By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 26 -- With Dominique Strauss Kahn now under townhouse arrest in Tribeca in New York, the International Monetary Fund on Thursday held its first open and online press briefing since DSK's arrest for sexual assault.
IMF spokesperson Caroline Atkinson began blithely about DSK's interim replacement John Lipsky's travel.
When she opened up for questions -- with only three exceptions on Greece and Portugal, only from those in the briefing room in Washington -- she was asked directly, did you check the IMF's files before saying you were “not aware” of other complaints against DSK?
“I am not a lawyer,” Ms. Atkinson said, adding that it would somehow be inappropriate for the IMF to make disclosure of previous formal complaints against Strauss Kahn, since he is now on trial.
Likewise, she declined to answer a question about the ability to withhold the reported $250,000 severance payment to Strauss Kahn.
The IMF spokesperson was reduced to saying that the (American) ethics adviser at the Fund hadn't “found any bad stuff.”
In the past week, Inner City Press has submitted factual questions to the IMF that the IMF has not answered, such as on May 20:
--In today's UN noon press briefing I was told to “ask the IMF” about Dominique Strauss Kahn's UN Laissez Passer. If holding the LP is based on being an IMF official or staffer, given Mr. Strauss Kahn's resignation, why hasn't the LP been retrieved? What policies does the IMF have for the LPs of persons who resign or are terminated?
--what policies does the IMF have regarding the pensions and end-of-service payments to individuals charged with, or convicted of, felonies including those involving moral turpitude, such as sexual assault? Has Mr. Strauss Kahn receive any payment since his resignation, or does his resignation trigger one?
-- on my outstanding question about disclosures to the IMF under the IMF's cited policy on gifts, I have asked about Mr. Strauss Kahn and Mr. Lipksy but am now expanding the request to cover the ten top IMF officials.
Other reporters in the room on Thursday complained about not having their questions answered, and about Executive Board members saying they'd been told to refer all question, regardless of topic, back to the IMF Media Department (which does not answer).
Inner City Press iterated the above questions, and a pressing one on Sudan, during the IMF's briefing on Thursday. But it seems the IMF is trying to hide from straight forward questions.
Update: after publication of the above, an answer was received on Sudan, nothing on the DSK questions:
Matthew: For your question on Sudan, you can attribute this to an IMF spokesperson. We deplore the violence and hope for a speedy end to the fighting. As you know, South Sudan has applied for membership, and that process is ongoing. A mission is on the ground now in Juba to discuss the membership process with the authorities.
