Exclusive: UN Guterres Set To Reward Sexual Harasser Colin Stewart Exposed Like Shiotani By Inner City Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, Patreon

UN GATE, SDNY, June 26 – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres claims he has a zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment, but continues to reward UN officials who are charged with harassment. Inner City Press previously reported on Guterres promoting his official Fabrizio Hochschild Drummond of Chile, after sexual harassment in his own 38th floor office, to "Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Preparations for the Commemoration of the United Nations’ 75th Anniversary."    

   Today Inner City Press, now banned from the UN by Guterres for 361 days, exclusively reports on another reward being fulled in Guterres' world of double-speak, harassment and hypocrisy.      

  Colin Stewart is accused of sexual harassment, covered up by Guterres official to protect yet another official - and Steward is about to have his UN contract extended at head of MINURSO, another of Guterres' failing peacekeeping missions. There is pushback by some UN staff and whistleblowers, but these people under Guterres are ignored and retaliated against.     

  While Stewart was Political Director at the UN Office in Addis Ababa the serious charge arose. In typical UN fashion a cover up began. But the charge gathered force and was soon seen as being inconvenient for Stewart's immediate supervisor Haile Menkerios.   

That's when the real cover-up team got active, including Kyoko Shiotani who Inner City Press has previously shown to have gotten her husband an entirely unmerited paid UN job on the UN website while serving as chief of staff to UN Political Affairs boss Rosemary DiCarlo.    

  More on Patreon, here: it's even worse than it looks...

  When Inner City Press, after receiving no answers to its questions from Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, ran its exclusives about the all-in-the-family website contract to John van Rosendaal, it was twice roughed up by Guterres UN Security Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins and five others who refused to give their names. It has now been banned from any entry of the UN for 361 days, with its written questions unanswered by Dujarric. 

Also involved in the sexual harassment cover up: Nathalie Ndongo-Seh, then Menkerios' chief of staff, and Fatemeh Ziai. Guterres' UN is totally corrupt, answers to questions and roughs up and bans the Press which asks.    

  Now there are voices inside the UN, sources of banned Inner City Press, outraged that the absent and bloated Secretary General Antonio Guterres is about to reward another harasser while spending public money to cultivate a false image of himself to try to get a second term. L'affaire Colin Stewart is another test. Guterres has already failed enough tests to be fired or worse. And this one? Watch this site. 

   Downtown at the SDNY courthouse which Inner City Press now covers daily, Vivian Wang, who as money manager for convicted UN briber Ng Lap Seng's South South News made payments to disgraced President of the UN General Assembly John Ashe, was given a time served sentence on June 26 by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge George B. Daniels.

   Wang's lawyers at Goodwin Proctor, in a heavily redacted sentencing submission, stated that her deceased husband Forest Cao "was 57 years old adn had no known health problems of medical conditions. No autopsy was performed."

 It also says, as to UN President of the General Assembly John Ashe, that while awaiting trial on UN bribery charges "his death was reported as the result of a 'weightlifting accident' after a barbell apparently crushed his throat."

  After the sentencing, Inner City Press with covered the Ng Lap Seng trial before SDNY Judge Vernon Broderick daily asked Wang's lawyer Derek A. Cohen if he was implying that Forest Cao and John Ashe were killed, and why he had so heavily redacted this sentencing submission.

 "It speaks for itself," Cohen said by the elevators. Likewise the Assistant U.S. Attorney on the case Daniel C. Richenthal declined Inner City Press' question about who beyond Ng Lap Seng Ms. Wang had cooperated against.

 Judge Daniels did not preside over the trial of Ng Lap Seng. He accepted the government's recommendation of time served with very little inquiry. 

  He said as if by rote that corruption of the UN is a serious matter. But if so, why should a person who paid bribes in the UN get such a light sentence with little public showing of the benefit of their cooperation?

   Corruption has continued at the UN since the prosecution of Ng Lap Seng, resulting in his four year prison sentence. A second, separately prosecution was brought against Patrick Ho of CEFC China Energy, an entity which also tried to buy the oil company of Lisbon-based Gulbenkian Foundation which employed current UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres as a compensated board member. 

  Neither in the Ho nor Ng Lap Seng cases where any of the UN Secretariat officials implicated in the bribery schemes prosecuted. 

