At UN, Stress Test of A/V Snafus, Access Blockages Raised by FUNCA Ignored by DPI While UN Missions Respond

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 10 -- The UN spend millions of dollars on a new audio - visual conference system but for weeks there have been complaints about delays, malfunctions, and lack of accountability. There has been a lack of responsiveness, too.

  Some of the UN official most responsible for the snafus in the new system chose the time of shift-over as they time to go on vacation; even when back, they refused to respond to complaints.

  For example, the new Free UN Coalition for Access after fielding complaints both from inside UN headquarters and from those seeking to access the UN from outside, raised the issues to UN Webcast, UN TV, UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit and their supervisor, Stephane Dujarric -- all without recent response.

   The complaints passed on by @FUNCA_info have ranged from delays in putting online archived video of briefings through the so-called MAMS system, to blockages and unnecessarily deteriorated working conditions for journalists at the Security Council stakeout; to blackouts on UN EVTV, for example of BBC, and low sound volume and quality over the live webcast, raised by @FUNCA_Questions.

  @FUNCA_info has also raised, without explanation, favoritism and lack of transparency in the issues of access tickets (for example to Malala Day), to DPI's summaries of meetings being politicized (and even intentionally different in different languages), which was complained of by India in the last Committee on Information meeting, but happened again on Latin American ministers meeting with Ban Ki-moon about NSA spying and Edward Snowden , without explanation once raised.

  FUNCA also provides praise where appropriate, like here. Ironically, countries' mission to the UN answer FUNCA's access questions, while those in the UN charged with these issues try not to. That's this UN.

  UN staff sources describe to Inner City Press and FUNCA a "Town Hall" meeting in mid July in which the Department of Public Information, which controls the above-named units, said that the Department of Management led by Yukio Takasu promised it would all be workin "by the General Assembly," meaning the General Debate week in late September.

  But DPI has not even taken action on simple problems raised to it early in the summer. On June 10, FUNCA and Inner City Press e-mailed Dujarric and others in DPI a description of the photo booths above the floor of the new / interim General Assembly Hall, with tables, a broken chair, and no interpretation of the speeches taking place on the floor.

  A commitment was made to act on it. But nothing has been done since, even as it was raised again in connection with example with a GA session on Syria, or a staged Youth Day event at which Dujarric was present, taking and tweeting photographs of Ban Ki-moon.

  It is noteworthy that at least some in DPI are loud proponents of social media, but refuse to respond to back issues raised to them in such media. Meanwhile their units like UN Webcast tweet welcomes to the new US Ambassador, which they don't do for any other country. Perhaps they think that will give them the immunity the UN claims in Haiti.

  Meanwhile by enforcing an anachronistic monopoly for the old UN Correspondents Association they cut off other means of communication, and have even threatened Inner City Press' accreditation with suspension or withdrawal for merely hanging a sign of the Free UN Coalition for Accesson the door of its shared office, while UNCA now has five signs. It is pathetic.

  On Friday, August 9, Ban's associate spokesperson Farhan Haq read out a short announcement:

On Monday, 12 August, the Department of Public Information and other offices at UN Headquarters will be performing a large-scale testing of the new audio-visual conferencing system. During this test, we will be simulating meetings throughout the system to check the performance and work flows during peak demand periods for the forthcoming General Assembly. This exercise will include the simultaneous testing of every conference room and every studio in the facility. Some of this activity may be seen on the IPTV/EZTV system, and you may experience some disruptions during the time of the test.

  Later on Friday, a range of UN staff contacted Inner City Press, and some explicitly FUNCA, with information about this so-called "stress test." One said, "It's a total fiasco, Patrick Morrrison got his D-1 and he's leaving, money is being wasted everywhere and no one, least of all DPI, is taking responsibility."

   Several urged the Free UN Coalition for Access to keep pushing the issue. And so we will, seeking as from FUNCA's founding to make the UN more accessible, without favoritism or intimidation. Watch this site.

