Pre-Coup Guinea Bissau Leader Blocked, Post-Coup Leader No UN Contacts?

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, September 29 -- The UN or two groups within it are are cross purposes on Guinea Bissua.

  As Inner City Press elicited from UN Under Secretary General Yuri Fedotov on September 27, his UN Office of Drugs and Crime will not work with or have contacts with the post-coup leaders including Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo.

    But on September 28, while the second speaker for the UN General Debates' afternoon 

session was listed as pre-coup president Raimundo Pereira, when his turn came he did not speak. He was blocked by the West African regional group ECOWAS, which recognizes the post-coup leaders, sources say, with the help of the US.

   As even the next day's debate on Saturday reached its end, Guinea Bissau had not spoken, There is only one more day: October 1.

  On whether UNODC works with the post-coup government, Fedotov told Inner City Press that it "obviously" does not even have any contacts with what he called the "military junta." Fedotov said:

 

"So far we keep our profile very low. We keep alive facilities we helped to install in Guinea Bissau, including transnational crime unit. Obviously as you understand we don't have any contacts with members of the military junta in Guinea Bissau. But we are keeping the modest assets we built, in close coordination with all UN programs and fund present there... That is an issue we are discussion with colleagues. I've had several meeting in New York. We'll continue to pursue matter and we'll see what could be done in this particular context."

 

One wonders, with Raimundo Pereira blocked, might post-coup leader Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo still somehow take Guinea Bissau's spot? Watch this site.

At UN, Eroglu of TRNC Proposes Pipeline Via Turkey, Ban Ki-moon to "Tell His Friends"

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, September 29 -- The issue of Cypriot hydrocarbon reserves, and who will drill for and sell them, has heated up. At the UN on September 26, after posing questions to Demetris Christofias, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky:

 

Inner City Press: the leader of the Turkish republic of northern Cyprus, Mr. [Dervis] Eroglu, has said that he is going to meet with the Secretary-General on Saturday, and he has given a preview of what he is going to say, which is that he proposes and they have signed a contract for oil exploration on what they view as their coast. Given the UN’s role in Cyprus, I understand [Ban] is going to have the meeting Saturday, but what is his view? Does each community have the right to sign its own contracts, do this exploration, or what should take place?

 

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, I think, first of all, we need to hear directly ourselves what the representative from northern Cyprus has to say. And that’s not going to be for another couple of days.

  On Saturday, September 29, Inner City Press asked Eroglu about his proposal and Ban's reaction, less than two hours after their meeting in a small press conference on the third floor of the Turkish Center across First Avenue from the UN.

  Inner City Press specifically asked, and will pursue, what would happen under this proposal with each side's existing contracts, with Noble and the Turkish petroleum company.

   Through his translator -- Inner City Press interviewed the tandem last year -- Eroglu replied that

 

"Last year we made a proposal, but first we asked Greek Cypriot side to stop this activity... we said, if you start your own drilling, we will have to carry out out own research and drilling. But they didn't stop... so we started our own... Last year we did sign two agreements with the Republic of Turkey, one was about the delineation of territorial waters, and the second one was with Turkish petroleum company... The TRNC started its drilling and it's continuing... We are also showing maximum offers waters of Eastern Mediterranean do not heat up."

 
  On Ban Ki-moon's response to the proposal, Eroglu said, "The Secretary Gen took our proposal. Last year, he said he would tell his friends to look into it. Today again, with a new element."

  This new element is the proposed shipment of the "hydrocarbon resources... through a pipeline via Turkey." The TRNC's "Talking Paper," obtained by Inner City Press and put online here, says that "other alternatives so far discussed, such as building an LNG plant or a pipeline via Greece, lack economic feasibility."

   Christofias, who will not run for office again, will surely not like the proposal; nor will his presumed successor. So will both sides' drilling just continue? Watch this site.

On Myanmar, Nambiar Cites One "Friend" Saying Gov't Not Responsible for Rohingya Abuse, Ban Mentioned Kachin

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, September 28 -- There were two narratives as well as two names, Myanmar and Burma, at work at the UN this week. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation held a special meeting about the abuse of the Muslim Rohingya; Iraq's vice president called it "genocide."

  Meanwhile when UN envoy Vijay Nambiar emerged from the Friends on Myanmar meeting past 6 pm on Friday, he described an upbeat meeting, and even mused that either Myanmar should be invited into the group or the group be disbanded if the UN's Third Committee does not again pass a resolution this year. 

  Inner City Press asked Nambiar about the Rohingya, and whether Ban and he thought Myanmar should stop denying them citizenship and leaving them stateless.

