At UN, China's DESA 2, Senegal for DGACM, US Moves on DPI, Split DM?

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 1 -- The musical chairs game triggered UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's five year mobility rule has very few seats left to fill. 

  China, it has reliably been confirmed to Inner City Press, has submitted two names to replace Sha Zukang as head of the Department of Economic and Society Affairs mid-year, after the Rio + 20 conference. 

   Inner City Press can report that the Senegalese registrar at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, Adama Dieng, is being eyed for the top position in the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management, a belated post for sub Saharan Africa.

  Dieng was previously passed over for Special Adviser on Africa, as exclusively reported by Inner City Press, given to Maged Abdelaziz who is still even after the award by Ban representing Egypt at the UN.

  The top position in the Department of Public Information, a major donor tells Inner City Press, might to an American, "so Ban can do better on Capitol Hill and with the US press." 

 

  Other say what with the US in line for the Department of Political Affairs, probably with Jeffrey Feltman as first reported by Inner City Press, the best the US could get in DPA would be an Assistant Secretary General post which for now does not exist.

   In this scenario, Inner City Press is told that "some Austrian" would get the DPI top spot. This is how Ban's UN works, or doesn't.

  Japan has been taken care of, with former Permanent Representative Yukio Takasu being put atop the Department of Management. 

  Several sources had told Inner City Press that the US was opposed to this, and now predict that the Office of Human Rights Management and even the Controller will be moved out of DM and report directly to Ban Ki-moon. If so, it would be a loss of face for number two funder Japan.

  Ban's senior adviser and now "Change Management" czar Kim Won-soo was seen this week briefing the Group of 77, which passed a resolution to hold Ban's plan to account in the General Assembly. Kim in his previous incarnation as Deputy Chief of Staff often traveled with Ban, but this time did not go with him to Myanmar. 

 

  Nor, apparently, did new Chief of Staff Susana Malcorra, seen Monday night at the US End of Security Council Presidency reception. Ban's Myanmar trip gave rise to very few updates to the press, as we've noted. What will happen with Ban comes back? Watch this site.

Second Term Fever of Pillay & Ban Triggers Snub of Liu Xiaobo, "UN" Prize to Tiananmen General Chi Haotian

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 9 -- Why did Ban Ki-moon and now Navi Pillay hide from the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Liu Xiaobao? Because not only Ban but now also Navi Pillay want second terms in power, which China could block.

When Navi Pillay took the post as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, most understand that she wanted only one term. This was viewed positively, in that she could then do what she thought was right, without worrying about being blocked for a second term.

But recently, sources tell Inner City Press, Pillay has taken an interest in a second term. This, they say, and not any unbreakable other commitment, explains her controversial decision not to even attend the December 10 ceremony in Oslo to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo.

The UN has said that she has another commitment, and that the UN somehow wasn't invited. During Ban's recent four day visit to China, he did not mention the name of the Nobel Peace Prize winner. When his Under Secretary General Sha Zukang handed an award to the general in charge during Tiananmen Square, Ban did nothing.

Inner City Press asked then, and again on November 24:

Inner City Press: finally on this, there is this issue of the award that was given by Under-Secretary-General Sha [Zukang] to Chi Haotian, the General involved in the Tiananmen Square incident. I just, it was left — at the time it was said that, Martin Nesirky said that, Mr. Sha was on UN time while he was in China, but that the Secretariat hadn’t been informed that this award was going to be given. Questions continue. It’s been reported in China that this was a UN award or somehow given in his official capacity. What’s the UN’s final position on whether Mr. Sha was operating as an Under-Secretary-General when he gave it, and if he wasn’t, what’s going, what’s happened since?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq: Mr. Sha, I believe, tried to provide an explanation for his actions. At this point, I don’t have anything further to say about any UN response.

Inner City Press: He gave an explanation to the Secretary-General’s office?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson: To the Secretary-General’s office.

Inner City Press: Was it acceptable?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson: At this point I don’t have anything further to say. We did receive an explanation.

Chinese media have reported that the general was given a “UN Prize” by Sha Zukang... What will the UN -- and Navi Pillay -- do? Watch this site.

UN G-20 Team Cuts Out UNDP & Jomo, Ban 2d Term in View, DC House Looming

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 9 -- As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in South Korean for the G-20 meeting, UN sources in New York complained to Inner City Press about an “unprecedented level of micro-management” by Ban's office in the run up to the G-20.

South Korea having this G-20 is a laurel in the country's crown, as is Ban's position in the UN. But Ban wants to use this G-20 meeting, if possible, to get endorsements for a second term as Secretary General, publicly or privately. So nothing can go wrong.

