On UN Rapes in CAR, Inner City Press Asks Banbury, UN Says 29 Cases, Burundi Answers To Come

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 30 -- Amid a litany of rape charges against UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, Inner City Press on January 27 asked the UN Spokesman to confirm new allegations in the Central African Republic. The spokesman declined.

On January 29, first High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid then this same UN spokesman issues statement about (what else), new rape charges in CAR. But even these lists do not appear to be complete, omitting alleged rapes that UN officials have spoken about involving UN peacekeepers from Burundi, the Republic of Congo and Gabon.

  Inner City Press asked Assistant Secretary General Anthony Banbury about these still unreported cases, and why it was him and not the head of UN Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, who was answering for the charges at the UN's January 29 briefing. Banbury said reporting is getting fast; he also said he “doesn't buy” that anyone fears retaliation if they report sexual abuse charges. Video here.

  Given that even an official at the rank of Ander Kompass was pursued in the UN “legal” system for reporting, the claim seemed strange. Another reporter said it was not credible; the spokeman said that's not a question and the briefing was over.

  Banbury, visibly upset, shed tears during the briefing. But again, why isn't Ladsous as the person responsible, named in the Deschamps report as having failed to vet contingents subsequently charged with rapes, the one answering questions?

  In the briefing, video of which Inner City Press will be posting, the UN set aside the first question for a representative of the UN Correspondents Association, and then two UNCA board members: none of these questions involved the head of peacekeeping Herve Ladsous. We'll have more on this.

 And on this: it was said that the UN Peacekeeping "Conduct and Discipline Unit" will answer all journalists' questions. Inner City Press inquired how and sent questions to the designated spokesperson. Later in the afternoon the following arrived:

"Regarding the questions you asked at the latest noon briefings on sexual exploitation and abuse and on Burundi, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations has the following answers:

Q: What is the status of each of the cases listed out by Deputy SRSG Diane Corner in her briefing to the Press Briefing Room? What is the status of the cases attributed in the Washington Post of January 11, 2016 to U.N. officials involving “peacekeepers were from Gabon, Morocco, Burundi and France. The prostitution ring they allegedly used was run by boys and young men who offered girls 'for anywhere from 50 cents to three dollars,' and, as I asked Jan 27 and today, any allegations in CAR involving peacekeepers from Republic of Congo?

A: Since the establishment of the mission in April 2014, we have recorded 29 cases of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers. Investigations on three cases have been concluded and one was substantiated. Four alleged perpetrators have been repatriated. All other investigations are ongoing and more data will be included in the SG's forthcoming report on Special measures to prevent from sexual exploitation and abuse, including country-specific information.

Q: Beyond sexual abuse, what is the status of the deployment (or nor) of the Burundian officials I have asked the Spokesman about, including Niyonzima and Rusheshe?

A: UN Peacekeeping is looking into the files of these two individual. We will have something to say on this issue in the coming days."

 So will we.

Having been told by sources of more rapes by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, Inner City Press on January 26 reported them and on January 27 asked the UN's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric to confirm them - but wouldn't. UN transcript here. Video here.


 Now UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid on January 29 says:

"UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said Friday he was extremely alarmed at continuing allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of minors in the Central African Republic (CAR) by members of foreign military forces. The alleged crimes mostly took place in 2014, but only came to light in recent weeks."

  So what is the protocol of UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, who linked the rapes to "R&R," here? How many more do they know about?

The UN report on rapes in the Central African Republic, released on December 17, found that UN Peacekeeping's Under Secretary General Herve Ladsous “illustrate[s] the UN's failure to respond to allegations of serious human rights violations in the meaningful way.”

 Ladsous has yet to take any questions about the report -- this as Inner City Press exclusively hears from sources of yet more sexual abuse cases in CAR, involving DR Congo AND Republic of Congo, and changes of abuses will in detention.

 On January 27, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about these new charges, transcript here:

Inner City Press: on CAR, I've heard there's a new round of sexual abuse allegations found by the Mission involving soldiers from the Republic of Congo and DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo].  Is that the case?  And what's the… why… if you haven't yet announced it, why haven't you?

Spokesman Dujarric:  I don't have anything to share with you at this point on this.

Inner City Press:  What's the protocol for the Mission going public when it becomes aware?  Because I've heard of this from pretty…

Spokesman Dujarric:  This Mission has been extremely proactive in sharing publicly allegations.  So, when we're ready to do so, we will.

 We'll see.

