From Somalia, Nick Kay Answers on Sanctions Verification Proposal, But UN In NY Won't Say Where Mahiga's Lessons Are

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 12 -- Nicholas Kay in Somalia replaced Augustine Mahiga as UN envoy was he left on June 3, 2013. 

  On March 12, Inner City Press asked Kay to state any benefit he has gotten for Mahiga getting paid for nine months now as a US Under Secretary General, for his "lessons learned."

  New UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric on March 10 called these nine months a "short while;" he was asked to describe what another stealth USG Iqbal Riza does and returned only with a four word title, inserted in brackets into the transcript, no follow-up: "[The Spokesman later said that Mr. Riza was a Special Adviser to the Secretary-General.]"

  Kay on March 12, even on Twitter, responded: "In my personal view Mahiga did a great job as SRSG. Not able to comment on his subsequent appointment."

  While appreciated, there's a follow-up: what Dujarric calls Mahiga's "lessons learned," paid at a USG rate for nine months now, are presumably to benefit the UN in Somalia. That is, Kay. What are the lessons learned?  Where are the lessons learned?

  Inner City Press also asked Kay for his view on the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group proposal to include a verification team in the UNSOM. 

 This question, UNSOM responded to: "Res[olution] 2142 asked for recommendations within 30 days. Team is coming to look at all options."

  Neither AMISOM nor Kay answered this follow up, quoting the most recent SEMG report: "what of getting banned from Villa Somalia & Villa Baidoa on January 23?"

  Still, there was a response to both questions, even from Somalia, even by Twitter. Ban Ki-moon's new spokesperson Dujarric, by contrast, at this first in-person briefing on March 10 promised answers, then inserted Riza's four word title into the transcript.

  On Twitter, the French Mission to the UN congratulated "le Francais" Dujarric; on Ukraine, Dujurric tellingly praised a French spokesperson's "analysis" of Crimea - but no answers on France still selling Russia Mistral warships. This is the new UN, at least the new UN Headquarters. Where is Mahiga?

When Mahiga was replaced last June by Kay as the UN's envoy in Somalia, little was said of where Mahiga would go next. 

   Inner City Press on March 8 reported that Mahiga was given a little known Under Secretary General position, called "Under-Secretary-General, Mediator-in-Residence, DPA’s Mediator Debriefing and Lessons Learned Program."

   Inner City Press asked several well-placed UN officials who had, until asked, no idea that Mahiga had stayed with the UN, much less at the USG level. "Incredible," said one source who requested anonymity to keep his own UN position.

  On March 10 Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's new spokesperson Stephane Dujarric (who previously spoke for Kofi Annan) about this quiet job-giving, to Mahiga and also Margaret Vogt formerly the UN envoy to Central African Republic. Inner City Press also asked what former Annan official Iqbal Riza is doing, still on the payroll under Ban Ki-moon.

   Later in the briefing Dujarric was handed a piece of paper ("Oil for Food," one long-time correspondent joked) and he read out on Mahiga and Vogt that the Department of Political Affairs sometimes keeps outgoing envoys on, for lessons learned.

  Are they paid, as Mahiga is listed, at the Under Secretary General rate? And in the case of Mahiga, for nine months and counting? And what about Iqbal Riza? 

Mahiga shakes with Ban: (well) before "secret" USG post, by UN Photo

   The affable Mahiga was panned by Somalis inside the country and in the diaspora, for example during this Inner City Press reporting trip to Minneapolis in 2010.  More recently, Mahiga was the (only) source for US Voice of America story about Somalia, here.

   But do departing UN envoys have a right to stay on in little known USG positions? As another source asked, Is Alan Doss still getting paid somewhere by the UN?

  This comes in a UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon which, even as it evades responsibility for cholera in Haiti, talks a lot of accountability and even transparency. How many other "secret" USGs are there? We'll have more on this.

