At UN, Holmes Denies UK Slows Somali Aid, Five Small CERF Deadbeats, HSBC for Gaza

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/cerf1somalia120909.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 9 -- The UN's humanitarian coordinator John Holmes, in his previous life a UK diplomat, on Wednesday told the Press that he is "not aware that the UK government has followed [the] example" of the United States in slowing aid to Somalia following concerns of diversion. Video here, from Minute 4:48.

But on December 8, the Office in Charge for Somalia of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Graham Farmer, told the Press that not only the U.S., but also the UK have slowed their aid based on these concerns.

The UK's Minister of State for International Development Gareth Thomas, speaking to the Press earlier on December 9, was asked for the UK's position on the claim by the African Group that they had been promised the number two post in the UN Development Program. He declined to comment on the fact that the UNDP top was given this week to Rebecca Grynspan, a decidedly non African Costa Rican.

In response to another question, about his praise of Fair Trade certification for the Nestle Kit Kat chocolate bar despite non governmental organizations' call for a boycott of Nestle for child labor, water overuse and breast milk issues, he said the government is trying to get UK supermarkets to source six percent of their goods from Africa. Video here, from Minute 13:12.

He also would not comment on the UK's attempts in the UN's Fifth Committee to change the "scale of assessment" to pay relatively less into the UN's budget.

On Holmes' office's chart of donors to the UN Central Emergency Relief Fund, the UK is on top, albeit paying 15% less in 2009 that in 2007 and 2008. At the bottom of the list are several relatively small countries such has Tuvalu, Benin and St. Lucia which have given one or two thousand dollars. Holmes said these are signs of political support.

The Maldives, much in the news these days for having its ministers meet underwater to publicize climate change, pledged a thousand dollars in both 2007 and 2008, but has not paid on either pledge. El Salvador pledge two thousand dollars in 2007 but still has not paid. The other "deadbeats," as reporters called them, are Djibouti, Haiti and Mongolia. The last of these has sent doctors to Darfur.

On the corporate side, HSBC Bank Middle East Limited contributed $10,000. Inner City Press asked Holmes about it, and he said "I think there's a link there probably to Gaza." Video here, from Minute 6:14.

HSBC is known to have branches in the unregulated Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Meanwhile, UNICEF uses a bank on the terror sanctions list, just as UNRWA was exposed as doing earlier this year. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/cerf1somalia120909.html

At UN, As Diplomat from Cameroon Is Rebuffed by UNDP, Ban Ki-moon Faces African Challenge on Agency's Deputy Post

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
www.innercitypress.com/undp2deputy111909.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 19 -- The continental battle for the number two post at the UN Development Program, on which Inner City Press reported exclusively yesterday, heated up Wednesday night when the Ambassador of Cameroon approached UNDP Administrator Helen Clark as she left early from a reception about, ironically enough, Africa.

Ambassador Michel Tommo Monthe, whose country has put forward an economist for the Associate Administrator post, later told Inner City Press that until now it has been impossible for him to meet with Ms. Clark.

The African Group, he said, last week wrote a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, copied to Ms. Clark, demanding that the impending nomination of Rebecca Grynspan of Costa Rica not be announced.

"They are invoking gender, " Ambassador Monthe told Inner City Press. "The initial deal, when the former Associate [Ad Melkert of the Netherlands] went... the deal was an African should take the position. Now that there are strong Africans ready, they waver. The main activity of UNDP is on Africa, how do you not having someone at the senior level?"

Monthe said that Cameroon has a strong candidate, a "doctor economique" formerly the Permanent Observer of the African Union in Geneva, and director of the economics department at the African Union.

"They wanted to announce this last Friday," Ambassador Monthe recounted Inner City Press. ""We wrote a letter to Ban Ki-moon, with a copy to Helen Clark. We said, we are not going to accept it. The post can't go to the Costa Rican."

Ambassador Monthe continued, "I have been trying to meet Ms. Clark for the last three months. She didn't receive me. I said, this has to wait. I want to see you to discuss that matter."

The Ambassador of Zambia, this month's chairman of the African Group, put it this way to Inner City Press: "the duties of this person will have a lot to do with Africa,and therefore it would be advantageous to have someone from that perspective. Helen is around. [This is] absolutely a good question."

But in her months at UNDP, Helen Clark has yet to hold a press conference in UN headquarters or take questions from the Press.

Ms. Clark, who had been driven in a limousine that three blocks from UNDP's headquarters to the Olympus-sponsored African environmental photography reception held at the Japan Society, had to pass by Monthe and another sub Saharan African Ambassador on her way out of the event. Now, what will she do?