  Nambiar gave a detailed answer, that the issue had been raised inside the meeting -- he pointed out that at least one member said that the government is not behind the attacks.

  Even as Nambiar answered on Rohingya, in the General Assembly the foreign minister of the UAE made calls on the government of Myanmar on the topic. This minister met with Ban Ki-moon last Friday - was the Rohingya issue raised?

   Of the Kachin, when Inner City Press asked Nambiar of the open letter to Ban from the Kachin National Organization, he acknowledged it and said Ban's opening statement had noted that the talks in Kachin have stalled. He talked about cease fires and military pullbacks -- concepts also deployed, but differently, in Syria.

   One wonders, if the Third Committee does not pass a resolution, if this UN "Good Offices" on Myanmar office will continue. At the Indian Mission to the UN this week, there were photographs of that country's Ambassadors, and UN officials. Nambiar is the senior Indian official in the UN system. If the mandate ends, what next? Watch this site.

As Wittig Takes Abyei Question Ladsous Refused, DPKO Tries to Force Edit of UNTV Webcast

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, September 28 -- The dispute between Sudan and South Sudan about Abyei has been the subject of UN talk and spending at least since the time of the defunct Peacekeeping mission UNMIS.

  But on September 27, when Inner City Press asked "on Abyei, what is the UN's role?" the chief of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous refused to answer.

   On September 28, after belatedly obtaining a response to the same question from outgoing Security Council president Peter Wittig, Inner City Press learned that Ladsous' DPKO had hit a new low.

   DPKO asked to get even Inner City Press' question about Abyei removed from the UN webcast archived video.  That is the strategy: to censor or modify the UN's video production to make it appear that no question was even asked. A new low.

   But here, even if this new low for the UN is achieved by Ladsous and (at least) three spokespeople he has debased is successful, is YouTube video of that Abyei question stakeout. Video here.

  And German Ambassador Wittig, while seeking to focus on the congratulatory aspect of the UNSC Press Statement he read out, said that the Security Council will meet again about Sudan and South Sudan, and Abyei, and get a briefing from envoy Haile Menkerios. Apparently, the bi-weekly meetings on the Sudans will continue.

  But what of Ladsous and his refusal to answer Press questions about his job, and then attempts to get even the questions censored or edited out of the UN's webcast video? Who is hurting the UN's credibility?

  On Thursday evening, Ladsous' spokeswoman told the UNTV boom microphone operator not to give the mic to Inner City Press, and tried to convince the two other correspondents present to ask questions. But there were no other questions. Ladsous walked away from the microphone as Inner City Press asked the Abyei question. Now DPKO has asked to have the question edited out.

  Ladsous is hitting a new low. Beginning in late May, after Inner City Press ran an exclusive article about Ladsous' proposal behind closed doors that DPKO use drones, Ladsous had refused to answer any Inner City Press questions, no matter how simple.

Inner City Press asked Ladsous why his Department flew Congolese military officials to a meeting to recruit the Mai Mai militia to fight another group, the M23. Ladsous refused to answer.

 

But on Sudan and South Sudan, on which the member states which pay Ladsous' tax-free salary have spent billions, after millions of people have been killed, Ladsous' refusal to answer the basic question -- "on Abyei, what is the UN's role?" -- is particularly troubling.

By contrast, at the very same stakeout area earlier on the same day, Inner City Press questions were taken and answered by the foreign ministers of Jordan and Italy, Australia and the Netherlands. But Ladsous, ostensibly an international public servant, won't answer.

 
  A fish rots from the head, as the old saw goes. And this old saw, more than one diplomat has said, should go. Watch this site.

On Haiti, UN Won't Comment on Peacekeepers' Private Violence or Cholera Claim

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 28 -- General Debate week at the UN has been full of self-congratulation for many of the UN's missions "in the field." 

  But in Haiti, for example, UN peacekeeper stand accused of "private violence" against civilians and more generally of introducing cholera to the Island. And the UN dodges comments on and accountability for both of these.

On September 27, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky two questions about Haiti. (A third question, about how a Rwandan UN police officer in Haiti was killed by a gunshot to the head, remains unanswered.) From the transcript:

Inner City Press: the UN peacekeepers from Uruguay that were charged with abusing a boy there have now been changed to something called private violence in Uruguay, and I am wondering, does the UN think that’s appropriate? Is that consistent with zero tolerance? Do they feel that the case is being handled in an appropriate way?

Spokesperson Nesirky: This is a matter for the authorities in Uruguay, for their justice system. And that is the case with all troop-contributing countries; that the responsibility rests with the contributing country when there have been allegations and when charges are placed. So I think we need to see how that plays out in full before any further comment.

