Serbia PM Dacic Answers Just One Media (on Organ Harvesting Case) on UNTV, Kosovo PM Thaci Not At All

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 10 -- When last November 19 Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic came to speak with the media after the UN Security Council session about Kosovo, only three journalists asked questions.

(Inner City Press asked why the OSCE had taken the ballot boxes away, and to where. Dacic said this will be raised in Brussels, as it casts doubt on the results.)

 On Monday February 10, things got even more marginal. Kosovo Prime Minister Thaci came out of the Council but declined to speak at the stakeout. Why should he? 

  Dacic came out ready to go to the stakeout, but was diverted. By the time he made it to the UNTV stakeout, only one media asked questions there: Inner City Press. How can that be? What is happening to the UN, on this issue and others? The Free UN Coalition for Access opposes the dying off or privatization of the Security Council stakeout.

   This time Inner City Press asked about returns of Serbs to Kosovo, and about the status of investigations into the harvesting of organs reported on by Dick Marty.

  Through an interpreter, whose translation may not have made it onto UNTV, Dacic said the difficulty of returns after 15 years showed the problem. He said the organ investigation must be pursued. But will it be?

  The two are speaking with the EU's Cathy Ashton, as they did at the Munich Security Conference. The big issues like the Middle East, North Korea and Iran have moved away from the UN; even this one, with a whimper, is fading away.

  Back on November 19 the third questioner asked about discrimination in Serbia. Dacic asked him, where are you from?

From here, he replied. America. Then he added, Kosovo television RTV 21. Kosovo national television.

Dacic smiled, and soon said, I am here to answer questions, not to hear speeches or your opinion. The stakeout was over.

A larger crowd gathered, to discuss after the fact if this is permissible. The Free UN Coalition for Access has questioned it. In the past, the UN let France limit a press conference in the UN briefing room to "French journalists" -- even making one journalist for a pro-Western newspaper in Lebanon show her passport.

More recently, the UN affirmatively let France mark many of the seats in the new briefing room "Reserved" for French traveling journalists. Perhaps most outrageously, the UN has let its Under Secretary for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous openly refuse to answer any answer from Inner City Press. Video compilation here; UK coverage here.  And so it goes at the UN. Watch this site.

   

South Korean Ambassador Tells Inner City Press “UN Command” Was Formed by UNSC, EU on NSA, Bilateral Blues and FUNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 1 -- Monday morning Inner City Press asked South Korea's Permanent Representative Kim Sook alone in front of the UN Security Council to respond to the June 21 call by his North Korean counterpart Sin Son-ho to dismantle the UN Command.

  Kim Sook exclusively told Inner City Press that Sin Son-ho “doesn't understand the history.” He said that the Security Council approved the UN Command on July 7, 1950, in Resolution 84.

  If they want to dismantle it, they should ask the Security Council, he said with a smile.

  Inner City Press asked ask Kim Sook if they thought the General Assembly had any role or weight on the issue.

  No, Kim Sook said. He asked Inner City Press what it thought of the argument. Honestly, the UN Command is at least unique: it seems to never be reviewed by the Security Council.

  Kim Sook said it has been raised in UNSC consultations, and no one has challenged it, “until now.”

  But isn't a press conference and a legal argument preferable to the alternative?

Of NSA and EU

  Inner City Press asked the earlier visitors to the new US presidency in the Security Council, an EU Ambassador, about reports the US National Security Agency spied on the EU at the UN.

“I wouldn't have thought it was worth it,” the EU member ambassador replied with a smile. The @EUatUN directed Inner City Press to a statement that Lady Ashton is awaiting US confirmation.

  Footnote: these Security Council bilaterals are the type of meeting that the UN Department of Public Information and its UN Censorship Alliance tried to ban the coverage of, saying journalists should not be at the stakeout when there are not formal meetings. The new Free UN Coalition for Access fought back, and now faces dis-accreditation threats for merely hanging a FUNCA sign. This is Ban's UN.

  

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, as EU Wins Special Rights Over 2 Objections, GA Voting Boards Broken

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 3 -- Just before the UN General Assembly meeting on the European Union's resolution to get special rights in the GA, diplomats told Inner City Press that the Caribbean grouping CARICOM had reached agreements and would support the EU.

Click here for Inner City Press' exclusive review last week of the issue.

Some others thought the changes relatively minor: for example, reducing the EU's right of reply to a single turn instead of two. As one Western diplomat put it to Inner City Press, the EU's 27 member states can reply for it, giving in 54 replies.

