For ICC, France Offered to Support Unqualified Judge Quid Pro Quo for Cathala

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, October 29 -- In the run up to the election of six International Criminal Court judges set for New York in December, France offered to support a candidate found to be unqualified if his country would support the French candidate Bruno Cathala, Inner City Press has learned.

There are 19 candidates for the six ICC judge seats. They were reviewed by the Independent Panel on International Criminal Court Judicial Elections and four -- from Tunisia, Cyprus, Costa Rica and Mexico -- were found to be "unqualified."

The Panel's members include not only South African justice and international prosecutor Richard Goldstone, and ICTY and US judge Patricia Wald but also former top UN lawyer Hans Corell.

Nevertheless, when one of the "unqualified" candidates met with France to try to make his case, he tells Inner City Press that he was surprised to be offered a deal: that if his country committed to vote for the French candidate, he could count on France's vote.

France styles itself a champion of international criminal justice and accountability. But just as it asserted itself to place atop UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous, the chief of staff of foreign ministers Alain Juppe and Michele Aliot-Marie including when she flew on planes owned by cronies of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali, it is seeking to its candidate Bruno Cathala as a judge on the ICC. Will it work?

Beyond this quid pro pro, when Inner City Press previously asked Cathala when he was ICC Registrar about immunity given toLaurent Nkunda in the Kivus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he replied that the ICC was not part of the negotiation of that immunity which, he claimed, did not include war crimes or other ICC-relevant crimes.

Cathala quoted the ICC's deputy prosecutor (and now candidate to replace Moreno Ocampo) Fatou Bensouda that the ICC's phase of investigation in Ituri was over. But indicteee Ngudjolo's co-warlord Peter Karim was and is still in the Congolese Army, despite having kidnapped and killed UN peacekeepers.

Since Karim ultimately released some of the peacekeepers, it appears that he got some deal. So even beyond the quid pro quo, there are further questions to be asked. Inner City Press' series on the ICC and ICJ judicial elections and needed reforms will continue. Watch this site.

As UN Is Urged to Monitor Sudan Moving Militia, DPKO Chief Claims No Mandate

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 29 -- As Sudan's government drives civilians perceived to be opponents out of Blue Nile State, the UN's new head of Peacekeeper Herve Ladsous has told Inner City Press that the peacekeeping mission in Darfur, UNAMID, has no mandate to monitor the government's reported flying of Janjaweed militia from Darfur to Blue Nile.

Shocked by this answer from a billion dollar a year UN peacekeeping mission, Inner City Press put the question to several Permanent Representatives on the Security Council, including US Ambassador Susan Rice, asking her whether she thought UNAMID could or should monitor flights from Darfur allegedly full of janjaweed transported by the government to Blue Nile State.

Ambassador Rice said, "I'd have to take a close look at the text of recent mandates but I'm not aware of anything that would make that clear."

Inner City Press asked about the UN having an abiding duty to stop war crimes

Ambassador Rice said, "I don't think it's specifically mandated."

Further inquiry with the US Mission to the UN resulted, some days later on October 28, in this more detailed answer from the US Mission's Deputy Spokesman Payton Knopf:

“We’ve reviewed the mandates. UNAMID has a mandate from 2007 to monitor, verify, and promote efforts to disarm the Janjaweed and other militias. It can’t be expected to fulfill this mandate outside of Darfur. However, we would urge UNAMID to do all it can within its capabilities and area of deployment to track, deter, and report on any movements by air of Janjaweed to areas outside of Darfur.”

It would seem that the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and its chief should also know about the mandate of UNAMID with regard to disarming the Janjaweed.

So Inner City Press went again on October 28 to ask this UN, this time the Deputy Spokesperson of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon:

Inner City Press: There is continued fighting in Blue Nile State of Sudan, and previously I’ve asked, the SPLA-North has alleged that Janjaweed fighters, the same militia that have been active in Darfur are being flown there, and I was told that there was no way they can monitor it. But in the mandate of UNAMID, they’re supposed to promote efforts to disarm the Janjaweed and other militias. So I wanted to know how this doesn’t include ensuring that armed Janjaweed militias are not flown elsewhere in Sudan to aid the Government in fighting rebels.