   

After N. Korean Test, Eyes Turn to Empty UN, Ban At Interment Camp Builder

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1may1dprk052509.html

COPENHAGEN, May 24, updated NYC 6 pm -- As North Korea bragged about its underground nuclear test, attention shifted to the United Nations in New York, which was closed on Monday for the American Memorial Day holiday but where an emergency session of the Security Council is to expected later Monday.

At 2 a.m. Monday in New York, the Japanese mission sent the following to the Press

"On 24 May at approximately 23:50, H.E. Mr. Yukio TAKASU, Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations requested the President of the Security Council to convene an urgent meeting of the Security Council to consider the nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, under the Council’s agenda item entitled 'Non-proliferation / Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.' The time of the urgent meeting is planned tomorrow afternoon, but as soon as it is set it will be communicated."

Just after 2 a.m., the White House issued a statement by President Obama, concluding that "We have been and will continue working with our allies and partners in the Six-Party Talks as well as other members of the U.N. Security Council in the days ahead."

Meanwhile UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, previously South Korea's foreign minister, was not in New York but rather Copenhagen, set to give a speech before a relatively obscure UN agency, the Office of Project Service, and then to fly to Finland.

Ban had arrived in Denmark Sunday morning on a UN plane from Sri Lanka, where he toured interment camps ringed with barbed wire and soldiers, planned and built by UNOPS, and was flown over the shattered "No Fire" zone in a military helicopter. (Click here for Inner City Press' eye-witness account.) Perhaps, said one wag, Ban would soon selectively tour the UN's dubious projects in North Korea, where UN Development Program funds were diverted to dual use technology with no oversight.

When North Korea in 2006 shot off a missile, the Security Council met until it passed a sanctions resolution. Earlier this year, the launching of a rocket that North Korea called a satellite yielded a far weaker statement. Nevertheless, North Korea reacted by scrapping the Six Party Talks and vowing further tests.

Before and after the rocket / missile test, the UN's Ban Ki-moon was strangely silent about North Korea, including its arrest of journalists as alleged spies. In the month of April, he told the Press, he was in New York only three times, for a total of five days. To be fair, perhaps no UN Secretary General, even one from the Peninsula, could have an effect on the situation in North Korea. But, some ask, should one at least pretend to try?

From Hanoi at an ASEM meeting discussing among other topics Myanmar, the Japanese foreign ministry spokesman vowed that his country would request Security Council meeting and actions. Ban, according to his senior official and now reportedly himself, will travel to Myanmar in early July, what ever the outcome of Aung San Suu Kyi's kangaroo trial now underway. No time for North Korea, but time for UNOPS and Finland? We will be covering the response to North Korea from the UN, Security Council and Secretary General, watch this site.

Update on May 25, 6 pm, UN in NYC: After 2p.m., 12 hours after Obama's statement in his own name on the DPRK's test, Ban Ki-moon in a statement attributable to his spokesperson said he "will remain in close consultation with all concerned." Does that include the DPRK? The Security Council met at 4, and barely an hour later broke up, issuing a short press statement that they will work toward a formal resolution. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc1may1dprk052509.html

On North Korean Missile, UN Council's Failure to Launch Called "Cautious" by China

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsc4dprk040509.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 5 -- The Security Council meeting on North Korea broke up Sunday evening with a whisp of a press statement, and a seemingly illusory promise of "constructive consultation" on getting a Council resolution to condemn North Korea's missile launch. The most telling on-camera comment came from China's Ambassador Zhang Yesui, who said that the Council's response must be "cautious and proportionate."

Council sources tell Inner City Press that during the consultations, China said that a press statement, and nothing more, certainly not a resolution, would be the appropriate response to North Korea's launch. Inner City Press asked Council president Claude Heller of Mexico point blank to confirm that China said this. That's something to ask China, Ambassador Heller replied.