So there was suddenly hope that the EU resolution would go through on consensus, without a vote. Just outside the GA chamber, Cuba's ambassador talked loudly on his cell phone, mentioning Zimbabwe.

While there were very few journalists covering the meeting, at least two were from Iranian media. They told Inner City Press that “their” Permanent Representative would be speaking. A Western diplomat wondered if Iran might block consensus.

When the meeting began, gaveled to order by Afghanistan's Permanent Representative Tanin, Caricom spoke in favor, as did Nigeria's Permanent Representative on behalf of the African Group.

Zimbabwe spoke to ask to introduce an amendment, but was pushed back in the speaking order, after the Secretariat, which said the change would cost $10,000 for new chairs and audio equipment, but that the money could be found.

Sudan's Permanent Representative spoke for the Arab Group, saying that the EU has agreed to support other groups, specifically the Arab League, to get these rights.

Then Nauru, or a person on behalf of Nauru's Ambassador, launched an impassioned plea against giving rights and powers to non-states. A Western diplomat joked to Inner City Press that Nauru has so few people, something could be arranged for them. But they had a point.

Zimbabwe next made its point: that the Rules of Procedure prohibit observers like the EU from having the right to reply. Exceptions were made for the Holy See and Palestine, but these were distinguished. Zimbabwe called for a vote on its proposed amendment.

As the votes went up on the GA's electronic voting boards, it became clear that the boards were broken. Votes appeared without country names next to them. As best as could be made out, Zimbabwe was joined by Venezuela and Nicaragua and three others, with twenty abstaining including Uganda, Ecuador, Chad, Burundi and Kenya.

Next was the vote on the EU's resolution, up or down. Only Zimbabwe and a country left unidentified by the board voted against. The GA is so broken down that there is no Wi-Fi internet service, only “only 1 megabyte for everyone,” as one diplomat told Inner City Press.

Inner City Press ran to the UN noon briefing and asked who in the Secretariat is in charge of the GA, with its broken voting boards and lack of Internet. “You well know,” said the spokesman for Ban Ki-moon. Yes, we do.

Footnote: it has also become more difficult to cover the General Assembly. Last week, Inner City Press and other journalists were stopped from standing in front of the GA to ask questions. While it has been said that this can be fixed by a new paragraph in the rules, it has yet to happen.

On Tuesday, when Inner City Press took the elevator up from the Security Council's meeting on its May Program of Work, a UN Security officer said there would be no access to the GA press booths “unless accompanied.” This was arranged, but there was no Internet inside, and the voting boards were broken. So it goes at the UN.

On Myanmar, As EU Prepares Visit, Ban Delays Replacing Nambiar, GA Mandate To Be Cut?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 8 -- When the European Union's Catherine Ashton came to the UN on Tuesday, Inner City Press asked for the EU's position on Myanmar, and to contrast it with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's.

Ashton began, “With Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi is somebody we are in contact with, she and I have just been writing to each other, and I'm hoping that somebody from the EU will be visiting her shortly.”

By contrast after Ban's chief of staff and part time Myanmar envoy Vijay Nambiar visited Aung San Suu Kyi, when he returned his internal assessment within the UN as conveyed to Inner City Press by well placed UN sources was that she is out of touch and too hard line.

Ashton continued that “on all of these issues, we need to talk with the opposition, of course with her, she's central, but also with the others around her and engage with this... The EU will make its position clear when we've got that type of discussion out of the way and so we're waiting to be given the chance to talk with her.”

Inner City Press asked Ashton if she agrees with Ban Ki-moon's recent assessment, if the EU is on the same page.

Ashton replied that she doesn't have a “detailed, finger tip knowledge of the last thing the UN said.”

Ban Ki-moon put out a statement about the new parliament, 25% of whose members are appointed by the military and in which proposals have to be shown to a screener 10 days before they are introduced, with the possiblity of prohibition without any chance of appeal.

After for weeks declining to answer Inner City Press' questions about the banning of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar, the plight of the Rohingya and when Ban would finally move on the request by the UK, Mexico and others to replace Nambiar with a full time envoy, the UN sent this:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 4:18 PM
Subject: Your questions on Myanmar
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] Inner City Press

In response to your emailed question about the dissolution of the NLD in Myanmar, we have the following to say: We have taken note of the decision with concern and continue to follow developments closely. We believe that in order to succeed any transition must be inclusive and participatory, including both those who won seats in the recent elections and those who did not participate.

Regarding the Rohingya boat people, UNHCR is trying to obtain access; please follow up with UNHCR on that matter.