  This laxity can be contrasted with another SDNY proceeding a mere hour later, in which Judge P. Kevin Castel looked behind the U.S. Attorney's Office's 5k1.1 cooperation letters and imposed jail time on the four siblings, the Seggermans, who evaded taxes. That underlying case was USA v. Little, 12-cr-647 (Castel). This bifurcated case is USA v. Wang, 16-cr-495 (Daniels).

 Vivi Wang helped bribe the UN, and on June 26 she got a time served sentence for undefined cooperation. Judge Castel looked behind the government's 5K1.1 letter but Judge Daniels did not. And the UN continues corrupt. Inner City Press will have more, much more, on this.

Inner City Press Asks UNSC President Rycroft of Blue Nile, Southern Kordofan, Aid Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 24 -- After the UN Security Council met behind closed doors about Sudan and South Sudan and its UNISFA mission on November 24, Inner City Press asked the Council's President for November Matthew Rycroft if Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile were discussed. As transcribed the UK Mission:

Inner City Press: Did the issue of the Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan regions and their humanitarian situation come up in the consultations?

Amb. Rycroft: We had a good discussion about the whole range of issues that relate to Sudan and South Sudan, including the two areas. And we did hear very full briefings both from Haile Menkerios in Addis by video conference and from Herve Ladsous in the room. And on the humanitarian issues, we underlined the importance of humanitarian access, so we urged all of the parties to step up and do more to ensure that the people in these desperately deprived areas [re]ceived the humanitarian assistance that they so badly need.

 Ladsous rushed past the stakeout without taking questions; he has linked rapes to "R&R," video here. Rycroft also read out these press elements:

"This is to give you a readout of the consultations which the Security Council has just concluded on Sudan and South Sudan and UNISFA. We agreed the following elements:

- First of all, we expressed our support for President Mbeki, for the African Union through its high-level Implementation Panel and its Peace and Security Committee and its Special Envoy Menkerios for their work.

- We welcomed the discussion between the parties in Addis, but are disappointed that those have concluded without agreement, in particular without agreement on a cessation of hostilities.

- We urged the parties to avoid further acts of violence. We urged them to agree a cessation of hostilities, to return to talks in the very near future and to allow the facilitation of humanitarian assistance.

- We also urged the parties to agree a way forward, for an inclusive and comprehensive national dialogue.

- And finally, we welcomed the agreements reached by the government of Sudan and South Sudan on the border arrangement between their two countries and urged them to build on those agreements and to implement them."

 On October 29 when UN aid official John Ging held a press conference about Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia, Inner City Press asked him about Blue Nile, Somaliland and then also about the flooding in the Tindouf camp. Video here.

  On Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan, Inner City Press asked what the reported commitment by the UN not to give aid to “rebels” really means. Ging said it means that the UN doesn't hand over aid to rebel groups and let them decide who needs it.

  Since Ging has spoken of “state formation” in Somalia, Inner City Press asked him if this includes Puntland and, more to the point, Somaliland. Ging replied that the UN maintains a single coordinator “for the whole country.” Video here.

  The floods in the Tindouf camp seem nearly off the radar, so Inner City Press asked Ging what the UN is going. He said more is expected - and we hope to have more on this.

 Since the Nepal earthquake, Inner City Press has been asking the International Monetary Fund if it would move to relieve the country's debt burden. See below.

  On July 8, Inner City Press asked UN humanitarian official John Ging about the IMF saying that post earthquake Nepal is NOT eligible for its Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust, and about reporting that the UN had "substandard" food in Nepal. Video here.

  Ging said the IMF issues is a real one, but that OCHA has no direct input with the IMF. If the IMF truly is a part of the UN system, shouldn't it?

 On the food issue, Ging said any such food was in a warehouse, not to be distributed. Inner City Press asked if he believed the government accepts this position (he does) - meanwhile a reader chimed in with this.

  On Nepal's debt, Inner City Press resubmitted the question for the IMF's embargoed June 25 briefing, and during it, IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice read out the question and answered it. Transcript here; video here from 47:50.

  Inner City Press' question: "On Nepal, in the run up to the June 25 International Conference of Nepal’s Reconstruction, and with the World Bank announcing $500 million, is the IMF intending to do anything beyond the $50 million (one year) and $124 million (overall) in its response in the last briefing? Through the IMF's Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust?"

