While Dutch Foreign Minister for EU and Lithuania Talks Blogger Rights, Ban Ki-moon Ejected Press, His Trolls Cheer

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 29 -- After Inner City Press was summarily ejected from the UN, which it has covered for ten years, on February 19, the ostensibly deciding official Cristina Gallach told no less than Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos Horta that Inner City Press would still be able to cover the UN.

  But when Inner City Press came to the UN on morning of February 22, with another journalist there to sign Inner City Press in as a guest, UN Security said, “You are Banned from the UN.”  Audio here.

  Jump cut to February 29, when at the Human Rights Council in Geneva there were speeches about the protection of journalists and bloggers. Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, himself a former UN official, spoke for the EU in favor of the protection of bloggers, as did Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius.

  Inner City Press tweeted audio of the UN's forcible ejection of it to them; tellingly, an anonymous troll Twitter account that has among its few followers Gallach and UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric and UNCA board members from DPA, Reuters and SABC insisted to both that all is well in the UN, that this time of physical ejection of a journalist without any due process or appeal right is fine. This is Ban Ki-moon's UN Censorship Alliance.

  Back on February 22, Inner City Press left the UN pass office, and set up shop in the Isaiah plowshares park across from the UN. Several Permanent Representatives, at least two Under Secretaries General (the same rank as Gallach) and many staff came to express outrage at the UN's censorship.

 But in the UN Press Briefing Room, which was "lent" to the UN Correspondents (or Corruption) Association back on January 29, the reaction was different.

 In an embarrassing colloquy, long time UNCA board member Masood Haider asked Spokesman Dujarric about "the blogger Matthew Lee" who has been "spewing on the Internet reports whether false or not."Video here, from Minute 27:27.

  Bloggers are, of course, hacked to death in Bangladesh, a country on whose free press record USG Gallach never even replied to a detailed email from the Free UN Coalition for Access, for protection for a Bangladeshi journalist then in the UN. Spewing indeed.

 Dujarric took the opportunity to deny that the UN had seized Inner City Press' files -- the reality is, when Inner City Press asked on February 19 to take the most important of them, and its passport, it was denied by UN Security. On February 22, UN Security said Inner City Press is Banned from all UN premises.

  Dujarric said, as if it's ok, that Inner City Press is being "offered" much reduced access, for four months. But Inner City Press did nothing wrong, and the "investigation" by Gallach which led to its ouster did not involve a single conversation with or reaching out to Inner City Press.

  Any reduced access to loss of office space -- which Masood Haider, who hardly writes articles, has, and UNCA President Giampaolo Pioli has, a private office, while writing about Morgan Freeman -- is unfair and is to cast a chill of freedom of the press. No staged colloquy can hide that. We'll have more on this.

  Later, after being told to leave even the UN Pass office, a UN Under Secretary General told Inner City Press Gallach had told other USGs that Inner City Press was in fact in the building - that AFTER Inner City Press was told by UN Security, twice, that it is banned from all UN premises and was told to leave the UN Pass office.

  Now Gallach, and Ban Ki-moon and his chief of staff Edmond Mulet to whom Inner City Press wrote on February 19, still without response, has received a legal letter with a

"demand that Mr. Lee be immediately reissued with the resident correspondent accreditation that he has enjoyed for many years.  I request these remedies pending an examination of the entire matter by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression or by any other mutually agreed and independent review mechanism.

In reaching the decision to perfunctorily revoke Mr. Lee’s resident correspondent accreditation, a number of accepted principles of natural justice and rules of administrative law were breached. These principles include, inter alia, the right to be informed before the imposition of administrative measures, the right to make representations before being subjected to those measures and the right to appellate review of such measures. Mr. Lee was denied all of these procedural safeguards which are commonplace in most democratic societies and which are routinely
vaunted by the United Nations itself."

 As Inner City Press sits in the park across from the UN using its phone as a hot spot -- hence no Periscope -- there has been no response.

 Ban Ki-moon's Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who'd also told those who questioned him that Inner City Press could end and cover “his” briefing on Monday.

  False. UN Security then said, you cannot wait in the pass office, you are banned from all UN premises. Trying to cover the UN Security Council meeting on Syria from the Isaiah plowshares park across from the UN, various Ambassadors came to say they were appalled. But Gallach's office has told then, nothing will be done.

