On Ebola, UN Envoy Landgren Paints Bleak Picture of Liberia's Response, Johnson Sirleaf Re-Think?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 9 -- With ebola exploding across Liberia, the head of the UNMIL mission Karin Landgren provided the Security Council on September 9 with a bleak picture of the government's response. Elections have been postponed; quarantines were imposed without sufficient planning for even food and water for those cordoned off, for example in Monrovia's West Point neighborhood.

   While Landgren did not directly mention it, there favoritism was shown in allowing some to get out of the quarantine zone. Not surprisingly there is a growing distrust for the country's president, Ellen Johnson Sirfleaf, long a UN and UNGA week darling. But will any of her champions now publicly re-think?

  Landgren insisted that UNMIL is not directly involved in quarantining. 

But the UN has still left unanswered a question about ebola related restrictions ascribed to its peacekeeping mission in Darfur, UNAMID.

On September 8, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

Inner City Press: On Ebola, can you confirm that UNAMID has ordered troops from Nigeria and Sierra Leone either not to return to their countries on holiday in return because according to UNAMID, the UN-African Union Mission, they might bring Ebola, and also there is another statement saying that prior to this ban on traveling home for holiday, that UNAMID had ordered medical screening as they left and as they came back from, and to Nigeria and Sierra Leone, making trips to or from the UN?

Spokesman Dujarric: The report in the Sudan Tribune is incorrect.

Inner City Press: Okay, which part of it?

Spokesman Dujarric: About the UN telling troops not to leave. What we are always looking for in any peacekeeping mission is an orderly rotation of troops to ensure that any mission is able to perform in the best possible manner. On the screening issue, I don’t know and I can ask.

  Twenty-two hours later, there was no answer. So, the UN including envoy to Liberia Karin Landgren insists there is no UN involvement in quarantining, but could that too be a semantic difference?

  In terms of the screening reported at UNAMID, some contrast it not only to UN Peacekeeping not performed the most basic screening of the peacekeepers which it brought, along with cholera, to Haiti -- but of not screening for cholera even now.

  The stonewalling by UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous (video compilation here, UK coverage here) including on the question of accountability for his DPKO having brought cholera to Haiti raised questions as the UN speaks more and more about ebola. We'll have more on this.

   

As UN Talks Ebola, UNanswered Questions of Darfur Restrictions, Haiti Cholera Stonewalling

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 9 -- As ebola in Liberia is considered by the UN Security Council on September 9, the UN left unanswered a question about ebola related restrictions ascribed to its peacekeeping mission in Darfur, UNAMID.

On September 8, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

Inner City Press: On Ebola, can you confirm that UNAMID has ordered troops from Nigeria and Sierra Leone either not to return to their countries on holiday in return because according to UNAMID, the UN-African Union Mission, they might bring Ebola, and also there is another statement saying that prior to this ban on traveling home for holiday, that UNAMID had ordered medical screening as they left and as they came back from, and to Nigeria and Sierra Leone, making trips to or from the UN?

Spokesman Dujarric: The report in the Sudan Tribune is incorrect.

Inner City Press: Okay, which part of it?

Spokesman Dujarric: About the UN telling troops not to leave. What we are always looking for in any peacekeeping mission is an orderly rotation of troops to ensure that any mission is able to perform in the best possible manner. On the screening issue, I don’t know and I can ask.

  Twenty hours later, there was no answer. The UN including envoy to Liberia Karin Landgren insists there is no UN involvement in quarantining, but could that too be a semantic difference?

  In terms of the screening reported at UNAMID, some contrast it not only to UN Peacekeeping not performed the most basic screening of the peacekeepers which it brought, along with cholera, to Haiti -- but of not screening for cholera even now.

  The stonewalling by UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous (video compilation here, UK coverage here) including on the question of accountability for his DPKO having brought cholera to Haiti raised questions as the UN speaks more and more about ebola. We'll have more on this.

   

UN Peacebuilding Capped by Sudans, Swiss Want In, Australia Ponies Up

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 12 -- The UN Security Council's "thematic debates" often garner little to no media interest, and Thursday's session on peacebuilding was no different. After a side meeting on Syria broken up, the stakeout area was empty as South Sudan and then Sudan spoke.

