After Inner City Press Scoop on UN Posts Sold by Cote d'Ivoire Deputy Permanent Representative, Press Asks Jean of Francophonie Link

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive Series

UNITED NATIONS, March 6 -- In UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, positions in missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti were corruptly put up for sale, a 49-page “Strictly Confidential” UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) report obtained and exclusively published by Inner City Press on February 7shows.

  Despite the various UN answers to Inner City Press set forth below, the Cote d'Ivoire diplomat Bafetegue Ouattara depicted by OIOS soliciting and accepting the bribe is still inside UN headquarters. 

 On March 6, when Michaëlle Jean, Secretary-General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, held a press conference, she said her organization is involved in UN Peacekeeping missions.

  Inner City Press ran from the Security Council stakeout to the UN Press Briefing Room and asked if this Francophone connection in UN Peacekeeping should be cleaned up. Video here.

 Ms. Jean said it did not have to do with language. Perhaps not language - though other diplomats at the UN have asked why the damning OIOS report was only in French. But will it be cleaned up?

 In fact, he has gotten a promotion, to "charge d'affaires" with his putative boss Permanent Representative Yousoufou Bamba said on his way out. The question arises: why is Bamba and not the bribe-taker being removed?

 Who is protecting Bafetegue Ouattara?

 Inner City Press is infromed that Bafetegue Ouattara's defenders include Ibrahim Ouattara (known as "photocopie" due to his resemblance to his brother, President Alassane Ouattara) and two ministers, Mamadi Diane and Roland Adjo-Lessing.

 But what does all this mean for Ouattara's stated commitment to accountability, even for those in his party? 

  What also is the position of France, which has run UN Peacekeeping the last four times in a row and holds the presidency of the UN Security Council this month -- though Ambassador Francois Delattre has said "I have to run" the first two times Inner City Press asked a question, on Burundi and Mali; video here, Vine here. This will be a good one to answer. Watch this site.

  As to Bafetegue Ouattara, despite its own evidence showing the bribes and sale of UN posts, the UN's OIOS didn't make any recommendation about him, nor recommend any changes so it or the UN could.

  Now Inner City Press has learned that a replacement for the head of OIOS Carman Lapoint is being sought. The process to select the next holder of this lone UN oversight position should be transparent, so that real oversight can begin. We'll have more on this.

 On February 16 The Independent followed up, crediting Inner City Press and quoting an unnamed UN spokesman that "we cannot and should not pre-judge the results of the national investigation" and that "there are 36 UN police officers from the Ivory Coast deployed to the mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 60 to the operation in Haiti."

 On February 17, Inner City Press asked UN deputy spokespersonFarhan Haq:

Question:  I wanted to ask about the OIOS [Office for Internal Oversight Services] report about acceptance of bribes for UN police posts that I asked about last week, yesterday The Independent published a story on it.  They quoted a UN spokesman.  I don't know if it was you or Stéphane [Dujarric].  But, what I wanted to ask you about was the substance of it.  It said, “We cannot and should not prejudge the international investigation.”  Since the OIOS report has bank records and you've already taken action, apparently, and repatriated 10 police officers, doesn't the UN think its own report is true?  So, what does it mean to say that… is Côte d’Ivoire supposed to reinvestigate the case before taking action on the Deputy Permanent Representative?  And, finally, they also mention there are 36 Ivoirian police officers in MONUSCO and 60 in MINUSTAH [United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti].  How many have actually been repatriated?  Thanks.

Deputy Spokesman Haq:  Well, regarding that, basically, once the OIOS report was received, we took decisive measures, including ordering the repatriation of all the UN police officers who were involved.  All those officers involved are either gone or in the process of leaving the peacekeeping operations on which they served, which is to say MONUSCO and MINUSTAH.  Beyond that, no police from Côte d’Ivoire will be extended beyond their current assignments and deployment of any subsequent Ivoirian police to UN operations has been suspended until confirmation from Côte d’Ivoire that action has been taken on the OIOS investigation.  And regarding… and regarding the quotes that you had referred to, yes, we're not going to prejudge the results of the national investigation, which the UN has asked the Member State to conduct.  We've insisted that the investigation be very thorough and comprehensive.  We've stressed that the UN should be kept fully informed of the results of the Member State’s investigation and that necessary action should be taken as a result.  But, saying that, now, of course, it's up to them to do it and we won't prejudge the results of their actions.

Inner City Press:  I guess it's actions versus investigation.  You stand behind your own report since you've already sent police officers home based on it, right?

Deputy Spokesman Haq:  Yes, of course.  The people who were found in the internal investigation to have received improper assistance in getting their jobs, those are… like I said, I've either all left or in the process of leaving.

   On the last line, we're left assuming that "I've either all left" means "they've either all left." But how many have left? 

   And why has the Cote d'Ivoire Deputy Permanent Representative who sold UN Peacekeeping posts not been declared Persona Non Grata by the US, which says it cares about peacekeeping and UN reform?

  The UN strip searched and PNG-ed Indian diplomat Khobragade for an employment dispute. Here an Ivorian diplomat has sold posts in UN Peacekeeping. Where's the PNG?

  Tellingly, after the Press' exclusive February 7 exposure of corruption in Herve Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping, its asking about it at the February 9 UN noon briefing and even the UN's long statement in spin and response at the February 10 noon briefing, UN insiders and Ladsous corruption enablers like Reuters and Agence France Presse reported not a word about the corruption.

  Reuters has been spoonfed lines about Ladsous MONUSCO refusing to act against the FDLR in the DRC, which is passes through with no analysis of Ladsous and MONUSCO's history, much less corruption. We'll have more on this.

