As Ban Ki-moon Heads to Seoul, ICP's Told of 1000s Disappeared in DPRK Camps

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, October 27 -- Two days before UN Secretary General set out for South Korea to receive the Seoul Peace Prize, the Chair of UN system's Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, Olivier de Frouville, held a joint press conference at the UN in New York.

   Inner City Press asked about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North Korea. Video here, from Minute 46:21.

    The Working Group on Enforced Disappearances' most recent annual report lists the cases of "Jeong-Woong Choi, Won Hwang and Dong-Ki Lee who were allegedly abducted while on board of Korean Airlines flight YS-11, flying from Gangneung City to Seoul’s airport" and says "the Government transmitted three communications to the Working Group, dated 9 February, 9 May and 12 September 2011, in which it replied to nine outstanding case."

  When Inner City Press asked about these cases, Olivier de Frouville said there has been no progress, "it looks bigger than us... it's really a matter of how in the future the DPRK could be ready to cooperation with us. At moment there's no dialogue on those issues."

   He also told Inner City Press, as something of an aside, that the Working Group "received recently very serious and credible allegation the number of persons effectively disappeared in camps are by thousands."

   When will this be reported on? As Inner City Press asked the UN about in August 2012 without much answer, Ban Ki-moon noted in a recent visit to Korea that "the UN has appointed a special envoy to handle North Korean human rights issues, but the communist country refuses to let him visit. He also said he 'actively took part' in getting the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to denounce the detentions and urge North Korea to release the women, in May."

  After that quote, at the August 15 noon briefing Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey, what was his involvement? Maybe you’ll know or you can find – what was his involvement in that Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions?

 
  When 5 pm hit on the next day August 16, and no information had been provided, an article was called for.

  This is increasingly a problem in the UN, among top Ban Ki-moon officials. Ban's Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous has taken to refusing to answer any Press questions, due to what he calls (without defining) "insulting insinuations." 

  Tellingly, Ladsous was chosen by France for the post -- which has apparently been assigned to that country. This was without so much as an interview to vet him on his statements as France's deputy UN ambassador during the Rwanda genocide, or his arranging of disgraced ex-French foreign minister Michele Aliot-Marie's flights with cronies of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali.

   Now Ladsous proposes the UN use drones, without being willing to answer Press questions on any safeguards.

  So what is being done about this report of thousands disappeared in DPRK work camps? We'll see.

 

Footnote: Ban's trip to Seoul coincides with the impending arrival of hurricane Sandy in New York. Already, for example, Amnesty International has canceled an event on Monday, October 29 -- a day on which an all day Security Council debate is scheduled on Women, Peace and Security. Will it go forward?

At UN, Expert Heyns Tells ICP of Legal Flaws of Drones and US Sales

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, October 25 -- US drone strikes in Yemen and Somalia are problematic, the UN system's Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Christof Heyns told Inner City Press at Thursday afternoon at the UN. Video here, from Minute 31:50.

 

Along with a question on execution in Sri Lanka, Inner City Press asked Heyns about drone strikes, as it had last week asked US State Department official Harold Koh. Heyns answer was different than Koh's, and made different points than fellow Rapporteur Ben Emmerson.

 

Heyns told Inner City Press that he (and Emmerson) will submit a report on drones "next year to the [UN] General Assembly in October." He said while "the use of a drone is not inherently illegal... in Yemen, Somalia and so forth it is problematic, outside the theater of war."

 

Inner City Press has also asked about Pakistan, but Heyns did not mention it by name. He continued that "the inherent nature of drone, far away from where there is a military conflict taking place" raised two issues "when you look at the defense by US officals" like Koh.

 

Heyns summarized that US defense as "it's an act of self-defense, so the normal rules of international humanitarian law don't apply." He said, "that's wrong -- first ask if entitled to self-defense, then ask if comply with international humanitarian law."

 

He said, "the largest problem is tartgeting individuals who are not direct participants. There is a general requirement they be an immediate threat, enemy combattants or those participating in hostilities... Mere membership is not enough."

 

He concluded that beyond the US' own use, "the US agreed sell to 66 countries, maybe 70 states already have drones.. there's the specter of collateral damage anywhere."

 

Click here for Heyns' answers to Inner City Press on Sri Lanka; click here for US official Harold Koh's answers to Inner City Press on drones. Watch this site.

As US Gets Down With UN, of Opera and Rohingya, Fact Check by the Press

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, October 25 -- In the weeks before the US elections, the US Mission to the UN in fine multilateral style held separate 22nd floor receptions for the UN General Assembly's Second, Third and Fifth Committees, this last on Thursday night.

  After photos with and a short speech by US Ambassador for Management and Reform Joe Torsella -- called by some Fifth (Budget) Committee denizens "Ambassador Tweetela" for his social media penchants -- there was opera, sung from the top of the stairs over the Mission's river-view ballroom.

  Earlier in the week, Torsella highlighted to the Press the US Mission's reminder to the Secretariat, of promises Ban Ki-moon made in December. Days later, Torsella offered a Twitter hat-tip to the Heritage Foundation for a budgetary catch.