  Afterward Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told Inner City Press he had added two elements to his speech, after hearing South Sudan: a reply on why oil production was stopped, and a line about corruption.

Asked by Inner City Press about the oil, South Sudan representative Francis Nazario told Inner City Press, "Nobody in the world can justify theft." It was on that basis that South Sudan stopped pumping oil.

  Rwanda's Permanent Representative Eugene-Richard Gasana, who will join the Security Council in January, stay all day for the debate. 

 "You have to be responsible," he said, "This is Rwanda." He said that the Council shouldn't be putting out statements now, even as other statements are prepared in Addis Ababa. "I think we have to calm down," he said.

  A decidedly lower key conflict, if one can call it that, was between Australia which pledged $12 million over four years for the peacebuilding fund, while Norway pledged $5 million a year on 2011 and again in 2012.

  Australia's pledge, it would seem, is in the context of its race against Luxembourg and Finland for two seats on the Security Council for the Western European and Other Group states. Luxembourg's Permanent Representative spoke on Thursday, genial pitching "national ownership." Finland did not speak.

Ireland, interestingly, referred to "questions accumulating about aspects of UN peacekeeping." Armenia spoke with nary a direct reference to Azerbaijan.

Swiss Permanent Representative Seger made his Small Five point, that he and other peacekeeping configuration chairs should be allowed in Security Council consultations. Burundi also said this. If we don't even say it, it will never happen, Seger told Inner City Press.

  Sweden spoke about Liberia, where the Swede Karin Landgren has been named SRSG. Colombia's foreign minister Maria Angela Holguin chaired the meeting; at the stakeout Inner City Press asked her if the PBC could help Yemen, or even Syria. She replied the Council is working hard for a resolution.

  Japan was represented by former UN controller Jun Yamazaki. In fact, the Wikipedia page about him still, as of July 12 at 4 pm, listed him as working for the UN. 

  Thomas Mayr-Harting spoke for the EU, and afterward told Inner City Press that the EU is getting more active every day. He said it's not about where you sit -- in the back in the Arms Trade Treaty -- but what you do.

  By contrast, when on the evening on July 11 Inner City Press asked the Permanent Representative Nicholas Emiliou of Cyprus, heading the EU, about the EU's role at the UN. He said he was disappointed to find some at the UN not appreciating that the EU is "sui generis," with a lot to offer. The African Union is "sui generis" too, some feel. This is a peace that must be built. Watch this site.

In Burundi, NGOs Say 300 Executed But UN Counts Only 57, Praises Government

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, December 7 -- In Burundi, how many extrajudicial executions have there been this year? Human rights groups say over 300, but the UN on Wednesday put the number at 57. Inner City Press asked UN envoy Karin Landgren to explain.

Back on November 22, Inner City Press asked Secretary Genenal Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky

Inner City Press: on Burundi; there is a report by a coalition of human rights non-governmental organizations there saying that the Government has killed up to 300 surrendering FNL [National Liberation Forces] or demobilizing rebels in the last five months. Given the UN’s engagement in Burundi, what does the UN think of that report and what’s being done to prevent these retaliatory killings?

Spokesperson: I’ll have to check, Matthew. I don’t have anything on that.

Four days later on November 25, the UN sent this statement to Inner City Press:

Subject: Your question on Burundi
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply @un.org
Date: Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 2:02 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

The UN continues to be concerned about reports of extrajudicial killings in Burundi, including of people affiliated with opposition parties. The United Nations Office in Burundi has raised this concern regularly with the Burundian Government, and has urged the Government to take measures to prevent such killings, to investigate all such cases and to hold to account those found responsible.

But how many extrajudicial executions have there been? Briefing an open meeting of the UN Security Council on December 7, Mr. Landgren put the number at 57. After she spoke with Council members in closed door consultations, Inner City Press asked, and Ms. Landgren exclusively responded to, three questions.

Inner City Press asked about the difference between 300 and 57. Ms. Landgren said "We've asked them to give us documentation on their number. The fifty seven are the cases BNUB itself has documented. If they can give us more on their number, we will look into their number."

Landgren said, "Things are broadly on the right track." Inner City Press asked her about a new rebel group, Le front de restauration de la democratie (FRD) led by Pierre Claver Kabirigi."

