there’s been no criticism whatsoever of any action of the Government. I wanted to know, is that consistent with your understanding of those calls?

Spokesperson Michele Montas: As far as I know, a number of issues were raised. Humanitarian issues were also raised.

Inner City Press: And also, the Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka has put out a statement condemning the OCHA document that says there were 2,683 deaths, saying it’s entirely unverified and asking the UN to retract it. Is the UN considering retracting its own document that’s that specific on numbers?

Spokesperson: As far as I know, OCHA is standing by its numbers.

Question: Okay. Neil Buhne was quoted as saying that he is not standing by it. He’s been quoted in Sri Lanka saying that he doesn’t stand by the number. Maybe he’s been misquoted. The Resident Coordinator, Neil Buhne, has been quoted as saying that he doesn’t stand by the number.

Spokesperson: So he is saying that it’s just an evaluation? That’s what I said earlier…

[The Spokesperson later said that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is not in a position to verify numbers put out by local groups on deaths.]

Inner City Press: He’s saying it was a report for donor countries, not meant for public distribution, whatever that means.

Spokesperson: Okay. I can verify what those numbers meant.

Inner City Press: That would be great. Then just one factual thing is that the Voice of America has in a report said that the Government of Sri Lanka makes it such that international employees of NGOs as well as independent journalists are prohibited from travelling to the north. So I know in your report you’d said how the Red Cross and WFP are delivering this aid. Is it your understanding that, as in Darfur currently, that international staff of NGOs can’t go to that region?

Spokesperson: I can ask the people there for you. We can ask for more information.

[The Spokesperson later said that only national United Nations and non-governmental organization staff were in the conflict zone.]

Inner City Press: Okay, that’d be great. I’d appreciate it.

It should be noted that Sri Lanka's foreign secretary Palitha Kohona, who said the UN High Commission for Human rights "is not the UN" himself served in and led the UN's Treaty Section. "He knows better," one official told Inner City Press. More than one officials questioned Neil Buhne's performance in Sri Lanka, one said that Buhne has been "captured." On that, Inner City Press has repeatedly asked the UN for more information about its staff member forcible recruited into the Tamil Tigers -- for the record, for those pro-government activists who claim that any question about civilians is support for the Tamil Tigers, such recruitment is to be condemned.

Footnote: By happenstance, Inner City Press ran into former UN Peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno on March 25 in front of the UN and asked him about Sri Lanka and Brahimi's proposal, would Guehenno consider the post. Guehenno called the situation in Sri Lanka serious, and with a serious face said he would consider such an assignment, UN envoy to Sri Lanka. He said he has not been assigned any cases since taking up his post as Under Secretary General for Regional Cooperation. (Inner City Press joked that USG for Lost Causes might be a good title; Guehenno jokingly gave himself a promotion to Deputy SG for Lost Causes.) Many hope that northern Sri Lanka and the civilians trapped are not a lost cause. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsri7lanka032509.html

On Myanmar, a Tale of Three Browns, Gordon at UN, Two in Foggy Bottom

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/usukun1myanmar032509.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 25 -- While the UN's Ban Ki-moon is said by his advisors to be close to announcing a visit to Myanmar, as early as next month's ASEAN meeting, with U.S. support, the situation in Myanmar, particularly for minorities like the Rohingya and the Karen people, continues to deteriorate.

Meanwhile, at the US State Department on March 25, a visit to Myanmar by one US official named Brown was denied, while another was confirmed but downplayed. A rapprochement appears to be afoot, not based on any human rights improvement by the Than Shwe military regime, but out of lack of imagination or hunger for natural gas.

At the UN's noon briefing on March 24, Inner City Press asked

Inner City Press: On Myanmar, the UN’s working group on arbitrary detention has said that the imprisonment of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi violates not only international law, but also Myanmar domestic law. And there is also a report in The Times of London about villages being laid to waste in the Karen areas of the country. Is this something that either Mr. [Ibrahim] Gambari or Ban Ki-moon as Secretary-General is looking at in advance of a possible visit to the country?

Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq: Well, the Secretary-General and Mr. Gambari are certainly aware of this report. Obviously the report speaks for itself and you can get it through the website of the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights. As for a visit by the Secretary-General, nothing has changed in terms of what we’ve said. There is no visit planned at this stage.

While this final statement may technically be true, a senior UN official happily told Inner City Press that the visit will happen, and named April 18 at as the likely date.

Following UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's meeting with the UK's Gordon Brown on March 25, Ban said that Myanmar was one of four country conflicts they discussed. The others were Sudan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Brown offered some specifics on Sudan and Afghanistan, but nothing on Sri Lanka or Myanmar. Afterwards, Inner City Press asked the UK Mission spokesman for a read out of the meeting as regards Myanmar, which will be reported on this site upon receipt.

In what they call the Foggy Bottom, at the US State Department media briefing on March 25, the following occurred and then was supplemented:

QUESTION: Can you confirm that a U.S. official met with Burmese officials in Burma yesterday, and that is a sign of softening of the U.S. position on Burma?

Acting Deputy Department Spokesman, Gordon Duguid: No, I will not confirm that because it’s not correct. I did see that this was a report on a blog. I’ve been directly in touch with the officials that the blog named, and there was no contact that either official recalls, let alone sought out. So the report is incorrect.

QUESTION: So it’s incorrect to say that the – Mr. Blake [Ambassador Robert O. Blake] met with the Burmese Government?

MR. DUGUID: It is incorrect.

QUESTION: Okay. And – but is it correct to say that he was in Burma, was in Myanmar?

MR. DUGUID: In what time period? I believe he has visited Burma once in the past. He has not, however, had any substantive conversations with Burmese officials, nor has the U.S. position on Burma changed.