   When UN Secretary General performed the annual ritual signing of the Compacts with his Under Secretaries General on February 13 amid the snow, three USGs were not present either in person or on video: Angela Kane, Joan Clos of HABITAT, and Jeffrey Feltman. 

  Given the recently leaked audio of US official Victoria Nuland recounting how Feltman "got" Ban to sent Robert Serry to Ukraine, it seems worth asking with all due respect: where is he?

  Those present posed for a group photograph, tweeted hereby Inner City Press, and then came up one by one to sign their Compacts and shake hands with Ban and his deputy, Jan Eliasson. For the first signer, former Egyptian Permanent Representative and now Special Adviser on Africa Maged Abdelaziz, Ban didn't stand up, so the handshake was repeated at the end.

  Ban, introduced by his chief of staff Susana Malcorra, made much of transparency, of making all this available through the press to the public. But a quick review of Ban's "financial disclosure" web site finds, for example, that Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous has refused to make any public financial disclosure, stating that "in accordance with General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/238, I have chosen to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed in my financial disclosure statement."

  Ladsous also refuses to answer Press questions, most recently on what the UN position is on Ugandan troops remaining in South Sudan, and before that about the mass rapes in Minova by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army. Video compilation here; UK coverage here.

  Ban's Children and Armed Conflict envoy Leila Zerrougui was there; by contrast, her Office made the inconvenient report that the Free Syrian Army recruits and uses child soldiers, and she has offered the Press an interview about it. Also there, on screen from Geneva, was Navi "Half Term"Pillay who had the honesty to report on January 20 that the French decision to first disarm the ex Seleka in Central African Republic put Muslim communities at risk.

  The UN should be open, and questions as with Feltman about a former diplomat's connection with his or her country cannot be off limits or considered "insinuation."

  Amazingly, though, when Ban did a question and answer session with 15 mostly Gulf and Western correspondents,afterward no tape or transcript was provided, despite aformal request from the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which is focused on opening up the UN to the press and public. And it was confirmed that none of the 15 even asked about Feltman, Ukraine and the Nuland leak. How not?

  Carman Lapointe of the Office of Oversight Services was there, even though the Secretariat says it can't speak for her of OIOIS, even refusing yet to say if OIOS is appealing the UN Dispute Tribunal decision which recounts that Michael Dudley of OIOS investigations acknowledged altering evidence after Inner City Press uncovered the distribution of Valium by UN Medical Service personnel with no New York State licensed. Is there immunity for that? 

 Has the UN received and accepted process of the legal papers for bringing cholera to Haiti? This was asked at the February 13 noon briefing. It will be a litmus test for accountability, and for transparency. Watch this site.

  

UN Says Under Secretary General Post to Mahiga for Lessons Learned - But For 9 Months Now? Of Margaret Vogt & Iqbal Riza

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 10 -- When Augustine Mahiga was replaced last June as the UN's envoy in Somalia by Nicholas Kay of the UK, little was said of what Mahiga would go next. 

   Inner City Press on March 8 reported that Mahiga was given a little known Under Secretary General position, called "Under-Secretary-General, Mediator-in-Residence, DPA’s Mediator Debriefing and Lessons Learned Program."

   Inner City Press asked several well-placed UN officials who had, until asked, no idea that Mahiga had stayed with the UN, much was at the USG level. "Incredible," said one source who requested anonymity to keep his own UN position.

  On March 10 Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's new spokesperson Stephane Dujarric (who previously spoke for Kofi Annan) about his quiet job-giving, to Mahiga and also Margaret Vogt formerly the UN envoy to Central African Republic. Inner City Press also asked what former Annan official Iqbal Riza is doing, still on the payroll under Ban Ki-moon.

   Later in the briefing Dujarric was handed a piece of paper ("Oil for Food," one long-time correspondent joked) and he read out on Mahiga and Vogt that the Department of Political Affairs sometimes keeps outgoing envoys on, for lessons learned.

  Are they paid, as Mahiga is listed, at the Under Secretary General rate? And in the case of Mahiga, for nine months and counting? And what about Iqbal Riza? 