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, have you checked with DPKO now?

Inner City Press: Mr. Ladsous himself has said they’re not going to do it, and what I wanted to know is,how can that be? How can they ignore their mandate when people are being killed in Blue Nile State? That’s my question to you.

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, I think Mr. Ladsous has answered that question to you.

Inner City Press: then my question to Ban Ki-moon is how is it acceptable that the Head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations either hasn’t read the mandate or refuses to enforce it?

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, we’ll have to check and see...

No further answer was added to the UN's transcript of the October 28 noon briefing, where the Deputy Spokesperson said to look for it.

And so again we ask: how is it acceptable that the Head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations either hasn’t read the mandate or refuses to enforce it? Ladsous is on mission to Sudan -- will this issue follow him there? Watch this site.

As Occupy Wall Street Reaches Banks in Midtown, Paper Planes & UN Response

By Matthew Russell Lee

TIMES SQUARE, October 28, updated with video -- Taking the Occupy Wall Street protest into Midtown to deliver victimized consumers' letters to Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and others, a march moved west on 42nd Street on Friday, surrounded by police. JPMorgan Chase protest video here.

At Bank of America on Sixth Avenue, the letters were delivered in the form of paper airplanes addressed to "missing" CEO Brian Moynahan. Video here, and below.

Then the march, complete with two mock pirate ships, continued west to Times Square. Here on a recent Saturday night, riot cops and police horses kept protesters pinned down on either side of Broadway.

On Friday in broad daylight, the march moved north to Morgan Stanley where a song was sung. An invitation was extended to Morgan Stanley's honchos to come have lunch down near Liberty Square; jokes were made about Chase CEO Jaime Dimon. The east again to Park Avenue, where JPMorgan Chase sits on 48th Street (JPMC video here), and Citigroup nearby on Lexington.

#OccupyWallStreet on 42 St Oct 28, heading to BofA (c) MRLee

Back down in the park, generators used to heat the protesters have been seized, while in Bryant Park corporate gift shops can use them.

At the UN on October 27, Inner City Press asked for a comment on the police having fractured the skull of Iraq veteran Scott Olsen at Occupy Oakland. The spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Martin Nesirky, said that the authorities were investigating. President Obama, it's said, learns about Occupy Wall Street only through the newspapers. That might have to change. Watch this site.

On Libya, As UN Martin "Did Nothing" & Needs Extension, Western Priority Meetings

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, October 28 -- The UN's Libya envoy Ian Martin buzzed around the Security Council Friday morning, meeting with a number of Western ambassadors. Inner City Press has learned the purpose of his selective bilateral meetings: "he cannot set up UNSMIL in three months, he needs a rollover" -- that is, more time for the UN Support Mission in Libya.

But three non-Western Permanent Representatives consulted by Inner City Press not only had not met with Martin, their Missions to the UN had not even received any request from Martin for a meeting. This included a Permanent Five member of the Council.

Chinese Permanent Representative Li Baodong, not aware of any request from Martin, smiled and told Inner City Press, "That's a good point." The Permanent Representative of an African Union member said no contact had been made by Martin, despite statements that Africans and the African Union would be kept involved.

Sources on the UN's Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions say that Martin has requested to meet with them.

As Inner City Press previously reported, there is a $10 million cap on funds that can be expended without going to the full Fifth (Budget) Committee, yesterday the scene of a fiasco in which the European Union's insistent request to speak second was resolved, against the EU, by a coin flip - click here for that story.

"One third of Martin's mandate is gone and he did nothing," a Council diplomat told Inner City Press. "We all know he needs a roll over, he told the Security Council in an open session. But why do his meetings in this order?"

In fairness, UNSMIL is barely getting deployed. Martin briefed the Council by video not from Tripoli but Malta. But he or some other knowledgeable person about Libya in the UN needs to take and answer questions - and not only friendly questions, like friendly delegations.