  Rice said the IMF is represented at the conference in Katmandu -- contrary to some reports, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is NOT there -- and could be the request for the $50 M / $124 M to the Board in July. He emphasized this would be zero interest under the RCF but said Nepal is NOT eligible for the CCRT, GDP damage is not enough. 

  Inner City Press would ask, should that threshold be lowered?

  On Jordan, Inner City Press asked: "On Jordan, having seen the IMF's announcement about the end of July, has there been any movement on the criticism by the head of UNHCR and others that the IMF and World Bank in treating Jordan (and Lebanon, etc) as “middle income” can't or don't do enough to provide support given the volume of refugees they have received?"

  Rice said, in essence, that the IMF has been flexible and has given fiscal space to deal with the refugee issues (we'll add the transcript later).  

  Back on June 11 Rice said that Nepal had made a request to the IMF under the Rapid Credit Facility, and that the IMF will send a mission to the country coinciding with the donors' conference on June 25. He said Nepal could be eligible for $50 million annually, for a total of $124 million. We'll see.

   Rice also answer questions Inner City Press submitted on Ghana's Eurobond and about Jamaica. (He said these questions, “from the UN in New York,” remind of other things in the IMF briefing room other than Greece and Ukraine).

  On Ghana, Rice said that the Eurobond was “envisioned” in the recently agreed program. But what is the status of any talks about it? Inner City Press asked, “Ghana's Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper, says the government intends to issue a $1 billion 10-year Eurobond in 2015. What are the status of talks with the IMF in this regard?”

  On Jamaica, Inner City Press asked, “On Jamaica, please comment on criticism that the percentage of people in under the poverty line has grown alongside the IMF's program and that 'last year, Jamaica paid the IMF over $136 million more than it received.'”

   Rice acknowledged that in 2014-15 there was a negative flow out of the country to the IMF, of $163 million. But he said with the new program that has reversed, to in-flow into Jamaica of $127 million in 2015-16, projected to rise to $176 million in 2017-18. Rice acknowledge the rise in the poverty rate from 9.9% in 2007 to 20% in 2012, but said this had to do with the global financial crisis and is the reason for the IMF's program. We'll see.

   Inner City Press had also asked for updates if any on Yemen and Burundi -- apparently there are no updates -- and one on a quote from Romania's National Bank Governor Mugur Isarescu saying the IMF's “communication has sometimes been problematic.” Still, three answers are appreciated.

  On Greece, for the record, Rice said there are major difference between us, with little to no progress made in narrowin them. On Ukraine, he said the IMF can lend to a country that has arrears to private creditors provided other conditions are met. Ukraine certainly has Western political support.

UN Journal Today Lists Sudan's Bashir As Speaker for Tomorrow in UNGA, Of Karti, Ladsous and ICC

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 25 -- When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Sudan on Tuesday evening, it was not with President Omar al Bashir, whose been indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide. But a member of Ban's team, UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, had met with Bashir only in July.

  Representing Sudan on Tuesday night was foreign minister Ali Karti. Beyond Ladsous, Ban had with him his chief of staff Susana Malcorra, Department of Field Support chief Ameerah Haq, his Special Adviser on Africa, his deputy chief of of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, his adviser on sexual violence and conflict, and Haile Menkerios.

   It was a big UN team -- though not as big as the UN team that, twenty minutes earlier, met with Israel's minister for international affairs. For example, the Department of Public Information was at the Israel meeting, but not Sudan.

  But where was Bashir? He has complained that the US has not come through with a visa. Some take Ban meeting with foreign minister Karti as signifying that Bashir is not coming, on the theory that a country -- at least if not one of the Security Council's Permanent Five members, with whom Ban is lunching on Wednesday -- could not get more than one meeting with Ban.

  But would Bashir even ask to meet with Ban? And if he did, would Ban (as Ladsous did) hold the meeting?

It is still possible, according to UN documents, that we will find out. The September 25 UN Journal, in the section called "Forthcoming Meetings," has the General Assembly speakers' list for September 26, including as the second speaker in the afternoon

"2. Address by His Excellency Omer Hassan A. Al-bashir, President of the Republic of the Sudan."

That's in a UN document -- like Ban's chemical weapons report on Syria, it HAS to be true, right? Even "overwhelming." Watch this site.