 On January 26, a new proposal on the systemic problem of UN peacekeeper sexual abuse was made by Code Blue: to take the UN’s "oversight of every aspect of peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse out of the hands of the UN Secretariat and place it under an external, independent management board," as Stephen Lewis put it.

  Inner City Press asked Lewis' co-founder Paula Donovan about retaliation against whistleblowers, and about Ladsous having on camera linked the rapes to "R&R," here.  Donovan replied that the board would decide how to have eyes and ears on the ground; she called the linking of rapes to recreation "appalling." It's the type of thing an oversight board would act on, she said.

 Following up about the UN merely handing a victim of sexual abuse in one of its camps in South Sudan the contact information of the alleged abuses, Inner City Press asked if that would be coverd by the proposal. Donovan said it would or should cover every single instance where any part of the UN system was implicated in alleged sexual abuse.

  Inner City Press then went to the day's UN noon briefing and asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the proposal, and when Ban's response to the Deschamps report will be out. Video here.

On January 5, Ladsous mission in CAR issued a press release about yet more allegation of sexual abuse of minors by its peacekeepers, below.

 On January 18, Inner City Press managed to ask UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson about the report -- the UN Deputy Spokesperson appeared intent on not allowing the question, but Eliasson to his credit took it. Video here, UN transcript here:

Inner City Press: The UK Ambassador mentioned sexual abuse.

DSG: Yes.

Inner City Press: He did. And so I wanted to know…

DSG: I did also.

Inner City Press: So, since that report came out about the Central African Republic, what has the Secretariat or the 38th floor done to ensure that in the future if a UN staffer becomes aware of child rape, that it goes to the right people?

DSG Eliasson: This is very serious. As you know, the Special Representative in Central African Republic resigned, was asked to resign. One of the others who were named by the Deschamps group, panel, was considered to have abused authority has left the United Nations, retired.  And we have a group set up right now, led by the Chef de Cabinet - Edmond Mulet - that is going to work very, very quickly on following up the recommendations of the panel. Mr. Mulet and his group will report to the Secretary-General by the end of this month.

We will look into both issues of individual responsibility, but also primarily on the systemic problems. This reminded me of my reaction to the Sri Lanka tragedy back in 2009. The panel came to the conclusion that it was systemic failure, so we drew the [conclusion] to that – we need to have a systemic response. That was the origin of Human Rights Up Front.  This time also the Deschamps report talks about, almost in the same language – systemic reactions. I also expect, or we also expect, Member States again to draw the conclusions from this.  In so many cases we have passed on to the Member States very damning reports, but very little sometimes has been done by Troop Contributing or Police Contributing countries. So we need to have nation states following up these [inaudible].

  We will have more, too, on DSG Eliasson's reference to the UN's failure in Sri Lanka. At the January 19 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq if Mulet's report at the end of January will be made public. Video here.  We'll see.

Earlier in the month,  Inner City Press asked the Permanent Representative of New Zealand and of Uruguay, President of the Security Council for January, about the report(s). Video here.

Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen of New Zealand expressed concern. Ambassador Rosselli of Uruguay said in his national capacity that allegations should be dealt with has his country had, apparently a reference to Haiti. It appears the Security Council will take up this matter.

  Earlier at the January 5 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric if now Ladsous, in the Security Council right then on CAR, would belatedly answer questions, since the firing / scapegoating of former mission chief Babacar Gaye clearly didn't end the rapes. From the transcript:

 I wanted to ask but CAR, since you have this new report.  One, I guess I’d like to… since Mr. [Hervé] Ladsous is briefing the Security Council today about CAR and has yet to answer any questions on the CAR sexual abuse allegations report… I guess it’s a timely request… can he do a stakeout, take questions on it?  Because it seems like Babacar Gaye was fired, but the problems go on.  So this is a request.  It seems like a reasonable one

 But as noted (and Vined, here), Ladsous did not answer.

 Back in December, once the report came out from under embargo at the noon briefing Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric what Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will do about the findings against Ladsous, and that he escaped the “abuse of authority” moniker only because “the mandate of the Panel is to assess whether an abuse of authority has occurred in connection with the Allegations.”

 Since the abusers Ladsous let into MINUSCA were not the French troops who are accused of rape -- these troops are not in MINUSCA -- Ladsous' malfeasance is not “in connection” with the Allegations. But is it acceptable?

  Dujarric seems unfamiliar with the report; he implied that the third person found to have abused authority was the Ethics Officer, when it was a lower level official in CAR. Inner City Press asked what this all says about Ban Ki-moon's management, along with the John Ashe / Ng Lap Seng and Bernardino Leon scandal, a question Dujarric did not allow Inner City Press to asked Ban himself on December 16. “Those are your words,” Dujarric replied. Yes, they are.

