On Mali Coup Leader Sanogo's Promotion, As UN Silent, Argentina Wants to Know His Views on Human Rights

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 16 -- Not only in Egypt but also Mali, how are coups and coup leaders dealt with in the UN? 

  After Malian coup leader Amadou Sanogo was rewarded this week with a promotion to General, Inner City Press on August 15 asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey:

Inner City Press: Since the election that took place, Captain [Amadou Haya] Sanogo, who was the coup leader, whose coup precipitated all of the recent action there, has been promoted three steps up in the army to become a general, and I wondered, given that he’s widely described as a coup leader, does the UN, either Mr. [Bert] Koenders or anybody, have any comment on the promotion to this level of the army of the leader of the coup?

Deputy Spokesperson Del Buey: Well, we’ll have to check. I don’t have anything on it. We just got the report this morning, so we’ll check on that.

  But 28 hours later, there was no comment at all. So when this month's UN Security Council president Maria Cristina Perceval of Argentina came out Friday to read a Council press statement about the election, Inner City Press asked her about Sanogo.

  Speaking in her national capacity, she replied on camera that Argentina is inquiring, not to stigmatize, if Sanogo now respects human rights and international humanitarian law. 

 Well, that's something -- it's more than Ban Ki-moon's Secretariat or envoy Koenders said, or colonizer of Mali, France.

 Click here for video of Ambassador Perceval; here for video of Argentine President Fernandez Kirchner, speaking August 6 about the UNSC veto, here.

  Just before Perceval read the Security Council's statement, the Council's Permanent Members met next door in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. UK Deputy Permanent Representative Parham chaired the very short meeting, transferring the presidency to France. 

  US Deputy Permanent Representative Rosemary DiCarlo was there, as was Chinese Deputy Permanent Representative Wang. Parham said, the program of work looks light. You might say: there are no more trustees, at least legally.

  After Perceval's stakeout, she went to a meeting of the Council's Sudan sanctions committee. Inner City Press noted the report of Sudan, paid by Qatar, transferring weapons to rebels in Syria.

 Perceval indicated she'd read it. But why was the Sudan sanctions committee meeting not in the day's UN Journal? The Free UN Coalition for Access, @FUNCA_info, has asked. Watch this site.

Update: FUNCA has learned that the information about the UNSC's Sudan sanctions meeting was given to the UN Journal "too late."

   

Egypt PR Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil Tells Inner City Press UN's Feltman Is Granted Meetings, Will Visit, US Echoes, ICP Audio

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive Audio

UNITED NATIONS, August 15 -- While the UN Security Council met Thursday about Egypt, at least three of that country's diplomats milled around just outside with the press.

  When it was over, Inner City Press asked Egyptian Permanent Representative Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil on tape if the head of the UN Department of Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman could visit the country, as requested by Security Council president for August, Argentina.

  Ambassador Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil said that "we have been contacted by the Secretariat" of the UN, "Mr. Feltman expressed his interest to go." He said, through Egypt's Mission to the UN, Feltman asked "to set up a number of high level meetings and we have done so." Inner City Press exclusive audio now online here.

  This next step wasn't made clear in the bland agreed summary of the meeting that Argentine Permanent Representative Perceval read out at the stakeout. This was followed by shouting, why had she only denounced the anti-Morsi coup in her national capacity? Well, because a number of members have refused to call it a coup.

  Sources, not at the US Mission, told Inner City Press that the US represented by Samantha Power (Inner City Press entrance photo here) expressed an interest in the end of the state of emergency and elections soon. 

  France proposed "press elements" for a statement, but this was rejected. Argentina wanted to know if Feltman will go.

  And now, at least based on what Egyptian Ambassador Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil told Inner City Press, it seems the answer is "yes."

  It must be noted that Feltman was previously the US State Department's chief for the Middle East. So will his approach be different than that of the State Department, where John Kerry not only didn't call it a coup, but said the military was restoring democracy?

