On Ban Ki-moon's Brother's Myanmar Biz, ICP in 2008 Asked Ban, Evicted

By Matthew Russell Lee, Seventh in a Series 

UNITED NATIONS, December 27 -- In the final days of Ban Ki-moon's decade as UN Secretary General, covering up genocides in Sri Lanka, Burundi and Yemen and evicting the Press which asked about (t)his corruption, Inner City Press is reviewing Ban's end, year by year. See also this Twitter Moment.

  In 2006 after Ban was given the job since he was NOT “God's gift to humanity,” even then he was criticized for close business links with Myanmar, by Djoko Susiloamong others. 

By 2008, Inner City Press asked Ban, here, "about the responsibility of private corporations doing business in Myanmar, giving the specific example of South Korea's Daewoo and its deal with Myanmar Oil and Gas. I cannot comment on specifics, Ban said, adding that 'whoever has influence' should try to convince Myanmar to improve its record."

As it turned out, Ban Ki-moon's brother Ban Ki-ho would do mining and other business in Myanmar, after being on a “UN delegation.” Ban Ki-moon's nephew Dennis Bahn is said to have used his uncle's name and position while trying to sell real estate in Vietnam. The Bans have yet to answer these questions. Here's the December 26 round-up story by Inner City Press.

And here, taken offline after inquiry but tweeted by Inner City Press, is a photo of Ban Ki-ho in Myanmar, for magnesium, under the banner Korea - Myanmar CEOs Partnership Plaza.

On the morning of December 27, a UN work day, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's three top spokespeople questions including 

"please state the business activities in Myanmar of Ban Ki-moon's brother Ban Ki-ho, not only through KD Power which your Office has stated it understands Ban Ki-ho has left, but also through Bosung Powertec and any other company and again, all details of the “UN delegation” the link regarding which Inner City Press has previously provided your office in early November"

and

"Please state the date and separately content of the Secretary General last three communications with Park Yeon-cha or any other official or employee of Taekwang."

  More than three and a half work hours later, there were not answers, not even a confirmation of receipt.

On December 26 it was reported in South Korea that even while Ban Ki-moon was UN Secretary General, he received $30,000 from a businessman, in a restaurant. See here, including Park Yeon-cha (as well as Vietnamese minister Nguyen Dy Nien) with this quote:

""It would have been early 2007, shortly after Ban took office as Secretary General of the United Nations. New York has a restaurant owner who knows him well. Park called the owner of the restaurant and said, "If Ban comes to eat, give me $ 30,000 as a gift to celebrate the inauguration of the secretary general." In fact, we know that money was handed to Ban. ""

Did the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services ever look into this? We're still waiting to hear from them. As to Ban Ki-moon's spokespeople, they have refused to answer Inner City Press' written questions back to November 25 about Ban Ki-ho, etc.

 Ban Ki-moon has largely been immune from accountability for ten years, due to a mixture of sycophantry and, when seen as necessary in 2016, censorship, eviction and restriction of the investigative Press. But  in 2017...

It is reported that Ban Ki-moon will push the button to drop the Times Square ball on New Years Eve, seemingly arranged by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio's relentlessly pro UN Office of International Affairs (which never answeredInner City Press about any de Blasio position on Ban Ki-moon having shirked accountability for his UN bringing deadly cholera to Haiti.)

  But the moment that ball drops, Ban Ki-moon's legal immunity is over. We'll have more on this.

 In his first year, 2007, Ban Ki-moon bought in numerous South Korean staffers. Inner City Press asked and was told there was only one, then that there were five, including Kweon Ki-hwan. 

Then Ban's spokespeople including Choi Soung-ha chastised Inner City Press for asking, and demanded that the names of 51 South Korea staffers of the Secretariat be removed from Inner City Press' reporting. 

Then Inner City Press received this:

Subject: Attn: Matthew Lee, Senior Reporter
From: [Anonymity requested]
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

hi - good reporting and keep it up. On the Koreans in Secretariat story, I think the question to ask is this:

"No previous UN Secretary-General has brought more than a single national to work in his office, usually as a personal assistant or press officer (Kofi Annan brought zero, Boutros brought one Egyptian... to be his personal spokesman, Perez de Cuellar brought on junior diplomat to help him. Why has Ban Ki-Moon needed to bring so many and appoint them to such high positions (ASG, D1, etc)?  What is different?"

There is a Korean 'team' which is a virtual cabinet, shadowing and if necessary circumventing all normal systems.  good luck."

  We'll have more on this.

Ban's arly censorship, which culminated in 2016 with Ban evicting Inner City Press through Cristina Gallach, audio here, and Inner City Press' camera being smashed.

  Inner City Press even before Ban's Day 1 asked about financial transparency. It would end, a decade later, with Ban refusing to say who paid for his travel, even what “carbon offsets” he supposed bought.

   On Ban's first day at work, after walking in with Vijay Nambiar who would go on to cover up genocide in Myanmar after participating in it in Sri Lanka in the White Flag Killings, Ban was asked about the death penalty (for Saddam Hussein) and replied that it is “up to member states.” His first spokesperson Michele Montas tried to repair the damage. 

In late 2016 Inner City Press saw Montas in the UN, from the “focus booth” where it does what work it can after Ban and his Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Gallach evicted it from its long time UN office.

 

Meanwhile Kofi Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who played a role in the eviction, is bragging that he will remain. We'll have more on this.