Exclusive: For UN on Middle East, Mladenov to Replace Serry, Inner City Press Can Now Report, More Coming

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, January 30 -- The UN's new Middle East coordinator will be Nickolay Mladenov, Inner City Press can now report.

  Earlier, Inner City Press reported that Mladenov was leaving his post as UN envoy to Iraq; before that, Inner City Press asked Robert Serry how he was remaining in the Middle East post past Ban Ki-moon's stated five year rule, and despite PNG (persona non grata) threats from Israel. Now, the switch is being made.

  The hint, as to Iraq, was as Inner City Press exclusively reported, the UK's attempt to pick Mladenov's successor. That was opposed, and rejected. Now, after a “rude” call from UK Prime Minister Cameron to Ban Ki-moon,sources say rather than Cameron's first pick Andrew Lansley, UK candidate Caroline Spelman is in the lead.

  Picking Mladenov's successor in Iraq is in its final stages, and we will have more on that soon. Watch this site.

    

On Gaza, UN Envoy Serry Says Ban Ki-moon "Plans" a Board of Inquiry -- But When & By Whom, With What Scope of Mandate? 2009 Lobbying Echo

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 16, more here -- When seven-year UN envoy Robert Serry briefed the UN Security Council about Gaza on September 16, he said “I hope the Council will have the opportunity to make its own position clear." 

   During the conflict and in the three weeks since, the Security Council has not adopted or even voted on any resolution.

   Serry said that Ban Ki-moon "plans to commission a Board of Inquiry to review and investigate a number of incidents involving UN premises." This is vaguely worded, and does not say when the Board of Inquiry would begin, who would chair it, or what the scope of its mandate would be -- a point on which Ban was lobbied in 2009, as exposed by Wikileaks

   Back on August 18, Inner City Press asked Serry if he is leaving his position in October. Video here.

  Serry shook his head, said it is between him and Ban.

  Inner City Press asked about Ban's stated five-year rule for staying in a UN post. Serry replied if that were a rule, he would be in violation. So it is not a rule. But still: October, contract expiring?

  On the destroyed and damaged UNRWA schools, Inner City Press asked Serry if there will be a UN Board of Inquiry as in 2009. Serry said that too would be up to Ban. A month later, Serry referred to a "plan" of Ban.

   In the UN General Assembly meeting about Gaza on August 6, Ban said "attacks against UN premises, along with other suspected breaches of international law, must be swiftly investigated."

  So in the 12 days between the two statements, has anything been done? In 2009, Ban was lobbied about his cover-letter to the previous board of inquiry report by Ian Martin; now in 2014, as it made up for it, he accepted free private jet travel from Qatar, with its stake and position in the conflict. Neither is acceptable.

 On the latter, Israel's Ambassador Ron Prosor came out of the Council after Serry's public briefing and said, among other things, that Qatar has bought campuses of six universities, Harrod's and the PSG football club. He cited the 2022 World Cup, but did not mention Ban accepting the Qatar-funded private jet. He passed out a flier, "Captured Hamas Combat Manuel," which Inner City Press put online here.

 Back on August 6 at the UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq if Ban would at least set up a Board of Inquiry as was done in 2009. (Inner City Press first published the cover-letter, here.)

  Haq wouldn't say if a Board of Inquiry would be set up; he called the decision an internal one. Video here and embedded below. But Wikileaks released documents showing that Ban allowed himself to be lobbied about the 2009 Board of Inquiry report by Ian Martin, including on what should go in "his" cover letter. See here. And this time?

 Update: UN staff have written to Ban, the GA President and this month's Security Council president, Mark Lyall Grant of the UK, asking for accountability. The letter is here. We hope to have more on this.

   In the August 6 UNGA meeting on Gaza, the UN's coordinator on the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry this process “may also need action by the Membership, including the Security Council, at the appropriate time.”

  As the meeting began, a Permanent Representative who has previously complained of General Assembly inaction on Gaza now noted that no outcome was even proposed to the GA meeting, "just talk."

  An hour before the belated General Assembly meeting began, a closed-door consultation was called on the Jordan-drafted proposed Security Council resolution, at the level (mostly) of Permanent Representative. The day before on August 5 it was said that this draft is already "in blue" -- strange, if it is still being negotiated.