  This is disgusting censorship by an increasingly corrupt UN.

As Inner City Press at the UN pursues unfolding stories of corruption, peacekeepers committing rapes in the Central African Republic, UN inaction in Burundi, South Sudan and Yemen, on February 19 with two hours notice UN Under Secretary General Cristina Gallach ordered Inner City Press to be ousted. Letter here.

   On the evening of February 19, UN Security Deputy Chief Michael McNulty, who refused to provide his name (audio), pushed Inner City Press out onto First Avenue (audio), having cut off its Periscope video livestream (video) and not allowed it to get its files, coat or passport from its longtime shared office. Gallach wants the office back, to retaliate and so the UN Correspondents Association can, in essence, sell the UN space just as it sells access to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

  On February 20, Inner City Press posed four questions to Dujarric and his deputy Farhan Haq, with a copy to Gallach --which 24 hours later have not been answered or even acknowledged (while both Dujarric and Gallach were wildly spinning to those who contacted them, includingNobel Laureate Jose Ramos Horta, see here, who was told there was no problem taking over Inner City Press' office and undermining its ability to report, edit videos, conduct interviews. There is a big problem. Here are the questions:

"Please state the status and condition of all of my papers and property in my office, Room S-303A, including investigative papers, communications from sources including whistleblowers and my passport and when I will have the access to them that I was denied on February 19 and since.

Please state when the Resident Correspondent UN pass I have had for years, but which was torn off my neck on Feb 19, will be returned, in connection with 1, above, and the UNSC meeting(s) and UN Noon Briefing on Monday February 22.

Please state and explain the role of the Office of the Spokesperson of the Secretary General in the deprivations in 1 and 2, above.

Finally, for now, please state the Secretary-General's position on UN Security Deputy McNulty on February 19 threatening twice to have me “handed over to NYPD” (including the concomitant acceptance by the UN of the NYPD's jurisdiction), of UN Security officers grabbing my phone which was live-broadcasting Periscope video at the UN Security Council stakeout and turning it off.

I have other questions but these are most pressing, for immediate answer."

  And as yet, 42 hours later, no answer. Watch this site.

  While Inner City Press was writing up a UN Security Council meeting on Syria that went into the evening, and Periscope broadcasting, UN Security guards walked up, grabbed Inner City Press' laptop, blocked its Periscope camera and turned off the livestream. Video here.

  Then eight UN Security officers led by Deputy Chief McNulty tore off Inner City Press' UN ID badge and carted off Inner City Press' laptop and camera, returning these by throwing them on the sidewalk of First Avenue. Audio here.

 They did not allow Inner City Press to get coat or sweater, or the files in its office. No provision was made for this.

  The ejection letter was signed by the Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Galach of Spain but ultimately Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is in charge. Ban and his chief of staff Edmond Mulet and Deputy SG Jan Eliasson were all written to with details as this took place.

  USG Gallach's office, Darrin Farrant in charge, merely "took note" of questions about and criticism of the lack of due process. Gallach did not respond to email, even from Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta, here.

  When Inner City Press was thrown out onto First Avenue, standing waiting, laughing and filming, was Voice of America's Margaret Besheer and another board member of the UN Correspondents Association, whose president Giampaoli Pioli told Inner City Press if it didn't remove a (truthful) article about his screening of a war crimes denial film for a tenant of his, Sri Lanka's then ambassador Palitha Kohona, he would get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN.

  But who is running this asylum? Ban Ki-moon, his spokesman also involved Stephane Dujarric (who threw Inner City Press out of the UN Press Briefing Room on January 29, also trying to turn off ICP's Periscoping phone), and, some surmise, some who don't like Inner City Press' questions. We'll have more on this.

  The pretext was Inner City Press three weeks earlier seeking to cover a meeting in the UN Press Briefing Room by an organization which has taken money from now indicted Ng Lap Seng and Frank Lorenzo's South SOuth News, then gave Ng Lap Seng a photo op with Ban.

(As Inner City Press reported, Gallach attended the South South Awards with Frank Lorenzo, photo here, just before his indictment.  She should have been recused from any decision-making on this.)

  UN Security demanded ICP's pass - and later tore it off.