  When the Panel's three members held their press conference, Inner City Press asked about Ladsous' failure to vet and his linking of rapes to “R&R.” Video here.  Marie Deschamps said pointedly she wouldn't comment on Ladsous' remarks; Yasmin Sooka said these are crimes for punishment, not recreation.

  As the last question, Inner City Press asked what it had wanted to ask Ban, and tried to ask Dujarric: what does this say about Ban's management? Video of Q&A here. Didn't Ban's chief of staff Malcorra, criticized in the report, do it for Ban? Didn't the “senior official” who ostensibly let the rape information die on the vine in the 38th floor work in an atmosphere created by Ban's nine years? We will pursue this.

And this: if OIOS' Lapointe was wrong, isn't James Finness, who continues the OIOS campaign? While the UK has spoken, where is France, given Sangaris and Ladsous?

  As to Ladsous, the finding was made even though the three authors of the report do not mention, and apparently have not yet seen, the notes from Ladsous' October 1, 2015 meeting about the CAR mission withBurundi's Vice President, in which Ladsous said he is “pragmatic” on human rights, in Burundi and by extension elsewhere, nor Ladsous' September 11, 2015 on-camera comments linking the rapes to “R&R,”video here.

  But Ladsous still as of December 17 holds the senior UN position into which France, which has chosen the last four heads of UN Peacekeeping, put him in September 2011. How much longer?

By contrast, the former head of OIOS Carman Lapointe, of whom the panel finds an abuse of authority, is conveniently gone, as is Babacar Gaye, who worked for Ladsous at the CAR mission.

  Perhaps it was easier for the panel to make the formal finding against people who had already left the UN by the time the report was released.

  One wonders: if responses like Ladsous' legalistic (and largely false) November 2 letter were received so long ago  by the panel, why did they withhold the report all the way until December 17, the day AFTER Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's rare (and last of the year) press conference?

  High Commission Zeid, of whom it is said he was slammed in the report, in fact gets the same treatment -- critical, but no formal abuse of authority -- as Ladsous, who is airbrushed out and conditions access to information and answers about Peacekeeping on positive / false coverage.

 The same finding is made with regard to former Chief of Staff Susana Malcorra. Will the critical language hurt what chance she has, as a non Eastern European, to try to follow Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General?

 More generally, how does all this criticism reflect on the tenure of Ban Ki-moon? The report does not mention the concurrent scandalsregarding UN Secretariat documents purchased by now indicted Ng Lap Seng through former President of the General Assembly John Ashe, nor Ban Libya envoy taking instruction and a cushy job with the UAE while representing Ban on and in Libya.

  In December 2015, Ban allowed those who cover him, at least the UN Correspondents Association, to sell seats with him for $6,000. And it is these same who have airbrushed out Ladsous and others.

  The Panelists -- Marie Deschamps, Hassan Jallow and Yasmin Sooka -- leave unnamed a senior officer in Ban Ki-moon's office (finding that he misspoke when he said he had informed Deputy Jan Eliasson), without saying if the officer remains in the same position. We'll have more on this.

On New UN Rapes on CAR, Inner City Press Asks Banbury of Ladsous Not Vetting, Burundi UNnamed

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- Amid a litany of rape charges against UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, Inner City Press on January 27 asked the UN Spokesman to confirm new allegations in the Central African Republic. The spokesman declined.

On January 29, first High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid then this same UN spokesman issues statement about (what else), new rape charges in CAR. But even these lists do not appear to be complete, omitting alleged rapes that UN officials have spoken about involving UN peacekeepers from Burundi, the Republic of Congo and Gabon.

  Inner City Press asked Assistant Secretary General Anthony Banbury about these still unreported cases, and why it was him and not the head of UN Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, who was answering for the charges at the UN's January 29 briefing. Banbury said reporting is getting fast; he also said he “doesn't buy” that anyone fears retaliation if they report sexual abuse charged. Video here.

  Given that even an official at the rank of Ander Kompass was pursued in the UN “legal” system for reporting, the claim seemed strange. Another reporter said it was not credible; the spokeman said that's not a question and the briefing was over.

  Banbury, visibly upset, shed tears during the briefing. But again, why isn't Ladsous as the person responsible, named in the Deschamps report as having failed to vet contingents subsequently charged with rapes, the one answering questions?

  In the briefing, video of which Inner City Press will be posting, the UN set aside the first question for a representative of the UN Correspondents Association, and then two UNCA board members: none of these questions involved the head of peacekeeping Herve Ladsous. We'll have more on this.

