At UN, Censorship Alliance Demands First Question, To Praise & Promote Events and Hashtag, FUNCA Objects

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 6 -- In today's UN, the first questions at press briefings are given out automatically so that the briefer can be praised and their events promoted. But it is journalism?

   On March 5 the spokesperson of the President of the General Assembly described an event featuring the PGA then mentioned that Pamela Falk of CBS would be the moderator. Then she gave the first "question" to Falk herself, as president of the United Nations Correspondents Association -- whose question was to ask about the Twitter hashtag for the event. Video here, from Minute 6:20. Is this journalism or promotion?

  On March 6, Falk again took the first question, thanking the noon briefing guest, on behalf of UNCA, for their leadership "in these events." Video here, from Minute 8:35. Is this journalism or promotion?

  Earlier on March 6, Falk's seeming deputy whom on March 4 actively cut off a question, as previously with Bolivian president Evo Morales, again just grabbed the first question by speaking first - but forgot to turn on the microphone, leaving silence on the UN Webcast. Video here from Minute 14.

  On March 4 with the "World Urban Campaign" the subject of a briefingat the UN, UN HABITAT's spokesperson called on Inner City Press to ask the first question.

   But Falk's deputy cut in and demanded to be given the first question, citing UNCA. It is an organization, Evelyn Leopold formerly of Reuters said, and you are not. UN Video here from Minute 20:10, YouTube here, embedded below.

   Her reference was to the new Free UN Coalition for Access. Not that it should matter, but @FUNCA_info has 810 followers, all over the world including for example actual defense of journalists in Somaliland, versus UNCA which has 125 followers and has tried to get journalists thrown out of the UN. 

  Leopold and UNCA have done this before, for example with Bolivia's president Evo Morales in February 2013, click here and here for that (on which we will have more).

  While the UN Secretariat has essentially broken the Staff Union by refusing to recognize the slate that got the most votes in the election held in December, citing procedural violations, today another more obvious procedural breech is scheduled by the UN Secretariat's partner, the United Nations Correspondents Association.

   That group, which in 2012 tried openly and by stealth to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN and became the UN's Censorship Alliance, is required by its own online "Constitution" to hold its general meeting and financial report in the first half of January. 

    Under 2013-14 president Pamela Falk it never happened; it was twice postponed. More than six weeks late, it was held on March 4 at 4 pm -- at the same time as the World Urban Campaign event at the Ford Foundation that was the subject of the briefing at which Leopold demanded the first question. 

   But the UN Secretariat and Spokesperson's Office, unlike the approach to breaking the Staff Union which actually at times challenges them, says nothing. 

   In fact, a question and answer session was held last month by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the 15 members of UNCA's Executive Committee the transcript or tape of which was never given to other journalists, even UNCA members not among the fifteen.

  Inner City Press on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Accessasked Ban's outgoing spokesperson Martin Nesirky for a transcript and was told "get over it," video here.

   Nesirky confirmed that the UNCA executive committee members did not even bring up Ukraine and the disrepute the UN was brought into by the leak that former US official Jeffrey Feltman "got" Ban to send Robert Serry to Ukraine to, in the now-famous phrase, "F*** the EU."

  After not asking that critical UN question, now UNCA as representated by Falk repeats or retweets news about Ukraine, cc-ing UN_Spokesperson. Despite all this, and the fact that when deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey left, his farewell was (appropriately) in the Spokesperson's large office, the March 7 farewell was scheduled in the big room the UN gives UNCA, with its own kitchenette: the UN's Censorship Alliance.

  The censorship goes beyond trying to get the investigative Press -- and others -- thrown out. Inner City Press was ordered to remove from the Internet a story about Sri Lanka and seeming conflict of interest within UNCA's leadership, and was browbeaten about an article about UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous.

  While neither article was removed, one of the "for the record" complaints to the UN Accreditation official now slated to become Ban Ki-moon's new spokesperson on March 10 has been banned from Google's search following a bogus Digital Millennium Copyright Act filing, click here to view: outright censorship.

  (Ironically on February 28 when Inner City Press asked about the banning of a website by the Sri Lankan government, Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson said Ban is committed to free access to the Internet. What about this?)