At UN, “Zero Tolerance” Can't Be Demonstrated But Questions Are Limited to Diplomats As Dutch Start Run for UN Security Council Seat 2017-18

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 20 -- Amid generally self-congratulatory talk at the UN on January 20 Ameerah Haq, perhaps freed to speak by leaving her UN position, acknowledged that the UN “can't demonstrate” its stated zero tolerance policy for sexual abuse.

   Given the lack of punishment or even trials for some UNpersonnel allowed to flee countries like Haiti after being accused of rape, the statement seems obvious. But UN officials, chief among them UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous, refuse to admit or even answer questions about it.

   So upon hearing Ameerah Haq's candor, Inner City Press ran down for the question and answer session. The event was in Conference Room 5, sponsored by the Netherlands, whose foreign minster (and former UN envoy to Cote d'Ivoire and Mali) Bert Koenders was on the panel, next to Ameerah Haq.

   When question time came, however, only the Permanent Representatives of countries were allowed to ask - or mostly just say - things. The United Arab Emirates noted how the UAE's foreign minister signed on for the UN's He4She campaign, for example; Koenders chimed in to call his colleague a leader.

   The context was that the Netherlands is running for a Security Council seat for 2017-2018. Koenders raised this earlier on January 20, speaking across First Avenue from the UN, noting his country's contribution to peacekeeping. (They carried out air strikes in Northern Mali, it seems, that very day.)

   As the already-beginning US electoral race to culminate in November 2016 shows, it is never to early to start campaigning. But we'd suggest that Koenders and the Netherlands, and other candidates, make sure to take a wider range of question than just from other Permanent Representatives going forward.

  Beyond running an accessible race, the only way the UN will improve on issues like sexual abuse is by moving beyond self congratulation and addressing its weaknesses and lack of accountability.

  And on Ameerah Haq's candor, and how this issue might be addressed in the ongoing review of UN Peace Operations, heading from Dhaka to Rio but hopefully hearing from elsewhere including Haiti, we'll have more. Watch this site.

   

With UN Mission in Mali Under Attack, Koenders Leaves To Be Dutch FM, Inner City Press Sources Say Louis Michel May Replace

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 14, video here -- Showing once again that UN positions are often just places to wait for something better to come along, Bert Koenders is leaving as UN envoy to Mali, as things deteriorate there, to become Dutch foreign minister.

  While the UN uses the slogan "Stay and Deliver" in South Sudan, that apparently does not apply to Mali, where more and more African peacekeepers are being killed. Chad even accused UN Peacekeeping as using its soldiers as, in essence, cannon fodder. But no matter - Koenders will move on, from what some see as a sinking ship.

  Inner City Press' Sahelian sources produce another European name as successor, saying "il est probable" -- the Belgian Louis Michel. Previously Michel excused himself for not even knowing the anti Internet privacy amendments submitted in his name because, he said, he was traveling in Mali. We'll have more on this.

  The new Free UN Coalition for Access would propose that the UN Secretariat seek commitments from prospective Special Representatives of the Secretary General to stay in their positions for some minimum period of time, and to not drop out when something slightly better comes along.

  Back on October 8 when UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous briefed the Security Council by video from Mali, he supported the government in Bamako's insistence on "no federalism." Then, the UN did not distribute his speech, even as it distributed what Mali said.

  Mali's foreign minister Diop said the Security Council should set up a rapid intervention force, and raised the specter of Islamic State or ISIS in northern Mali. When Diop has been at the UN, he has held stakeouts and taken Press questions. Not so Ladsous, video compilation here, UK coverage here.

  As to Ladsous, there is a history, including a recent one. When Ladsous arrived at the General Assembly stakeout on September 27 to try to do his question and answer on Mali early as he did on South Sudan, without the Press present, it didn't work. Video here., Vine here and embedded below. Ladsous blocked Inner City Press' camera with a file folder then walked away, summoning friendly media with him and canceling the public stakeout.

  On September 29, Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Accessasked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about it, if the UN of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon thinks it appropriate for an Under Secretary General to engage in censorship. Dujarric said he hadn't seen the video.