  Apparently so: the UN's read-out of the next day's meeting between Ban Ki-moon and Luis Almagro, Uruguay's Minister for Foreign Affairs said

"They discussed a broad range of issues, including the implementation of the “Delivering as One" programme in Uruguay, the issue of drug control and regional developments, as well as Uruguay’s presidency of the Human Rights Council and its participation in UN peacekeeping operations."

What kind of participation? The UN has similarly been dodging comment on or response to a legal claim filed about introducing cholera into Haiti. Inner City Pressasked:

Inner City Press: the Prime Minister, Mr. [Laurent] Lamothe, has said that the cholera outbreak is "under control," and that when he met with Ban Ki-moon, the topic of how the cholera came in didn’t come up. Is it the UN’s assessment that cholera is now under control and did the Secretary-General have any renewed thoughts, is there any progress on the claim that was filed with the [Office] of Legal Affairs here about how the cholera was introduced?

Spokesperson Nesirky: The readout that we provided on the meeting explains what was discussed, and the focus was precisely on helping to ensure that there is better sanitation, helping to ensure that those people who are still being afflicted and struck down with cholera get the assistance they require, and particularly looking further forward to vaccination programmes to help ensure that you can slow down and eventually, hopefully arrest the advance of cholera. So that was where the focus was, quite properly, in that meeting, and it is indeed the focus of the United Nations on the ground in Haiti. And I think as you’ve heard similarly for the Haitian authorities working very closely with the United Nations there. Other questions, please?

There are other questions, yes. But answers will continued to be pursued to these. Watch this site.

Spanish FM Tells ICP Western Sahara Envoy Restored, Talks Peacekeeping, UNSC Run

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 28 -- When Spain's foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo came to take questions from the Press on Friday morning, one expected something about the cutbacks and protests. Instead he delivered a litany of bilateral meetings, including with the Polisario Front of Western Sahara and restored UN envoy Christopher Ross.

  Inner City Press asked him if he thought any progress was being made on Western Sahara. He spoke of free determination, consistent with resolutions of the UN.

  Ban Ki-moon's readout of his meeting with President Mariano Rajoy Brey did not mention Western Sahara, but rather expressed "appreciation for Spain’s support" for "UN peacekeeping in Lebanon and elsewhere."

  Inner City Press asked Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo what IS Spain's commitment to UNIFIL in Lebanon? Spain is cutting half of its peacekeepers there. He replied that Spain only maked changes after consulting its allies; he said Spain has peacekeepers in Afghanistan and Somalia as well as Lebanon. Somalia?

Spain is running in two years for one of two Western European and Other Group seats on the Security Council, against Turkey and New Zealand. Turkey would seem assured of victory. If Australia DOESN'T win this October, New Zealand might have a leg up in two year's time. Watch this site.

As China and Japan Duel at 11 pm on Islands, UN Makes Difficult to Cover

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 27 -- Past 11 pm on Thursday in the UN General Assembly, China and Japan traded speeches about the islands China calls Diaoju Dao. It was a major UN moment, but as is typical, the UN botched it, making it more difficult to cover.

  Yang Jiechi the foreign minister of China, a Permanent Five member of the Security Council, began his speech after 9 pm. In his penultimate paragraph he mentioned the islands. Then Inner City Press was told to leave the already near-empty UN Media Center.

  But the Japanese mission, too, was telling journalists that it would reply to China's statement. So why was the Media Center being closed?

Don't worry, Inner City Press was told, there is a live feed up on the third floor. To not keep workers later, Inner City Press agreed and followed, up a darkened ramp and past two cut-outs of Ban Ki-moon: one with a head and one without.

Viewed from a photo booth, the GA hall was nearly empty as Guinea and then Peru delivered their once a year speeches. Then came the rights to reply.

Iran went first, lambasting Bibi Netanyahu's earlier cartoon about nuclear bombs. Then Japan took the floor. Since they were in the front row, the speaker's face could not be seen, at least from the booth. It seemed clear, however, that it was not the country's Permanent Representative Nishida; it seemed from the voice to be Deputy Kodama.

Near the back row of the hall, China's Permanent Representative Li Baodong raised his country's flag, as the name plates are called at the UN. He went back to 1895, and Japan's loss in World War II.

When Japen re-took the floor, they said they wouldn't reply in detail. Why not? China got the last word, invoking 1.3 billion people, and history. Then it was over.

The workers in the UN breathed a sign of relief and headed down to the B1 level. Through the garage and out to the street, still blocked with cement blocks. "I Instagramed it," a staffer said, showing Inner City Press his photograph. It was a moment in time, perhaps a moment of history. But even this, the UN botched and made difficult to cover. And so it goes with this UN.