On replacing Nambiar, the UN has had nothing to say. Now, sources in the UN tell Inner City Press there is a reason. The goal is to get the entire UN mandate on Myanmar eliminated in the General Assembly, by pointing to the new parliament and recycled president. That, the sources say, explains Ban's statements and delay. Watch this site.

EU's Ashton, Who Cut Sri Lanka's GSP Plus, Says Rajapaksa Blocks Inquiries, While Ban Praises His "Flexibility"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 8 -- While UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon praises Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa's “flexibility,” even as Ban's Panel on Accountability is blocked from traveling to Colombo, the EU's Catherine Ashton on Tuesday was more direct when Inner City Press asked her Tuesday about the removal of GSP Plus tariff benefits for the country.

“It's me that did the GSP Plus removal from Sri Lanka,” she said. “It's important if you have a program that says, this is conditionality, if you don't do it or you do something in breach of it that there are consequences. I stand by that completely. We did our own independent look into what had been going on. I'd like to see Sri Lanka make progress.”

Inner City Press asked her about the UN's position, saying (before being cut off by her spokesman) that “the government is not going to allow.”

Ashton said that “the government usually doesn't allow things like that. The President took the power to prevent independent inquiry, wouldn't allow someone in to do the inquiry into GSP Plus, which meant that it was much more complicated. So the words 'the government doesn't allow' are not unusual.”

Meanwhile Ban Ki-moon cites a 2005 visit while he was South Korean foreign minister as somehow pushing for accountability, and praises Rajapaksa's “flexibility.” Seven weeks later, with the UN now offering Sri Lanka a mere video conference call, will Ban explain his statements? Watch this site.

Inner City Press also asked Ashton about Myanmar. She said she and ASSK are exchanging letters, and that she hopes the EU will be able to send someone to visit her soon, as well as others in the opposition. We'll see.

At UN, Of Elusive Security Council Reform, EU Special Powers & GA Revitalization

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/ga1treki091310.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 13 -- Libya's Ali Treki has overseen the past year's UN General Assembly, which in its concluding session this afternoon will consider a resolution to give special powers to the European Union, some GA revitalization and Security Council reform. What do these proposals mean?

The EU believes it deserves the right, in the GA, to propose resolutions and participate as if a member state. But then why allow each EU state to also participate? Why not give these rights to the African Union as well?

The EU says its Lisbon Treaty sets it apart from the AU. Ah, exceptionalism. Sources tell Inner City Press that while when the African Union goes as a group to the EU, they express opposition, African states are being picked off one by one. It's happened before.

The GA Revitalization resolution, in a provision little noticed except by Inner City Press, would require candidates for Secretary General to come to the GA and make their case, against competitors. Many hope it will apply to Ban Ki-moon, in his quest for a second term.

Security Council reform, as usual, is going nowhere. Each major candidate for a permanent seat has a natural enemy, and the Permanent Five are unlikely to ever give up power. They can say they support change, because they know it will never happen.

The GA is supposed to orally direct that the SC reform process continue. Inner City Press previously asked the coordinator of the process, Afghanistan's Ambassador Tanin, who was paying his Danish staffer Jonas.

The answer given was murky, but now we can report: at first Jonas was paid directly by the Danes. Then he was made a JPO, a Junior Professional Officer, paid by the UN with Danish money. Tanin's other helper, it is less clear.

Questions are arising about the staffing practices of incoming GA President Joseph Deiss, including Inner City Press' initial scoop of Deis having to promise Finland a UN-funded post in order to squeak past Belgium's Louis Michel and get the Western Europe and Other Group nod for the PGA position. More on this to follow -- watch this site.

Footnote: Treki will hold a press conference at 12:30, billed as his final one. But he will stay on to co-chair the MDGs summit, and is expected to speak again at that time. There are questions...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ga1treki091310.html

At UN on Haiti, EU Ashton Dodges, Cannon Fires at Fowler, French Jet Unaddressed

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/haiti1euca040110.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 1 -- Amid the self-congratulatory Haiti fest at the UN on Wednesday, there was bragging by the European Union, Canada and others, corporate plugs for Coca-Cola, and many Haitian excluded from the conference.

The EU's High Commissioner Catherine Ashton closed with the dramatic phrase about the scale of death "in 35 seconds." But earlier on Wednesday, when Inner City Press asked her about what's described as her powerplay to get EU development aid under an External Affairs Unit she is setting up, she dodged as in a quake. There's no controversy, she said. But that's not what development and poverty experts say.