She replied, "A couple of group announcing themselves, some cross border from DRC and Tanzania. The government made arrests following attacks from across the border in Tanzania. We are emphasizing to the government and opposition groups that there needs to be an end of violence."

Landgren previously served as UN envoy in Nepal, from which two weeks before the UN mission's mandate was to end, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reassigned her to Burundi, replacing Charles Petrie. Click here for that.

Inner City Press asked if those being killed -- whether 57 or 300 -- are FNL members who were asked to demobilize, or others opposed to the government. She replied, "It's hard to say people opposed to the government. The pattern among the fifty seven... [they are] members of political parties that are extra parliamentary."

After Ms. Landgren left, Inner City Press asked this month's Council president Vitaly Churkin of Russia about those being killed in Burundi. Churkin said, "Absolutely... I can tell you that the Russia delegate wants strong language in the draft resolution on this." Watch this site.

UN's Landgren Spoke of Withholding from Nepal Equipment that India Gave

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 14 -- After UN envoy Karin Landgren told the UN Security Council earlier this month that the “monitoring equipment” could not be left in Nepal without an agreement, Inner City Press repeatedly asked the UN for clarification. None came.

Now it emerges that the equipment was given by India, and that India has told Nepal it can keep it. The UN has nothing to say, contrary to Landgren's speech to the Security Council, which has been widely criticized in Nepal.

Inner City Press also repeatedly asked the UN why Secretary General Ban Ki-moon jumped the gun and named Landgren as his next envoy to Burundi on December 31, while the parties in Nepal still had two weeks in which they might have made a joint request for the UN Mission in Nepal to stay.

While the UN answered that Landgren would not begin in Burundi as Charles Petrie's replacement until January 15, that did not answer the question. Why did Ban jump the gun and telegraph the UN's unwillingness to stay in Nepal, even if both parties asked?

A Security Council sources tells Inner City Press that the UN was just “sick of Nepal,” that the parties weren't negotiating and solving things. But other say this is also true to some extent in Cyprus, the Former Yuguslav Republic of Macedonia, the Middle East and elsewere from which the UN doesn't leave. The UN has been asked to leave Cote d'Ivoire, and hasn't.

So why the flight from and flubs in Nepal? Watch this site.

From the UN's January 13 transcript

Inner City Press: since there’s no noon briefing tomorrow, I just wanted to ask — one is Nepal, and the pullout of the UNMIN [United Nations Mission in Nepal] mission. There had been some discussion of leaving behind the monitoring equipment — either on a loan basis, or — what’s going to actually happen with the equipment on the 15th, given that that’s the deadline?

Spokesperson: I’ll check on both of them for you, Matthew.

But at close of business the next day January 14, no answer had been provided. Watch this site.

At UN, Nepal Opposition Letter Delayed & Ignored, Landgren to Burundi

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 5 -- Two weeks before the mandate of the UN Mission in Nepal was set to expire, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named UNMIN chief Karin Landgren as his representative to Burundi.

This telegraphed that the UN would ignore the plea by the Nepali opposition that the UN stay on. On January 3, Inner City Press e-mailed Ms. Landgren some simple questions, asking her

“to state your current role in Burundi. Charles Petrie told me he was leaving November 1, then December 31. Are you currently handling both Nepal and Burundi? Who is currently in charge of UNMIN? And when will you arrive in Burundi? Who is in charge there right now?”

There was no answer, so Inner City Press sought to ask the question at the UN's noon briefing on January 4. Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky pointedly did not allow the question, walking about of the room.

On January 5, Inner City Press again tried to ask Nesirky, finally blurting out, “Why did Ban Ki-moon move Karin Landgren to Burundi?” Nesirky again refused to answer, using the time instead to say that the Security Council was meeting about Nepal later in the day, and claiming that there was no time for him to answer, since the Bosnian president of the Council was about to begin. (The Bosnian briefing did not start for at least another ten minutes).

Nevertheless, after the repeated refusal to answer the Nepal questions, Nesirky's office sent this:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 12:55 PM
Subject: Your question on Karin Landgren
To: Inner City Press

Ms. Karin Landgren was named by the Secretary-General on 31st December to be the new SRSG in Burundi. She remains currently in charge of our mission in Nepal, UNMIN, and will continue there through the scheduled end of its mandate on 15 January. She will take up responsibilities in Burundi soon thereafter. Mr. Charles Petrie left Burundi on 26 December. Until the arrival of Ms. Landgren, the Chief of Staff of BINUB in Bujumbura has been designated as Officer in Charge.