For that reason, the sources tell Inner City Press, unlike before other G-20 meetings when a range of UN system officials have been involved, this time Ban's closest advisers seized control of preparations.

Excluded or elbowed out among others the sources tell Inner City Press were Norwegian Olav Kjorven, assistant secretary-general and director of policy at UNDP and Malaysia Jomo Kwame Sundaram, the assistant secretary general of DESA under Sha Zukang, the Under Secretary General who wined and dined with and gave an award to the Tiananmen Square general during Ban's recent trip to Shanghai.

This of course is bad form. But Ban is under pressure, especially after the controversy surrounding his craven suck-up to China during his four day visit, not once publicly mentioning the name of this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.

Even the generally liberal and pro-UN New York Times ran an editorial questioning whether Ban should be supported for a second term.

Now, after the November 2 election, Ban and his advisers know they face a buzz saw in the Republican controlled House Foreign Relations committee, probably under UN knowledgeable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who may look into issues ranging from UN inaction in Darfur to Myanmar as well as UNRWA. Their tour guide to Washington Robert Orr, reportedly the crafter of the “US is a deadbeat” line, may lose his way in the new Committee. Will they hire a lobbyist? Watch this site.

UN's Sha Planned Dining Solo with China General, Says Award Was Surprise

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 4 -- For four days, Inner City Press has asked the UN about Under Secretary General Sha Zukang having given a “World Harmony Foundation” award to retired Chinese general Chi Haotian in Shanghai on in late October, just before Mr. Sha stood with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the closing of the Shanghai Expo.

Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky told Inner City Press that Sha was “not on leave” and that the online photograph of the award was the first the UN knew of Sha's involvement. On November 1, 2 and 3 Nesirky has repeated that some UN statement might be coming -- without saying anything more.

On November 4, Inner City Press was able to ask Sha Zukang directly about the award and the controversy. Sha told Inner City Press that “the general came to know I was in Shanghai” and he invited Sha to dinner.

Sha canceled his other plans. “When I was with disarmament we were together, many years ago,” Sha said of Chi Haotian. “I thought it was he and me only. Than I saw the group.”

Inner City Press has previously covered the World Harmony Foundation trying to parlay its $110,000 contribution to the 2009 UN Day concert into photos with Ban Ki-moon.

After Inner City Press ran several exposes, the photo session was canceled. But still Under Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari appeared for photos with the group, made up of businessmen and led by Frank Liu, in the Millennium Hotel across First Avenue from UN Headquarters.

Here, the result was a photo of Under Secretary General Sha, general Chi Haotian and WHF's Frank Liu.

UN's Sha, the General & Frank Liu: no solo dinner shown

“I didn't know what the award was,” Sha told Inner City Press on November 4. “That is what happened. I don't want to issue any clarification.”

Given the controversy, one would assume that Ban Ki-moon's office has asked Sha for an explanation, which is the above. What will happen next? Watch this site.

UN In Denial Over Sha's Award to Chinese General for Foundation UN Took Money From

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 1 -- When UN Under Secretary General Sha Zukang handed a “World Harmony Foundation” award to former Chinese military leader during Tiananmen Square Chi Haotian, for many the UN had hit a new low.

Perhaps for that reason, or in retaliation for USG Sha's drunken insults to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, when Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky on November 1 if Sha gave the award in his personal or official capacity, Nesirky replied that when the reports of the event "surfaced late last week online, that was the first we had heard about it... no further comment for now." Video here, from Minute 13:01.

“Is Sha on leave?” Inner City Press asked. Nesirky said he didn't think Sha is on leave. Of course not - Sha is quoted alongside Ban Ki-moon at the closing of the Shanghai Expo on October 31.

But the UN also knows more about the World Harmony Foundation than it is letting on. As Inner City Press exclusively reported a year ago in October 2009, the UN took $110,000 from the WHF and its chief Frank Liu for a UN Day Peacekeeping concert in connection with which Lui told Inner City Press he was supposed to get a photo with Ban Ki-moon.

When Inner City Press questioned the “pay to play” aspect of the funding and photo-op, the Ban face time was canceled, and instead Liu and associates were given photos with Under Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari.

It was never confirmed if this was in Gambari's personal or official capacity, but it seems clear that the Executive Office of the Secretary General knew about it.

So questions exist as to what the UN knew, and when, about Sha's role in handing Liu's WHF prize to Chi Haotian. Watch this site.

