Exclusive: Jan Kubis Slated To Replace Mladenov in Iraq, 18 Months for S-G Race, Sources Tell Inner City Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 18 -- Three weeks ago, Inner City Pres was first to report that Nicholay Mladenov would leave his position as the UN's envoy to Iraq, to replace Robert Serry as Middle East Coordinator. At that time, Inner City Press said it would report on Mladenov's successor in Iraq.

  And now, based on sources on the UN's 38th floor and in the field, Inner City Press can report that the next UN envoy to Iraq will be Jan Kubis. Out of respect for an initial but impeccable sourcing, Inner City Press waited to report it until now.

  The move positions Kubis well, as well as possible given his gender, in the race to replace Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General. (Inner City Pressstory here.) The post is said slated for the Eastern European group. Kubis was previously foreign minister of his native Slovakia.

  Eighteen months in Baghdad, if successful, would be just the argument to win the secret ballot of the Permanent Five (P5) Security Council members that, for now, determines who the SG will be.

  When he was envoy to Afghanistan, Kubis deftly handled the P5. (Inner City Press questioned Kubis, for example here). He also served Ban on issues in Kyrgyzstan. What will other SG candidates be doing for the next eighteen months?

   That the UN's new Middle East coordinator will be Nickolay Mladenov, Inner City Press was able to report exclusively on January 30, with sourcing from Permanent Representatives that the letter, which Inner City Press saw, had gone to the Security Council.

  Of this exclusive report, at least 11 hours before any other mention, Inner City Press on February 2 directly asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, including though what process and timing Mladenov is to be replaced in Iraq.

    Dujarric declined to confirm, despite the Secretary General's letter.Video here.

Some neglected to credit the exclusive - policies unclear - while Inner City Press scoops have since been credited by UK Channel 4 (OCHA successor race) and The Independent (sale of post in Herve Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping, here).

    Earlier, Inner City Press reported that Mladenov was leaving his post as UN envoy to Iraq; before that, Inner City Press asked Robert Serry how he was remaining in the Middle East post past Ban Ki-moon's stated five year rule, and despite PNG (persona non grata) threats from Israel. Now, the switch is being made.

  The hint, as to Iraq, was as Inner City Press exclusively reported, the UK's attempt to pick Mladenov's successor. That was opposed, and rejected. Now, after a “rude” call from UK Prime Minister Cameron to Ban Ki-moon, sources say rather than Cameron's first pick Andrew Lansley, UK candidate Caroline Spelman is in the lead.

  Picking Mladenov's successor in Iraq is in its final stages, and we will have more on that soon. [See above.] Watch this site.

   

In OCHA Race, Shouldn't Martin Kobler Have to Answer on MONUSCO Sale of Posts Scandal, Covered Up by Ladsous?

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive Follow Up

UNITED NATIONS, January 31, more here, Video I here-- The week after Inner City Press reported on UK Prime Minister David Cameron's angry or "rude" call to the UN's Ban Ki-moon, and four weeks after Inner City Press exclusively reported on Cameron's second and third nominees to replace Valerie Amos, then on a United Arab Emirates candidate, UK Channel 4 today reports that a decision will be made this week.

  Citing Inner City Press' exclusive reporting on  Caroline Spelman and Stephen O'Brien, the UK's second round of candidates after opposition to Andrew Lansley, C4's Lindsey Hilsum says Germany's candidate Martin Kobler led in a poll of 200 UN staff by Avaaz.

  Whatever the other merits, there is now another unaddressed scandal at the UN Mission in the DR Congo, MONUSCO, which Kobler is in charge of. As exclusively uncovered by Inner City Press, UN Police posts in Kobler's mission were for sale, by the Deputy Permanent Representative of Cote d'Ivoire to the UN. Click here for that.

  Inner City Press 24 hours before this report sought comment and explanation -- particularly for the UN having sat on this report since April of 2014 -- from Kobler and MONUSCO, but so far, nothing.

  Shouldn't Kobler have to answer? Watch this site.

   Back on January 14, Inner City Press was informed by sources of a minister from the United Arab Emirates, Lubna Khalid Al Qasimi, a member of the ruling family of Sharjah, put forward as a candidate by the UAE. The UAE has, it was noted,, the "Humanitarian City." And the UAE did give $1 million to OCHA's CERF last month.

  But the UAE sought, and has been unable to obtained, UN Asia Pacific Group consensus support for their candidate. This is a set-back. 

The UK's second duo of candidates, after opposition to Andrew Lansley: Caroline Spelman and Stephen O'Brien. Are those who oppose and opposed Lansley being lobbied?