The question remains, why so publicly pull Landgren from Nepal even as the opposition was calling for the UN to stay, and writing to the Security Council to make that request?

While Nesirky's Office told Inner City Press that the letter was received on January 3, on January 4 a Permanent Five member of the Council's Permanent Representative told Inner City Press that the letter had not been circulated. That took place on the morning of January 5. When Inner City Press asked this month's Council president about the letter at the stakeout, after he read a short press statement, the President refused to answer. Video here.

It appears that because Charles Petrie was leaving Burundi on December 26 -- after quitting on November 1 -- the UN felt a need to name a replacement as of December 31. This reflects, using a sports team metaphor, how shallow the UN's bench of diplomats is: there was apparently no one else to take over in Burundi. Watch this site.

Footnote: India's ambassador, on his way into the Council on January 4, told Inner City Press that UNMIS was "over... wind up." The Council President told Inner City Press on January 5 that most on the Council thought the Mission should end. Another Council diplomat explained: for five years, no progress, but they kept asking us to stay. Now we are leaving. "Good riddance."

Amid Calls in Nepal for UN to Stay, Ban Reassigns Landgren, Limits Talks to Asset Disposal

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 3 -- Amid calls from some in Nepal for the UN to stay, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has re-assigned his top envoy from Nepal, Karin Landgren, to another rudderless UN Mission, in Burundi.

Inner City Press asked the UN for its response to the request that it stay in Nepal to deal with the rebel fighters still in the cantonments. The UN responded:

Date: Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 1:16 PM
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Subject: Answer
To: Inner City Press

On Nepal

"We received the letter from the Government of Nepal on 3 January and will respond. We have been in detailed discussions with the government over the disposal of UNMIN assets."

By limiting the discussion to the “disposal of UNMIN assets,” the UN Secretariat has already in essence answered the letter, in the negative: No. The same was true of re-assigning Ms. Landgren to replace Charles Petrie in Burundi, when there were still two weeks to go in the UN's Nepal mandate.

The UN Security Council is slated to hear from Ms. Landgren on January 5, the second working day of Bosnia's Council presidency.

But Ban has already pre-determined things with his re-assignment of Ms. Landgren.

Some used to think the UN had done a good job in Nepal. Its manner of leaving now seems to disprove that.

Is it any wonder that troubled Burundi demanded the shrinking of the UN's Burundi mission from 450 staff to a mere 60? And when WILL Charles Petrie re-surface in Somalia, and wearing what hat? Watch this site.

UN Silent as Nepal Shields Torturing Peacekeeper Basnet Accused of Murder

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un1basnet011510.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 15 -- After Nepal sent Major Niranjan Basnet, charged with the torture and murder of a 15 year old girl, to the UN Peacekeeping mission in Chad, human rights groups protested. The UN send Basnet back to Nepal, but the Army has refused to turn him over to civilian authorities for trial.

Inner City Press asked the UN about this on December 24, but UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said that "a national Government is responsible for national armed forces."

On January 15, after UN envoy to Nepal Karin Landgren had briefed the UN Security Council, she emerged to a stakeout without any journalists. They and the UN had become, since the January 12 earthquake, all Haiti, all the time.

Inner City Press ran after Ms. Landgren and asked if the UN Mission in Nepal has raised to Nepal's government or army the need to hand Basnet over to civilian authorities for trial.

No, Ms. Landgren said. That is a "matter primary for DPKO and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights."

Inner City Press asked if it didn't have political ramification of the sort that UNMIN is charged to deal with.

"It's a peacekeeping and human rights issue," Ms. Landgren answered.

Later she acknowledged that there is a "link with impunity." When asked, she said that UNMIN raises impunity "in a general way" with the parties. But not about Basnet. Why not? Watch this site.

Footnote: following Ms. Landgren's generous hallway answers, Inner City Press would have asked for further UN clarification at Friday's noon briefing, but UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said that "I'm sticking on Haiti today," and has declined to response to many e-mailed questions. And so the UN Secretariat, DPA's and UNMIN's position appears to be that the the refusal by a government of a major TCC to put on trial an accused torturer and murder is... merely an internal matter.