  Earlier on Thursday Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey if the Secretariat had any comment on Malian coup leader Sanogo being rewarded this week with a promotion to General. Video via here.

   No, there was no comment. Watch this site.

   

As India Tells UN Department of Public Information Not to Spin, How Evaluate DPKO's Herve Ladsous Grabbing Mic of UNTV?

By Matthew Russell Lee, CoI Day 2

UNITED NATIONS, April 23 -- Is the UN Department of Public Information's job to make people think better of the UN, to play Western journalist, or to tell the truth? 

  The issue was raised Tuesday in the UN Committee on Information, by India's Deputy Permanent Representative Manjeev Singh Puri among others.

  Manjeev Singh Puri said the the UN's meeting coverage should not, when a resolution is not adopted in the Security Council, use the word “failed.”

  That of course is the way most Western media reported it, when two resolutions on Syria were vetoed. But shouldn't the UN Secretariat answer to all of its members, not just the Western ones?

  This issue has also arisen in connection with the UN's withholding of its reports from the public, granting largely Western wire services 48 hours to spin the reports before they go online. Inner City Press spoke with more ambassadors on Tuesday, who criticized this practice.

  Most said that the UN should put the reports online as soon as they are finished, to avoid this type of spin, which hurts the UN's credibility. The issue has been raised, including to DPI, and that answers are forthcoming has been promised.

  Tuesday morning among other speakers, Iran complained that some of its TV channels are blocked by other countries. In the afternoon Cuba spoke of illegal broadcasts into its country, interfering with its duly registered stations.

  Russia spoke of the need to continue reporting on World War Two -- ironic in light of a recent “urgent” inquiry by DPI into a single tweet mentioning #WW2 -- and concluded its presentation by speaking in Chinese, in the spirit of multi-lingualism.

  Argentina bragged that Spanish is the Number Two language in which the UN is accessed online. One wondered about the “working language” of French and of its costs, as has The Economist.

  Lebanon's representative cited Tawakuul Karman of Yemen, again ironic given DPI's formal censure of Inner City Press for having signed her into the UN as a guest, and her subsequently daring to speak at the UNTV stakeout as the Security Council considered her country, Yemen.

 For the record, the stakeout rule cited can be respected - but what of DPI adopting other, pro journalist rules like due process in the accreditation and complaint process?

  UNESCO spoke of a UN Plan to protect journalists, which would be much needed. Not enough has been said about the editor in Mali facing charges for reporting on the windfall to coup leader Amadou Sanago. 

  It's unclear what the UN did while a reporter was in danger in Central African Republic recently. And what of Prageeth, disappeared in Sri Lanka? These are only examples.

  DPI's chief, only in place since August, spoke last and addressed questions member states had raised, including some we reported yesterday as not having been substantively answered. 

  On how DPI evaluates itself, reference was made to “results based management” -- polling done by UN Information Centers after their briefings, whether participants' “opinion of the UN improved after attending briefings.”

Should that be the measure? Certain it would be for the public relations department of a corporation. But is the UN different? Might it be DPI's job to simple increase information about the UN and to answer questions?

  Think, for example, of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's and his top lawyer Patricia O'Brien's decision that legal claims the UN inadvertently brought cholera to Haiti was “not receivable.”

  One approach -- actually adopted by the UN -- might be to stop answering questions about the decision, and hope it is simply not written about as much. But doesn't “Public Information,” as opposed to “Public Relations,” connote that answers should be given?

  And isn't there a theory in which addressing problems ultimately is better for an institution than refusing to answer them?

Who in the UN system evaluates the effectiveness of the communications strategy of UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous? He refuses to answer including on DPI's UN Television any questions from Inner City Press, for example about the 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, then later spoon-feeds half-answers to friendlier media.

  How should the effectiveness of this communications strategy be evaluated? This wasn't answered on Tuesday.

  On UNTV, in fairness, while for months it would not stream on the Android platform and so one stopped even checking, Tuesday once prodded and checked, it works. So there's one improvement.