QUESTION: If you say it’s not substantive, what does that mean? Does that mean he’s had other, less substantive conversations?

MR. DUGUID: As all diplomats know, if you go to a reception and the host has invited someone else, you may in that setting come across someone from a – in this case, the Burmese Government. The ambassador has no recollection of that happening.

QUESTION: Okay.

MR. DUGUID: But that is a possibility at some point in the future, of course.

QUESTION: When he last visited Burma? You said he visited there recent past.

MR. DUGUID: I did not say the recent past. I said at some point in the past. I don’t have that – those dates for you. I do believe he has been to Burma at some time in the past. I don’t think it’s relevant to this particular question.

The above was later clarified in the form of a "Question Taken" e-mail update:

Question: Can you confirm that a U.S. official (U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake) met with Burmese officials in Burma yesterday and does this represent a softening in policy towards Burma?

Answer: No. As the Acting Deputy Spokesman said at today’s Daily Press Briefing, Ambassador Robert Blake did not meet with Burmese officials yesterday.

However, Stephen Blake, the Director of the Office for Mainland Southeast Asia at the State Department went to Burma as part of a five-country tour of the countries that fall under his office: Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In Burma, Mr. Blake met with a variety of people representing a wide range of views regarding the current situation, including Foreign Minister Nyan Win, other members of the Burmese government, members of ethnic minority groups, and members of the National League for Democracy’s Central Executive Committee (aka “The Uncles”).

His visit does not reflect a change in policy or approach to Burma; Office Director-level officials, including Mr. Blake’s two immediate predecessors, have visited Burma and met with Burmese officials on a number of occasions in recent years.

The Burma policy review announced by Secretary Clinton is still underway. While we have not yet finalized our approach, we remain committed to encouraging a genuine dialogue between the Burmese authorities and opposition that leads to a free and democratic Burma that respects the rights of its diverse citizens and is at peace with its neighbors.

We'll see. Back on March 17, at the UN's noon briefing Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: in the last 24 hours, Myanmar has arrested five more democracy activists. Meanwhile, at least it’s said from United Nations officials that Ban Ki-moon is considering visiting in and around the ASEAN summit. First, is there any response to these more recent arrests of democracy activists? And two, what are the standards that Ban Ki-moon is going to use for visiting Myanmar or not, and does he plan to go on 18 April?

Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe: I have nothing to announce in terms of any visits today. In terms of the Secretary-General -- the criteria are spelled and nothing has changed on that as well. As for the immediate comments to today’s arrests, his Adviser, Mr. Gambari, has been very clear on the subject of arrests.

How about clarity about the Karen people or on the questions raised about how the Myanmar Constitution's reservation of 25% of seats for people of "military background" not only would make it still a military government, but also excludes women, based on non-attendance at the two military academies in Myanmar which would give the required "military background"?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/usukun1myanmar032509.html

At UNDP, With Kiwi Clark Called Top Spot Winner, Melkert Policies Need Revamp

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/undp1clark032509.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 25 -- Across the Pacific, media reports on Tuesday night had New Zealand's Helen Clark beating out Ad Melkert for the top post at the UN Development Program. Bloomberg News quoted "a UN official" to this effect; a major newspaper said the appointment would be announced Wednesday in New York. It wasn't. Inner City Press asked the UN spokesperson:

Inner City Press: it’s been widely reported that Helen Clark of New Zealand is going to be named the new Administrator [of UNDP]. It was even said today, all the papers in the Pacific said this. When is the appointment expected?

Spokesperson: The appointment has not been finalized yet. We expect to have it tomorrow.

If, as it portrayed as clear, Helen Clark has won, one can only hope that Melkert, architect of UNDP's recent retaliation and non-disclosure regime, will exit the agency, where he came in second to Kemal Dervis in a more transparent selection process under Kofi Annan, then used UNDP resources to defend his previous acts at the World Bank and before that in the Netherlands. While her views on belatedly harmonizing UNDP with the UN Secretariat's Ethics Office and whistleblower protection regime are not yet known, Clark could not do worse than Melkert and Dervis in this regard.

As just the most recent example, UNDP has for days refused to provide basic information about what it funds in Somalia, even as UN envoy Ahmedou Ould Abdallah through his spokesperson refers the question to UNDP, and even experts previously funded by the UN say openly that UNDP has been funding security forces in Somalia until, viewed as taking sides, it was targeted for bombing.

As for Mr. Melkert, he was the one who, when asked by Inner City Press about transparency, said "you ain't seen nothing yet." Now it looks like we never will.

Footnote: on one of the two appointments that were announced at the UN on March 25, Inner City Press asked

Inner City Press: I had asked before it was confirmed that he was getting the post, Mr. Galbraith, it says in his bio that he was the United States Ambassador to Croatia in 92 to 98. He was asked by the United States Congress in 96 if he had violated the UN arms embargo and sanctions on Croatia by helping Iranian weapons get in. His answer was that he didn’t violate it because Chapter VI of the UN Charter is not binding. Is that Ban Ki-moon’s position on Chapter VI?

Spokesperson: I’m not judging on what happened that time. What I’m saying is that all those concerns were certainly analysed when the decision was taken to appoint Mr. Galbraith.

Inner City Press? Did they ask him… For example, has he been asked whether, now that he is a UN, you said an international civil servant…?

Spokesperson: I don’t have the details of his last interview. What I am saying is that what was of importance to the UN is the role he has played for the UN before.