  Germany's candidate Martin Kobler, a close observer emphasizes to Inner City Press that Kobler was for a time the UN's first choice to be UN Special Coordinator on the Middle East, before after opposition by a Permanent Five Security Council member the position went to Robert Serry.

  Now Serry is to be replaced by Nickolay Mladenov, currently UN envoy in Iraq. The UK -- seeming to reflect a lack of confidence it will retain OCHA -- sought to name one of its national to replace Mladenov, but was shot down by Iraq. That process is now in its final stages.

  While Inner City Press exclusively published the Mladenov to Serry switch before midnight in New York on January 30, eleven hours later one of the board members of the UN Censorship Alliance put it out without any credit at all. That's UNCA - Inner City Press quit and co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access, after attempts at censorship and refusal of UNCA's board to issue even guidance about not stealing exclusives. Call it sleaze.

  Back on November 26, minutes after the UN announced the departure of Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs chief Baroness Valerie Amos, Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq if the vacancy would be advertised for candidates from all countries, or if it is set aside for Amos' United Kingdom.

  On January 30 Inner City Press was reliable informed that UK Prime Minister David Cameron telephoned Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and said -- "rudely," according to denizens of the UN's 38th floor -- that despite the UK's submission of two additional names, below, Ban "must" pick Andrew Lansley.

  These sources say that Ban, as if to prove independence, will NOT choose Lansley but will keep the post UK, choosing on a progressive basis the female candidate,Caroline Spelman. Are those opposed to Lansley being lobbied for her?

  We'll have more on this.

   

On Day 1 as Ban Ki-moon's Spokesperson, Dujarric Won't Answer on Haiti Cholera or Sri Lanka Video: New Era

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 10 -- New / old UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric began Monday at noon, with questions raised two weeks ago (and before) about censorship and his replacement atop the News & Media Division and UN Accreditation UNanswered.

  Tellingly, some in the press briefing room applauded before Dujarric even said a word. He read a statement for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about "The Ukraine."

  In the question and answer session, four of the first five questioners Dujarric called on were among the 15 executive committee members of the United Nations Correspondents Association, with which Dujarric has some history.

  Inner City Press asked if Ban Ki-moon had the Haiti cholera court papers taped to his residence door on January 20 -- no answer -- and for UN response to Channel 4's new video showing abuse by the military of Sri Lanka, from which the UN accepts peacekeepers and even Shavendra Silva as an adviser. (Dujarric said he hasn't seen the video; it is online here: warning, graphic).

On the case against the UN for bringing cholera to Haiti, Inner City Press asked Dujarric to confirm that the court papers were taped to the door of Ban's residence on January. Dujarric declined to confirm - or deny - this. Video on Haiti (and Sri Lanka) here.

  As it did days ago, Inner City Press asked for the status of selecting Dujarric's replacement as head of the News and Media Division, in charge of UN media accreditation. No answer has been given about this status. This is of concern.

 A flier the Free UN Coalition for Access posted on this topic, on the "non-UNCA" bulletin board it advocated for, was torn down on March 7. At a second briefing, by the CTBTO, on March 10 Dujarric called first on UNCA, then on others. 

  When Inner City Press thanked CTBTO's Zerbo on behalf of FUNCA - the point is, there cannot be only one organization given UNCA's track record of attempted censorship and even more now with Dujarric's history with them -- Dujarric tried to move on (back to UNCA) before the related question on France's nuclear tests in the Pacific was answered. 

  It is a new era, requiring a new approach.

  Two years ago Dujarric was re-introduced to UN journalist as the chief of the News & Media Division, in a reception in what the UN called "UNCA Square." And then the censorship attempts began.

  A journalist for Iranian TV, found to have a rubber gun which was a prop in an independent film he was working on,had his UN accreditation revoked, permanently. Dujarric was in charge of Media Accreditation, and Inner City Press asked him for a justification of this "one strike and you're out policy." No answer was ever provided by Dujarric.

  Also in his Media Accreditation role, Dujarric chastised Inner City Press for daring to go stand outside and try to cover a meeting of Ban's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations, which included controversial Sri Lankan military figure Shavendra Silva. After the Sri Lankan government directed a complaint letter to the aforementioned UNCA, Inner City Press was told it could not cover the meetings.

Inner City Press, then on the board of UNCA, was not notified when the organization's then president agreed to screen a Sri Lankan government film denying war crimes. After it published an article noting that the UNCA president had in the past rented one of his apartments to Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN, demands were made that Inner City Press remove the article from the Internet.

UNCA took to sending copies of correspondence to Dujarric, about articles Inner City Press had written about officials and diplomats of Dujarric's native France. Finally, UNCA first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters sent a complaint against Inner City Press to Dujarric, calling it "for the record."

More recently, Charbonneau has gotten one of his complaints to Dujarric banned from Google's Search, using afiling under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act -- straight up censorship. What does Dujarric say?

