By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, September 2 -- Despite speeches about democracy, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon dined in May next to Madagascar coup leader Andry Rajoelina.
His then deputy spokesman Farhan Haq proceeded to deny to Inner City Press that Ban had "met with" Rajoelina, despite photos of the dinner.
Rajoelina recently sent his de facto prime minister Camille Vital to New York, and it was reported in the Malagasy press that Vital met with Ban Ki-moon "to ask for the taking of concrete measures given the inefficiency of SADC," the Southern African Development Community.
As SADC still views Rajoelina as a coup leader, the implication was that Vitale was asking the Ban administration to facilitate his appearance and legitimization at the upcoming UN General Debate this month.
On August 29, Inner City Press in writing asked Ban's lead and deputy spokesmen
"on Madascagar, has the Secretariat received any request to meet with de facto prime minister Camille Vital or foreign Minister Yvette Sylla or any other Malagasy officials in the run up to the General Debate?"
Neither lead spokesman Martin Nesirky -- away from the office since early August -- or Farhan Haq, who gave the UN's briefing the next day on August 30 at which he introduced his successor as deputy Eduardo del Buey, answered or even acknowledged the question.
And so on September 2, Inner City Press asked del Buey the question asked in writing at the beginning of the week, about any meeting with de facto prime minister Vital:
Deputy Spokesperson del Buey: I’ll have to check and get back to you on that.
It would be easy to confirm or deny this meeting, but six hours later, no answer was given.
Inner City Press' own reporting finds that Vitale has confirmed that he met with Ban's "Under Secretary General" -- presumably, UN Department of Political Affairs chief Lynn Pascoe -- about finding a way to appear at this month's General Assembly.
Earlier in the month onAugust 17, the UN refused to answer Inner City Press' question about DPA's involvement in Madagascar, including through Joaquim Chissano.
So Ban Ki-moon's UN, while speechifying about democracy, is meeting secretly with coup leaders and refusing to answer questions about it.
Footnote: a Wikileaked cable shows that at the time of the 2009 coup, only Ban's envoy Tiebile Drame "expressed a strong position in support of consequences, and accompanying statements and talking points, for the extra-constitutional solution now in progress." So Ban and his UN and "extra-constitutional solution[s]" -- while they purport to be the central adviser to Libya on democracy. Watch this site.