What will Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, already questioned by the African Group for merging the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa into another office, do? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undp2deputy111909.html

In the UN, Resistance to Financial Disclosure Is Pervasive, from Two Top Peacekeepers through UNICEF to UNDP

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1findisclosed012908.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- Resisting a call for financial disclosure by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the UN officials who have not made public even their decision to maintain financial confidentiality include the head of the UN Population Fund, Thoraya Obaid, Assistant Secretaries General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet and Dmitry Titov, whose title includes "the rule of law," two ASGs in the UN Development Program and three in UNICEF, the UN's honorary USG on poverty issues, Jeffrey Sachs and the UN's own Controller, Warren Sach.

The top 190 UN officials were asked by Ban to voluntarily disclose some of their finances, in order to give conflict of interest assurances to the general public as well as member states. In response to Inner City Press' questions on Tuesday, the UN spokesperson stated that of these 190 officials, 92 have agreed to participate, by including their names on the Secretary-General's financial disclosure web site. Ninety-two of 190 is less than half, and as Inner City Press pointed out, more than half of the 92 names on the site do not have live links to any disclosure forms. Of those with live links, at least sixteen have written on their forms that they "choose to maintain confidentiality." Inner City Press asked, are you counting these as participating in disclosure? The answer was yes, click here for the transcript.

This means that nearly 100 senior UN officials, or half of those to whom Ban directed his request, have not even consented to make public their decision to maintain confidentiality. While it should be easy to determine who these reticent UN officials are, the UN does not make it easy to determine to whom it has given Under Secretary General and Assistant Secretary General status. The spokesperson on Tuesday said that the "audience of this was 105 Assistant Secretaries-General and 85 Under-Secretaries-General, and 92 have elected to" participate. But the UN Protocol and Liaison Service's online "USG / ASG List" identifies only 76 USGs (29 in New York and 47 "away from headquarters") and only 94 ASGs (36 in New York and 58 away from HQ). That is, there are nine unlisted USGs, and 11 unlisted ASGs.

Even limiting the analysis to those senior officials listed by the UN's protocol service, following the UN spokesperson's public explanation on Tuesday, over 90 of these senior officials did not consent to disclose their decision to maintain confidentiality. Limiting ourselves for now to the non-reporters based in New York -- on the theory that it has taken longer to get the message out to the field -- those USGs based in New York who have by Spokesperson Okabe's logic not even consented to disclose their decision to maintain confidentiality include:
Thoraya Obaid, the USG head of the UN Population Fund; Jeffrey Sachs, USG advisor on Millennium Development Goals; Cheick Sidi Diarra, who holds two separate USG titles; Susan McLurg, the new head of ACABQ; Joseph Verner Reed, special adviser USG; Kingston Rhodes, USG chairman of the International Civil Service Commission; Wolfgang Stoeckl, USG vice-chairman of the International Civil Service Commission; Ibrahim Gambari, USG envoy for Iraq and Myanmar, currently in India.

UN Assistant Secretaries General based in New York who have by Spokesperson Okabe's logic not even consented to disclose their decision to maintain confidentiality include: Omar Abdi, ASG deputy at UNICEF; Catherine Bragg, ASG for humanitarian affairs; Choi Soon-hong, ASG for technology; Katherine Cravero-Kristoffersson, ASG at UNDP (who past deadline UNDP claims has filed, but is still not on the list); Francis Deng, ASG on genocide; Sylvia Fuhrman, ASG at UN International School; Dieter Goethel, ASG on Staff Management Committee; Rebeca Grynspan, ASG at UNDP for Latin America; Saad Houry, ASG at UNICEF; Hilde Johnson, another ASG at UNICEF; Kwame S. Jomo, ASG at DESA; Angela Kane, ASG for Political Affairs; Purnima Mane, ASG deputy at UNFPA; Haile Kenkerios, ASG for political affairs; Dmitry Titov, ASG for Peacekeeping and rule of law; Warren Sach, ASG Controller (another who did not respond to a request for explanation); and Edmond Mulet, ASG deputy for peacekeeping, who wrote to Inner City Press on Wednesday that "I am not certain what you are referring to, since I made my financial report long time ago. I am now traveling and unable to answer your queries but I will ask my colleagues in NY to follow-up with you." The on-the-road response was appreciated, but no follow-up was received.

Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe on Tuesday for Ban's reaction to this pervasive non-filing. Ms. Okabe read out a note that "available on that website that we mentioned [earlier] is the current list of those UN officials who have elected to provide a public summary of their disclosure." Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1findisclosed012908.html