As Secrecy of UN Security Council Debated in Secret,View from Media Table Gone For Now: Mali, DRC, Peacekeeping Failures

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 15 -- Not only is the UN Security Council secretive: even academic discussions about it are cloaked in secrecy.

  For two days there has been such a confab on Long Island in New York. In full disclosure, Inner City Press petitioned the sponsor, to attend and report from it. It was explained that it is an invitation-only scholarly retreat. So, no.

  But that's not to say that it can't and shouldn't be covered. Alternatively described as off the record or "Chatham House," we will summarize some issues without attributing them. 

  As an initial thought, in an age of social media, Chatham House ain't what it used to be. But we're going beyond the call of duty, and no even naming the sponsor. It's the thoughts that count.

  An easy consensus was reached that Security Council reform will not happen any time soon. It was diagnosed that France and UK favor some reform, not because they are reformers, but because they gain more from Permanent membership on the Council they others: the "illusion" of world power status. 

 If the Council continues to lose legitimacy, so do they.

  For that reason, they do most of the work, drafting up to 80% of Security Council "products" like resolutions and press statements. It is not clear if the correlation between such "pen-holding" and former colonial status was raised. If not, it should have been.

  Likewise the failure of UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous to follow through on the UN's announced Human Rights Due Diligence and conditionality policies. 

 When the 391st and 41st Battalions of the Congolese Army committed at least 135 rapes in Minova in late November 2012, first Ladsous refused Press questions, then threatened to withdraw support. But this never happened, and there have been very few prosecutions. Still Ladsous refuses the question, May 29 video here. So where is the Security Council on this?

  It was noted that the Security Council is more likely to get involved in civil wars in Africa, and for a time in Europe, than anywhere else: read, Asia. 

 Consider this: while 40,000 civilians were killed in Sri Lanka in May 2009, the Security Council did not have a single official meeting on the topic, just a few "informal informals" with John Holmes and Vijay Nambiar down in the now-closed basement of the General Assembly.

  And on June 14 after the acclamation of John Ashe as new President of the GA, one of the generals most responsible, Shavendra Silva, toasted Ashe on behalf of the Asia Pacific Group. So it goes at the UN.

  Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, DRC and Libya were lumped together it seems as example of robut peacekeeping. But Libya was simply the authorization of a no-fly zone which turned into much more -- sure to come up if one is requested over Syria.

 Cote d'Ivoire was, well, a French thing, and DRC to some degree the same. And Mali? Should UN Peacekeeping be given over as it has been to four French heads of DPKO in a row?

  Some outside of the box topics arose, such as the place going forward of cyber security -- Chapter Seven travel or surfing bans against hackers, anyone? The monthly rotation of the Council presidency was praised but admitted to lead to a lack of continuity.

  Inner City Press would add, also a lack of transparency and accountability. Take for example the opaque decision that starting with the June 1 move-back there would no longer by a media worktable in front of the Council.

  Who decided? Inner City Press through the new Free UN Coalition for Access has asked and will continue to ask Permanent members of the Council. The blame is shifted to the UN Secretariat, or to certain Big Media members of the UN Correspondents Association board. 

 Who will own up to, or reverse, this reduction in media access? Watch this site.

Congo Intervention Brigade to Be “Debated” By Steve Hege & UN's "Other Herve," Lecoq, Chatham House Rule

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 23 -- The controversial step of a UN “intervention brigade” in the Eastern Congo needed a more open debate before the Security Council approved it, ostensibly as a one time experiment and not a precedent.

  Apparently on the theory of “better late than never,” now the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations will have a debate, not with the reclusive Herve Ladsous -- who has repeatedly refused to answer Press questions about his views of and roles in the region, now and in 1994, see memo here -- but another Herve, Herve Lecoq.

  But who will Lecoq be “debating”? 

  None other than Steven Hege, former coordinator of the “Group of Experts” on the Democratic Republic of Congo. As we've reported, Hege authored a piece dismissive of the FDLR militia's threat to Rwanda, which was taken off the Internet as soon as Inner City Press linked to it.

  One would still like to get Hege on the record about his writings -- but his “debate” with DPKO's “Other Herve,” Lecoq, will be on the Chatham House Rule -- ideas can be quoted, but not who said them.

  Between Herve and Steve, it might be hard to tell them apart. The PEP talk will be at the UN Foundation, not in New York but in Washington, this Friday, April 26 at 9 am. 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.