 To the same UN official, an explicitly internal UNCA document was provided, with the notation "you didn't get this from me," three minutes after the pass-through committed that the document would remain within UNCA: click here for that.

  Under Falk, has UNCA even attempted reforms such as a commitment against censorship, not to spy for the UN or seek to get other journalists thrown out of the UN, or ban things from the Internet? No.

  While UNCA's "leadership" parties, some long time journalists have been thrown out of the UN; others are losing work space and working conditions at the stakeout have declined. The new Free UN Coalition for Access is taking this on. 

  Tellingly, when a petition for at least a journalists' work table at the Security Council stakeout was submitted, the response was to browbeat those who'd signed and ask them why they'd signed. This is the UN. Watch this site.

   

UN Spokesperson Nesirky Bans Questions on Herve Ladsous Support to Rapist DRC Army 41st and 391st Battalions, Others

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- The UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, his head of Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous and his spokesperson Martin Nesirky hit a new low on August 1.

  After refusing without explanation to disclose which units of the Congolese Army the UN is supporting, the only way to assess Ban's claimed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, Nesirky refused to allow Inner City Press to ask any more questions. Video here.

  Nesirky allowed two rounds of questions to numerous others, including for example Pamela Falk the 2013 president of the UN Correspondents Association. But even after providing UN spin about Ladsous' controversial contract for drones or UAVs, Nesirky refused Inner City Press any second round of questions.

  On drones, Inner City Press has covered member states' concerns about Ladsous' proposal; several UN officials have asked Inner City Press to stop linking Ladsous to drones. On July 31 at the noon briefing, Inner City Press asked with whom Ladsous signed the drone contract. Nesirky said that was not public.

  Twenty four hours later, rather than e-mailing the answer to Inner City Press as his Office does with others, Nesirky waited until the noon briefing to read out the name of the winner (Selex ES of Italy with its Falco drone) -- and then cut off Inner City Press' follow up questions.

  On July 31, Inner City Press said it had a question about Mali, which Nesirky didn't allow. On August 1 he belatedly disclosed what Inner City Press has repeatedly asked: that Nigeria is pulling troops out of Ladsous' MINUSMA mission there.

  Nesirky has still not provided simple answers to whether Ban's Cyprus envoy Alexander Downer has a conflict, running to head the South Australian Liberal Party. Inner City Press asked Nesirky's outgoing deputy Eduardo Del Buey about the UN giving a big room, S-310, to UNCA for briefing publicized only to those which pay it money, and why the Department of Public Information gave "P" Press pesses to UNCA interns, while threatening the accreditation of other journalists. Neither question has been answered. Watch this site.

   

The UN, What Is It Good For? Two Days on Syria, Mali, Haiti & Myanmar, (Noon) Briefing Notes

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 11 -- What is the purpose of the UN's daily noon briefing? To posit an answer we'll review that of today, July 11.

  It's used to make announcements by the UN, for example that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping, will attend the military parade featuring armies of France's African former colonies in Paris on July 14. Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky made this scheduling announcement at the top of the briefing.

  It's used for advocacy, for example to ask pointedly if Ban's chemical weapons prober Ake Sellstrom will, in Syria, insist on unfettered access. The same questioner on July 10 tried to get Nesirky to say that the same “chain of custody” issues existed as to Russia's recent submission as the earlier ones of France and the UK. It's like having France or the UK in the briefing room.

  It's used to repeatedly ask the same question, something Inner City Press sometimes must do after Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations delays 12 days in giving a promised answer but was done by another on July 11, about a letter concerning an independent tribunal, by a questioner, the UNCA 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS, who called Martin Nesirky “Eduardo,” his bearded deputy.Video of the July 11 briefing, here, from Minute 10:15.

It's used for humor: see above and video continuation, from Minute 12:28.

  It's used to follow up, for example on the statements the day before of the Ambassadors of Saudi Arabia and Djibouti about Ban's and Vijay Nambiar's comments that Myanmar's president is not fully informed of the abuses against the Rohingya. 

   When Inner City Press asked this, Nesirky read Ban's statement to the Group of Friends on Myanmar - a body that Saudi Arabia also criticized - but declined to characterize what was said in the Saudi and Djiboutian meeting.