Friday's buzzing around, yet another Council diplomat told Inner City Press, "shows who Martin's friend are."

Analysis: the irony is that that Council's non Western members see UN primacy in Libya as an alternative to NATO and its members. But then the UN, that is UNSMIL and Martin, should be evenhanded. The initial line up of leadership, and this, is "not the UN," as one Council diplomat put it to Inner City Press.

Canada's "Pro-Israel" Nuclear Vote Has Arabs Criticizing Fissile Material Resolution

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, October 27 -- After Canada voted "no" on UN resolution on nuclear weapons in the Middle East, a vote that was seen a further pro-Israel movement in Canadian foreign policy, diplomats of Arab countries began to discuss retaliating by voting against or abstaining on an otherwise unobjectionable Canada sponsor resolution on the fissile material, Inner City Press has learned.

Arab diplomats contacted by Inner City Press hearkened back to Canada's defeat a year ago for a Security Council seat, saying that too was attributable to Canada's pro-Israel, or anti-Palestinian, policies.

Now, they said, the fissile material resolution might be their only way to send another "message" to Canada.

This comes as several Left-leaning countries in the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States (GRULAC) have been expressing more support for Canada's fissile materials resolution.

They praised "L.40 rev. 1" to Inner City Press, by its Spanish title "Tratado de prohibicion de la produccion de material fissionable para la fabricacion de armas nucleares o otros dispositivos explosivos nucleares."

While Canada seeks to keep the two votes separate -- in voting against L.2 [101] "The Risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, Canada was joined only by the US, Israel, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands -- it represents a foreign policy "at war with itself," as one First Committee diplomat described it to Inner City Press.

Update: on October 28, there were fully 23 abstentions. Watch this site.

On UN Budget EU Fights For Place, US for Freeze, Coin Flipped, Ban Leaves Amid Criticism

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 27, updated -- Before the UN Budget committee met Thursday for the launch of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon budget proposal, a dispute broke out about how and when the European Union would speak.

In the scrum in the front of Conference Room 1 with committee chairman Tomo Monthe of Cameron were, among others, US Ambassador Joe Torsella, Egyptian Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz and new EU representative Thomas Mayr-Harting, previously the Permanent Representative of Austria.

After some shouting, the huddle broke up. Inner City Press learned from numerous sources that the EU's push to speak second after Argentina for the Group of 77 and China triggered much opposition, resolved finally by "a coin flip." The fight will continue, it was vowed.

Under the one-time solution, the EU was scheduled at the end of the regional groups. This was apparently not good enough: when Ban Ki-moon "surprisingly" got up and left even as the Caribbean group CARICOM spoke, Mayr-Harting and his entourage followed Ban out into the hall and huddled with him.

A European representative complained bitterly about G77's "pure provocation." A diplomat well versed in the budget expressed shock that Ban left, along with his senior adviser Kim Won-soo and Vijay Nambiar. "It won't help Ban," the diplomat predicted.

And there are many fights to come. Ban was criticized for, among many things, delays in his ERP project call UMOJA -- Ban's top management official Angela Kane has defended the project and its exposed former director -- and for refusing to appoint a Special Adviser on Africa.

(c) MRLee
Huddle of EU Mayr-Harting & Ban Ki-moon, Kim Won-soo, Caricom not shown

Only after the EU finally spoke would the US take the floor, in the form of Ambassador Joe Torsella. He had proposed televising the session; G77 responded that all General Assembly committees should be UNTV.

Inner City Press tweeted at Torsella for a reply; he tweeted back that the US seconds the motion to televise all budget committee functions. But what about the other committees? Watch this site.

Update: When the EU's turn came, Mayr Harting started procedurally, saying that Ban Ki-moon supports the EU position. Hence the hallway confab?

US Ambassador Joe Torsella called for a freeze in pay at the UN, and an end to Secretariat "add ons" and recosting. He said the UN budget is misleading and unclear. Can it be cleaned up? We'll be covering it.