China's reasoning emerged in background interviews with other diplomats. (Zhang Yesui refused all questions at the stakeout, his spokesman saying that he had to rush to meetings with the American mission.) Japan's Ambassador Yukio Takasu offered a summary of the past decade of North Korean launches and attempted launches, in 1998, 2006 and now. China is noting that in 1998, all the Council did was issue a press statement. So there is precedent for that approach, in their view. And that is all they need.

Others argue that this present launch violates 2006's Resolution 1918, which prohibited acts related to ballistic missile technology. But, the reply argument goes, if North Korea has a right to develop space, how else can they launch their satellites? And if Resolution 1718 was intended to have the effect of barring their development of space, it should have spelled that out.

Inner City Press asked Ambassador Takasu if the issues of human rights or the Japanese abductees came up, and if China had indeed said a press statement is all that is appropriate. "That is not my position," Ambassador Takasu replied, leaning away from the microphone, leaving the questions of human rights and abductees unanswered. So too with U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice: she was already leaving the microphone as human rights as a question was posed by Inner City Press. There was no answer. But there may be answers to all this, later this week. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc4dprk040509.html

On Sri Lanka, Japan Wants UN Briefing, Austria Concerned about Killing by Both Sides

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsri5lanka032309.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 23 -- As Sri Lanka's government continues to ignore UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's month-old call for a suspension of fighting in the north, it also bragged of China's blocking of a Security Council briefing requested by the Council's European Union members along with, at least Mexico and the U.S.. Pro-government media claimed over the weekend that Japan, along with six other Council members including Turkey and Uganda, was also opposed to any briefing of the Council.

Monday outside the Council, Inner City Press asked Japan's Ambassador to the UN, Yukio Takaso, if this is Japan's position. "No, I don't think that is accurate," Ambassador Takasu said of the report Japan does not want a Council briefing. "We are still hoping for consensus," he added.

Austria's position had been more openly misrepresented, as their support for a Council briefing being based only on the actions of the LTTE or Tamil Tigers. The spokesperson for the Austrian Mission to the UN, Verena Nowotny, in the course of a ten minute clarifying interview with Inner City Press offered the following on-the-record quote, that "because of concern about the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka, we [Austria] want to make it part of the agenda of the Security Council."

Inner City Press asked Marty Natalegawa, the UN Ambassador of Indonesia which was on the Security Council last year, why some countries are opposing a briefing in the Council about the conflict in Sri Lanka. "It always starts with a humanitarian briefing," he said, referring among others to Zimbabwe and Myanmar, which humanitarian briefings led to formal inscription on the Council's agenda and, in the case of Zimbabwe, sanctions resolutions proposed by the United States and UK, among others.

On March 20, US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice told Inner City Press that "the United States feels strongly about and concerned about Sri Lanka and we support the provision of it to the Council- a full and updated information on the humanitarian situation." (Strangely, India's National Newspaper the Hindu sourced this quote to a Tamil website, when it is available on-camera on the Internet, and through the US Mission to the UN.)

But another Council diplomat on Monday noted that "every country has its list of priorities," and that for the U.S. that for now is Sudan. The U.S. expended political capital to get a Council meeting on Sudan on March 20; how hard the U.S. is pushing for a briefing of the Council with "full and updated information on the humanitarian situation" in Sri Lanka is not clear.

Likewise, while UK minister David Miliband has said that the UK would like a resolution on Sri Lanka but has held off because it is worse to get resolutions vetoed -- as China and Russia have apparently threatened to do -- it is noted that the UK pushed forward supporting the Zimbabwe draft sanctions resolution even as China and Russia vetoed it. Every country has its priorities.

A senior UN official opined to Inner City Press that even those countries which are troubled by the killing of civilians in northern Sri Lanka, including by the government, are nevertheless reticent to too openly call for a ceasefire. If they do, the official continued, and the Tamil Tigers bounce back and kill civilians, the Sri Lankan government will blame those who called for the ceasefire.