At least for the post of UNDP administrator, the interviews were said to be coordinated by Ban Ki-moon's deputy chief of staff Kim Won-soo, who Wednesday was embroiled in a controversy triggered by Ban's seeming retraction of a written request to the G-20 members for $1 trillion for poorer countries. One wonders, and expects to find out, what issues came up in the interviews. Watch this site.

Post script -- Helen Clark's nomination by Ban Ki-moon was confirmed at the March 26 noon briefing.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undp1clark032509.html

In Somalia, UNDP Said to Take Sides, No Financial Answers, UN Post Intrigue

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsc2somalia032409.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 24 -- Optimism about Somalia is a new trend in and around the in UN in New York. Days after the country's new foreign minister -- himself British -- told the Press outside the Security Council that one month of receipts from the Mogadishu port portends well for the paychecks of the Transitional Federal Government's ever multiplying number of parliamentarians, the International Peace Institute presented two experts, both upbeat about the negotiations in Djibouti and the UN which sponsored them.

As at the Council, however, no one would say how much the UN paid, from or to whom. IPI's two presenters, Ken Menkhaus of Davidson College and Somali expert Jabril Abdulle, both said that the Shabaab rebels are on the run, the port is in government hands and the future is rosy. Inner City Press asked for an assessment of the performance of UN envoy Ahmedou Ould Abdallah and the UN's Group of Experts on sanctions. The former called for a moratorium on reporting from Somalia; the later reported a few years ago that Somali militants were in South Lebanon for training, which made more Somali-watchers laugh.

Menkhaus defended the Group of Experts recent work, dismissing the Lebanon error -- circa 2006 -- as "in the distant past." [It emerged later that he has served as a paid adviser to the UN.] He did, however, sound a cautionary note about the role of the UN Development Program, which he said has been paying the salaries of security forces in Somalia. Abdulle added that the UN paid to transport the bloated Somali TFG contingent from Djibouti to Mogadishu. On Friday, Inner City Press' question to Ould Abdallah about what the UN pays for in Somalia was referred, through his spokesperson Susie Price, to UNDP. Four days after promising an answer, UNDP has still not answered.

Menkhaus noted the attack on UNDP last year, and said the agency is perceived as taking sides. Perhaps this partiality is mirrored in an unwillingness to provide basic financial information about what it spends in Somalia, and on what.

Footnote: The head of IPI, Terje Roed Larsen, was not in attendance on Tuesday. Inner City Press has asked UN spokespeople for reaction to Syria's critique of Roed Larsen as exceeding him mandate as UN envoy under Security Council resolution 1559. Roed Larsen is also one of the most senior UN officials who has rebuffed Ban Ki-moon's call to make basic public financial disclosure. Now, Roed Larsen's wife Mona Juul is rumored as a closed but failed candidate for the vacant Assistant Secretary General post in the UN Department of Political Affairs vacated by Angela Kane. The post, sources say, is slated for UNDP's previous Middle East operative, Oscar Fernandez Taranco, well imbued in UNDP's culture. We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc2somalia032409.html

At UN, African "Drums" Have Sponsors Called Chinese, No Board of Directors Information, 'We All Seek Chinese Money,' Culture Project Says

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1sponsorsdrum032409.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 24 -- While the UN Visitors' Lobby throbbing with the sounds of African drumming on Tuesday night, questions about the event's sponsors went unanswered. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke of the talking drum, but officials of his UN Department of Public Information declined to explain the role of the World Harmony Foundation, the longest acknowledgement in the brochure DPI produced for the event "with the gracious support of the Ministry of Culture, Cameroon."

To the sides of Ban Ki-moon's rostrum were not only diplomats from Cameroon, but also self-described Chinese businessmen, doing interviewed with CC TV.

Inner City Press asked a senior DPI official, who are these sponsors? You'll have to ask Cameroon's delegation, was the answer, they're the one's we deal with. Follow-up inquiry led to two answers: "the Chinese guys are the sponsors," and for anything more to look at the World Harmony Foundation's web site, www.whf-foundation.org.

The problem is, the web site of this sponsor of a UN event has no information on the pages for Board of Directors or even "Sponsors." Under "Our Sponsors," it says "will be listed soon, currently being updated." Under board of directors, it says "page is being updated, sorry for any inconvenience." Some say it is all too convenient. The sponsor, it appears, is "Under Construction."

Another UN official in charge of the event said that only upon arrival did he realize "something was weird," and ask about the co-sponsors. He hearkened back to the last UN Staff Day, in which this same World Harmony Foundation brought a team of acrobats from China for an event in a less than half filled General Assembly Hall. Inner City Press asked, what are these sponsors looking for? A photo with the Secretary General, was the answer, or a UN award they can use for prestige in their private business.

One of the "Drums" event's sponsors is listed as the "recent recipient of the 2009 Millennium Development Award," but sources connected with the event earlier this month say this is not at all clear. That event was sponsored mid-coup by Madagascar, awards were handed out to people not even on the program. Tuesday's program gave a "very special thanks" to "Ms. Loula Loi Alafoyiannis, Euro-American Women's Council, for her tireless efforts."

Close observers of this murky world at the UN's edges where it interfaces not only with NGOs but also with business say that former UNEP director Noel Brown is looking for $180,000 a year as the part-time director of an affiliate, the World Harmony Alliance. How these entities raise and make money is another question, for another column.

The actual drums, it must be said, were impressive and well-played. Reportedly they were flown in on a separate cargo plane, and ran into problems at customers. There were tam-tams and tambours; there was the Ambassador of Sudan, slated to dine that evening with joint African Union - UN chief mediator on Darfur Djibril Bassole. Among Ban Ki-moon's staff, Vijay Nambiar, Kim Won-soo and Lynn Pascoe were in attendance.