Mahiga shakes with Ban: (well) before "secret" USG post, by UN Photo

   The affable Mahiga was panned by Somalis inside the country and in the diaspora, for example during this Inner City Press reporting trip to Minneapolis in 2010.  More recently, Mahiga was the (only) source for US Voice of America story about Somalia, here.

   But do departing UN envoys have a right to stay on in little known USG positions? As another source asked, Is Alan Doss still getting paid somewhere by the UN?

  This comes in a UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon which, even as it evades responsibility for cholera in Haiti, talks a lot of accountability and even transparency. How many other "secret" USGs are there? We'll have more on this.

   When UN Secretary General performed the annual ritual signing of the Compacts with his Under Secretaries General on February 13 amid the snow, three USGs were not present either in person or on video: Angela Kane, Joan Clos of HABITAT, and Jeffrey Feltman. 

  Given the recently leaked audio of US official Victoria Nuland recounting how Feltman "got" Ban to sent Robert Serry to Ukraine, it seems worth asking with all due respect: where is he?

  Those present posed for a group photograph, tweeted hereby Inner City Press, and then came up one by one to sign their Compacts and shake hands with Ban and his deputy, Jan Eliasson. For the first signer, former Egyptian Permanent Representative and now Special Adviser on Africa Maged Abdelaziz, Ban didn't stand up, so the handshake was repeated at the end.

  Ban, introduced by his chief of staff Susana Malcorra, made much of transparency, of making all this available through the press to the public. But a quick review of Ban's "financial disclosure" web site finds, for example, that Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous has refused to make any public financial disclosure, stating that "in accordance with General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/238, I have chosen to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed in my financial disclosure statement."

  Ladsous also refuses to answer Press questions, most recently on what the UN position is on Ugandan troops remaining in South Sudan, and before that about the mass rapes in Minova by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army. Video compilation here; UK coverage here.

  Ban's Children and Armed Conflict envoy Leila Zerrougui was there; by contrast, her Office made the inconvenient report that the Free Syrian Army recruits and uses child soldiers, and she has offered the Press an interview about it. Also there, on screen from Geneva, was Navi "Half Term"Pillay who had the honesty to report on January 20 that the French decision to first disarm the ex Seleka in Central African Republic put Muslim communities at risk.

  The UN should be open, and questions as with Feltman about a former diplomat's connection with his or her country cannot be off limits or considered "insinuation."

  Amazingly, though, when Ban this week did a question and answer session with 15 mostly Gulf and Western correspondents, afterward no tape or transcript was provided, despite a formal request from the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which is focused on opening up the UN to the press and public. And it was confirmed that none of the 15 even asked about Feltman, Ukraine and the Nuland leak. How not?

  Carman Lapointe of the Office of Oversight Services was there, even though the Secretariat says it can't speak for her of OIOIS, even refusing yet to say if OIOS is appealing the UN Dispute Tribunal decision which recounts that Michael Dudley of OIOS investigations acknowledged altering evidence after Inner City Press uncovered the distribution of Valium by UN Medical Service personnel with no New York State licensed. Is there immunity for that? 

 Has the UN received and accepted process of the legal papers for bringing cholera to Haiti? This was asked at the February 13 noon briefing. It will be a litmus test for accountability, and for transparency. Watch this site.

   

UN Doles Out "Secret" USG Post to Mahiga After Somalia Post: Ban Ki-moon's UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 8 -- When Augustine Mahiga was replaced as the UN's envoy in Somalia by Nicholas Kay of the UK, little was said of what Mahiga would go next. 

  He had been Tanzania's Permanent Representative to the UN; some assumed he would go back to his country's foreign service.

   But it has emerged that Mahiga was given a little known Under Secretary General position, called "Under-Secretary-General, Mediator-in-Residence, DPA’s Mediator Debriefing and Lessons Learned Program."

   Inner City Press asked several well-placed UN officials who had, until asked, no idea that Mahiga had stayed with the UN, much was at the USG level. "Incredible," said one source who requested anonymity to keep his own UN position.