  There remain more than 10 reforms proposed by the Free UN Coalition for Access back in February, and after-arising questions about how photos taking while DPI was in control of Inner City Press' office were shared and then leaked to BuzzFeed, right after that publication contacted Ban's spokesperson about the raid. One hopes and expects that the answers promised include that one.

  Public Information means or should mean answering questions, and in the long run that is the best approach. Watch this site.

On Mali at Columbia, Nameless Discussion of Colonialism & Other Big Issues Under Outdate Chatham House Rules Superseded by Social Media

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 2 -- On Mali there was an event at Columbia University Tuesday night, advertised as “free and open to the public, but please register by writing.” So Inner City Press did, identifying itself as the Press, listing its office at the UN.

  Columbia's Stephen Wertheim, the last name you'll see in this piece, wrote back, “You are now registered for the talk, which starts at 7:30 pm. We look forward to seeing you there.”

  After that, notice of the event was further publicized on the website of the Free UN Coalition for Access, as still is another event at the UN this Thursday.

  After a final story about the day's Arms Trade Treaty vote in the UN General Assembly, Inner City Press arrived at the event. There were twenty to twenty five people, of all ages -- and all nameless here.

  After a lengthy speech and two social media missives, as the question and answer began, the moderator suddenly said -- and we'll paraphrase and not quote here -- that he should have said so from the beginning, this would be under Chatham House rules, you can use the idea but no quote.

  And so what were the ideas?

That the media focuses too much on the military offensive, which one participant called the kinetic aspect.

That there is a lot of corruption even in the south of Mali.

That the Malian military commits human rights violations, and that the UN does not have the resources to have a crew of human rights observers ready to go there.

That the UN will soon name a Special Representative of the Secretary General.

That the Malian press is reporting rumors of relations of Nicolas Sarkozy and the MNLA. (Inner City Press has been more focused on Sarkozy's hardly concealed try out to help invest Qatar's money, with his contacts in the center-right government in Spain.)

That the Security Council implicitly endorsed the French approach.

Inner City Press, which is surely free to report its own questions but apparently not the answers, asked if the envisioned “parallel force” would be under UN control; if coup leader Amadou Sanogo will continue to play a role in the Malian military, and how the fast action to defend Bamako differed from the decision to let Bagui in the Central African Republic fall.

  There was a response to each question, but how to report the answers under the spirit of the Chatham House rules is not clear. 

 As Inner City Press left it was told, despite the language of the invitation and its RSVP as the Press, that it is somehow understood that events in the university are under Chatham House rules.

  No, that is not automatically understood. People give on the record speeches at universities. In fact, since students have Facebook pages and blogs and, yes, Twitter accounts, it is entirely unclear what restriction on a class or seminar would look like, or how they could work.

  Nevertheless, Inner City Press has complied with the belatedly announced Chatham House rules. Who is served? The Security Council hears Wednesday on Mali. Watch this site.

Footnote: the UN office that Inner City Press listed on its RSVP has, as we've noted, been raided by the UN and others on March 18. We'll have more on this.

As Mulet Heads to Mali, UN Silent on Detention of Journalist for Reporting on Sanogo Salary

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 8 -- That Mali is the UN's new focus, or cash cow, was proved again on Friday morning. Department of Peacekeeping Operations deputy Edmond Mulet met with ECOWAS at the African Union, preparing to travel to Bamako. (This information is not from DPKO, which under Herve Ladsous is neither helpful nor trustworthy.)

   But there in Mali as noted, Ban Ki-moon's UN cannot speak up for media harassed by security services for reporting on corruption. It is any surprise?