 And on this: it was said that the UN Peacekeeping "Conduct and Discipline Unit" will answer all journalists' questions. Inner City Press inquired how and has sent questions to the designated spokesperson. Watch this site.

Having been told by sources of more rapes by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, Inner City Press on January 26 reported them and on January 27 asked the UN's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric to confirm them - but wouldn't. UN transcript here. Video here.


 Now UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid on January 29 says:

"UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said Friday he was extremely alarmed at continuing allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of minors in the Central African Republic (CAR) by members of foreign military forces. The alleged crimes mostly took place in 2014, but only came to light in recent weeks."

  So what is the protocol of UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, who linked the rapes to "R&R," here? How many more do they know about?

The UN report on rapes in the Central African Republic, released on December 17, found that UN Peacekeeping's Under Secretary General Herve Ladsous “illustrate[s] the UN's failure to respond to allegations of serious human rights violations in the meaningful way.”

 Ladsous has yet to take any questions about the report -- this as Inner City Press exclusively hears from sources of yet more sexual abuse cases in CAR, involving DR Congo AND Republic of Congo, and changes of abuses will in detention.

 On January 27, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about these new charges, transcript here:

Inner City Press: on CAR, I've heard there's a new round of sexual abuse allegations found by the Mission involving soldiers from the Republic of Congo and DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo].  Is that the case?  And what's the… why… if you haven't yet announced it, why haven't you?

Spokesman Dujarric:  I don't have anything to share with you at this point on this.

Inner City Press:  What's the protocol for the Mission going public when it becomes aware?  Because I've heard of this from pretty…

Spokesman Dujarric:  This Mission has been extremely proactive in sharing publicly allegations.  So, when we're ready to do so, we will.

 We'll see.

 On January 26, a new proposal on the systemic problem of UN peacekeeper sexual abuse was made by Code Blue: to take the UN’s "oversight of every aspect of peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse out of the hands of the UN Secretariat and place it under an external, independent management board," as Stephen Lewis put it.

  Inner City Press asked Lewis' co-founder Paula Donovan about retaliation against whistleblowers, and about Ladsous having on camera linked the rapes to "R&R," here.  Donovan replied that the board would decide how to have eyes and ears on the ground; she called the linking of rapes to recreation "appalling." It's the type of thing an oversight board would act on, she said.

 Following up about the UN merely handing a victim of sexual abuse in one of its camps in South Sudan the contact information of the alleged abuses, Inner City Press asked if that would be coverd by the proposal. Donovan said it would or should cover every single instance where any part of the UN system was implicated in alleged sexual abuse.

  Inner City Press then went to the day's UN noon briefing and asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the proposal, and when Ban's response to the Deschamps report will be out. Video here.

On January 5, Ladsous mission in CAR issued a press release about yet more allegation of sexual abuse of minors by its peacekeepers, below.

 On January 18, Inner City Press managed to ask UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson about the report -- the UN Deputy Spokesperson appeared intent on not allowing the question, but Eliasson to his credit took it. Video here, UN transcript here:

Inner City Press: The UK Ambassador mentioned sexual abuse.

DSG: Yes.

Inner City Press: He did. And so I wanted to know…

DSG: I did also.

Inner City Press: So, since that report came out about the Central African Republic, what has the Secretariat or the 38th floor done to ensure that in the future if a UN staffer becomes aware of child rape, that it goes to the right people?

DSG Eliasson: This is very serious. As you know, the Special Representative in Central African Republic resigned, was asked to resign. One of the others who were named by the Deschamps group, panel, was considered to have abused authority has left the United Nations, retired.  And we have a group set up right now, led by the Chef de Cabinet - Edmond Mulet - that is going to work very, very quickly on following up the recommendations of the panel. Mr. Mulet and his group will report to the Secretary-General by the end of this month.

We will look into both issues of individual responsibility, but also primarily on the systemic problems. This reminded me of my reaction to the Sri Lanka tragedy back in 2009. The panel came to the conclusion that it was systemic failure, so we drew the [conclusion] to that – we need to have a systemic response. That was the origin of Human Rights Up Front.  This time also the Deschamps report talks about, almost in the same language – systemic reactions. I also expect, or we also expect, Member States again to draw the conclusions from this.  In so many cases we have passed on to the Member States very damning reports, but very little sometimes has been done by Troop Contributing or Police Contributing countries. So we need to have nation states following up these [inaudible].