Mahiga shakes with Ban: (well) before "secret" USG post, by UN Photo

   The affable Mahiga was panned by Somalis inside the country and in the diaspora, for example during this Inner City Press reporting trip to Minneapolis in 2010.  More recently, Mahiga was the (only) source for US Voice of America story about Somalia, here.

   But do departing UN envoys have a right to stay on in little known USG positions? As another source asked, Is Alan Doss still getting paid somewhere by the UN?

  This comes in a UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon which, even as it evades responsibility for cholera in Haiti, talks a lot of accountability and even transparency. How many other "secret" USGs are there? We'll have more on this.

   When UN Secretary General performed the annual ritual signing of the Compacts with his Under Secretaries General on February 13 amid the snow, three USGs were not present either in person or on video: Angela Kane, Joan Clos of HABITAT, and Jeffrey Feltman. 

  Given the recently leaked audio of US official Victoria Nuland recounting how Feltman "got" Ban to sent Robert Serry to Ukraine, it seems worth asking with all due respect: where is he?

  Those present posed for a group photograph, tweeted hereby Inner City Press, and then came up one by one to sign their Compacts and shake hands with Ban and his deputy, Jan Eliasson. For the first signer, former Egyptian Permanent Representative and now Special Adviser on Africa Maged Abdelaziz, Ban didn't stand up, so the handshake was repeated at the end.

  Ban, introduced by his chief of staff Susana Malcorra, made much of transparency, of making all this available through the press to the public. But a quick review of Ban's "financial disclosure" web site finds, for example, that Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous has refused to make any public financial disclosure, stating that "in accordance with General Assembly Resolution A/RES/60/238, I have chosen to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed in my financial disclosure statement."

  Ladsous also refuses to answer Press questions, most recently on what the UN position is on Ugandan troops remaining in South Sudan, and before that about the mass rapes in Minova by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army. Video compilation here; UK coverage here.

  Ban's Children and Armed Conflict envoy Leila Zerrougui was there; by contrast, her Office made the inconvenient report that the Free Syrian Army recruits and uses child soldiers, and she has offered the Press an interview about it. Also there, on screen from Geneva, was Navi "Half Term"Pillay who had the honesty to report on January 20 that the French decision to first disarm the ex Seleka in Central African Republic put Muslim communities at risk.

  The UN should be open, and questions as with Feltman about a former diplomat's connection with his or her country cannot be off limits or considered "insinuation."

  Amazingly, though, when Ban this week did a question and answer session with 15 mostly Gulf and Western correspondents, afterward no tape or transcript was provided, despite a formal request from the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which is focused on opening up the UN to the press and public. And it was confirmed that none of the 15 even asked about Feltman, Ukraine and the Nuland leak. How not?

  Carman Lapointe of the Office of Oversight Services was there, even though the Secretariat says it can't speak for her of OIOIS, even refusing yet to say if OIOS is appealing the UN Dispute Tribunal decision which recounts that Michael Dudley of OIOS investigations acknowledged altering evidence after Inner City Press uncovered the distribution of Valium by UN Medical Service personnel with no New York State licensed. Is there immunity for that? 

 Has the UN received and accepted process of the legal papers for bringing cholera to Haiti? This was asked at the February 13 noon briefing. It will be a litmus test for accountability, and for transparency. Watch this site.

   

As Voice of America Takes US Line on Somalia, Seeks Expulsions at UN, Evades FOIA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 10 – How closely is “Voice of America” controlled by the US government, of which it is an agency, subject to the Freedom of Information Act?

Just after the US State Department formally recognized the government of Somalia, on February 9 Voice of America published a piece about the upcoming UN Security Council review of the mission it authorized there.

The piece is built nearly entirely around quotes from UN envoy Augustine Mahiga: he is even the “source” for the fact that the Security Council will consider Somalia this week. 

  But the Council's February 14 session has been on the Council's public program of work since at least February 4.