In fact, Dujarric solicited complaints against Inner City Press from other big-media UNCA board members, through a private, including through non-UN email address. Freedom of Information Act responses show that UNCA board members met with "the UN" to request that Inner City Press be thrown out. Once Inner City Press published some of these, Dujarric on June 29, 2012 asked to meet Inner City Press.

  Dujarric told Inner City Press not to refer to Ban Ki-moon as "Wan Ki-moon" and not to refer to Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row atop UN Peacekeeping, as The Drone despite Ladsous proposing the UN's first use of drones and refusing to answer Press questions about it. 

  This and a specious criticism for having signed Nobel Peace Prize Winner Tawakul Karman of Yemen into the UN, where she dared speak on the UN microphone after a Security Council meeting on Yemen, were linked by Dujarric to re-accreditation he controlled.

  Criticism of stories, coverage and even tweets is fine -- but when done by an official in charge of accreditation, and even tied to accreditation, we call it what it is: censorship.

Disgusted, Inner City Press and another long time correspondent from Brazil founded the Free UN Coalition for Access as an alternative to the insider UNCA, which did not for example offer any defense to the cameraman thrown out for the rubber gun. (Reuters' Charbonneau, in fact, wrote a story playing up the Iranian angle.)

  But Dujarric became the interlocutor for FUNCA. He said only UNCA was needed. After convening a meeting between FUNCA and UNCA, at which Inner City Press openly said "this is on the record" and UNCA president Pamela Falk of CBS said, "He's going to write about this," Dujarric sent Inner City Press a letter which claimed the meeting was off the record and said FUNCA was not a DPI interlocutor for reform.

  There have been no reforms since, quite the opposite. Dujarric, who earlier refused a New York Civil Liberties Union request that the UN provide due process to journalists, continued the Kafka-esque atmosphere in March 2013 when Reuters and Agence France-Presse filed stealth complaints leading with how Inner City Press asked a question to Herve Ladsous. 

  When Dujarric's Accreditation Unit led a raid on Inner City Press' office, photos from which quickly appeared on BuzzFeed, Dujarric denied any role in giving out the photos. But the published photos are identical to the ones his unit took that day.

  Since the letter with the false "off the record" claim, the raid and photos and attempt to censor tweets, there has been very little contact (though there was an attempt to essentially ban FUNCA, another limitation on freedom of association, speech and press). FUNCA has continued, working with UN-focused journalists not only in New York but as far afield as Somaliland and Colombia.

  Now Stephane "The Censor" Dujarric is the spokesperson. Can he use this position to pursue the censorship he's sought for the past two years? FUNCA opposes it, and says these questions must be answered. Watch this site.

   

On Sri Lanka, UN Silent As Families of the Disappeared Banned from Traveling South, Media Can't Go North

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 13 -- In Sri Lanka, Channel 4 was blocked from traveling to the North to film. Families of the disappeared were banned from traveling south to Colombo.

  In New York, Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky about the banning of the survivors of the disappeared; we have no comment at this stage, he replied. Video here and embedded below. When, then?

  Even the UK's William Hague raised the issues with Sri Lankan foreign minister GL Peiris. Where is the UN? And what does its "Rights Up Front" plan, leaked to Inner City Press but still deemed "internal" by the UN, really mean?

From the UN's November 12 noon briefing transcript:

Inner City Press: yesterday you said to listen to what the Secretary-General said to Member States, so I did and he did now name this document of rights--

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Rights Up Front.

Question: Rights Up Front, okay, so it does exist. I wanted to know, will it be a formally public document? Earlier the Deputy Secretary-General had said that it might be released once some part of it had been implemented, I just wanted to know how do… given that he said this is going to go out through the system, what are the next steps? I asked you yesterday about the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, I wanted to be more specific. There have been various complaints raised in the run-up of restrictions on the press, there was a BBC report about, not 2009, but 2013 abductions and rapes committed by the Government, so my question is what’s the Secretary-General’s current thinking, not simply about what he said about the study of 2009, but the current issues that are very much being raised? Especially on press freedom, can he say anything? Thanks, that’s the question.

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, with regard to the second part, I will come back to you on that. I don’t have anything specific at this point. On the first question, yes, you did listen and you did hear. And it is known as the Rights Up Front Action Plan, and this was the Secretary-General’s intention to explain to Member States in a little bit of detail what this is about. And of course more detail will be provided to Member States in the near future. And likewise, I would anticipate that we will also be able to brief the media in a little bit more detail, but not right now. And certainly the key part of this is to ensure that it is implemented. And there has been a concerted effort within the UN family, all the different parts of the United Nations system that have been working on this, to do precisely that. And there is a clear commitment amongst the senior leadership to make that happen. So the focus at the moment is on what is an important internal process with external ramifications; the focus is on implementing. And certainly, the intention is both to brief Member States in more detail and, of course, in due course, the media as well.