  We will have more, too, on DSG Eliasson's reference to the UN's failure in Sri Lanka. At the January 19 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq if Mulet's report at the end of January will be made public. Video here.  We'll see.

Earlier in the month,  Inner City Press asked the Permanent Representative of New Zealand and of Uruguay, President of the Security Council for January, about the report(s). Video here.

Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen of New Zealand expressed concern. Ambassador Rosselli of Uruguay said in his national capacity that allegations should be dealt with has his country had, apparently a reference to Haiti. It appears the Security Council will take up this matter.

  Earlier at the January 5 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric if now Ladsous, in the Security Council right then on CAR, would belatedly answer questions, since the firing / scapegoating of former mission chief Babacar Gaye clearly didn't end the rapes. From the transcript:

 I wanted to ask but CAR, since you have this new report.  One, I guess I’d like to… since Mr. [Hervé] Ladsous is briefing the Security Council today about CAR and has yet to answer any questions on the CAR sexual abuse allegations report… I guess it’s a timely request… can he do a stakeout, take questions on it?  Because it seems like Babacar Gaye was fired, but the problems go on.  So this is a request.  It seems like a reasonable one

 But as noted (and Vined, here), Ladsous did not answer.

 Back in December, once the report came out from under embargo at the noon briefing Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric what Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will do about the findings against Ladsous, and that he escaped the “abuse of authority” moniker only because “the mandate of the Panel is to assess whether an abuse of authority has occurred in connection with the Allegations.”

 Since the abusers Ladsous let into MINUSCA were not the French troops who are accused of rape -- these troops are not in MINUSCA -- Ladsous' malfeasance is not “in connection” with the Allegations. But is it acceptable?

  Dujarric seems unfamiliar with the report; he implied that the third person found to have abused authority was the Ethics Officer, when it was a lower level official in CAR. Inner City Press asked what this all says about Ban Ki-moon's management, along with the John Ashe / Ng Lap Seng and Bernardino Leon scandal, a question Dujarric did not allow Inner City Press to asked Ban himself on December 16. “Those are your words,” Dujarric replied. Yes, they are.

  When the Panel's three members held their press conference, Inner City Press asked about Ladsous' failure to vet and his linking of rapes to “R&R.” Video here.  Marie Deschamps said pointedly she wouldn't comment on Ladsous' remarks; Yasmin Sooka said these are crimes for punishment, not recreation.

  As the last question, Inner City Press asked what it had wanted to ask Ban, and tried to ask Dujarric: what does this say about Ban's management? Video of Q&A here. Didn't Ban's chief of staff Malcorra, criticized in the report, do it for Ban? Didn't the “senior official” who ostensibly let the rape information die on the vine in the 38th floor work in an atmosphere created by Ban's nine years? We will pursue this.

And this: if OIOS' Lapointe was wrong, isn't James Finness, who continues the OIOS campaign? While the UK has spoken, where is France, given Sangaris and Ladsous?

  As to Ladsous, the finding was made even though the three authors of the report do not mention, and apparently have not yet seen, the notes from Ladsous' October 1, 2015 meeting about the CAR mission withBurundi's Vice President, in which Ladsous said he is “pragmatic” on human rights, in Burundi and by extension elsewhere, nor Ladsous' September 11, 2015 on-camera comments linking the rapes to “R&R,”video here.

  But Ladsous still as of December 17 holds the senior UN position into which France, which has chosen the last four heads of UN Peacekeeping, put him in September 2011. How much longer?

By contrast, the former head of OIOS Carman Lapointe, of whom the panel finds an abuse of authority, is conveniently gone, as is Babacar Gaye, who worked for Ladsous at the CAR mission.

  Perhaps it was easier for the panel to make the formal finding against people who had already left the UN by the time the report was released.

  One wonders: if responses like Ladsous' legalistic (and largely false) November 2 letter were received so long ago  by the panel, why did they withhold the report all the way until December 17, the day AFTER Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's rare (and last of the year) press conference?

  High Commission Zeid, of whom it is said he was slammed in the report, in fact gets the same treatment -- critical, but no formal abuse of authority -- as Ladsous, who is airbrushed out and conditions access to information and answers about Peacekeeping on positive / false coverage.

 The same finding is made with regard to former Chief of Staff Susana Malcorra. Will the critical language hurt what chance she has, as a non Eastern European, to try to follow Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General?

 More generally, how does all this criticism reflect on the tenure of Ban Ki-moon? The report does not mention the concurrent scandalsregarding UN Secretariat documents purchased by now indicted Ng Lap Seng through former President of the General Assembly John Ashe, nor Ban Libya envoy taking instruction and a cushy job with the UAE while representing Ban on and in Libya.