Footnote: earlier on Tuesday, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon if he intended on Wednesday to name American Peter Galbraith to the #2 UN top in Afghanistan. Tomorrow is the day, Ban said, while playfully declining to confirm that Galbraith has the post. The Obama administration has already told the media that he does, while denying they want to create and fill a Number Two slot in the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai. This seems to be their strategy, and how it will apply to UN headquarters is not yet known.

Post script: at a March 25 press conference, Inner City Press asked the head of the Culture Project to comment on the co-sponsor, the World Harmony Foundation. After some hemming and hawing, he said, we are all trying to raise money from China these days...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1sponsorsdrum032409.html

Sri Lanka Shelling of No Fire Zone Noted at UN, Claims Pillay is Not UN, Asks IMF Loan for Detention Camps which UNICEF Confirms It Serves

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsri6lanka032409.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 24 -- While in the UN Security Council the request of Mexico, the United States and the European Union members for a briefing on Sri Lanka remains pending, top UN Humanitarian John Holmes on Tuesday told the Press there is evidence of government shelling of the supposed No Fire Zone which, along with Tamil Tiger firing, "needs to stop." Video here, from Minute 49:45.

Inner City Press asked Holmes about the document leaked to Inner City Press from his Office describing 2,683 killings of civilians between January 20 and March 7. "You've seen that internal document," Holmes conceded, noting that the figures used by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay were "roughly comparable."

Ms. Pillay has said there is evidence of war crimes by both the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government. Within the UN, surprise at some Security Council members' opposition to even hearing a briefing about the conflict and over 2,600 deaths continues to mount.

In Sri Lanka, Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona has been quoted in a pro-government newspaper that

"the UN has never come out with any allegations against the government on how it conducts the war. There are 193 countries in the UN and we haven’t heard any one of these members say anything to that effect either. It is wrong to make these statements as those reflective of the UN. Ms. Pillay is only the High Commissioner for Human Rights. She is not the UN."

Ban Ki-moon's spokespeople say he has told Sri Lanka's president, in telephone conversations, that the killing of civilians must stop. At the UN, when one asked the spokespeople for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon certain questions, they refer the question to their "colleagues" at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. As recently as March 23, Inner City Press asked Ban's Associate Spokesperson

Inner City Press: There are increasing reports that in the Gambia up to 1,000 people have been arrested and charged with witchcraft. Some of them disappeared. Amnesty International has issued a report about it. I haven’t seen this either from the Human Rights Commissioner or from the Secretariat. Has anyone from the UN system taken note of this development and had anything to say about it?

Associate Spokesperson: We’re aware of those developments. We don’t have any comment on that. If you want anything further, you might want to follow up with our colleagues in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

So the claim that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights "is not the UN" is ludicrous.

Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona further claims that as long as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council wants to block a briefing on Sri Lanka, a briefing cannot happen. This is not true, as the Council's proceedings on Zimbabwe for example show.

Minister Kohona has said that

"There is no way you can compare our situation to what happened in Zimbabwe, and the situation would have to be so dire and every other option eliminated before one would get to that. The main mandate of the UN is of international peace and security, and the member countries have expressed confidence that the situation in Sri Lanka doesn’t call for such concern. The situation in Sri Lanka is not anywhere near a threat to international peace and security. The only one posing such a threat is the LTTE."

On the civilian killed figures, Sri Lanka already surpasses Zimbabwe, which was deemed a threat to international peace and security. Much less deadly Haiti, too, is on the Security Council's agenda. It is the "situation" that is considered, and if even one party, as conceded above, is called such a threat, the legal threshold is met.

UNICEF, which Inner City Press asked last week about funding for government-run detention camps, has now responded:

Subj: Sri Lanka
From: UNICEF spokesman
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 3/24/2009 1:24:43 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time

In response to your oral questions about Sri Lanka late last week, UNICEF’s focus at present is on providing assistance to thousands of children who are in need of humanitarian support. UNICEF is working with partners to ensure that the 40,000 IDPs who have left the conflict zone have access to:

* safe water and proper sanitation;

* nutrition support for children and pregnant and lactating women;

* temporary learning spaces, so children can continue their schooling;

* psychosocial support for children who need it; and

* urgent assistance for unaccompanied or separated children.

Many of these children have been through very difficult experiences. Some have been displaced multiple times in the past 12 months. UNICEF currently has access to children in the camps.

The issue of freedom of movement was raised by USG Holmes last week and is being discussed with the Government by the UN's Country Team in Sri Lanka. Whilst these discussions continue, UNICEF will continue its efforts to meet the emergency needs of a growing number of children.

While understanding UNICEF's logic, the fact remains that the agency is participating in what many called internment camps. Watch this site.

Footnotes: from mail received, and for example Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona's above-quoted statements, one infers a blinding rage, not unlike from some in another recently conflict, that any focus on civilian deaths only helped a group called terrorist. It is ironic that some of those supporting the Sri Lankan government's attempt to block any UN Security Council hearing of the issue were loudly concerned with the other situation, and chided the UN for not doing enough.

Human Rights Watch, citing Inner City Press' publication of the leaked January 20-March 7 UN casualty figures, reported an updated that "a copy of the patient list from the makeshift hospital in Putumattalan on file with Human Rights Watch contains the names of 978 people brought to the hospital from March 1 to March 10. According to the list, 79 adults and 40 children died, while 646 adults and 213 children were injured."