  It's used to ask questions about more exclusive or controlled briefings, for example Ladsous' session with a “group of reporters” about his trip to Mali, at which another unnamed senior UN official was quoted that Chad is allowed in the Mali peacekeeping mission because it does not have child soldiers there. That's not what the UN's children and armed conflict expert Leila Zerrougui said the test would be. But will it be clarified?

  It's used to press for access, such as on July 10 about the lack of any space for the press or public in the new interim General Assembly Hall, which the Free UN Coalition for Access raised to the Department of Public Information back on June 10. 

  Is it possible that no member of the public can be able to access this September's UN General Debate?

It's used for apologies, such as on July 11 when the mis-labeling of India's trade minister Anand Sharma as his Cabinet colleague Kamal Nath by DPI was acknowledged. 

  While this harmed photographers such as one from India to whom the UN refuses to grant a so-called White P entrance pass, to some the formality of the apology stood in contrast to the terse dismissal of claims the UN introduced cholera to Haiti.

Will Inner City Press' question about Ladsous' MONUSCO mission imposing armed escorts on humanitarians be answered? About whether the Nepalese troops said headed for Syria (the Golan, it seems) will be tested for cholera, after what happened in Haiti. The UN has “nothing more to say” about that. But we'll keep asking. Watch this site.

   

As US Envoy, What'll Feingold Do on Minova Rapes by DRC Army, UN Inaction?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 18 -- Amid advocates' congratulations and advice for Russ Feingold as US President Barack Obama named him US envoy to the Great Lakes today, several issues seemed to be missing.

While there was much urging of Feingold to focus on external support to the M23, little was said of the Congolese Army's UN-enabled abuses, such as the mass rape of 135 women and girls at Minova in November 2012.

The US is the largest single funder of the UN, but has done little as UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous first stonewalled about the rapes for four months (click here for Inner City Press video compilation), then failed to follow through on the UN's stated conditionality or Human Rights Due Diligence policy.

In fact, one of the two FARDC units implicated, the 391st Battalion, was US trained. This is an issue that Feingold should work on very quickly. It will be something of a litmus test.

Meanwhile, Inner City Press on June 18 asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey to comment on the DRC government of Joseph Kabila ending talks with M23 in Kampala, and if sending an "Intervention Brigade" led by Tanzania whose president has said Rwanda should negotiate with the historically genocidal FDLR militia has not, in fact, made things worse.

  Del Buey said he would check with Mary Robinson, who as Inner City Press first reported is based in Dublin. Where will Feingold be based? What will he do about the Minova rapes and the UN's failure to follow through? Watch this site.

For Golan Mission UNDOF, UN Says Fijians Will Vet Themselves, Post-Coup Restriction Removed by Ladsous

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 18 -- The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous has waved a previous restriction on using troops from post-coup Fiji.

  DPKO now says it is entirely up to Fiji to vet its own troops for "violations of international human rights law or international humanitarian law."

   Clearly, a coup government would not deem itself to be violating such laws. So Ladsous has undermined this previous UN Peacekeeping safeguard. 

   He made a similar mockery of the stated conditionality policy, by continuing to support units of the Congolese Army implicated in 135 rapes in Minova. On July 1, he is set to "blue helmet" soldiers from an army on the UN's list of child soldier recruiters. This is DPKO under Herve Ladsous.

  After the coup in Fiji, the UN said it would not use Fijian peacekeepers, post-coup. Later when Inner City Press inquired how Fijians were reportedly traveling to the UNAMI mission in Iraq, UN Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq told Inner City Press that was not a new deployment, only a "rotation."

  Now the UN has recruited peacekeepers from Fiji, still under Josaia Bainimarama, for its decaying mission in Golan, UNDOF. On June 17 Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Deputy Spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey if Ban had changed the policy, or determined (contrary to, for example, the Commonwealth) that democracy has been restored in Fiji.

  Del Buey replied that he thought the policy was only that Fijian peacekeepers would be vetted. (As noted, that was not the policy.)