  In December 2015, Ban allowed those who cover him, at least the UN Correspondents Association, to sell seats with him for $6,000. And it is these same who have airbrushed out Ladsous and others.

  The Panelists -- Marie Deschamps, Hassan Jallow and Yasmin Sooka -- leave unnamed a senior officer in Ban Ki-moon's office (finding that he misspoke when he said he had informed Deputy Jan Eliasson), without saying if the officer remains in the same position. We'll have more on this.

With Ban Ki-moon in Ebola Zone, Questions of UN Transparency and Freedoms Multiply, UNanswered

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 20 -- As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon conducts a belated whirlwind tour through Ebola impacted countries and then the headquarters of the UN Ebola response mission UNMEER in Ghana, questions have arisen about Ban's moves on the leadership and future of UNMEER, and transparency more generally.

  Among responses to Ebola have been the arrest of journalists and now house to house searches. But Ban did not mention these. Nor has the UN's policies for medical evacuation rights for its national staff members been disclosed, despite numerous requests by Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access.

  Ban has said he intends to end UNMEER in September 2015. So why, some ask, did he his month replace Anthony Banbury as its chief, with only nine months remaining in the mission? And why did he replace him with Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania, about whose service in Syria, Yemen and Libya many doubts exist?

  Sources in Yemen say Ould Cheikh Ahmed was the UN's “designated security official” when a UNICEF staffer was taken hostage while traveling to the Sana'a airport without the required (and needed) security detail. Some say Ould Cheikh Ahmed was distracted, in Yemen and later in Libya, by side business interests.

  But a check of Ban Ki-moon's Public Disclosure website, where his officials are supposed to make rudimentary disclosure of the finances and outside business interests, does not even list Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed (while numerous other Deputy SRSGs are listed). His is not in the most recent database, for 2013 - and may escape any disclosure by become an Under Secretary General with a mere nine month stint at UNMEER. Then what? We'll say on this.

  Then again, the disclosure page for Ban's head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous does not even work, yielding this: “The requested URL /sg/ethicalstandards/2013/Hervé Ladsous.pdf was not found on this server.” Some transparency.

Ladsous refuses to answer Press questions, on cover up of rapes in the DR Congo and now Darfur, and hispeacekeepers shooting at democracy demonstrators in Haiti.

Ban Ki-moon held a press conference in New York on December 17 but no questions were allowed on any of these topics. In fact, it seemed clear that Ban had demanded and gotten questions in advance, to know how to answer. But his spokesman would not confirm or deny this, only saying it is his job to have Ban “prepared” for his press conference. We'll have more on this.

   

On Ebola, Inner City Press Asks UN's Nabarro Of Unrest in Northern Mali, Since Aid Access Blocked

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 21 -- As UN Ebola envoy David Nabarro went into the Security Council to brief the Council's members on November 21, Inner City Press asked him how fast the UN mission UNMEER can get set in Mali, and if the unrest in the North might pose a problem.

  On the latter, Nabarro said no -- perhaps because cases have so far been in the south. Recently UN humanitarian operations chief John Ging told Inner City Press there are areas in the north where aid workers have no access. Why would it be different with health workers?

  When the Security Council's session started up, Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop said that some had asked to participate by video but it was not possible for technical reasons. She then gave the floor to Tony Banbury by video - and it didn't work, at least at that time.

Earlier on November 21 after an Ebola meeting of the UN Chief Executives Board in Washington, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the World Health Organization's Margaret Chan took two questions from the media: both American, NPR and AP.

  Ban Ki-moon said that he has asked Tony Banbury of the UNMEER mission to open up in Mali, given the spread of ebola there. Previously Inner City Press asked the UN to confirm that its Mali Mission MINUSMA has canceled its contract with the Pasteur Institute in Bamako; the UN has yet to confirm it.

  Not mentioned by Ban is that his envoy to Mali Bert Koenders cut and ran, in the middle of the crises, to become Dutch foreign minister. So WHO is running the UN's show in Mali?

  As to WHO, last week it ham-handedly cc-ed BuzzFeed on its internal email stating that BuzzFeed reporter Jina Moore, "who on two occasions reported inaccurately," is banned. (Mashable has posted the chain of WHO e-mails, here.)

  Inner City Press at the UN's noon briefing on November 14 asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq about WHO banning BuzzFeed. Video here and embedded below.

 Haq said he'd read the reports but wasn't sure if they are correct -- there doesn't seem to be any dispute of the authenticity of the WHO emails. Haq said to asked WHO - but it is a part of the UN system. Isn't there a system wide policy?