Viewed through the prism of another conflict, while the UN due to pushing from the US and UK and others was quick to release casualty figures for Darfur, it has tried to withhold its Sri Lanka casualty figures, until they were leaked to Inner City Press. Does this mean that the UK and US are, despite public claims to the contrary, not pushing very hard? Watch this site, including on issues surrounding the proposed IMF loan to Sri Lanka, including to “continue with the resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the Northern Province.” The Sri Lankan government has asked the IMF to finalize negotiations on the loan by March 31...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsri6lanka032409.html

In Somalia, UNDP Said to Take Sides, No Financial Answers, UN Post Intrigue

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsc2somalia032409.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 24 -- Optimism about Somalia is a new trend in and around the in UN in New York. Days after the country's new foreign minister -- himself British -- told the Press outside the Security Council that one month of receipts from the Mogadishu port portends well for the paychecks of the Transitional Federal Government's ever multiplying number of parliamentarians, the International Peace Institute presented two experts, both upbeat about the negotiations in Djibouti and the UN which sponsored them.

As at the Council, however, no one would say how many the UN paid, from or to whom. IPI's two presenters, Ken Menkhaus of Davidson College and Somali expert Jabril Abdulle, both said that the Shabaab rebels are on the run, the port is in government hands and the future is rosy. Inner City Press asked for an assessment of the performance of UN envoy Ahmedou Ould Abdallah and the UN's Group of Experts on sanctions. The former called for a moratorium on reporting from Somalia; the later reported a few years ago that Somali militants were in South Lebanon for training, which made more Somali-watchers laugh.

Menkhaus defended the Group of Experts recent work, dismissing the Lebanon error -- since 2006 -- as "in the distant past." He did, however, sound a cautionary note about the role of the UN Development Program, which he said has been paying the salaries of security forces in Somalia. Abdulle added that the UN paid to transport the bloated Somali TFG contingent from Djibouti to Mogadishu. On Friday, Inner City Press' question to Ould Abdallah about what the UN pays for in Somalia was referred, through his spokesperson Susie Price, to UNDP. Four days after promising an answer, UNDP has still not answered.

Menkhaus noted the attack on UNDP last year, and said the agency is perceived as taking sides. Perhaps this partiality is mirrored in an unwillingly to provide basic financial information about what is spends in Somalia, and on what.

Footnote: The head of IPI, Terje Roed Larsen, was not in attendance on Tuesday. Inner City Press has asked UN spokespeople for reaction to Syria's critique of Roed Larsen as exceeding him mandate as UN envoy under Security Council resolution 1559. Roed Larsen is also one of the most senior UN officials who has rebuffed Ban Ki-moon's call to make basic public financial disclosure. Now, Roed Larsen's wife Mona Juul is rumored as a closed by failed candidate for the vacant Assistant Secretary General post in the UN Department of Political Affairs vacated by Angela Kane. The post, sources say, is slated for UNDP's previous Middle East operative, Oscar Fernandez Taranco, well imbued in UNDP's culture. We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc2somalia032409.html

UNHCR's Johnstone, Of Failing Anti-Africa Relocation, Decamps for USA at Half Pay

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2hcrjohnstone032409.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 23 -- The UN's Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees L. Craig Johnstone, architect of a money-losing relocation of jobs to Budapest instead of Africa because, he said, UNHCR couldn't find qualified Africans, is now himself relocating to the West Coast of his native USA.

Earlier this month, UNHCR sources told Inner City Press Johnstone was trying to convince UNHCR boss Antonio Guterres that he should get full pay to work from the West Coast. Inner City Press, which had previously covered Johnstone's ill-fated shift of jobs to Budapest instead of Africa, made inquiries.

When word leaked out, Guterres counter proposed that Johnstone get only half the salary, and pay the extra travel costs on his own. To some, it's a rare partial victory for accountability within the UN system. Others wonder why Johnstone, who admitted his post is reserved for the United States, can still draw any pay at all.

The move Johnstone engineered, from Geneva to Budapest, has resulted money lost and not saved. At the time of the move, Inner City Press interviewed Johnstone who said, on the record, that qualified workers could not be found in Africa.

Inner City Press asked why Africa hadn't even been one of the four locations considered . (The others were Bucharest, Chennai and Kuala Lumpur.) "Is Africa the right place to establish a procurement center?" Johnstone asked. "A payroll center? What are the capability of the local people to carry out the functions?"

When Inner City Press reported this, Johnstone back pedaled, bad mouthing Inner City Press in the process.

Now, UNHCR whistleblowers have provided Inner City Press with an Excel spreadsheet showing the less than stellar performance of the Johnstone-designed move from Geneva. The sources say "Budapest in 2008 costs 17.8 million and 19.9 estimated for 2009 NOT the 7.9 million they are basing the savings on." Inner City Press asked Switzerland's Ambassador to the UN Peter Maurer for comments, and Ambassador Maurer said that often such moves do not result in the promised savings. In this case, UNHCR lost money.

Other intra-UNHCR scandals have included irregularities in Staff Union elections, reported failure to have insurance on UNHCR staff members in Algeria, where UNHCR and the UN were bombed in December 2008 (UNHCR began dodging questions at that point), and the trading of jobs for donations.

Additionally, UNHCR sources tell Inner City Press that former UNHCR controller, Colin Mitchell, an Australian who retired in May 2008, was reprimanded by UNHCR in April 2008 for reopening 2006 purchase orders to soak up excess funds so that it would not appear that UNHCR had not spent all its donor funding in 2007. He was then promoted after his reprimand by Guterres to grade D-2, retroactive to 1 January 2007, one week before his retirement -- a nice golden handshake in his pension package.

These sources say that at UNHCR, as in many other locations in the UN system, rewards are doled out in contravention of rules in order to buy silence and keep skeleton closets closed.