Amazingly, the Voice of America Somalia piece did not mention in any way the Somali government's prosecution and conviction of journalist Abdiaziz Abdnur Ibrahim for having interviewed, and not even published about, a woman alleging gang rape by the Somali security forces.

This prosecution, and one year prison sentence, has been lambasted from all over, including for example by the EU's Catherine Ashton. But Voice of America, owned by the US government which just recognized the Somali government, does not mention the rape, prosecution or convictions.

Inner City Press, which Voice of America's Steve Redisch ask the UN to throw out of the UN in June 2012, has filed several Freedom of Information Act requests, most recently to understand and report on the relationship between VOA and the State Department, represented on the Broadcasting Board of Governors which oversees VOA and other state media.

  As reflected in a FOIA appeal which was just granted – that is, Inner City Press prevailed – on February 4, Voice of America's UN bureau chief Margaret Besheer was directed to conduct a search of her e-mail on the subject of the FOIA request, months ago. 

   Why did she initially refuse to? Is it appropriate? What will be the repercussions if the second search is in bad faith, as the first one was? Why would BBG expect anything else?

   Voice of America's initial FOIA response showed that it adopted a “do not answer Inner City Press” policy -- then used the re-submission of follow up questions as a basis to ask the UN to dis-accredit Inner City Press.

  Besheer's already released e-mails show how she used, or was used by, the UN Correspondents Association Executive Committee (particularly ongoing or Permanent members Reuters and Agence France Presse / AFP) to try to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN.

  After inquiries from Capitol Hill, VOA officials David Ensor and Steve Redisch told the BBG members including, for example, Dana Perino that the request to dis-accredit Inner City Press has been inappropriate.

  But the request was never withdrawn. Besheer stepped off the UNCA Executive Committee, on which the officials are elected without competition, and nominated her successor. 

  Another BBG affiliate gained representation on the UNCA Executive Committee. And Besheer apparently remains on the board of UNCA's own affiliate, the Dag Hammarskjold Fund for Journalism.

  A counterfeit social media account with which both of these are involved has tried to mock those journalists joining the new Free UN Coalition for Access , most recently a woman alleging sexual harassment, pervasively as “non-media activists.” 

  But is Voice of America independent media? Does its UN bureau engage in actual journalism? There are answers we are awaiting from Washington.

   Now in New York as the UNCA-dominated move of the press corps back into the renovated UN headquarters building begins, it has emerged that Voice of America and the two other State Department affiliates all have different offices: a total of three. 

  Meanwhile the UN put another country's wire service into a shared office, then a “photocopy closet.”

   The UN checked and learned that at the State Department in DC's Foggy Bottom, the three BBG affiliates are all in a single office.

   Why would they get better treatment at the UN then at their parent? Watch this site.

At UN, Protection of Journalists Is Selective, Based on Content & Medium

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 7 -- When on the topic ofprotection of journalists the Qatari National Committee for Human Rights brought a delegation to the UN on Friday, it seemed a no-brainer to ask if they included in their definition of journalism state media in Syria and Libya, where Gaddafi's TV channel was bombed by NATO. 

 Or, on the other hand as Inner City Press also asked, bloggers like those prosecuted by Bahrain, Abduljalil Alsingace and Ali Abdelemam.

  

The answer came from Jim Boumelha of the International Federation of Journalists: "some in the professional do not accept bloggers." Video here.

  Gamfranco Fattorini of PEC noted the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Chris Heyns uses the Council of Europe's 2007 definition of journalism; he cited back to the Munich declaration on 1971. Bloggers, it should be clear, are not included in that 40 year old definition.

  Inner City Press also asked Somali's Omar Faruk Osman if UN envoy Augustine Mahiga does enough on protection of journalists. "The UN has done for us very little," he said, noting killings right next to where the UN is, without visits.