 Inner City Press asked again on November 21, just before Ban's and Chan's joint press availability. Ban's lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric replied that much as he'd like to ban some media, they don't and he hopes his colleagues don't.

  During Ban's tenure at the head of the UN system, his Under Secretaries General have been allowed to pick and choose which media to respond to, to say on camera, "I don't respond to you," even to block -- or Ban -- a media's camera filming from the authorized UN General Assembly stakeout, Vine here.

  Things have reached this state in part because the old United Nations Correspondents Association, which one would expect to push back, has joined in the censorship trend. 

  For example, UNCA's then-president Giampaolo Pioli demanded that an article describing his financial relationship with Sri Lanka's ambassador be removed from the Internet or he would get the Press thrown out of the UN. 

  Lo and behold, an UNCA then-board member from Voice of America wrote a letter to the UN requesting just that; an Inner City Press FOIA request showed Voice of America said it had the support of the UN bureau chiefs of AFP and Reuters -- which has gotten Google to block -- or Ban -- from Search even its complaint to the UN, claiming it is private and subject to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This UN breeds censorship.

   Still, WHO's written explanation of a ban for "inaccurate reporting" in the middle of a health crisis is a new low. We and the new Free UN Coalition for Access will have more on this.  For now, consider the UN did nothing when the President of Sierra Leone jailed a journalist for his reporting on Ebola, as well as for daring to question President Ernest Bai Koroma's performance.

  The UN had a peacekeeping mission in the country, has a Country Team and now the UN Mission on Ebola Emergency Response, UNMEER. So at the UN's November 5 noon briefing Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: In Sierra Leone a journalist, David Tam-Baryoh, has been put in jail, maximum security prison, for his reporting on Ebola under a law that says that it is a crime to undermine Government efforts to fight the epidemic. He's also questioned the third term for the Presiden Koroma. So, I wanted to know what is the UN system, given its involvement through UNMEER and otherwise, what do they say about this case? Also, it seems does UNMEER have any human rights mandate or component to it? I thought all kind of UN entities had some overarching or inherent Rights Up Front…

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric: There's a country office in all three countries. Human Rights Up Front does apply to all UN staff and missions. What is… I don't have the particulars of this case, but it is clear that journalists need to be allowed to do their work free of intimidation and fear.

Inner City Press: What about a law that says, obviously, it's important to fight Ebola, but should a journalist be, should a law exist in which you clearly could be arrested for…?

Spokesman: I think, clearly, the media has a very important role to play in fighting… in part of our response against Ebola, whether it's fighting stigmatization or other issues.

Those are generalities, but what is the UN doing? What does Ban Ki-moon's "Rights Up Front," born of his failure in Sri Lanka in 2009, really mean? Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access have been told that UN inquiries are being made. We'll have more on this.

   

On Ebola, Ban Ki-moon Sends UNMEER Mission to Mali, Presser With Two American Questions With WHO Which Banned BuzzFeed

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 21 -- After an Ebola meeting of the UN Chief Executives Board in Washington, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the World Health Organization's Margaret Chan on November 21 took two questions from the media: both American, NPR and AP.

  Ban Ki-moon said that he has asked Tony Banbury of the UNMEER mission to open up in Mali, given the spread of ebola there. Previously Inner City Press asked the UN to confirm that its Mali Mission MINUSMA has canceled its contract with the Pasteur Institute in Bamako; the UN has yet to confirm it.

  Not mentioned by Ban is that his envoy to Mali Bert Koenders cut and ran, in the middle of the crises, to become Dutch foreign minister. So WHO is running the UN's show in Mali?

  As to WHO, last week it ham-handedly cc-ed BuzzFeed on its internal email stating that BuzzFeed reporter Jina Moore, "who on two occasions reported inaccurately," is banned. (Mashable has posted the chain of WHO e-mails, here.)

  Inner City Press at the UN's noon briefing on November 14 asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq about WHO banning BuzzFeed. Video here and embedded below.

 Haq said he'd read the reports but wasn't sure if they are correct -- there doesn't seem to be any dispute of the authenticity of the WHO emails. Haq said to asked WHO - but it is a part of the UN system. Isn't there a system wide policy?

 Inner City Press asked again on November 21, just before Ban's and Chan's joint press availability. Ban's lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric replied that much as he'd like to ban some media, they don't and he hopes his colleagues don't.