And now Antonio Gutteres, fresh from his recent visit to Myanmar where he talked some about the Rohingya but not sufficiently about the Karen people, described in the press today as being displaced and slaughtered by the army, on March 23 issued the following whitewash e-mail to his staff:

Sent: lundi 23 mars 2009 14:07
Subject: All Staff Message from the High Commissioner on the Deputy High Commissioner

Craig Johnstone joined UNHCR as Deputy High Commissioner in June 2007. In the ensuing almost two years he has discharged the duties of that office in an exemplary manner. I have relied on him to spearhead UNHCR’s structural reform to include introduction of results-based

management and, most recently, to introduce needs-based planning and budgeting (GNA) and to undertake fundamental human resources reform. He has also provided invaluable advice in responding to the current global financial crisis, so far allowing the organization to avoid capping exercises or other reductions in the resources available to our beneficiaries.

At the beginning of this year, Craig advised that for family reasons he would have to return to the United States and therefore, with regret, asked to resign. In view of his leadership of the ongoing reforms I was reluctant to accept his resignation. After consulting with the UN Secretary-General, I asked Craig to continue in the exercise of his Deputy High Commissioner functions on a half-time, half-pay basis until at least after the Executive Committee’s consideration of the new GNA-based budget in the fall of 2009, when we would review these arrangements.

In order to see through the successful conclusion of the reforms for which he is primarily responsible, Craig agreed to remain on this basis. Indeed, he offered to do so without any compensation whatsoever. I did not think that appropriate but I do wish to clarify that all expenses for travel between his family in the United States and Geneva will be borne entirely by Craig.

Prior to Craig’s final departure we will commence the process for the identification of his successor, relying on the methodology used for his own selection.

Antonio Guterres

Beyond the fact that Inner City Press has been told by well-placed sources that Johnstone tried to keep his whole salary, if as Guterres white washes it Johnstone now offers to forego compensation, like the executives of failed Wall Street banks, why pay him? Is Guterres performing his fiduciary duties? He was recently in New York at UN Headquarters, but made no press availability. Here's hope for one, soon. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2hcrjohnstone032409.html

At UN, More Questions About Satyam Contracts and Procurement Orders Arise

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un4satyam032309.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 23 -- As the scandals around Satyam, the so-called Indian Enron, continue to gather force, further discrepancies emerged on Monday about the Satyam contracts with the United Nations which the UN has said it is cancelling. At Monday's UN noon briefing Inner City Press asked UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq

Inner City Press: a Satyam question. In reviewing the website of the Procurement Division, it seems like there was a contract reached for just over $6 million in July 2008, but there were two purchase orders of $3.3 million in June and July 2008. So some are saying that this means that… Was the full $6 million… Was $6 million and more actually paid already to Satyam under that contract? And two, what explains the discrepancy between what was the purchase orders and the contracts?

Associate Spokesperson Haq: I am not going to get too much into the details of the Satyam deals, just to let you know that all throughout the UN system we’d taken the decision not to have further dealings with Satyam. So the current deals that had been previously made are all being wrapped up. And so that’s where we stand on that.

Inner City Press: So exactly on that point -- I don’t want to go on and on and on -- but the deal that runs through 2013, has all the money in fact been paid and is there any provision for it to be returned? It seems from this that the money was already actually paid out. So what wrapping up would mean is not clear to some people.

Associate Spokesperson Haq: Throughout the system the various bodies of the UN will wrap up the contracts. The details of that may need some fine-tuning, it may need to be worked out in the coming months. But, certainly, all the contracts are being wrapped to whatever extent that things that are already in the pipeline need to be completed, some will be completed, but it will all be shut down.

But why would the UN apparently have paid in advance for work to be done until 2013? What of the seeming $600,000 discrepancy? The questions arise in the context of the UN having misspoken earlier this month about its Procurement Division's coverage of the UN-affiliated International Computing Center, and belated admission that Satyam serves the UN through ICC contracts as well. Developing.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un4satyam032309.html

In Kosovo, Privatizations May Include Ex-UN Officials Schook and Walker with Ramush

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/kpp1schook032309.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 23 -- The Kosovo Trust Agency has passed from the UN into Kosovar hands, Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni told the Press on March 23, and it will privatize the "vast majority" of the underlying socially and publicly owned enterprises. Waiting in line, sources tell Inner City Press, are Kosovar Ramush Haradinaj and with him, two American former UN officials in Kosovo, Steven Schook and William Walker. Inner City Press on Monday asked the current head of the UN Mission in Kosovo, Lamberto Zannier, if there are any rules concerning former UNMIK officials benefiting from the privatizations in Kosovo. Video here, from Minute 1:12.

Zannier said he wasn't aware of any UN rules, only "professional ethics." He said that while Schook is a private individual, "we'll also assess what he does based on that," referring to undefined professional ethics. The UN had claimed to have anti-revolving door safeguards.

This case goes beyond the usual conflicts of interest. The allegation is that Schook passed information to Haradinaj, including about witnesses before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Several ended up dead. Now, the sources say, comes pay back time, referring not only to the Kosovo Power Plant Project (and other political projects), but even further privatizations. And the UN has nothing to say. There was a previous quashed probe of Schook by the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services; click here for one of Inner City Press' previous articles on Schook and on the KTA.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, after predicting Inner City Press would ask "hard questions," said he's heard of Schook's involvement as well, and that the European Union's EULEX Rule of Law mission as well as the UN should investigate. Video here, from Minute 5:25. But EULEX cannot even agree to let the UN attend its meetings in Belgrade, it emerged on Monday. Zannier said the UN would only attend if the "two parties" agreed. Surprisingly, this did not mean Serbia and Kosovo, but Serbia and EULEX.