  Inner City Press asked if these 170 Fijian have been vetted. Del Buey said to "ask DPKO" - the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

  Today, just before the 3 pm Security Council meeting on the Golan mission UNDOF that the Fijians are joining, the following came in:

Subject: Your question on Fijians in UNDOF
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 2:36 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Regarding your question on Fiji's deployment to the UN Disengagement Observer Force, we have the following to say:

Fiji's deployment to UNDOF will be implemented in line with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations's human rights policy. It is the responsibility of the Government of the Republic of Fiji, as with all troop contributing countries, to ensure that its personnel have not been convicted of, are currently under investigation for, or being prosecuted for any criminal offence, including violations of international human rights law or international humanitarian law.

  Fiji will vet itself; the restriction on new deployments of troops from post-coup Fiji has been removed under Ladsous. This is a DPKO in decay. Watch this site.

Exclusive: UN's Malcorra Met Syria on New Rep to Damascus, US Banking Blockage Raised, Sarin Suspicions

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 31 -- Syria's Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari was summoned Thursday to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff Susana Malcorra, topic undisclosed.

So at the May 30 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey:

Inner City Press: Syrian Permanent Representative [Bashar] Ja’afari said he wrote to the Secretary-General to complain about Robert Serry’s briefing, that it didn’t mention sufficiently from his view the Golan Heights and the kidnapping of peacekeepers. Can you confirm the receipt of that letter? And also, he was summoned to meet with Susana Malcorra, and I’d like to know, one, if it’s true, and two, what the purpose of the meeting was.

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, Matthew, I don’t have any information on the receipt of a letter that you refer to, and secondly, we don’t have any information on any meeting that may have taken place. As Mr. [Hervé] Ladsous said yesterday, the meeting between United Nations officials and members of the diplomatic corps of the Permanent Missions, we don’t usually report on them.

But we do, and exclusively: Malcorra's topic to Ja'afari was to notify or seek approval of a new UN system official in Damascus, for the UN Development Program. And Ja'afari raised again the UN's duty to ensure that the Host Country, the United States, made it possible for all UN diplomatic missions to have bank accounts. "They are trying to use it as leverage," Ja'afari told Inner City Press.

After reports of Al-Nusra arrests in Turkey, having sarin gas, Inner City Press asked Ja'afari what he made of it. He said, the US trying to distance itself from Al-Nusra.

When US Ambassador to Geneva Eileen Donahoe announced she had met Friday with the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Inner City Press posed the question: did CoI member Carla Del Ponte say anything about her "strong suspicions" of rebel use of chemical weapons, which the Al Nusra arrests in Turkey seem to support? So far, no response. It's called social media, not a one way street. Watch this site.

Kidnapping of UN Peacekeepers "Came Out in Conversation" of Ladsous, Ban Ki-moon Office Won't Say When It Knew, Or Its Duty: FUNCA Protests

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 -- Now the UN says that the news of Golan Heights peacekeepers being taken hostage "came out in a conversation" between UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous "with a few journalists."

This is what Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey told Inner City Press after the Press asked when Ban's Office became aware of the kidnapping.

  Serious questions have been raised about Ladsous' knowledge of involvement from Qatar in the kidnappings; a Permanent Representative on Friday told Inner City Press that is why Ladsous and Ban's Office downplayed or tried to pre-spin news of the kidnapping by spoon-feeding only scribes.

  "I don't... I'm not going to discuss that with you," Del Buey answered, adding that after Ladsous' "conversation," his Office put out a Note to Correspondents "last night."

  Actually, Ban's Office only put that out after 8 am on Friday. Del Buey, when Inner City Press emailed him and three of Ladsous' spokespeople at 7:30 pm on Thursday replied to all that "Jo, this one is yours!"

  But "Jo" - Josephine Guerrero -- didn't send Inner City Press even the canned paragraph until after 11 pm; it was even more belatedly sent out by Ban's Office after 8 am the next day.

  Del Buey cut off Inner City Press' follow up question, then said only one more question. Inner City Press asked Del Buey, as it has asked Guerrero and Ladsous' other spokespeople, for their comment or read-out on Syrian ambassador Bashar Ja'afari's meeting on Thursday with Ladsous. Del Buey refused that, as well.

Another journalist asked Del Buey to whom Ladsous gave this information, and how they were selected. Del Buey said, you have to ask Mr... you have to ask DPKO. But doesn't Ban's Office have some duty?

So the Free UN Coalition for Access has protested and will continue to protest this travesty, in which news of attacks on peacekeepers is withheld and spoon-fed to Ladsous-friendly journalists "in conversation."