At UN, Mr. Sha's Meltdown Unseen or Excused, Congo Question Dangles, The Who Recalled

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unspox1shago120809.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 8 -- A poster denouncing China's censorship of the Internet was removed by the UN last month from its Internet Governance Forum event in Egypt in a widely publicized event. Also during the conference, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang told the audience that while he knew "I am offending everyone, I do not care, at all!" Video here, from Minute 1:40.

Mr. Ban new spokesman Martin Nesirky was asked about the incidents on December 8:

Inner City Press: Under-Secretary-General Sha [Zukang] was at this Internet Governance Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Now somebody has posted on YouTube footage of him gabbling and saying, complaining about the security at the conference and saying “I don’t care if I’m being rude”. Some have described him as sort of losing it. I wanted to know whether the Secretary-General, was he aware of that and what…? This was a conference at which a poster about Chinese Internet censorship was removed. Some on the online world are saying it was a new low. But I’m just wondering whether the Secretary-General was aware of that or that just takes place out there.

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, as you know, Matthew, there is an awful lot out there online, and I can’t imagine that it would be fair to assume that the Secretary-General is aware of absolutely everything that’s online out there all the time. So we’ll need to take a look at that and then we can get back to you. But thanks for raising it. Any further questions? Okay, thank you very much.

Twelve hours later, Mr. Nesirky had not "gotten back" to Inner City Press with anything about the incidents, nor about the Secretary General's report on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, see below

Inner City Press: In your summary of the Secretary-General’s new report on the Democratic Republic of the Congo that the country is largely at peace, I believe you said it was in the Kivu, and maybe Ituri? What was the second?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I think it was Orientale. Orientale.

Inner City Press: Okay, because there are these reports in Equateur Province of the Government now sending 500 commandos and MONUC sending 120 to try and put down unrest. I’m just wondering is it that the UN doesn’t see that as… Is that the second reference or do they not see that as being significant on an ongoing basis? There was a helicopter, UN helicopter shot at recently there. Just wondering…

Spokesperson Nesirky: Let me check on that, Matthew. I’ll come back to you.

Given the wide availability of reports of unrest in Dongo in Equateur including a UN helicopter being fired at, as reported by Reuters, and given top UN Peacekeeper Alain Le Roy's personal commitment that his department would quickly answer questions going forward, it would seem this question could have been answered in less than twelve hours.

While some mutter the old Who lyric "meet the new boss, same as the old boss," Mr. Le Roy will appear as the guest as Wednesday's noon briefing. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unspox1shago120809.html

At UN, Ripert's USG Post is France's Fourth, US has Six USGs, the UK Four or Five While Russia Two and China Only One

By Matthew Russell Lee, News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/unusg1posts082409.html

UNITED NATIONS, August 24 -- As France on Monday was given yet another Under Secretary General job at the UN, bringing its total to four, China's main USG is Sha Zukang of the Department of Social and Economic Affairs, and Russia's two are Sergei Ordzhonikidze, head of the UN in Geneva and Genady Tarasov on Iraq - Kuwait. By contrast, the United States has six USGs, the United Kingdom has four or five. It's surprising that these disparities among the Permanent Five members of the Security Council are so little talked about, at least publicly.

At the UN Security Council's monthly closed door luncheon Monday with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, UK Ambassador John Sawers joked that a final toast to outgoing French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert wasn't possible, as Jean Maurice had already had to run off on his new job for the UN. Earlier on Monday it was UN made up and dole out a job for Ripert, pushed out as Ambassador by Quai D'Orsai: Ripert will be Special Representative in Pakistan. Inner City Press asked if Ripert's post would be at the Under Secretary General level. Yes, Ban's Spokesperson Michele Montas said. Video here, from Minute 19:12.

Inner City Press asked if that now made three French USGs, with current peacekeeping USG Alain Le Roy and his predecessor Jean-Marie Guehenno, now a USG for Regional Cooperation although he had admitted that he has been assigned no work. I'll look into that, Ms. Montas said.

Afterwards, a French journalist approached Inner City Press to argue that "you Americans" have more USGs. So Inner City Press decided to check.

The French have at least four USGs, including Philippe Douste-Blazy, "Special Advisor on Innovative Financing for Development." There's also Jean Arnault, already in Pakistan, who appears to be an Assistant Secretary General.

But it is true that the United States, including their own share of do-nothing USGs like Guehenno, has fully six USGs. There's B. Lynn Pascoe at the Department of Political Affairs. There's new Department of Safety and Security chief Gregory Starr, who Inner City Press recently wrote about in connection with Starr having extended the US State Department contracts of private military contractor Blackwater.

The US' other USGs include Jeffrey Sachs, Joseph Reed -- recently feted as a "good friend of the Chinese people" -- Ray Chambers on malaria and Matthew Nimetz on the intractable "name issue" involving Greece and what's called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or FYROM.