Inner City Press asked Hyseni about Serbian President Boris Tadic's complaint that the Mayor of Belgrade was barred from carrying humanitarian aid into northern Kosovo. Hyseni replied that these were "provocations," and that permission had to be sought from protocol officials of the Republic of Kosovo. Jeremic used the word province with respect to Kosovo, and said all should be on hold pending the case before the International Court of Justice about the legality of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence.

Hyseni on the other hand said he plans to meet with at least 20 countries' representatives during the next two days in New York, with an emphasis on countries which have not recognized Kosovo's UDI. Watch this site.

Footnote: The disparate response to the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo and that of, for example, Western Sahara, Abkhazia and South Ossetia has previously been raised at the Security Council stakeout. More recently, a comparison that some have been has been to the situation of Tamils in northern Sri Lanka. There are many points on which to compare, from 1999 -- when as some said Monday in the Council, NATO bombed Serbia for its military acts in its province of Kosovo -- to 2008, when the UDI occurred and major Western powers strong armed smaller countries into granting recognition. Now even on the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka, these powers hardly push for a Council briefing, and others on the Council try to block even this. To be continued.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/kpp1schook032309.html

On ICC, Letter Targets UN's d'Escoto, No Bashir Interpol Request, Obasanjo Critiques ICC

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/icc2africa032309.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 23 -- As Sudan's President Omar al Bashir defies the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes by flying to Eritrea, one of many African countries angered by the ICC's indictment, the President of the ICC's State Parties Christian Wenaweser has written a scathing letter to Miguel d'Escoto Brockman, the President of UN General Assembly, for his comment that the ICC is "racist."

Wenaweser, the Ambassador to the UN of tiny Liechtenstein, tells d'Escoto that his comments are "factually wrong and detrimental to a constructive discussion," in a letter Inner City Press has obtained and now puts online, here [Page 1 Page 2]

In a press conference last week, d'Escoto noted that all of the cases brought by ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo have been in Africa. Inner City Press on March 20 asked Ocampo if he intends to bring any non-Africa cases, for example in Sri Lanka where UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has said war crimes are being committed by both the Tamil Tigers and the government. Ocampo replied that Sri Lanka is not a party to the ICC -- neither is Sudan -- and went on to say he is "guilty" of "caring about Africans."

The African Union, it seems, would prefer Ocampo take his caring elsewhere. While Ocampo bragged of Bashir to the media on March 20 that "I will get him," sources tell Inner City Press that it has been conveyed to the ICC that if an attempt is made to apprehend Bashir at this time, the African Union members which are state parties to the ICC will drop out en masse, and deal the ICC a serious if not fatal blow. If Bashir travels to an upcoming conference in Doha and no attempt at apprehension is made -- Ocampo on March 20 told reporters that Bashir would be grabbed in international airspace -- some will see the AU threat having effect.

As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and senior officials attended a meeting with Interpol on March 23, Inner City Press asked top UN Peacekeeper Alain Le Roy about Bashir - Interpol connections. No, he said, we just asked them and they [Interpol] said the ICC has not yet made any request" about President Bashir. Whether this has anything to do an African Union threat is not known.

Footnote: Inner City Press at the UN's noon briefing on March 23 asked for any response by Ban Ki-moon or the Secretariat to comments by Ban's envoy, and former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obansanjo to BBC that he does not take at face value the ICC's indictment of Bashir, and would have to see more proof.

Ban's Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq emphasized that while Obasanjo will be representing Ban in upcoming meetings, he does not speak for the UN regarding Sudan. Inner City Press also asked in the briefing how and how much Obasanjo is paid by the UN, just as Inner City Press and an Italian media outlet asked last week how much Romano Prodi is paid. Neither question has been answered.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/icc2africa032309.html

On Sri Lanka, Japan Wants UN Briefing, Austria Concerned about Killing by Both Sides

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsri5lanka032309.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 23 -- As Sri Lanka's government continues to ignore UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's month-old call for a suspension of fighting in the north, it also bragged of China's blocking of a Security Council briefing requested by the Council's European Union members along with, at least Mexico and the U.S.. Pro-government media claimed over the weekend that Japan, along with six other Council members including Turkey and Uganda, was also opposed to any briefing of the Council.

Monday outside the Council, Inner City Press asked Japan's Ambassador to the UN, Yukio Takaso, if this is Japan's position. "No, I don't think that is accurate," Ambassador Takasu said of the report Japan does not want a Council briefing. "We are still hoping for consensus," he added.

Austria's position had been more openly misrepresented, as their support for a Council briefing being based only on the actions of the LTTE or Tamil Tigers. The spokesperson for the Austrian Mission to the UN, Verena Nowotny, in the course of a ten minute clarifying interview with Inner City Press offered the following on-the-record quote, that "because of concern about the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka, we [Austria] want to make it part of the agenda of the Security Council."

Inner City Press asked Marty Natalegawa, the UN Ambassador of Indonesia which was on the Security Council last year, why some countries are opposing a briefing in the Council about the conflict in Sri Lanka. "It always starts with a humanitarian briefing," he said, referring among others to Zimbabwe and Myanmar, which humanitarian briefings led to formal inscription on the Council's agenda and, in the case of Zimbabwe, sanctions resolutions proposed by the United States and UK, among others.

On March 20, US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice told Inner City Press that "the United States feels strongly about and concerned about Sri Lanka and we support the provision of it to the Council- a full and updated information on the humanitarian situation." (Strangely, India's National Newspaper the Hindu sourced this quote to a Tamil website, when it is available on-camera on the Internet, and through the US Mission to the UN.)