   

As Menkerios Adds AU Addis Job to His Sudans Post, Where Will Cost Save Go? UN Banning Whistleblowers

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 20 -- While the UN continues to waste money, for example by having its purported Sahel envoy Romano Prodi based in Italy, last week some potential savings emerged, if only temporary.

Haile Menkerios was named UN envoy to the African Union in Addis Ababa; the announcement said he will remain as envoy on Sudan and South Sudan. This is called, in UN-ese, double hatting. The AU post used to be at the Assistant Secretary General level but it being bumped up to Menkerios' current pay scale as an Under Secretary General level, like Prodi. It seems unlikely the Addis post will ever be shifted back down.

But even in the UN system, it seems unlikely he will get both the USG and the Assistant Secretary General ASG salaries. So the latter will be "saved."

But how will the savings be used? A knowledgeable UN budget source tells Inner City Press that it could be used for budget lines which are over-spent, or for so-called "vacancy management" -- short term, unfunded jobs, "uncontrolled."

Recently Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office for Ban's response to criticism of Sahel envoy Prodi being based in Rome. They said they would look into it: but so far nothing. Watch this site.

Footnote: meanwhile Ban Ki-moon on May 14 filed an appeal to the case of whistleblower James Wasserstrom. Ban had gotten rare, and in this instance unwarranted we think, praise for merely announcing he would hire a consultant on the protection of whistleblowers. Is this appeal the result of that consultation? We hope to have more on this.

Susan Rice Critical of Sudan Aid Delay & Oil Deal Linkage, No Push for Aid from South

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 6 -- In Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, humanitarian aid has yet to be delivered. After the UN Security Council receivedyet another briefing Thursday morning by envoy Haile Menkerios, Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Rice about Sudan's position that aid cannot be delivered by air, much less from neighboring South Sudan.

  Ambassador Rice said that this must be resolved closer to the source, not here from New York, but that the key is access.  Transcript, and that of German PR Wittig, below.

 She said the the best way to deliver aid varies by season. She also criticized Sudan for saying that its oil agreement with South Sudan will not be implemented until all other issues, including Abyei, are resolved.

 The day previous, Inner City Press asked the UN spokesman what OCHA is doing in the Two Areas:

Inner City Press: In Sudan, there is that tripartite agreement to deliver humanitarian aid to Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile; seems like it’s been delayed. And now, Sudan has said it’s absolutely opposed to delivering aid through South Sudan or by air. Since the United Nations is obviously involved in this and has been reporting on the needs there, what’s its response to that? How do they think the aid should be... is that a sufficient response by Sudan and what should be done?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I will check with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Some four hours later, the following answer arrived:

Subject: Your question on Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 4:53 PM
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Regarding your question on humanitarian aid, OCHA says that it has requested the Government of Sudan to allow aid to go through Sudan itself to affected communities in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

As with certain other recent UN answers, it is not entirely clear what this means. But given the question asked, it seems to mean that the UN has not even asked that aid be allowed in from South Sudan, where the UN has a large peacekeeping mission. Perhaps that is realistic. But if the UN doesn't even ask....

Watch this site.

Transcripts: US Mission

Inner City Press: On the Two Areas, if you don't mind. Sudan has said that it's against any delivery of aid by air-that it says everything must be by land through El Obeid. It's obviously against any delivery from the South. Does the U.S. think it should be-is there some kind of-do you agree with those two positions that they have?

Ambassador Rice: I think the issue with respect to the Two Areas remains the same. The concern is about providing adequate access for humanitarian actors, and I don't think it's worthwhile for governments sitting back here speaking from New York to get into the fine details of how that's best implemented. I think that's an issue for the humanitarian implementers, the humanitarian actors working with both the SPLM-North and the government of Khartoum. In different seasons, the most efficient methods of transmitting and delivering humanitarian assistance may vary, but I think the point is that the access be continuous and unimpeded rather than for I or others to get into proscribing how it ought to be effected on the ground.

On Sudans After Oil Deal, Questions of Heglig & Proof, Pipes At 20% Capacity

By Matthew Russell Lee, Partial exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, August 7 -- Even just after a rare agreement between Sudan and South Sudan, on oil transfer fees, at the UN in New York there were clouds on the horizon, how ever small.