  But in front of the General Assembly on August 6, an African diplomat told Inner City Press that the resolution was put "in blue" precisely in order to block any General Assembly action. When the Security Council is seized of a matter, he said, the General Assembly cannot act.

  So what is going on in this ping-pong between UN Security Council and UN General Assembly, while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has still not corrected his August 1 statement that an Israeli Defense Forces solider was "captive" of Hamas, now that the IDF said he was killed in action? Watch this site.

On August 1 at noon in New York, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon through his spokesman said that an Israeli Defense Forces soldier had been taken captive and that this called "into question the credibility of Hamas' assurances to the United Nations. The Secretary-General demands the immediate and unconditional release of the captured soldier."

  Later on August 1, a range of UN officials described to Inner City Press the pressure put on Ban to rule that Hamas broke the ceasefire and held captive an IDF soldier.  "How does he know?" one UN official demanded.

   On August 2, the IDF said that the soldier, Hadar Goldin, "was killed in action."  

  So on August 4, with no correction issued by the UN, Inner City Press asked Ban's associate spokesperson Vannina Maestracci if there would be any correction, since Ban's statement was used --

  Maestracci cut off the question, "let me stop you right there," and said that the UN tried to get things right with fast moving events. Video here, and embedded below.

  Fine - but when as here the UN was wrong, aren't they supposed to correct it? Maestracci's colleagues have repeatedly said that they correct the record when necessary. Is that the case? What about this case? Watch this site.

   

On Ban Ki-moon's Five Year Rule, UN Won't Provide Any List, Says There Is No Waiver Process, Of Douste-Blazy: Irreplaceable?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 5 -- Back in January 2012, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, “I have already asked my senior staff, who are completing five-year terms to find other positions or leave the organization.” He added that this “ five-year rule is my own initiative.”

   But is this “rule” being complied with?

On August 5, Inner City Press asked Ban's Associate Spokesperson Vannina Maestracci about a few sample “hold-over” officials in their UN posts for more than five years. Maestracci said some people are irreplaceable, or hard to replace.

Inner City Press asked if there is any process for Ban to waive this five year rule. No process, Maestracci replied.

So Inner City Press asked if Ban's Spokesperson's office, which has refused for weeks Inner City Press' request for a list of Ban's ten, or even five, last trips on private jets not paid for from the UN's general budget, could at least provide a list of UN officials who have been allowed to stay on past five years, despite Ban's stated rule.

   Inner City Press has begun to compile a list, but one would think the UN would have one.

  If you have the list, just publish it, Maestracci said. To this has the UN descended. Instead of providing any answer, Ban's spokesperson's office says, go ahead and keep asking (on travel). Or, go ahead and publish, on this.

  Robert Serry said on television his been in his post six years. But he is leaving, on PNG-ed, this Fall. 

  But what about Matthew Nimetz, UN envoy on the "name issue" of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia -- in place since 1999, that is, FIFTEEN years? Click for his date of appointment.

What about Peter Sutherland on Migration, since 2006?

What about Philippe Douste-Blazy, UN envoy on Innovative Financing, since February 2008, about whom Inner City Press have previously asked questions, here and then here? It is better to answer questions, when public positions and member states' money is at stake. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

   

Ban's 5 Year Rules Violation at ESCAP Ends, Sort Of, as Akhtar Named; France for 16 Years Has DPKO

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- There should be no more than five years at any one UN position, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced.

  But Inner City Press reported on October 7 that the head of the Bangkok-based Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Noeleen Heyzer of Singapore, had been in place more than SIX years now. She was put into the position in August 2007.

 On December 10, the UN announced that Heyzer is being replaced at ESCAP by Shamshad Akhtar of Pakistan. 

  Back in October, Inner City Press noted that Singapore is a serious UN country, so another USG post would have to be identified and given to Heyzer or another Singaporean. 

  The UN's December 10 announced slipped in that Heyzer will stay on, as a Special Adviser on Timor Leste. Is that a USG position? And what about other UN officials with more than five years in their position?