 It's here, and the Q&A with Dujarric is here. UN transcript:

Inner City Press: I had a couple DKPO questions. But this one is more fundamental. I wanted to know what the position of UN is on an Under-Secretary-General basically blocking a camera that’s filming from an entirely legal stakeout position which seems to be within the definition of kinda censorship. Why didn’t Mr. Ladsous in fact hold the stakeout on Mali on Saturday?

Spokesman Dujarric: I can look into it. I think there was a couple of scheduling issues. I can look into it.

Inner City Press: On tape he came up and put a file folder in front of a camera to stop it from filming.

Spokesman Duujarric: I’ll look into it. I’m not aware of the incident.

   Dujarric said there were "a couple of scheduling issues." But at least two wire services reported Ladsous' privatized spin without noting the censorship that took place right in front of them. If they censor this, what else is missing in their reports?

  In English Ladsous spun, "UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told reporters later on Saturday that with the presence of French forces greatly reduced in the region, UN peacekeeping forces have to take a more dynamic stance and go in search of the attackers. 'We can't be sitting ducks,' he said."

  In French Ladsous spun, "'Je crois que c'est incontestable: les terroristes et les jihadistes, et sans doute aussi les trafiquants, ont repris du poil de la bête,' dans le nord du Mali, a déclaré Hervé Ladsous à des journalistes, jugeant 'intolérables' les attaques perpétrées contre les Casques bleus."

  Why couldn't he say this at the UNTV stakeout and take questions? What does it say about those who went to Ladsous' privatized spin-zone, which he began here, with Reuters, Voice of America and AFP? Old video here.

   As Ladsous stood at the stakeout, Inner City Press filmed as it did on September 26 when Ladsous refused to answer basic Press questions about his missions in Central African Republic and Golan. 

  Ladsous demanded, What are you going to do with this? He and a staffer tried to block the filming with file folders. Then he got UN Media Accreditation to ask Inner City Press to put down the camera and stop filming. But this is the stakeout. The Free UN Coalition for Access defends the rights to cover the UN. (The old UN Correspondents Association has partnered with Ladsous, first along with Agence France Presse and then further.)

   Ladsous and one of his "publicity" staffers tried to block the filming with file folders. Video here. Finally Ladsous walked away with his team including the Reuters correspondent who has himself engaged in censorship, telling Google to remove from Search his "for the record" complaint to UN Media Accreditation, claiming it is copyrighted. It is a strange position from a media that claims exclusive leaks. 

   After Ladsous stormed off, two of his staffers returned to say that the stakeout still might happen. But at 2:42 pm, an hour and forty-two minutes after it was supposed to happen, the UN said it was canceled - but not why.

   Before UN Peacekeeping held its September 26 meeting about the Central African Republic, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about Uganda deciding not to send its troops as peacekeepers to the MINUSCA mission, under Herve Ladsous.

Dujarric said he would try to get an answer, but none was sent six hours later. So when Herve Ladsous, the fourth French chief of UN Peacekeeping in a row, came to the General Assembly stakeout past 6 pm on September 26, Inner City Press several times put the question to him: What about the Ugandans? Video here.

  Ladsous made his opening statement only in French, then ignored the Press question in English about Uganda pulling out of his peacekeeping mission, at the same time that the Philippines is pulling out of Ladsous' mission in the Golan Heights after he ordered their troops to surrender to the Al Nursa Front extremist group, which still has their UN Peacekeeping vehicles, weapons and uniforms.

Instead, Ladsous pointed at Agence France Presse, which previously on Ladsous' behalf filed complaints against Inner City Press, including through UNCA, now the UN's Censorship Alliance. 

  The first time was when Inner City Press reported that Ladsous was by no means the first choice to replace Alain Le Roy atop peacekeeping, but was deposited into the job after the UN decided that the first choice, Jerome Bonnafont, was too flashy. So they got Ladsous.

Ladsous on September 26 proceeded to brag about new countries coming into UN Peacekeeping, singling out Sweden. Inner City Press once again asked, what about Uganda pulling out of the CAR mission, and added, what about the Filipinos pulling out of his mission in the Golan? Video here.

Ladsous as has become his practice - compilation here, UK coverage here - refused to answer and walked away with two of his aides. They looked back over their shoulders as they went up in the elevator.

How can a UN official get (over) paid but answer no critical questions? How can an official under whose watch the Darfur mission has covered up attacks on civilians, and who has ordered at least two countries' peacekeepers to surrender to terrorists, keep his job? 