At the March 7 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban's chief spokesperson Martin Nesirky:

Inner City Press: In Mali, a journalist has been detained by the security agents, his name is Boukary Daou, and his paper published an open letter about the financial package given to Captain Sanogo, the coup leader. Now he has been essentially arrested and taken in for questioning. So I am wondering, particularly given the UN… I am not sure of the status of the UN presence, I know that they are there. Are they aware of this arrest of a journalist for what seems to be a pretty much free-speech activity and do they have any comment on it? Have they spoken to the Government about it? What do they think of it?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Well, I think you are aware that we do have a UN office in Mali. It is a multidisciplinary team that also includes a human rights component. So I will check to see what they have to say about that, okay? It is obvious that journalists should be allowed to carry out their work, and particularly of an investigative nature. They should be allowed to carry out that work. Let me see what the mission has to say on that.

   There is still no answer, 29 hours later and counting. 

   Things are now worse: the underlying publication was that Sanogo is getting fully $8,000 a month. It's nice to be a coup leader, where the UN too wants to come in.

  The UN's Mali juggernaut is set to be run by Mulet's boss Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping (Profile; Short Film #LADSOUS2013). 

  Ladsous has refused to answer Inner City Press questions about 126 rapes in Minova by his partners in the Congolese Army. Finally on March 7 his DPKO spoonfed vague answers to friendly journalists.  The answers were incomplete, as it turns out.

   This is how the media is dealt with in this UN: the "friendly" ones are used, servile on Serval;  those who report on corruption? See above, and see false complaints to Inner City Press by UN Media Accreditation boss Stephane Dujarric. Watch this site.

In Mali, French Triple Play Has EU Lecointre & UN Ladsous, Sanogo Not Shown

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 27 – With a move on in the UN Security Council to prepare a blue helmeted UN Peacekeeping mission for Mali, rather than the African AFISMA mission approved in December, it looks like it could be a clean sweep for France.

  UN Peacekeeping is run by Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row in that position. Ladsous in fact was France's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in and around 1994.

  On Wednesday Inner City Press asked France's current Permanent Representative Gerard Araud, what about coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo now being formally in charge of the “reform” of the Malian military?

  Araud replied that it is possible to deal only with Mali's General Chief of Staff, who is named Ibrahima Dahirou Dembele.

  In this, Araud followed the line of the head of the European Union Training Mission (EUTM), General Francois Lecointre, who said between Ibrahima Dahirou Dembele and Defense Minister Yamoussa Camara, “these contacts are sufficient for me.”

  And Francois Lecointre is what? A French military official, of course. Call it the French connection.

  Inner City Press also asked Araud about reports that Chad had told France that Malian fighters have escaped into Darfur in Sudan.

  Araud said he was not aware of this, and it was not discussed in Security Council consultations. But shouldn't it have been? Since the Council already has a $1 billion peacekeeping mission in Darfur?

  And what DID Sudanese foreign minister Ali Karti discuss with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius in Paris? Watch this site.

UN's Feltman Claims Sanogo No Longer Has Monopoly in Mali, But What of UN Human Rights Due DiligencePolicy?

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, February 8 – Since Inner City Press first reported back on March 28, 2012 that Jeffrey Feltman, then of the US State Department, would get the UN's top political job, it has kept requesting that Feltman hold an on the record press conference.

  On Friday, Feltman finally did. Most of the questions concerned Mali. Feltman said that France's Operation Serval has sidelined some of those bent on military interference.

   Inner City Press asked how this relates to the ongoing involvement in the military of coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo. Video here, from Minute 39:23.

   Feltman said it's clear the military need to stay out of politics. He acknowledged that coup leader Sanogo, who "symbolizes... military interference," is still in the mix in Bamako, but argued that he does not have the “monopoly on power” he had or might otherwise have had due to the "new engagement inside the country."

   But other UN officials such as Ivan Simonovic have spoken of the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence policy in Mali – so would working with a coup leader comply with this UN policy? This, Feltman did not answer.

  After France began bombing, and Inner City Press publicly asked if Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had as required by Operative Paragraph 11 of Resolution 2085 “confirmed the satisfaction of the Security Council” with the military plans (the so-called "Algerian element"). No, was the answer.

  Feltman to his credit, as he jogged from briefing the Security Council back to his office, through the UN garage, told Inner City Press that the “confirmation of satisfaction” would take the form of a publicly available report.