  Pamela Falk of CBS News, the president of UNCA, was present during the interchange and said nothing. UNCA's "leadership" is apparently fine with Ladsous excluding even most of UNCA's dues paying membership who cover Syria or peacekeeping, because these leaders benefit from this insiders' game. Some correspondents association. Actually, since they use anonymous social media accounts to defend Ladsous, they're now the UN Cowardice Association. Watch this site.

On Minova Rapes, UN's HerveLadsous Launders Self-Exoneration Through Reuters Lapdog

By Matthew Russell Lee, UN/Media Critique

UNITED NATIONS, April 11 -- This is how it's done at the UN: the media that openly push for answers are stonewalled, those that sit and wait are used as pass-throughs for non-critical stories. So it happened on April 11 with Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, and Kieran Dwyer the spokesman for Herve Ladsous.

Charbonneau has written a story which entirely ignores Ladsous' stonewalling, much less UN Peacekeeping's inaction during the mass rape spree where it has its largest presence.

Ladsous on camera refused questions about the 126 rapes in Minova on November 27. He took Charbonneau, Tim Witcher of AFP and Margaret Besheer of Voice of America into the hallway for a private briefing -- none wrote about the rapes. Video here.

On December 7, Ladsous again refused Press questions on the rapes. On December 18, he went so far as to direct his spokesman to seize the UN Television microphone to try to avoid Inner City Press' questions on the rapes. Video here.

Flash forward to April 11: at the day's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked why Ladsous waived his supposed April 1 deadline to act on the rapes. Transcript here.

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Eduardo Del Buey said he would check and get back. But he didn't.

  So Inner City Press contact the office of Zainab Bangura, Ban's expert on sexual violence and conflict. Mattias Sundholm of that Office, copying Jerome Bernard, responded that “I understand that DPKO has promised to come back to you regarding Minova, so I will refer you to them.”

  Inner City Press replied that Ladsous and his DPKO refuse to answer Press question, preferring to dole the answers out to friendlier media.

  Sundholm answered, “I am fairly certain that you will hear back from DPKO by tomorrow.”

  Inner City Press wrote a story, predicting half in jest it thought that Ladsous might hand the answer to Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, who on March 8 filed a UN Security complaint leading with the mis-statement that on that day outside the Security Council Inner City Press started shouting and “abusing” Ladsous, and that Ladsous did not respond.

That was a lie. Inner City Press asked which battalions Ladsous had given his ultimatum to, and Ladsous responded that he was going to the Council to talk about Syria.

  In any event, it is disgusting that AFP has sunk so low as to file a complaint with UN Security leading off with how another more investigative media asked a question about these rapes of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping.

  But first out of the box -- but surely not the only once -- is Alpha Lapdog Louis Charbonneau, who as noted went so far as to threaten that if the UN did not throw Inner City Press out, for articles particularly media critique that it published, he would have no choice but to ask about transferring out of the UN to another beat at Reuters.

Lou "He's Still Here" Charbonneau, courtesy UNTV

  This threat obviously implicates Reuters and the role it has come to play for the UN, like UN Peacekeeping, and some Permanent Missions like those of the UK and France. 

   But did Charbonneau tell his boss about the threat and do they stand behind it? They have been urged to inquire into their UN bureau's anti-Press moves, in their own names and as anonymous trolls. (This has continued.)

Those asked include, so far, Stephen J. Adler, Editor in Chief, Paul Ingrassia, Deputy Editor in Chief, Walden Siew, Top News Editor, Greg McCune, “Ethics,” and one other. But despite the issues raised, twice now, this mega corporation will not respond or more importantly reform.

   The problem, we say and have every right to say, with “articles” like Charbonneau's is they let the UN off the hook -- for doing nothing during the rapes, for stonewalling for months afterward. They ensure that this will happen again and again. They are... part of the problem. Watch this site.

As UN Attacked in Golan, It Has No Answers on Croatians Fleeing

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 6, updated -- Amid reports and YouTube video of an attack on UNDOF Peacekeepers in Golan, the UN at Wednesday's noon briefing rebuffs questions from the press.

Inner City Press asked for a description of the UN's knowledge and dealings with the Al-Yarmouk Brigade, shown as taking credit. Deputy Spokesman Eduardo Del Buey said he had nothing on that.