  The questioning is spreading and one would think would come to a head in the upcoming review of peacekeeping, which Inner City Press has heard and reported will be headed by Louise Arbour. The new Free UN Coalition for Access asserts that UN Under Secretaries General should answer media questions, and there should be accounability. We'll see.

   

From Mali by Video, IBK's Foreign Minister Links Azawad Aspirants With Terrorists, IBK's Jet Not Mentioned

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 20 -- After fighting in Kidal in northern Mali, former colonial power France convened a UN Security Council meeting on May 20. Together on a big screen from Bamako, UN envoy Bert Koenders and Mali's foreign minister spoke, the latter urging the Council to denounce the MNLA as the sole aggressors, calling them narco-terrorists.

  Mali's minister showed the Security Council photographs on a tablet and urged the Council to condemn only one aggressor.

   The aspiration for independence for Azawad has not gone away, and it is entirely unclear if the intervention has made the government in Bamako under Ibrahim Boubacar Keita more or LESS likely to address the concerns of those in Kidal.

  Neither Koenders nor it seems France at the UN has followed even the International Monetary Fund in questioning Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's purchase of a new Boeing 737 jet for $40 million. So what did the UN peacekeeping mission, Bert Koenders and Herve Ladous, know and when did they know it?

  As Inner City Press reported last week, despite not having required Security Council approval, Ladsous has been soliciting drones or "unarmed unmanned aerial vehicles" for Mali. Inner City Press has twiceasked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric to explain the solicitation without approval, but no answer has been given.

  Despite speeches by Annick Girardin, the French secretary of state for development, what did France's outgoing ambassador to the UN Gerard Araud do or say about these issues during the Security Council trip to Mali that he led?

  Actually, France has stealthily lined up to get paid by other UN member states for "air field services" in northern Mali through a letter of assist regarding which Araud refused to answer Press questions in December (then stopped answering Press questions altogether). So as one wag put it, France could get paid to service Air IBK -- if IBK ever visited and negotiated in northern Mali.

   Back in January regarding gang rape charges against UN peacekeepers in Mali the UN told Inner City Press, "the Government of Chad has further advised the Department of Peacekeeping Operations that it has completed the national investigation."

    On April 9, Inner City Press asked DPKO chief Herve Ladsous what the results of the completed investigation had been, but he refused to answer, click here for that.

  And so on April 23 Inner City Press put the question to the UN's Mali envoy Bert Koenders. More than three months after the DPKO told Inner City Press the investigation was completed, Koenders said it will only be finished in "two or three weeks." Video here, from Minute 3:39.

   Even though by his account the investigation is not finished, he said "we have found very little evidence of sexual violence by Chadian troups... at first glance some of the accusations have not bee proven." 

   While Koenders unlike Ladsous at least purported to respond to this question, and one about Dutch attack helicopters bound for Mali, there is a lack of clarity. Beyond the "completed" investigation by Chad, is there another, UN investigation? Are there preliminary findings based on which Koenders said what he did? As with the rapes in Minova in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by DPKO's partners in the Congolese Army, we will continue to pursue this issue.

  Inner City Press also asked about the five Dutch helicopter's Mali's foreign minister Abdulaye Diop had told it about earlier in the morning. Koenders said, "We welcome contribution of Dutch government," specifying three Apache attack helicopters in May, and two transport helicopters in September or October. 

  Koenders cited all information fusion, being the ears and eyes on extremist groups. Earlier, Inner City Press asked Foreign Minister Diop if such information will be shared with his government, or only within MINUSMA and its troop contributing countries. Diop said he didn't know. So this, too, will require clarification

  As an aside, later on April 23 the UN's envoy to Somalia Nicholas Kay complained of the lack of helicopters from the AMISOM mission. It left one wondering about how the UN is run: did the Netherlands give the copters to Mali because one of its nationals is the UN's envoy there? We hope to have more on this.

  On April 23 when Inner City Press asked Malian foreign minister Diop for an update on dialogue in Kidal, and on the stated investigation of the shooting of civilian demonstrators there, he replied that he is too new in the position to answer on the probe. He said there is a new chief negotiator for the armed groups and what he called, in a Nixonian phrase, the "silent majority." Where did the last ten weeks go?