  Inner City Press asked UN envoy Haile Menkerios about the deal. He was pleased, but noted that there is still the question of the Heglig needing to be fixed. Most of South Sudan's oil is in Unity State and has to travel north through the pipeline at Heglig which, he said, is only operations at twenty percent capacity.

  Moments later Inner City Press asked South Sudan's ambassador Francis Nazario. 

He said that Sudan has to repair Heglig. He said that while Sudan claims the damage was done during South Sudan's occupation, "they have to prove that."

  A Security Council Deputy Permanent Representative told Inner City Press there are still things to be worked out.

  Sudan's Permanent Representative seems sure to come for the Security Council session about the Sudans and Abyei on August 9. South Sudan will be sending a foreign minister. Watch this site.

On Sudan Ritual of UN SC, Rice Says It's Only Way To Keep Tabs, Critics Say Colonial, Outmoded

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 10 -- As the UN Security Council met Tuesday on Sudan and South Sudan, several Council members complained to Inner City Press that the biweekly sessions had become a mere "ritual" or "make work."

  "It is wasn't for the Mbeki panel," one of them asked Inner City Press, referring to the African Union High Level trio chaired by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, "what could the Security Council even claim it's doing on the issue?"

  This months' Council president Nestor Osorio has told Inner City Press that arrangements are being made for Mbeki to come brief the Security Council on or about July 26, just before a deadline in the AU roadmap. "That's the real meeting," the complaint continued. "This is just... a P-Five problem. It's colonial."

  The analysis continued that the "Western Three" send as Permanent Representatives diplomats who are convinced with the importance of the Security Council. "Maybe that was true after the Second World War," the non-Western diplomat continued. "But now the Council is not suited to the problems it is trying to address."

  A cynic noted that some regional groups still want the UN to pay for their actions, like ECOWAS' talked about reclaiming of Timbuktu and Northern Mali. And who, we note, is paying for Mbeki, and for the team of Joint envoy on Syria Kofi Annan, dubbed the Seven Million Dollar Man?

  Just then US Ambassador Susan Rice came out of the Security Council, where they'd spent the morning on the Sudan issue. Inner City Press asked her, are these sessions useful? Some of your colleague say they've become just ritual.

  Ambassador Rice turned and gave a serious answer, that these session are "the only way to keep tabs" on the parties and their compliance with commitments. And perhaps it does serve for that. 

  Notably, several sources leaving the Security Council after Ambassador Rice told Inner City Press that the August 2 deadline shouldn't be seen like a religious text, as long as there is progress.

  What is sad is how little concern, at least as reflected by media, there is with the Sudan - South Sudan conflict, or even with the protests inside Sudan. Is that the Security Council's fault? Or of the Western Three? Watch this site.

Footnote: Tuesday's session was so low key it was difficult to get a commitment for a UN TV stakeout by Sudan's Ambassador. Envoy Haile Menkerios, who genially spoke with Inner City Press last week in the North Lawn building, was not available to talk, as even Cyprus envoy Lisa Buttenheim had been. What has happened, on the Sudan issue? And whose fault is it?

As Syria Supports $7 Million for Annan, Murky Geneva Budget, Rwanda Echoes

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 22 -- Syria envoy Kofi Annan's over $7 million budget was discussed Tuesday in the UN's Budget Committee.

Annan's work was praised by Syria's representative, who urged full funding so that Annan can reach out to "Arab partners" and get them to refrain from undermining the so-called Six Point Plan.

After the session Inner City Press asked the Syrian representative if these referenced "Arab partners" included Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which it is said the US is advising which Syrian opposition groups to fund. The representative smiled. He also urged that humanitarian concern expand to those "23 million Syrians" subject to "unilateral sanctions."

  Inner City Press has repeatedly asked Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi about the budget proposal which on Tuesday was formally introduced, but not yet approved. Four weeks ago on April 25 Inner City Press asked Fawzi

"quick questions about the budget presentation: 11 substantive international staff (1 USG, 2 ASG, 2 D-2, 2 P-5, 2 P-4, 2 P-3) -- Are the two deputies the ASGs? Which of the other position have already been filled or designated, and by whom? Likewise, what (and how high) are the "extra-budgetary resources" for three Political Affairs Officers for six months, and a Senior Advisor for three months? Has the Senior Advisor been chosen? Who? And, the "refurbishment of office space ($30,000)" -- which office is this?"