Update of 1:37 pm -- Inner City Press put the same question to UN Security Council President Vitaly Churkin, if it was Yarmouk and if they demanded that the Syrian Army leave the village of Jamla.

 Churkin said there were demands made about the situation "on the ground;" in his national capacity he said countries with influence on the armed Syrian opposition should tell them to release the twenty peacekeepers.

Two days earlier on March 4 Inner City Press asked Del Buey about insecurity in UNDOF:

Inner City Press: Eduardo, I want to ask you about Syria, or UNDOF, more particularly, Croatia has announced that it wants to withdraw 100 of its soldiers that it has in UNDOF, saying that it has become unsafe after reports of Syrian rebels getting weapons from the Balkans, including Croatia. What’s the plan? From DPKO’s (Department of Peacekeeping Operations) perspective, how fast is Croatia pulling out and does it have some plan? What countries is it asking to replace these soldiers in UNDOF?

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, to date we have had no formal word from the Croatian authorities that they are planning to do that, so it remains hypothetical.

  Is it still hypothetical? And what countries, now, would step in to replace the Croatians? There were no answers at Wednesday's UN noon briefing.

  Running back to the UN Security Council, Inner City Press spotted the unscheduled arrival of the head of DPKO, Herve Ladsous. He was last seen to the side of the Security Council stakeout at 5 pm on Tuesday. 

 Ladsous left as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon answered the second of what were to be two questions (on Hugo Chavez). So he didn't hear, nor of course answer, the third question from Inner City Press about his inaction on the 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, his partners.

  Now, reportedly, the Al-Yarmouk Brigades accuse the UN Peacekeepers of "helping government forces to redeploy in areas that was under rebels' control.”

  Inner City Press has asked the Syrian Mission about the village of Jamla; to Del Buey at noon Inner City Press asked about a new March 6 letter the Syrian Mission told Inner City Press it filed with the Security Council and Ban. Del Buey said he would check - for now, we'll put the letter online here. Watch this site.

Footnote: Ladsous' predecessor Alain Le Roy, in circumstances where UN Peacekeepers were attacked, would invariably speak to the Press. Ladsous does not - who is served?

Update: here's a transcript of what Del Buey read out at noon:

"The UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has reported that, earlier today, approximately 30 armed fighters stopped and detained a group of around 20 peacekeepers within the Area of Limitation, east of the B-Line.

The UN observers were on a regular supply mission and were stopped near Observation Post 58, which had sustained damage and was evacuated this past weekend following heavy combat in close proximity, at Jamla. The Mission is dispatching a team to assess the situation and attempt a resolution."

On Haiti Cholera Dismissal, UN Tells ICP No More Answers, Only Aid Program; ECHR Precedent?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 25 – The UN sat for fifteen months on the legal complaint that it had introduced cholera into Haiti, before tersely dismissing it as “not receivable” on February 21.

  Now only four days (and only two noon briefings) after the barely explained ruling, the UN on February 25 rebuffed Inner City Press' follow up questions and request for a briefing, perhaps by the UN's top lawyer Patricia O'Brien.

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey told Inner City Press, “we have provided you with all the information we are going to provide... We're not making further comments on this.” Video here, from Minute 20:11.

  In the interim, Inner City Press has learned from lawyers expert in and outraged by the UN's immunity games that the venue in Europe to pursue this is the European Court of Human Rights.

  The ECHR issued a decision in 2011 against France: a French national who worked as the chief accountant for 20 years for the Kuwaiti Embassy was fired, and denied access to court on account of diplomatic immunity. The ECHR found that diplomatic immunity should not have prevented his employment claim. How much more so in this case?

  Inner City Press asked if the UN had thought through how its credibility will further suffer, when it seeks to send missions into countries or preached to such countries about “rule of law” and accountability.

  Del Buey replied that the “Secretary General has embarked on trying to resolve... a program for the international community to contribute funding and effort to eradicate cholera from the island of Hispanola.

  So is that program in the nature of an attempted settlement of the claims?

  Del Buey said only, it is to “address the humanitarian situation.”

  Even the UN must see that further explanation is necessary. How can the UN talk about rule of law and transparency, and tersely dismiss a claim like this? Watch this site.