  Back on January 16 the UN Spokesperson's Office sent Inner City Press this response, which does not answer the question of accountability. But here it is, in full:

Subject: Your question on Mali
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 3:23 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

In response to your question about the follow-up to the allegations of sexual assault by United Nations peacekeepers in MINUSMA in September 2013, we have received the following information:

The Department of Peacekeeping Operations officially notified the Government of Chad of these allegations in late September. The Government of Chad officially responded, saying that it would take responsibility for the investigations. The Government of Chad has further advised the Department of Peacekeeping Operations that it has completed the national investigation, and the United Nations awaits advice on the outcome of the investigations and follow-up accountability measures as appropriate.

  The UN is waiting for "advice" -- but will it ever make it public? How else can the UN's stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy be assessed?

  On January 17, Inner City Press asked UN acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq about it. From the UN's transcript, video here and embedded below:

Inner City Press: On Mali, I wanted to thank you for this written answer you gave yesterday afternoon that Mali has said that its completed its investigation of the alleged rape in Mali by the Chadian troops. And it said that the UN awaits advice on the outcome of the investigation. And what I wanted to know is whether… what part of that is going to be made public, given both the human rights due diligence policy, etcetera? I appreciate you saying that the investigation is finished, but, has… did they clear the soldiers? Were the soldiers found guilty? Where does it stand?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: As we emailed to you, the Mission does await advice on the outcome of the proceedings. We know that there have been proceedings regarding the case. You know this is a case regarding sexual assault and so, we await further information from that. We’ll try to make public what we can of the information that we receive.

Inner City Press: So, they literally just told you that it’s complete, but…no indication on what was done? I guess I wonder when --

Acting Deputy Spokesperson: The information I have in the email that was sent to you is the information we have. If we have any further updates, we’ll share it with you at that point.

  Two weeks later, nothing. So what will members of the Security Council ask, find and make public?

  One of the UN's other too-few criticisms of military action in north Mail, the shooting into a crowd of protesters in Kidal on November 28, was disputed in the Security Council on January 16.

  In a statement prepared like a defense attorney, trying raise reasonable doubt, Mali's Permanent Representative Sekou Kasse said that the UN Mission MINUSMA elements closest to the shooting were 400 meters away, precluding them from "objective" testimony. 

  The argument made was one must wait for the ballistic analysis ordered by the Malian government itself. Inner City Press asked Mali's foreign minister on April 23. Watch this site.

   

On South Sudan, UN's Ban Ki-moon Goes From Pressuring to Pleading With Bangladesh's Sheikh Hasina' Kenyatta as Mediator

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 26 -- Earlier this month, the UN was calling on Bangladesh' Sheikh Hasina to show flexibility. On December 11, the UN announced that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had expressed to Sheikh Hasina concern about

"the widespread violence that has left dozens of people dead since last month. The Secretary-General urged the Prime Minister to resolve differences over the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for January through dialogue."

Now two weeks later UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has contacted Sheikh Hasina asking to transfer 1000 Bangledeshi soldiers to South Sudan, and she has nearly immediately said yes, and bragged about it -- as nearly all leaders and countries do -- witness Norway bragging it's giving $50 million to South Sudan where its Hilde Johnson is UN envoy, or the Netherlands bragging about spying in Mali where its Bert Koenders is envoy.

But it's worth considering the relation between the UN's pressure on Sheikh Hasina before this South Sudan crisis erupted, and after Ban's request and Sheikh Hasina's quick approval.

So to the case of President Kenyatta of Kenya. In November, either Security Council members abstained on the African Union's request that the Council suspended the International Criminal Court's proceedings against Kenyatta for one year.

Now, along with Ethiopia's prime minister, Kenyatta is going to South Sudan to mediate. What do the abstainers say now? Watch this site.

   

New on UNSC, Chad Sends Two To Meet 10 of UN, Koenders on Chad Troops Alleged Rapes, Nahibly, Conflicts of Interest?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 17 -- Hours after Chad was elected without competition to the UN Security Council, its foreign minister Moussa Faki Mahamat went up to the UN's 38th floor to meet Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The previous day, Inner City Press had asked Ban's envoy to Mali Bert Koenders about the gang rape allegations against Chadian soldiers serving in the UN Peacekeeping mission MINUSMA. Glaringly, the issue had not been mentioned in Koenders statement to the Security Council.