The UK clocks in with four or five USGs, depending on whether Ian Martin, still seen buzzing around the UN long after his Nepal stint and Gaza report roles are over -- is still a USG.

Two way street: Ripert gives credentials (2007), UN's Ban gives job (2009)

There's OCHA's John Holmes, Michael Williams on the Middle East, and in the Congo, Alan Doss, embroiled in a nepotism scandal on which Ms. Montas on Montas said Ban has still not received the expected report, despite being back in New York for five days.

Then there's Kieran Prendergast, still listed on the Cameroon - Nigeria Mixed Commission.

Compared to Russia and China, Norway even after Mona Juul's anti-Ban memo has four USGs: Kai Eide in Afghanistan, Juul's husband Terje Roed Larsen in New York, Jan Egeland in Oslo and everywhere, at least sometimes, and Gro Harlem Brundtland, a special envoy on climate change. India has three USGs, Messrs. Atul Khare, Nitin Desai and Vijay Nambiar (whose job, like Lynn Pascoe's, the UK's John Holmes is said to covet, in the Mona Juul memo). Italy as two USGs, Zannier in Kosovo and Costa on drugs in Vienna.

As noted above the contrast, China's main USG is Sha Zukang of DESA, and Russia's two are Sergei Ordzhonikidze, head of the UN in Geneva and Gennady Tarasov on Iraq - Kuwait. It's surprising that these disparities among the Permanent Five members of the Security Council are so little talked about, at least publicly. Russia is known to want more posts. How can they feel about France's Ripert getting one so quickly? Watch this site.

Update -- it's been pointed out that if one expands the scope to include UN system funds, programs and specialized agencies, the U.S. dispararity grows even larger, sending the USG tally to eight with the World Food Program's Josette Sheeran and UNICEF's Ann Veneman. China rises to two, with the World Health Organization's Margaret Chan...

One could go further and include American Bob Zoellick at the World Bank-- but consider Inner City Press' exclusive piece on the poker game in which in 2012 the U.S. would renounce the World Bank to China (and, some say, UNICEF before that), and the European Union would give up the IMF in order to gain the post of UN Secretary General - click here for that.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unusg1posts082409.html

UN's de Boer Explains Bali Tears and Comma's Silent Impact, Branson Dodges, Steiner's Secrecy

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ga1climate021108.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 11 -- "You can't hear a comma," UN climate change point-man Yvo de Boer told Inner City Press on Monday. He'd been asked about the negotiations in Bali in December, specifically about his widely-seen but little understood crying jag near the end of the conference. While the voice-over on a number of global television broadcasts of his tears had ascribed them to the tenseness of the talks or the state of the planet, de Boer on Monday confirmed that he'd been accused by China of holding two sets of negotiations over two sets of documents. He said there had been confusion about when the informal talks ended, and the formal ones began. The rest, he said, "will be for my book." Video here.

Afterwards, off-camera, de Boer said he "felt bad" for the Americans, who were "put in an uncomfortable position" by a comma not enunciated by the Indian delegation at the talks. As de Boer recounts it, the talk was of a sentence providing that developing countries should take real, measurable and verifiable actions ... but should be provided with real, measurable and verifiable financial resources into order do that. The question left unanswered by the reading, according to de Boer, was whether "real, measurable and verifiable" referred only to money, or related to other provisions. The U.S. was left out on a limb, and Yvo de Boer regrets it.

Asked about coal by Inner City Press, de Boer said that moratorium on coal use is not realistic, but there are still legitimate questions about whether carbon buried via "capture and store" technology will in fact stay buried. At least de Boer answered this question. An hour earlier, in the same room but with many more journalists present, Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Airways dodged the identical coal question from Inner City Press, answering instead about biofuels. After saying that corn ethanol does not, on balance, reduce dirty energy emissions, Branson admitted that he is invested in corn biofuel. Daryl Hannah, shrugging off the UN press corps' jokes about mermaids -- based, it seems, on her appearance in the 1980s movie "Splash" -- answered that biofuels are best when made from waste, or even algae. Video here.

In the Trusteeship Council chamber as afternoon turned to dusk, Sha Zukang of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs concluded with what he called, to some laughter, "propaganda from DESA." Kemal Devis of the UN Development Program -- and formerly of the World Bank -- said that the World Bank has a role in middle income countries. While the director of the UN Environment Program Aichem Steiner speechified, UN correspondents with time on their hands noted that Steiner is not listed as participating in any way in the UN's financial disclosure program. We'll have more on this.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ga1climate021108.html