  Beyond this finessing of Ban's five year rule, it brings to mind again the need for a more meaningful reform: no COUNTRY should be able to control a UN department for more than five years. France has held onto Peacekeeping, even since demanding it in exchange for not vetoing Kofi Annan becoming Secretary General. Here they are:

Secrétaires généraux adjoints des Nations Unis aux Opérations de Maintien de la Paix :

Kofi Annan : de mars 1993 à décembre 1996

Bernard Miyet : de janvier 1997 à octobre 2000

Jean-Marie Guéhenno : d'octobre 2000 à juillet 2008

Alain Le Roy : du 30 juin 2008 au 2 septembre 2011

Hervé Ladsous : à compter du 2 septembre 2011

This is UNacceptable: over 16 years, 10 months. It should end.

  Meanwhile the Department of Safety and Security now says that of the 10 staffers given lay off letters earlier this month, only six are now at risk.  Earlier, more security was been gained, commitments from acting Under Secretary General Kevin Kennedy. This emerged at the best "End of General Debate" party of the season, under the (broken) satellite dish over the East River in October. Compared to the fauxceremony of the UN Correspondents Association Executive Committee, which after spying for the UN through its first vice president had to beg interns to come via a rare flyer, and now solicits a donated Samsung TV, DSS had steak and an open bar and plenty of good vibes. There will be another one soon.

  UNCA is given its clubhouse, in which it held a faux UN briefing by Gulf-supported Syria rebel boos Jarba (a/k/a Jarbucks), by the UN; Ban will help them raise $250 a plate in Cipriani's next week.  Of the Samsung TV to UNCA, we have publicly requested an explanation. The new Free UN Coalition for Access holds, if the explanation makes sense, fine; either way it will be published. 

  And now it has, here: UNCA misspoke that no mission was involved in the donation of the Samsung equipment. Watch this site.

Exclusive: At UN, As Ban Ki-moon's Five Year Rule Is Violated at ESCAP in Bangkok, Ladsous Wants to Push Haq There, UNreformed

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, October 7 -- There should be no more than five years at any one UN position, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced.

  But Inner City Press notes, for example, that the head of the Bangkok-based Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Noeleen Heyzer of Singapore, has been in place more than SIX years now. She was put into the position in August 2007, and it is now October 2013.

  But there's more to this than just another example of the UN not living up to its stated principles, as with its Human Rights Due Diligence Policy with continued aid to the two Congolese Army units implicated in the 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012.

Inner City Press is not the only one who noticed that Heyzer's Under Secretary General position at ESCAP could be freed up. 

  Well placed sources exclusively tell Inner City Press that the head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to hold THAT position, wants to push out his co-equal Under Secretary General for the Department of Field Support, Ameerah Haq.

  While an earlier Ban Ki-moon reform involved splitting Peacekeeping into two separate components, DPKO and DFS, now Ladsous wants to dominate both of them, by pushing Haq out of DFS and installing a person of his own choosing. (More on that in a future story.)

  Singapore is a serious UN country, so another USG post would have to be identified and given to Heyzer or another Singaporean. But Ladsous, or better said France, has this kind of control in the UN system.

  Beyond this abuse of Ban's supposed five year rule, it brings up the need for a more meaningful reform: no COUNTRY should be able to control a UN department for more than five years. France has held onto Peacekeeping, even since demanding it in exchange for not vetoing Kofi Annan becoming Secretary General. Here they are:

Secrétaires généraux adjoints des Nations Unis aux Opérations de Maintien de la Paix :

Kofi Annan : de mars 1993 à décembre 1996

Bernard Miyet : de janvier 1997 à octobre 2000

Jean-Marie Guéhenno : d'octobre 2000 à juillet 2008

Alain Le Roy : du 30 juin 2008 au 2 septembre 2011

Hervé Ladsous : à compter du 2 septembre 2011

This is UNacceptable: over 16 years, 9 months. It should end.

  At the other end of the UN spectrum, it's every UN department for itself. The Publishing Unit faces a zeroing out of jobs, from 150 position not long ago. To save some posts, in order to scan old documents in the basement of the UN library, sources exclusively tell Inner City Press that the UN is turning to its new Daddy Warbucks: Qatar.