When? Watch this site.

   

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

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

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

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

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

As Brahimi Demands SNC Apologize, False Nobel Report Still Uncorrected

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 20 -- After Lakhdar Brahimi was named Joint Special Representative on Syria he quickly began a flurry of interviews including with a wire service which inaccurately deemed him "a Nobel Peace Laureate," as noted by Inner City Press, opining that "it is too early to say whether President Bashar al-Assad should step down."

  Not surprisingly, the opposition Syrian National Congress quickly said it was "shocked and dismayed" and called on Brahimi" to apologize to our people for taking this unacceptable position."

  Instead of just letting this go or ignoring it, Brahimi "went playground," retorting that "I ask that (he) apologizes to me," referring to SNC spokesman George Sabra.

  Ah, mediation.

   Brahimi wrote his sins and secrets of mediation, along with Salman Ahmed who is now adviser to US Ambassador Susan Rice. Were these moves among their secrets?

  In belated spin, Brahimi insisted, "What I have said is that it's early for me to say anything related to the content of this issue." But, the obvious question is, then why do the flurry of interviews?

   And why not correct factual errors that appeared in the write-ups?

  Two days after Brahimi was deemed "a Nobel Peace Laureate," and a day after Inner City Press twice questioned this designation, the Nobel Foundation told Inner City Press that Brahimi "has not been awarded a Nobel Prize and should therefore not be referred to as a Nobel Laureate."

  It seems clear: the initial wire story wasn't fact checked -- in fact, that Brahimi is not a Nobel laureate is clear from asimple search of the Nobel web site -- and those who ran it did not check either. 

 The "Brahimi as Nobel Peace laureate" phrase continued to proliferate, from Reuters to SABC, Malta Today,Euronews, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Eyewitness News, Channel 4 and more since.

  As Inner City Press has previously asked without answer, how are these things supposed to work? Watch this site.

Brahimi Is Not a Nobel Laureate, Nobel Foundation Tells ICP, Who Corrects?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 19 -- Two days after Lakhdar Brahimi was named Joint Special Representative on Syria and a wire service called him "a Nobel Peace Laureate," and a day after Inner City Press twice questioned this designation, the Nobel Foundation has told Inner City Press that Brahimi "has not been awarded a Nobel Prize and should therefore not be referred to as a Nobel Laureate."

  The Nobel Foundation's public releations manager Annika Pontikis also said that, until Inner City Press' question, no one had asked her this question.

  So the initial wire story wasn't fact checked -- in fact, that Brahimi is not a Nobel laureate is clear from a simple search of the Nobel web site -- and those who ran it did not check either. 

  The "Brahimi as Nobel Peace laureate" phrase continued to proliferate, from Reuters to SABC, Malta Today,Euronews, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Eyewitness News, Channel 4

  As Inner City Press has previously asked without answer, how are these things supposed to work? 

  There is the media, then there is the source or subject. Should Brahimi, personally involved in his public relations machine, have reached out to correct the inaccurate description of himself receiving a prize he never received?

  Inner City Press before and just after Brahimi took the job wrote that it would be a form of "Nobel Prize lottery" for him - if anything good happens, he might be in line for the Nobel Peace Prize; if not, expectations are low.

  Further lowering expectations, Brahimi did phone interviews: first with French state media France 24, telling them that the UN only cares about helping the Syrian people.

   On August 18 Brahimi called Reuters, which then wrotefor yet another time that Brahami is "a Nobel Peace laureate." 

  Finally, Inner City Press asked the Nobel Foundation "whether former UN official (and incoming Syria envoy) Lakhdar Brahimi was or is a Nobel Peace laureate" and "if others have asked you this." The reply:

From: Annika Pontikis [at] nobel.se
Date: Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 1:26 PM
Subject: SV: Is Lakhdar Brahimi a Nobel Peace laureate?
To: Matthew R. Lee [at] InnerCityPress.com

Dear Matthew Lee,

As you probably know the United Nations, as an organization, has been awarded the Nobel Prize. This, however, does not mean that persons affiliated to the UN can call themselves Nobel Laureates.

The person referred to below has not been awarded a Nobel Prize and should therefore not be referred to as a Nobel Laureate.

I have not received this question from others.

Kind regards,

Annika Pontikis

   As Inner City Press wrote before this answer, a "Nobelwas given in 1988 to UN Peacekeeping, but if that makes Brahimi a Nobel laureate many others can claim that same prize. So why the designation? We'll wait and see." And now we see. What next? Watch this site.