But at the UNTV stakeout, Koenders answered Inner City Press that the rape charges are being investigated, and witnesses not allowed to leave Mali, so they can be interviewed by Chadian authorities.

Inner City Press included this in a second story, while not there even noting that Koenders' supervisor Herve Ladsous, as head of UN Peacekeeping, has continued to support Congolese Army units implicated in 135 rapes in Minova. But that is relevant, in assessing Koenders response to rape charges in Mali.

Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat was accompanied Thursday only by his country's relatively new Permanent Representative to the UN, Mahamat Zene Cherif.

  The UN on the other hand had no less than ten people present for the meeting, including Koenders, Ban's chief of staff Susana Malcorra, UN human rights deputy Ivan Simonovic and Herve Ladsous' deputy Edmond Mulet.Tweeted photo here.

Before the meeting started, Koenders approached Inner City Press and said, Monsieur, I answered that for you, why did you write that?

Inner City Press explained it wrote one story based on Koenders' statement to the Council -- which did not address the rape charges -- then a second one after the Council meeting was over and Koenders took Inner City Press' question at the stakeout.

Koenders also said that the answers on the killings (and UN inaction) at the Nahibly camp in Cote d'Ivoire, his last posting, were all in press conferences that he has given. But who has been held accountable, including on the UN side given reports that peacekeepers did nothing, even pushed IDPs off their truck in order to get beaten? This has not been answered.

 But by answering at the stakeout, and this further answer a day later, Koenders is at least different from Ladsous, who outright refuses to answer Press questions, including on rapes by his partners in the Congolese Army. Video here;UK New Statesman article here. Stonewalling cannot (be allowed to) benefit the UN.

 Also, Inner City Press does speak with UN Envoys, officials and diplomats off the record. But that was neither requested nor implied here. The answers on Nahibly? We hope to have more on that.

Ban started this Chad meeting with chit chat, then instructed two of his staff members (including one who until recently served in the Security Council that Chad will join in January) to sit on Chad's side, in "solidarity." Tweeted photo here.

The Press was escorted out. But one is left with a question of how the different pushes and pulls are handled. The Secretariat actively wants Security Council members to vote in certain ways, for example to approve or accept Ban Ki-moon's proposals on Syria.

At the same time, the Secretariat is charged with speaking out on the use of child soldiers, on sexual violence in conflict, on impunity. There are potential conflicts of interest here, to say the least. We will have more on this. Watch this site.

   

To G8 in Lough Erne Ban Ki-moon Wasn't Invited, UK Tells ICP; IMF's Lagarde Was there: UN in Decline

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 26 – During the recent G8 meeting in Lough Erne, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde and World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim were both there. But where, Inner City Press asked, was Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations?

Physically, he was in China. But the question was, had Ban Ki-moon even been invited to the G8? The question was asked at the UN, of Ban's Deputy Spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey. He said he didn't know, he said he would check; there was never an answer. This seemed to imply Ban had not been invited – particularly since the meeting touched on Syria – but it seemed to make sense to ask the host, the United Kingdom.

The UK Mission to the UN's spokesperson, Iona Thomas, told Inner City Press she didn't know but would ask “the capital” but that it might take time. On Wednesday morning, Inner City Press asked again. She indicated that maybe now that the dust had settled, an answer might be possible.

And then it came. Wednesday afternoon at an otherwise empty Security Council stakeout as the Council's meeting on the long delayed Sahel report by Romano Prodi started up, Iona Thomas of the UK told Inner City Press that No, Ban Ki-moon was not invited. So there you have it.

What does it mean?

Often people critique not only the G8 but also the G20 for being unrepresentative, contrasting it to the G193 of the General Assembly. The UN Secretary General could be a bridge, and it seems to some that previous Secretary General Kofi Annan might well have been invited.

So what is happening to the UN? As another UN official pointed out to Inner City Press, even on Mali, a case right in the UN's wheelhouse, it was not the UN brokering the deal -- not Prodi or Bert Koenders or Said Djinnit -- but Blaise Campoare of Burkina Faso. Would he have been invited to the G8? Watch this site.