To summarize -- can't tell the players without a scorecard -- those Security Council members which say they are in favor of a Sri Lanka briefing in the Council have the nine votes they would need to get the meeting, if they pushed forward and called the procedural vote they are entitled to, which is not subject to the veto power of China or Russia. But these ostensible supporters, or at least some of them, are "waiting for consensus," as Japan's Takasu said. Such consensus seems unlikely, unless some countervailing concession is made to, at least, China. What might that be? Watch this site.

Footnote: Japan's priority in the Council for now is the threatened April 4-8 launch by North Korea of a satellite or missile. While Japan said it wanted a Council meeting, it now appears they want the meeting only after the scheduled launch. Japan would like a condemning resolution, but others, including China, want only a less powerful Presidential Statement. Negotiations have already begun -- some have ever mis-reported that a Presidential Statement is already being drafted -- and one wonders how this effects Japan's presentation of its ostensible support for a Council briefing on Sri Lanka...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsri5lanka032309.html

On Sri Lanka, "No Strong Request" Anymore for Council Meeting, Japan's Mediation Results, N. Korean Missile on Horizon?

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsc4srilanka021809.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 18 -- As meetings begin on the need to reform the UN Security Council, the disposition of a member's request for a briefing about the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka exemplifies flaws in how the body functions.

In early February, as the pace of civilian death escalated in northern Sri Lanka, Mexican Ambassador Claude Heller asked for a briefing in the Council on the issue. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin responded that such a briefing would be improper. Churkin later confirmed this to Inner City Press, on camera, adding that while the issue could for example be raised in the General Assembly, it is not on the Security Council's agenda.

Inner City Press last week asked Mexico's Heller for the status of his request. He said that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had sent an envoy, that the request was still live, and that he and Mexico believe that Sri Lanka can be discussed in the Council.

But later on February 18, this month's Council president, Japan's Yukio Takaso, replied to Inner City Press' follow-up question by stating that "at this moment, there is no strong request for a member." Video here, from Minute 5:43. Inner City Press asked, weren't you tasked to mediate between Mexico and Russia on this issue? Ambassador Takasu said, "yes, I am tasked to coordinate this position, this disagreement, I have been trying to narrow differences." By his account, the result of his narrowing has been to push the issue of Sri Lanka even further from discussion or briefing in the Security Council.

Other Security Council Ambassadors have told Inner City Press that Takasu has been very solicitous of Russia, for example apologizing profusely to Churkin for not being able to block some uses of the word "Georgia" with respect to Abkhazia, which Russia, followed only by Nicaragua, has recognized as independent from that country. (For the record, Takasu is solicitous of the Press as well, scrupulously takes all questions, at least as President.) In this scenario, Japan which wants a permanent seat on the Council is bending over backwards during the month of its presidency to please the existing Permanent Five, Russia included.

A close observer of Japanese foreign policy, speaking on condition of anonymity because of a need to continue to deal with those involved in the policy, surmises that since Japan's national position is to keep the Sri Lanka issue out of the Council, Takasu's mediation as president was impacted by the goals of his nation. Takasu often says, "putting on my chapeau" as Japanese Ambassador, as opposed to ostensibly non-national Council president. But, this close observer said, in the case of Sri Lanka, Japanese foreign policy may have been implemented in part by its role as monthly president.

Footnote: In a somewhat similar issue on the Council's horizon, Inner City Press asked Mr. Takasu if the reports that North Korea is moving toward testing a long-range missile have been mentioned among Council members, and how the Council might react to such a test. Takasu replied that the issue, which he is known to be discussing, has not arising in the Council, and that "it is not useful to speculate" on the "expected response by the Council." Video here, from Minute 10:25.

Close observers predict that Japan would request a Security Council meeting, and even draft a "product" for that meeting, rather than simply relying on the framework of the Six Party Talks on North Korea. Ironically, since Libya will be Council president in March, an implicit position seems to be, if you are going to test the missile, do it in February...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc4srilanka021809.html