  The questions have not been answered. Nevertheless on May 21, after the previous week asking Inner City Press to censor an already published story about the visit to Syria by Annan's duputy Jean Marie Guehenno as his second French successor as head of UN peacekeeping, Herve "The Drone" Ladsous (so named because he has proposed the UN use drones), Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office referred Inner City Press' questions to Fawzi.

Inner City Press: this trip that was made by, I believe, Ladsous, Mr. [Jean-Marie] Guéhenno and Babacar Gaye — what's the breakdown? It was described prior to the trip that Mr. Guéhenno was going there on a, quote, “on the political track”. What's the division of labour between them? Is Mr. Ladsous only concerning the observers or is he also something of a mediator on the political track, and was there any request for Mr. [Nasser] al-Kidwa, who is the other deputy of Kofi Annan, to in fact enter Syria?

Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq: I think Mr. [Ahmad] Fawzi made clear that Mr. Guéhenno’s work is to assess what the situation is on the ground, and he had suggested that there would be a deputy of Mr. Annan going there, and that Mr. Annan might make a visit later down the line. As for Mr. Ladsous, I just read out a note about his work and what he was doing. Again, if you didn’t hear it, he was there to meet with observers from the UN Supervision Mission and to assess the progress on the ground to date.

Inner City Press: What about Mr. al-Kidwa? Is he, I mean, what’s, what’s his function as the Joint Special Envoy’s second deputy? Has he ever entered Syria? Has he been denied ability to enter Syria?

Associate Spokesperson: He is one of the deputies; you can talk to the Joint Special Envoy’s spokesperson, Mr. Fawzi, about what he is doing.

  And so an hour after this May 21 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Fawzi:

"just now at the UN noon briefing I asked for a description of the division of labor and mandates between the JSE's Deputy Guehenno and DPKO chief Ladsous, and if the JSE's Deputy El-Kidwa has since taking the post asked to enter Syria, and what the response was. I was told to ask the JSE's spokesman: you. So I am asking, along with the outstanding questions below.

"Relatedly, Syrian state media says that Mr. Annan is the 'UN envoy' - do you correct that? - while KUNA reports that Ladsous 'will meet leaders of opposition groups in Syria to discuss their views of the crisis.' Is that what he is discussing, and what is the division of labor and mandates between the JSE / Deputy Guehenno and DPKO chief Ladsous?"

  More than 24 hours later, these questions have not been answered. Fawzi now has assistant spokespeople, provided from Ban's spokesperson's office in New York. 18 posts are being funded, and the refurbishment of an office space Fawzi had not provided the location of in more then four weeks.

 At the same UN Budget Committee session, another UN Special Envoy Haile Menkerios was urged to move from New York to the region (he covers Sudan and South Sudan), to be closer to the parties and to save money. But Kofi "Seven Million Dollar Man" Annan is based in Geneva.

  Also, it is proposed to spend $3 million for a new building in Arusha, Tanzania for the so-called residual mechanism dealing with the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in connection with which Annan ignored Romeo Dellaire's reports that machetes were being stockpiled. Plus ca change. Watch this site.

At UN on Southern Kordofan, Who Should Call for Probe Was Issue, No One Urging Action

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 18 -- On Southern Kordofan it emerges that the fight in the Security Council on July 15 was about whether the Council should be calling for an investigation of war crimes.

“Navi Pillay is already doing it,” a Council member told Inner City Press. “Why do we have to call for it?”

A UN official confided that a real investigation will show misdeed by the UN peacekeepers from Egypt as well. The conflict of interest is that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was only in Sudan as a component of the peacekeeping mission UNMIS. How can the UN report on itself?

The balance for the UN involves at least four legs: political, peacekeeping, humanitarian and human rights. And they may well be the pecking order, with human rights right at the bottom, at least under Haile Menkerios -- who flew indicted war criminal Ahmed Haroun on a UN copter -- and Ibrahim Gambari in Darfur.

What should future UN envoys do? How should they be judged? Watch this site.

Footnote: Meanwhile the Justice & Equality Movement is bragging that it teamed up with SPLM-North and fought and killed 100 Northern soldiers. It is a war, and the UN sits impotent. We will continue on this.

