At UN, Another Friday Night Turns Saturday on Sexual Rights Fights, CPD47 Surpasses 46, FUNCA for Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 11-12 -- It was just another Friday night at the UN, this time a fight over the Commission on Population and Development. Again, the culture wars: a dispute over "sexual and reproductive health" and rights.

  It was past 11 pm. The Permanent Representative of Kenya, this month's chair of the African Group, said there would be no sleight of hand solution. He went into Conference Room A with other Permanent Representatives, including those of Norway and then of Cameroon, who told Inner City Press that "in African we don't do Programs of Action, we do Declarations." It would be another long night.

  In Egypt's delegation again was Mervat Tallaway, of which Inner City Press previously reported when she headed ESCWA in Beirut.

  Others noted the irony that the UN Population Fund, UNFPA, is headed by Babatunde Osotimehin of Nigeria but his country is taking a different view. This split was contrasted, for example, with elsewhere in the UN system Frenchman Herve Ladsous using his post atop UN Peacekeeping to serve France. "That's not the UN," a Permanent Representative said. But for now it is.

  Meanwhile when UNFPA's Representative in Sudan was thrown out on April 7, the UN tried to say nothing. Inner City Press wrote about it, went to the noon briefing and asked, and only after that got a (non) statement from UNFPA. What's next?

  While as increasingly often in the UN there was little media coverage, Inner City Press and another reporter were told they could not enter Conference Room 1 through its front door. The Free UN Coalition for Access objected; access was gained.

During the lull several Ambassadors came to speaking about"the Burundi cable," here. Some predicted that the SRSG might be tossed out even before the UN's mandate expires at the end of the year.

  Down on the floor of Conference Room 1, a delegate noted that now CPD47 had surpassed "last year when we ended at 13 minutes after midnight." And there was no end in sight. This is the UN. Watch this site.

   

In Beirut, Ban Brags About Democracy with Saleh Advisor, Travel Pay Undisclosed

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 15 -- At first UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon resisted confirming he would participate in a "democracy" conference in Beirut, and his spokesman Martin Nesirky declined to provide any speakers list.

Now that he's there, the "Roundtable" list put online includes "Abdel Karim al Eryani, Former Prime Minister, Yemen" -- that is, a long time political adviser to dictator Ali Saleh, who went on Saleh's behalf to negotiate immunity in the Gulf Cooperation Council deal. Democracy?

Ban Ki-moon spoke with Saleh, but told Inner City Press he did not directly discuss with Saleh the immunity -- that is, impunity -- Saleh was seeking first through the GCC then through the US-supported deal being pushed by his cabinet.

Now, speaking at the conference, Ban intoned "from the very beginning of the ... revolutions, from Tunisia through Egypt and beyond, I called on leaders to listen to their people. Some did, and benefited. Others did not, and today they are reaping the whirlwind."

So who is it, that listened to Ban Ki-moon and to their people and benefited? Could it be Ali Saleh, who spoke with Ban (and use him a pass-through for the claim he could and would come to the US for medical treatment) and held out for an impunity deal?

Before his speech in a dinner toast e-mailed out by Ban's spokesman's office, Ban said "Countries are moving closer to answering the calls of people who have peacefully gathered in the streets of Tunis, Cairo, Benghazi and Tripoli, Sana’a, Der’a, Hama and Homs."

What about Bahrain? What about the United Arab Emirates, where Ban heads next?

Before leaving on the trip, Inner City Press twice asked Nesirky to disclose if any party outside of the UN would be paying for Ban's travel, as recently for example Qatar did for Ban's travel from Nairobi.

Inner City Press: one follow up on this, and it goes back to something from December where I am wondering, is it possible to say if in this, even just this first leg that has now been confirmed, UAE and Lebanon, whether any of the travel would in fact be covered or paid for — the planes paid for by any country or other party?

Spokesperson Nesirky: If that is the case, I will let you know.

Nesirky has yet to make this basic disclosure.

Other UN sources have long complained that the UNESWA trips in the region feature, draped in UN blue, a businessman who is related to the UN's business only by marriage. This is Ban's UN.

Footnote: In his speech, Ban also said "One-man rule and the perpetuation of family dynasties, monopolies of wealth and power, the silencing of the media, the deprivation of fundamental freedoms... To all of this, the people say: Enough." As other have nearly immediately noted, about about closer to home for Ban -- how about Kim Jong UN? Watch this site.

In UN Moves, ESCWA To Be Vacated As NY Park Taken, Williams Back To UK

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 6 -- Amid complaints in Lebanon against the UN, Inner City Press recently asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky about the closure of roads in front of the UN's ESCWA building there. Nesirky said that the UN does not talk about security.

But outgoing UN envoy Michael Williams, to his credit, Thursday answered Inner City Press' questions to the extent of disclosing that ESCWA, the Economic and Social Council for Western Asia, will be moving out of the building at issue as too unsafe.

Inner City Press was asking after Interior Minister Marwan Charbel denied, in a telephone call with LBCI Television, quotes attributed to him by Agence France-Presse. “No … it is not true that I told the AFP that there is a threat of an attack against ESCWA,” Charbel said.

"The whole front is glass," Williams said, after mentioning the vehicle bombing of the UN in Nigeria in August, and attacks after UN peacekeepers in Lebanon this year: against Italians in May, and French troops on July 26. (Williams gave an overview of Lebanon since it gains its independence from French colonialism in the 1940s.)

Given the costs that would be occasioned by such a move, Inner City Press asked Williams if the building to be vacated is owned by the UN or the Lebanese government. "It is owned by the company Solidere," Williams said.

Moments earlier, Nesirky had answered Inner City Press questions about what's described as a new "UN" building to be built on a playground on 42nd Street in Manhattan by saying the owner and building would not be the UN by the "UN Development Corporation."

I nner City Press asked, but wouldn't UNDC be getting rents from the UN, to pay the at least $65 million the City of New York is charging in the deal?

Nesirky insisted on the complete separateness of UNDC and the UN, as he has done on the UN and the UN Foundation, which has hired a lobbyist for the playground deal.

And in Lebanon? Watch this site.

Footnote: Inner City Press asked Michael Williams, also known as Baron Williams of Baglan, if he will be returning to the House of Lords from which he took a leave of absence on October 26, 2011. Williams said he would like to take an active role, especially in foreign affairs and the Middle East, but remains open to UN service. With the UNSMIL mission in Libya filled by Ian "the Brit" Martin, could Williams hold the top post in the Department of Political Affairs? Watch this site - and Williams.