Inner City Press asked Ashton about two EU members, Germany and France. The former's been called stingy by German Agro Aid. French development minister Alain Joyandet spent over 116,000 Euros taking a private jet to a meeting about poverty in Haiti. Ashton smiled as that question was asked, but did not answer it. The German question she left to her Eastern European co-panelist.

Upstairs at the stakeout in front of the Trusteeship Council Chamber, high profile participants praised the meeting and themselves. Canadian foreign Minister Cannon lauded his country's response. Inner City Press asked about the criticism by former Canadian (and UN) diplomat Robert Fowler, that the conservative Canadian government has turned more and more inwards, and taken sides in the Middle East.

Cannon said he would not respond to Fowler, only that he is -- and by implication Fowler should be -- grateful to the countries which helped get Fowler released from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, after he was scooped up in Niger working for the UN and perhaps Canadian mining interests.

Back downstairs the press spokesman of Japan's foreign minister Okada described his boss' trip to Washington, Ottawa and New York in seemingly great detail. But he omitted the discussions of the relocation of American forces on Okinawa. When asked by Inner City Press, he dutifully described the issue for the few representatives of Japanese media in the briefing room, as if they'd never heard of it. And then the briefing was over.

It all concluded with an unwieldy seven person press conference in the UN's basement. Only three questions were allowed, each apparently pre-selected. Ban's spokesman called on Spanish wire service EFE, which he had left off Ban's first trip to Haiti, whose president's spokesman called on a Haitian journalist from "Scoop." The U.S. State Department called on Reuters, which asked Hillary Clinton about Iran and the UN Security Council.

While Haitian President Rene Preval rolled his eyes and Ban urged that only Haiti questions be asked, Hillary Clinton, France's Bernard Kouchner and Brazil's foreign minister each answered the question. Brazil said as a non permanent member of the Council, it was not in the loop.

Hillary Clinton said that the U.S. viewed seeking Council sanctions as diplomacy, even negotiations. Kouchner said that "we did try to talk to the Iranians, we did." Why not allow a question or answer about his development minister's 116,000 Euro private jet trip about Haiti, then? And so it goes in the UN.

Footnotes: Some, including Haitians who had traveled to New York in good faith for the conference, could not get in. A misleading UN web site allowed people to register and even receive confirmation. They appeared prior to the conference but were told another step had been needed, and that the event was "for donors."

This contrasted to Bill Clinton's statement, following his high security hobnobbing with Coca-Cola which has tried to brand the earthquake, that the conference "heard from Haitian civilian society, and not just from me."

Inner City Press also questioned the IMF's Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the stakeout, on the IMF's failure to yet forgive Haiti's debt, in contrast to the IADB. After reporting Strauss-Kahn's answer yesterday, Thursday morning Inner City Press asked for more detail at the IMF's bi-weekly briefing, on this it will report before the IMF's 10:30 a.m. embargo time. Watch this site. www.innercitypress.com/haiti1euca040110.html

And see, www.innercitypress.com/haiti1euca040110.html

EU's Ashton "Concerned" By Rights in Sri Lanka, On Election, No UN Ban Follow Up

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/lanka5elections012210.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 22 -- The European Union's new High Commissioner Catherine Ashton appeared at the UN on Friday, and was asked by Inner City Press about Sri Lanka in the run up to elections, and about the GSP Plus tariff reduction program, whether the EU would curtail it for Sri Lanka. Video here, from Minute 4:05.

Baroness Ashton responded that, while she was Trade Commissioner, GSP Plus had been a concern. "If we have a scheme, where we award the way we operate directly because of... treatment of people and human rights, if that falls short, it should be re-examined."

She said that she was "very concerned" and had recommended that GPS Plus benefits for Sir Lanka "perhaps should be reconsidered."

She did not, however, comment on violence in the run up to the January 26 election, nor on reports that Mahinda Rajapaksa has required cell phone companies to send out text messages supporting him.

Inner City Press had asked if the UN's Ban Ki-moon had any view on the pre-election violence and intimidation. Days later, Ban's spokesman read out a statement that Ban remains concerned. But since the statement, a major opposition supporter's house has been attacked with hand grenades. At least five are dead and dozens injured. And from Ban, nothing.

His spokesman wouldn't even allow a question on January 22:

Inner City Press: Can I ask one more?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I’d like, actually, to see if there are others, and I think I would ask Jean-Victor to join us. Just please do join. But, one thing I did want to respond to was, you asked a question, Matthew, yesterday...

He then gave an answer on Haiti, the topic to which the UN has sought to confine question for ten days now. And on and after the Sri Lankan election? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/lanka5elections012210.html