  On Friday Inner City Press on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Feltman for finally holding a press conference, but urged him to speak to the media more often when he comes to brief the Security Council. Video here, from Minute 39:23. We'll see. Watch this site.

IMF Disburses $18.4 to Mali, Sanogo & Arrest of PM No Problem if Donors Like It, French Connection

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 28 -- When the International Monetary Fund board voted Monday to disburse $18.4 million to Mali, it raised not only funds but questions.

   The IMF's embargoed press release recounted how an earlier IMF disbursement had been "derailed by the March 2012 coup d'etat and its aftermath."

   Inner City Press asked the IMF's head of mission Christian Josz what had changed, given that coup leader Amadou Sanogo is still a power in the Malian Army, and the prime minister Josz met with in November, Cheick Modibo Diarra, had since been arrested in his home and not allowed to leave the country.

   Josz replied that the change had been the willingness of donors to contribute to Mali -- a product of the French military intervention -- and the effect on GDP growth projections, which had fallen from 5.6% to negative 1.5% before going back up.

   The French military intervention, then, brought money to Mali through the IMF, run by France's former finance minister Christine Lagarde.

   Inner City Press asked a follow up, whether the IMF board had considered the various impacts on GDP growth if the African-led force AFISMA takes the lead instead of France, and if northern Mali is given political autonomy.

  Josz protested that the IMF only considers "macro-economics." But in this case, it seems that the sudden willingness of France and other Western donors to contribute, after bombing, is what turned things around for the IMF.

  In turn, the IMF says it is only disbursing funds because the Western donors are now willing. It's a circle, and sometimes it can be lucrative, if only to the tune of $18.4 million, to be the subject of a military intervention. Confidence can rise!

  Josz said that 95% of Mali's GDP is from the south, where a new coal mine in opening. He said a third mobile phone operator is opening in Mali. He compared the $18.4 million to a $110 million gap.

(Back on March 22, 2012, Inner City Press asked the IMF about the coup which had just occured in Mali and they respond with a quote from Josz: 'The economic program of the government of Mali supported by the IMF remains on track," click here for that.)

   Josz when he visited the country in November met also with Tienan Coulibaly, then Minister of Economy, Finance and Budget. A Tieman Coulibaly showed up at the UN in December as the Foreign Minister, and Inner City Press asked him about Sanogo and the arrest "in the airport" of then prime minister Cheick Modibo Diarra.

Tieman Coulibaly said of course Sanogo still has a role, and dispute where Cheick Modibo Diarra had been arrest -- not in the airport, but in his home. Video here from Minute 5:40. Is that better? Watch this site.

On Casualties in Mali, France Points at Resolution 2085 It Says It's Not Under, Applauding Ban Ki-moon to Deploy?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 22 -- After the Mali meetings of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Inner City Press asked French Ambassador Gerard Araud about civilian casualties, about French bombings halting humanitarian aid in Gao, Konna and Mopti, and about executions by France's allies in the Malian Army, which includes coup leader Amadou Sanogo.

  Araud's response was that France negotiated Security Council resolution 2085, which includes some human rights language. But on his way into the Council in the morning, when Inner City Press asked when this resolution would be implemented, 

Araud replied that France is not operating under Resolution 2085.

  After quoting Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "applauding" France's intervention (while only "encouraging" ECOWAS and the African Union), Araud said France is urging Ban to quickly deploy monitors in Mali.

  But what of those already executed by the Malian Army?

  During the Security Council meeting, after a number of former French colonies praised Operation Serval, it was said that 6000 troops might become part of AFISMA. Chad's Ambassador told Inner City Press his country's 2000 would not necessarily all be part of AFISMA. So how many are?

  Inner City Press asked Araud about the critiques of France's intervention leveled by Egypt and Turkey, among others. Araud replied only on the first, saying that President Morsi is coming to Paris. Well, Gaddafi went to Paris before him, and we see how that worked out. Watch this site.