  The Qatari Committee, meanwhile, through the outgoing Qatari President of the General Assembly, says it will be seeking a "new instrument." The session was delayed for 20 minutes waiting for the PGA, who came with his chief of staff and deputy, as well as his two spokespeople.

  PGA Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser's prepared remarks, we note, say that "Freedom of information, which is a fundamental right inherent in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, became subject to threat and suppression." Yep.

   Afterward an attendee mused that Qatar probably paid for the journalists' visit to New York. Qatar wants its hand in everything --  but does it protect journalists? Will it promote a needed Freedom of Information rule at the UN? Watch this site.

As EU Hits In Somalia, Question of Consent, Mahiga's Tardiness Echoed by TFG?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 15 -- While US Ambassador Susan Rice on Tuesday stressed that the Somali Transitional Federal Government must finally transition to a new elected government by August 20, the UN's envoy Augustine Mahiga arrived more than 20 minutes late for the Security Council meeting. 

 

  Whether or not Mahiga's tardiness portends another delay for the TFG, Inner City Press inquired into why he had come late and was told "he was to meet with Karl Wycoff," a US official on Africa.

  Mahiga was to have addressed the Council first, but once he did not arrive TFG president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed took his place, and asked for the arms embargo to be removed. This came right after the first of what may be many European Union helicopter raids inland in Somalia. 

 

  Inner City Press asked the EU about this plan, and was told not to over-focus on inland attacks. Specifically, on April 27 Inner City Press asked Operation ATALANTA commander Admiral Duncan Potts about this proposal, he said the reporting was "incorrect." 

 Potts told Inner City Press, "I wouldn't focus too much on the two kilometers. We want to create the perception in the mind of the pirates that they can no longer act with impunity from beaches of Somalia. It's about the perception of impunity rather than a kinetic effect."

  At the at time Inner City Press wrote that it still seems that the way the EU wants to "create this perception" is to shoot guns, from helicopters, up to two kilometers inside Somali territory.

   And now it has happened. 

 

  Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to his credit did a UN TV stakeout, at which Inner City Press asked him about the EU inland helicopter action and how and why it was approved, and about other non-Somali military actors in the country. 

 

  He said that the way to solve piracy is ongoing development, that one or two action like this won't solve it. I have no details on approvals, he said somewhat strangely. Another Security Council diplomat said Germany described not only approval but close cooperation.

  Sharif Sheikh Ahmed had with him a big entourage, from Permanent Representative to First Secretary, amid much talk of the Millennium Hotel. But when will they take the T out of the TFG and actually hold elections? Watch this site.

In Somalia, Kenya Wants UN to Fund Its Troops, Silence on Port Blockade Call

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 14 -- Kenya's action in Somalia has been discussed on the margins of the UN Security Council and with its President for November -- but not in any formal Council meeting.

Kenya's Ambassador to the UN Macharia Kamau is reported to have "urged the Council to assist in deployment of African Union (Amisom) troops to areas dominated by the al-Shabaab."

But when Inner City Press asked a Permanent Member of the Security Council about this Kenya request, the answer was "maybe he said it to Ambassador Cabral" of Portugal, November's president.

Inner City Press asked Cabral, who said what had been discussed was "re-hatting" the Kenyan troops in southern Somalia as part of the AMISON force -- and having the UN pay them. Cabral was dubious this would be accepted.

Kenyan Ambassador Kamau also said he is "still pushing for Security Council members to initiate a naval blockade of Kismayu."

Inner City Press asked Cabral if this meant a block on traffic which Al Shabaab is reportedly taxing. Cabral said he understood the request to only be enforcement of the arms embargo.

But since Kenya has complained that al Shabaab gets its revenue by taxing goods in the port, Inner City Press also asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky if Ban or his envoy Augustine Mahiga have any comment on the call to blockade a port, as could relate to civilians.

Nesirky said he would check, just as he has said without further follow up to previous Inner City Press questions on Somalia.

When will the Security Council openly address and discuss Kenya's cross border move into Somalia? If it doesn't, how can it criticize other cross border moves? Watch this site.