UN Admits 2d Flight of ICC Darfur Indictee Haroun to Abyei in Sudan, Impunity

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 4, updated -- The UN has for a second time offered a free UN flight in Sudan to Ahmed Haroun, under indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, the UN admitted Friday in response to questions from Inner City Press.

On March 3 the UN Security Council met about renewed fighting in the disputed Abyei region. Back in January, Inner City Press got the UN to acknowledge they had flown ICC indictee Haroun from South Kordofan, where he serves fellow ICC indictee Omar al Bashir as governor, to Abyei.

The UN has defended this controversial flight by saying that Haroun and Haroun alone could stop violence in Abyei. The UN never explained why the government of Sudan, which has an air force currently bombing civilians in Jebel Marra in Darfur, couldn't itself fly Haroun.

The UN said it was a scheduled flight, then UN Mission in Sudan chief Haile Menkerios admitted to Inner City Press that it was a special flight. Inner City Press is told such flights cost $40,000, and the UN has confirm no reimbursement has been sought from the Bashir government.

But now the violence has continued, making the UN flight of ICC indictee Haroun harder to justify even by the UN's own argument.

March 3 in front of the Security Council, Inner City Press asked Council president for March Li Baodong of China if the UN Peacekeeping official who briefed the Council, Atul Khare, had mentioned if Haroun would again be flown in a UN helicopter. Li Baodong did not directly answer.

At the March 4 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky to confirm or deny that that the UN would once again fly ICC indictee Haroun to Abyei, even now that his work in connection with the first flight has proved ineffective.

Nesirky said he would check. Ten minutes later, Nesirky's deputy Farhan Haq announced by speaker to all UN correspondents that yes, Haroun attended today's meeting in Abyei, and yes, “he was transported” by the UN.

This UN promotes impunity, even for one of the few people indicted for war crimes by the ICC. Meanwhile Ban Ki-moon brags about the Security Council's partial referral of the situation in Libya to the ICC -- a referral that Ban Ki-moon did not even call for until after the Council voted to make the referral.

This UN is promoting and enshrining lawlessness, with no transparency or accountability. Watch this site.

Update of 3:48 pm -- Human Rights Watch, via Richard Dicker, submitted this comment:

“This is the second time in recent weeks the UN has transported Ahmed Haroun who is charged by the ICC with war crimes in Darfur. We have real concerns because the U.N. should not be in the business of transporting Haroun. There needs to be an extremely high threshold of urgency for such action by UNMIS.”

Responses have been sought from the Missions to the UN of France, the UK and the US, with the latter two asked if they knew in advance of the UN's new flight of ICC indictee Haroun. Given her statements this year about social media, & after hours of non-response by the US Mission to the UN,@AmbassadorRice has been asked directly as well. Watch this site.

Update of 4:30 pm -- Then this, from UK Mission to the UN spokesman Daniel Shepherd:

“As spokesperson, I would only reiterate the message that my two Ambassadors have both said on the record (and published by Inner City Press) first time around: that we aren’t going to second guess how UNMIS fulfills its mandate to provide good offices to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) parties in efforts to resolve differences through dialogue and negotiations. I’d only add that this work is particularly important at this sensitive time, to contain any potential escalation after the recent Abyei violence.”

We could note again that violence has persisted despite the UN flying ICC indictee Ahmed Haroun in the first time, and that it is the role of UN member states to oversee the UN Secretariat, not to defer in this case to what some see as its promotion of impunity - but at least the UK would put its position on the record.

Update of 4:43 pm -- this too has come in, perhaps in response:

Date: Fri, Mar 4, 201
Subject: Haroun and Abyei
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

You guys ask great questions! Have you noticed perhaps that the United Nations seems to be unaware of who is causing the violence in Abyei. And yet "diplomatic sources" report seeing the burial of 33 bodies - all southerners.

The Arab nomads say the violence started when SPLM police shot at them (Hitler used a similar ploy to invade Poland) - and today thousands of civilians fled Abyei fearing another crisis like in June 2008. The Dinka Ngok villages north of Abyei, such as Maker, have been burnt to the ground. The end explains the means. There is a creeping ethnic cleansing going on in the Abyei region despite the agreements of 2005 and the Court of Arbitration ruling in 2010.

Why fly Haroun to Abyei - what is his cv? It is, as you correctly point out, that of arming arab militias to burn villages. I hope to see more of your questions pinning the UN to the responsibility to protect.