But another Council diplomat on Monday noted that "every country has its list of priorities," and that for the U.S. that for now is Sudan. The U.S. expended political capital to get a Council meeting on Sudan on March 20; how hard the U.S. is pushing for a briefing of the Council with "full and updated information on the humanitarian situation" in Sri Lanka is not clear.

Likewise, while UK minister David Miliband has said that the UK would like a resolution on Sri Lanka but has held off because it is worse to get resolutions vetoed -- as China and Russia have apparently threatened to do -- it is noted that the UK pushed forward supporting the Zimbabwe draft sanctions resolution even as China and Russia vetoed it. Every country has its priorities.

A senior UN official opined to Inner City Press that even those countries which are troubled by the killing of civilians in northern Sri Lanka, including by the government, are nevertheless reticent to too openly call for a ceasefire. If they do, the official continued, and the Tamil Tigers bounce back and kill civilians, the Sri Lankan government will blame those who called for the ceasefire.

To summarize -- can't tell the players without a scorecard -- those Security Council members which say they are in favor of a Sri Lanka briefing in the Council have the nine votes they would need to get the meeting, if they pushed forward and called the procedural vote they are entitled to, which is not subject to the veto power of China or Russia. But these ostensible supporters, or at least some of them, are "waiting for consensus," as Japan's Takasu said. Such consensus seems unlikely, unless some countervailing concession is made to, at least, China. What might that be? Watch this site.

Footnote: Japan's priority in the Council for now is the threatened April 4-8 launch by North Korea of a satellite or missile. While Japan said it wanted a Council meeting, it now appears they want the meeting only after the scheduled launch. Japan would like a condemning resolution, but others, including China, want only a less powerful Presidential Statement. Negotiations have already begun -- some have ever mis-reported that a Presidential Statement is already being drafted -- and one wonders how this effects Japan's presentation of its ostensible support for a Council briefing on Sri Lanka...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsri5lanka032309.html

On Sri Lanka, US' Rice Joins Call for UN Council Briefing, ICC's Ocampo Queried, UNESCO Silent

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsri4lanka032009.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 20 -- With the plight of more than 100,000 civilians trapped in Sri Lanka's conflict zone worsening, at the UN on March 20 U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told the Press that "the United States feels strongly about and concerned about Sri Lanka and we support the provision of it to the Council- a full and updated information on the humanitarian situation." Transcript here, video here.

Inner City Press had asked, at the Security Council stakeout microphone after a US-requested meeting on Darfur, if the U.S. was considering evacuation of the civilians trapped in fighting between the Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers, being "fired on from both sides." Ambassador Rice did not directly address this point, but rather expressed support for a Security Council meeting.

On March 19, UK Ambassador John Sawers told Inner City Press that the "European Union members" of the Council have made a request for a meeting in the Council on the topic of Sri Lanka. The Mexican and Costa Rican Ambassador have indicted they are actively supporting the request. China, described as "vehemently" opposing any Sri Lanka briefing, was said Friday by a Western diplomat to be asking for more time, "delaying the process."

Close observers of the Council note that even if China remains opposed, a meeting can scheduled by a procedural vote, on which China's veto rights would not prevail. The US and UK have used this procedure before, for example as noted by one observer in the case of Zimbabwe, which China and Russia likewise called only an internal matter, as they call Sri Lanka.


One wag noted that this standard of only meeting on "threats to international peace and security" give a perverse incentive to groups like the Tamil Tigers to internationalize their conflicts, by striking outside the national borders.

All this takes place two days after the UN involuntarily admitted counting 2,683 civilian killings in Sri Lanka from January 20 to March 7 of this year, in a UN document leaked to and published by Inner City Press. The document, placed online here, is now in the possession of the numerous Council diplomats and Ambassadors, and of senior UN political and human rights officials.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay recently said that war crimes may be being committed in Sri Lanka by both the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government. Outside the Security Council's meeting Friday on Sudan, whose president Omar al-Bashir has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, Inner City Press got the chance to ask ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo if, following Ms. Pillay's analysis, he is considering action on Sri Lanka. They are not a state party [to the ICC's Rome Statute], Ocampo replied. He has been criticized, most recently by the President of the UN General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, for seeking war crimes indictments only in Africa.

An ICC staffer traveling with Ocampo told Inner City Press that following Ms. Pillay's public statement about war crimes in Sri Lanka, the ICC opened a file, or database. But she repeated that Sri Lanka not being a member of the ICC creates jurisdiction problems, and noted that the Tamils have not even, as for example the Palestinians have, made a formal request for jurisdiction.

The Security Council members headed from their meeting to a weekend retreat with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has previously without effect called for a suspension of fighting. They will be back for Council meetings on Monday. Watch this site.

Footnote: at the UN noon briefing on March 18, nner City Press asked UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Education Nicholas Burnett why his agency, while condemning crackdowns on the press in the Philippines and elsewhere, has said nothing about the newspaper editors locked up during the current conflict in Sri Lanka, and journalists previously killed. Mr. Burnett said, I can get you an answer. Video here, from Minute 18:36. Three hours later his spokesperson asked Inner City Press to email the questions, which was done:

As I asked at the briefing earlier today, what has UNESCO had to say about the recent imprisonment of two journalists in Sri Lanka, on which RSF is requesting UN action

This is a specific request, also, for comment on 1) the killing of a journalist described at http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30312

and 2) on the comments which the Sri Lankan President’s brother, Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa made about Vithyatharan in an interview for ... Australia's Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). “He is involved in the recent air attack and I am telling you if you try to give cover-up for that person you have blood in your hands,” Rajapaksa said. “And if someone says he is arrested because he is in media, that person also has blood on his hands.”

UNESCO's answers, not received in the two days the question was asked at noon, will be published on this site after they are received.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsri4lanka032009.html