  Warbucks because while the UN pleads for Qatar's money, that country's royal family funds war in Syria. But the UN says nothing. At least, then, the UN should create a bidding war to save more staffers' jobs. We are against lay-offs, but also against the UN becoming beholden to particular states, creating under Ban Ki-moon a UN "a la carte," to use another French phrase like faux (but not Pho).

  Meanwhile in the Department of Safety and Security, more security has been gained, commitments from acting Under Secretary General Kevin Kennedy. This emerged at the best "End of General Debate" party of the season, under the (broken) satellite dish over the East River Friday night. Compared to the faux ceremony of the UN Correspondents Association Executive Committee, which after spying for the UN through its first vice president had to beg interns to come via a rare flyer, DSS had steak and an open bar and plenty of good vibes.

  UNCA is given its clubhouse, in which it held a faux UN briefing by Gulf-supported Syria rebel boos Jarba (a/k/a Jarbucks), by the UN Department of Public Information, regarding which we have received a detailed recruitment complaint, regarding which we have publicly requested an explanation. The new Free UN Coalition for Access holds, if the explanation makes sense, it's fine. But to not respond, or to only selectively respond, is not. More on this to follow. Watch this site.

   

UN Reform Withdrawn by Swiss After Letter of Ban's Lawyer, Who Won't Speak

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 -- Less than three hours after he withdrew the Small Five draft resolution on Security Council working methods, Swiss Ambassador Seger told Inner City Press that the letter by UN Legal Adviser Patricia O'Brien that led to the withdrawal was "wrong," but that the President of the General Assembly had let it be known that he would express support for the letter.

  In his withdrawal speech, both as prepared and delivered, Seger criticized "legal arguments according to which our resolution should be submitted to a qualified majority of all member States under resolution 53/30 which we find, with all due respect, utterly wrong and biased."

  Inner City Press obtained the O'Brien letter and exclusively published it May 15; Seger on May 16 referred to it being leaked to the press. But it should have been public.

  At Wednesday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon if Ban agrees with his lawyer's ruling. The spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said that since the resolution was withdrawn there was no reason to answer. 

 

  Inner City Press asked again that Patricia O'Brien hold a press availability to answer questions, now that she had issued a legal opinion not only to Ban but all 193 member states. Nesirky said such a briefing is "unlikely," for the reason he previously said. But now O'Brien has impacted a major UN reform issue: is there no accountability?

  Ban Ki-moon talks about transparency, but O'Brien never takes press questions. Ban's more recent hire, top Peacekeeper Herve Ladsous, never answers questions, unlike for example Kofi Annan's top Peacekeeper Jean-Marie Guehenno.

  Ban talks about reform, but blocks it. Here his top lawyer rules for a two-third General Assembly vote for a reform he disfavors, when for his half-baked "Change Management" Ban wanted to proceed without any GA vote at all, until the Group of 77 slapped him down. Some reformer.

  Ban main reform has been the five year mobility rule, now renamed the "rotation" rule. Inner City Press asked on Wednesday if it applies to Patricia O'Brien and later this arrived:

Subject: Patricia O'Brien
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, May 16, 2012
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Regarding Patricia O'Brien, her term started in 2008. Please see below:

6 August 2008 Secretary-General SG/A/1147 BIO/4002

SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS PATRICIA O’BRIEN OF IRELAND AS UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR LEGAL AFFAIRS AND UNITED NATIONS LEGAL COUNSEL

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Patricia O’Brien of Ireland as Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel. Ms. O'Brien, the first woman in this position in the history of the United Nations, will replace Nicolas Michel.

  Note that Michel, whatever other issues, at least held press conferences. So, O'Brien until August 8, 2013? And now Q&A or accountability until then? Watch this site.

Footnote: Ambassador Seger recounted how after he briefed the Security Council as head of the Burundi Peacebuilding Configuration he was not allowed into consultations.

  Inner City Press suggested, ask for an Arria formula meeting, like was held on Guinea Bissau. There, Brazil's Ambassador who heads the PBC on Guinea Bissau pressed to get admitted. It shouldn't be required every time, fine -- but if it is, why not press?

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.