Basnet and other war criminals must be happy with the UN's post Haiti earthquake desire and communications need to stay "on message," regardless of what happens elsewhere. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1basnet011510.html

UN's Ban Criticized for "Interfering" in Nepal, Envoy Won't Speak, Council Won't Distinguish

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/banrep2nepal110809.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 8 -- On the eve of a UN Security Council session on Nepal, the ruling alliance of parties of that country lashed out at UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's statement in his report to the Council that "a government of national unity remains desirable."

The parties called this a violation of Nepal's sovereignty. "The United Nations has no right to meddle in our internal political affairs," said Pradeep Gyawali, a senior party leader.

Inner City Press has learned that things could have gone worse: the penultimate draft of the UN's report on Nepal called a national unity government necessary. At the last minute it was changed to desirable, and still drew fire.

Ban's envoy to Nepal Karin Landgren briefed the Security Council on the morning of November 6. Inner City Press waited outside at the Council stakeout microphone, where briefers take questions from the press. But Ms. Landgren didn't stop, instead heading into the elevator and leaving. Under previous envoy Ian Martin, one wag mused, there was less of a problem of too little information.

Later at the UN's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban's outgoing spokesperson Michele Montas to respond to the criticism from Nepal. . Video here, from Minute 11:32. From the transcript:

Inner City Press: On Nepal, several parties have issued statements criticizing the Secretary-General for what they say is “meddling in their internal affairs” by issuing a statement. Have you seen that? She didn’t do a stakeout, the SRSG. What is the Secretariat’s response to this pushback by the Nepalese Government?

Spokesperson Michele Montas: It was the ruling alliance of parties; they were criticizing the Secretary-General’s report to the Security Council. And the observation of the Secretary-General is consistent with his repeated calls for unity and consensus among the political parties in order to assure the success of the peace process. They are quoting extensively what the Secretary-General said in the report. But the report is intended to encourage Nepal’s political parties to achieve what they themselves have expressed about the desirability of a unity Government and does not in any way represent a form of interference.

Ironically, earlier in the week Ms. Montas told Inner City Press that the UN does not respond to statements by member states. Inner City Press asked this month's Council president, Austria's Thomas Mayr-Harting, if the Council's carefully worded press statement on Nepal is a position different than Ban's. "Ask the Secretary General," was his response. Video here, from Minute 1:49.

Later on November 6, Ban's chief of Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe, leaving the Security Council during a briefing on Afghanistan, told Inner City Press of Ban's report on Nepal that "it's the same" as previous report. But things on the ground change, and one expects the UN to be paying attention. As noted things could have been even worse, and only weren't due to luck or a last minute change.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/banrep2nepal110809.html

In Nepal, Over 100 Armed Group in Terai, Indian Arms Would Violate Agreement, UN Says

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unmin1terai072309.html

UNITED NATIONS, July 23 -- There are 107 armed groups in the Terai region of Nepal, and human rights defenders there feel more at risk now than at the height of the civil war, Karin Landgren, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Nepal told the Press on Thursday. Inner City Press asked for the position of the UN Mission in Nepal on possible arms sales by India to Nepal. Ms. Landgren said that the Nepali defense minister is in India, but that UNMIN's view is that arms sales at this time would violate Article 5.3 of the agreement on monitoring arms and armies signed in Nepal.

While UNMIN has been viewed as one of the UN's most (or few) successful missions, of late it has been unraveling. Maoists were caught on video bragging that they had or have far fewer fighters than counted and "verified" by UNMIN and the UN Development Program. Inner City Press asked Ms. Landgren if the UN's credibility is not in doubt. See our May press release, Ms. Landgren answered.

Another attendee of Thursday noon briefing mocked the proceedings, which began with the read-out of a statement by Ban Ki-moon from China about the benefits of long lasting light bulbs. "It's like she's talking about the Dear Leader," he snarked, referring to North Korea. Ms. Landgren, at least, acknowledged there were problems. It's more than most UN envoys do.

Ms. Landgren's predecessor Ian Martin has been seen around the UN recently, on Thursday on his way into the panel discussion on the Responsibility to Protect, looking for Noam Chomsky. More and more it seems that Martin's on the hunt for another UN post. There've been worse envoys..... Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unmin1terai072309.html