   Thursday night Torsella told Inner City Press that he hadn't had full control this year unlike last of the food or caterer, but of the opera he joked about "Brindisi" and "I got a whole lot of nothing."

  The food included sushi, and Under Secretary General for Management Yukio Takasu was there, as well as Torsella's Japanese counterpart Jun Yamazaki, previously the UN's Controller.

  Also in attendance was UN Assistant Secretary General Franz Baumann. The US Mission likes his for cost cutting; some UN staff, particularly but not only in Publishing, are less impressed.

  Recently after Inner City Press was invited to the UN's Third sub-basement to disprove Baumann's statement that all the printing equipment worked, the UN started some form of investigation of how this fact-check happened. On this, the US should be on the side of transparency and audit, if only by the media.

  Though the Fifth Committee is largely not their purview, at least under the December crunch, many Permanent Representatives were there, ranging from Jamaica and Suriname through Algeria, Montenegro and new Security Council members Luxembourg and Rwanda.

 

At the Second Committee reception, the US' Elizabeth Cousens' speech joked about the many acronym's the committee and wider UN use. Suriname chairs the Third (Human Rights) Committee, which heard Friday from the Special Rapporteurs on, among others, Religious Freedom and Myanmar.

  In Washington, Victoria Nuland expressed US concern about the plight of the Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar's North Rakhine State. Would it have an impact? Watch this site.

On Sri Lanka, Heyns on 40,000 Dead and Video Half-Shown in UN, UPR

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, October 25 -- The UN system's Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions has inevitably dealt with Sri Lanka for some years, given the mandate.

  Inner City Press on October 25 asked Christof Heyns what he has done, to follow up on his predecessor Philip Alston's work on video footage of executions, and otherwise. Video here, from Minute 32:25.

 

Alston deemed the executions video authentic, in a session in the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium. Heyns on Thursday told Inner City Press that he followed up on new video which came out after he took up the mandate in 2010, and subsequently appeared "in the Channel 4 documentary."

  That was never shown in the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium, while the government's purported rebuttal to it was.

 

Heyns said, "in the meantime as you know the Secretary General's panel reported that up to 40,000 people were killed in the last days of the war." This is a figure that whenever used, push-back and vitriol results. But that's what Heyns said. Video here, from Minute 37:45.

 

While there is a so-called Universal Periodic Review coming up at the Human Rights Council in Geneva with a mere 72 seconds per speaker, Heyns looked forward to "next March, 2013" when the "High Commissioner needs to report back. The issue is again on the table."

  Heyns said that this year's HRC resolution "requests Sri Lanka to engage with special procedures on a road map dealing with reconciliation and dealing with the past."

  Earlier on October 25 Inner City Press asked the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief Heiner Bielefeldt about Sri Lanka. He said there are "religious elements" to conflicts and spoke of "national mythologies," seeing "the Other as acting in the interest of a colonial power." He said the UN should "have witnesses planted in those areas." He mentioned the UPR, without mentioning it's only 72 seconds per speaker. Video here, from Minute 32:54.

 

While it may be unlikely that Bielefeldt will visit Sri Lanka, Heyns said "I am willing to go, the same applies to other mandates as well." He said "the reconsideration next March is important." He called Sri Lanka's "one of the largest reported killings in the world in recent times" that has yet to be "sufficiently dealt with."

  But with Ban Ki-moon's view of accountability, as not requiring punishment of anyone, what will the UN do? For now, it looks like the report prepared by Charles Petrie as he set sail to Myanmar will be buried. Watch this site.

Myanmar Blocks IDP Expert As UN Focuses on Progress, Ojea Quintana Soft on Rohingya?

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, October 25 -- Even on a day when in Myanmar 56 Rohingya are reported to have been killed, a thousand homes burned down, at the UN their plight is largely downplayed.

  In the online report of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, the Rohingya appear twice, in Paragraphs 71 and 72 (in the first, they are misspelled.)

  Inner City Press asked Ojea Quintana what he or other human rights officials in the UN system do for the Rohinga who have been chased in Bangladesh. He replied that his mandate is focused on the territory of Myanmar. He said he has visited Thailand and Malaysia, but did not mention Bangladesh.

  On October 24 Inner City Press asked Special Rapporteur on Internally Displaced Persons Beyani about the Rohingya IDPs. He said he has asked to visit Myanmar, but has been told this is not possible in 2013.

 

Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky if Ban or his former chief of staff and now Myanmar "Good Offices" envoy to Myanmar Vijay Nambiar "believe, as part of the progress they have praised in Myanmar, that it should involve extending invitations or accepting requests to visit by mandate-holders like Mr. Beyani."

 

Nesirky replied, "I think the short answer is that, yes, it should. The longer answer is that this is a work in progress, and I think you will see, and you will have seen, some movements, positive movements in this particular area, and we would anticipate that that will continue."

 

Positive movements? The next day it was reported that 1000 homes had been burned, and 56 Rohingya killed. What's being done?

 

After Ojea Quintana presented his report in the Third Committee of the General Assembly, Myanmar's representative said his government is trying to stop the violence. Here's an idea: don't leave the Rohingya, who Beyani notes have long been in the country, stateless. Watch this site.