  During Ban's tenure at the head of the UN system, his Under Secretaries General have been allowed to pick and choose which media to respond to, to say on camera, "I don't respond to you," even to block -- or Ban -- a media's camera filming from the authorized UN General Assembly stakeout, Vine here.

  Things have reached this state in part because the old United Nations Correspondents Association, which one would expect to push back, has joined in the censorship trend. 

  For example, UNCA's then-president Giampaolo Pioli demanded that an article describing his financial relationship with Sri Lanka's ambassador be removed from the Internet or he would get the Press thrown out of the UN. 

  Lo and behold, an UNCA then-board member from Voice of America wrote a letter to the UN requesting just that; an Inner City Press FOIA request showed Voice of America said it had the support of the UN bureau chiefs of AFP and Reuters -- which has gotten Google to block -- or Ban -- from Search even its complaint to the UN, claiming it is private and subject to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This UN breeds censorship.

   Still, WHO's written explanation of a ban for "inaccurate reporting" in the middle of a health crisis is a new low. We and the new Free UN Coalition for Access will have more on this.  For now, consider the UN did nothing when the President of Sierra Leone jailed a journalist for his reporting on Ebola, as well as for daring to question President Ernest Bai Koroma's performance.

  The UN had a peacekeeping mission in the country, has a Country Team and now the UN Mission on Ebola Emergency Response, UNMEER. So at the UN's November 5 noon briefing Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: In Sierra Leone a journalist, David Tam-Baryoh, has been put in jail, maximum security prison, for his reporting on Ebola under a law that says that it is a crime to undermine Government efforts to fight the epidemic. He's also questioned the third term for the Presiden Koroma. So, I wanted to know what is the UN system, given its involvement through UNMEER and otherwise, what do they say about this case? Also, it seems does UNMEER have any human rights mandate or component to it? I thought all kind of UN entities had some overarching or inherent Rights Up Front…

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric: There's a country office in all three countries. Human Rights Up Front does apply to all UN staff and missions. What is… I don't have the particulars of this case, but it is clear that journalists need to be allowed to do their work free of intimidation and fear.

Inner City Press: What about a law that says, obviously, it's important to fight Ebola, but should a journalist be, should a law exist in which you clearly could be arrested for…?

Spokesman: I think, clearly, the media has a very important role to play in fighting… in part of our response against Ebola, whether it's fighting stigmatization or other issues.

Those are generalities, but what is the UN doing? What does Ban Ki-moon's "Rights Up Front," born of his failure in Sri Lanka in 2009, really mean? Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access have been told that UN inquiries are being made. We'll have more on this.

   

UN Controller Job Slated for American Bettina Bartsiotas, Sources Exclusively Tell Inner City Press, Of IAEA & Wikileaks

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, October 28 -- Trying to follow the money at the UN is not easy, often intentionally so. Press questions for example about Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's travel, posed to the head of the Department of Management Yukio Takasu were answered with reference to unnamed Trust Funds which report on a two year lag. A follow up question to Ban's Office of the Spokesperson did not garner any better response.

  The Assistant Secretary General position of UN Controller, then, under the supervision of former Japanese Ambassador to the UN Takasu is not unimportant. Back in May 2014 then-Controller Maria Eugenia Casar was picked to become Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Program.

  Now Inner City Press is exclusively informed by well-placed sources that a new Controller has been picked but not yet announced. Amid complaints by some delegations that the US already has too many top positions, from the Department of Political Affairs of Jeffrey Feltman to Ebola logistics czar Tony Banbury and Capital Master Plan master-builder Michael Adlerstein, the sources tell Inner City Press the new UN Controller will be joint US - Uruguay citizen Bettina Bartsiotas.

  Bettina Bartsiotas, Inner City Press' research finds, is an active American, for example making $1000 in public campaign contributions and even showing up in aclassified US cable obtained and released by Wikileaks, regarding the International Atomic Energy Agency:

“This position should be pursued aggressively when it opens up in the future. Dual Uruguay/U.S. national Bettina Bartsiotas, currently a Section Head in this office, has a good relationship with the Mission and may seek this position in the future.”

  So the US was pushing Bartsiotas for a financial position in the IAEA then, and presumably now, for the UN Controller position. While the UN refuses to make public its “short lists” for such recruitments, the sources exclusively tell Inner City Press of the current UN Treasurer, from Mexico, as well as a Belgian official being interviewed. But, they say, “American Bettina Bartsiotas came out on top.”

  As Inner City Press previously reported back in September, another American pick by Ban Ki-moon, Carol Boykin for the investment chief in the UN pension fund, drew significant push-back due to Boykin's past record and litigation in Maryland. And this one? Watch this site.