  On February 12, despite the UN investigative report depicting in detail Cote d'Ivoire's Deputy Permanent Representative Bafetegue Ouattara soliciting and taking bribes to sell posts in Ladsous' MONUSCO and MINUSTAH missions, Inner City Press ran into Bafetegue Ouattara in the basement of the UN, by the garage. After an exchange of words, including a demand to know who leaked the report to Inner City Press (demand rejected), at noon Inner City Press asked, video here:

Inner City Press: the corruption one is as follows:  It has to do with that OIOS [Office of Internal Oversight Services] report that was leaked showing the payment of bribes for peacekeeping posts.  I’d asked Farhan, but I wanted to ask you more because, this morning, I actually ran into the named deputy representative of Côte d’Ivoire, Bafetegue Ouattara, in the building, and since this report, which began in 2013 and was finalized in 2014, has banking records proof of the payment of bribes for peacekeeping posts, I just wondered what does the UN do?  I understand that the peacekeepers have been asked to return home, but the person who solicited and took bribes… does the UN have no recourse at all?

Spokesman Dujarric:  You know, as you well know… As you well know, diplomats are sent here by their Governments.  We have no authority over them.  It is up to national Governments to take action against these, against individuals.

Inner City Press: Is there nothing that a diplomat could do even inside this building that the UN would take action on?  This was soliciting bribes for UN posts.

Spokesman:  As I said, this person works for the Government of the Côte d’Ivoire, it would be up to them to take appropriate action. 

  So again - there is NOTHING that a diplomat couldn't do at the UN? It cannot be said that this UN has zero tolerance for corruption - far from it. Later on February 12, UN Peacekeeping chief Ladsous, who refuses to answer any Press questions, was hobnobbing with diplomats in the Delegates' Entrance to the UN General Assembly. We'll have more on this.

 On February 10 there was a partial answer, video here; transcript here, including

Inner City Press:  Do you think that this… the panel on peacekeeping operations under [José] Ramos-Horta, is this the type of obviously kind of hole in the system that was exploited for personal gain that should be reviewed?

Deputy Spokesman Haq:  This is a clear-cut case of corruption which was found by our Office for Internal Oversight Services, and we're following up on that.  Clearly, quite a good measure of the follow-up also needs to be handled by the Member State involved.

   But there are many unresolved questions; watch this site.

 Two days after that exclusive, on February 9 Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq for the response of UN Peacekeeping, whose chief Herve Ladsous since Inner City Press raised corruption has refused all Press questions, specifically what Ladsous has done in the ten months he has been on notice of this corruption, as shown by the leaked documents. February 9 video here.

 On February 10, UN deputy spokesperson Haq came to the noon briefing with a prepared answer, which he read out. February 10 video here. He said that further recruitment of UN Police for Cote d'Ivoire has been suspended pending that country taking action.

 Inner City Press asked if all ten police described as paying bribes have been repatriated, for the status of the Deputy Permanent Representative Ouattara shown taking bribes, and if inquiries have been made with other countries which send soldiers or police to the UN.

  Haq said that the ten have left or are in the process of leaving. Six months after the final report? "In the process of leaving"?

 Worse, Haq said it is up to Cote d'Ivoire if the Deputy Permanent Representative remains in his post at and in the UN. Isn't collective bribes for UN posts a crime? And not only in Cote d'Ivoire? 

 Inner City Press asked Haq if this obvious loophole allowing corruption will be reviewed by Ban Ki-moon's panel of Peace Operations, to which Inner City Press has already forwarded the OIOS report. Video here.

 Another question that has been raised to Inner City Press by diplomats after reading the exclusive is whether Ladsous had a duty, at least before the UN Security Council's trip to Haiti last month led by Chile and the US to tell Council members that bribes had been collected for positions in the MINUSTAH mission there.

 Inner City Press has raised the question to MINUSTAH's chief and spokesperson, as to DR Congo mission MONUSCO's chief Martin Kobler, separate story here (as Kobler runs to be Ladsous' peer atop UN aid agency OCHA.)

 Haq told Inner City Press that "this was corruption found by our own internal oversight." But the report says the UN's OIOS "received" information about these possibly corrupt practices on July 24, 2013. We'll have more on this.

   

Amid Diplomacy & Double Standards at UN, Fond Farewell to India's Deputy Permanent Representative Manjeev Singh Puri

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 13 -- Amid the chaotic whirl of the UN's diplomatic holiday party season, some farewells cannot be missed. Thursday night's for India's Deputy Permanent Representative Manjeev Singh Puri was one such event.

  There were hurdles to surmount: his goodbye meeting with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, listed for 4:40 pm, was postponed for a photo op of Ban receiving Ake Sellstrom's second Syria chemical weapons report (Ban took no questions). Manjeev said bye to Ban at 5:40; Ban but not bloggers later appeared at the Bahrain national day.

  Then, crossing Second Avenue to the Indian mission on 43rd Street, an African Permanent Representative told Inner City Press he was supposed to "go to Francophonie first" -- but decided "Manjeev is more important." Despite other actual superpower events, this priority was shared.

  Inside the Indian mission, Under Secretaries General like from the Department of Political Affairs (recounting travels in Syria before his Lebanon posting for the US government made this no longer comfortable) and other African Permanent Representatives noshed on spicy meat rolls.

  Making an appearance was Hardeep Singh Puri, heading back to India, and his successor as Permanent Representative Asoke Mukerji. Manjeev's successor, who he's been showing around the UN, was there: B.S. Bishnoi.

  Afghanistan's Zahir Tanin told Inner City Press that from his perspective, the Inter Governmental Negotiation on Security Council reform held earlier in the day had gone better than expected. 

  As Inner City Press note, it began with less the forty countries signed up, down from a previous ninety, due to dissatisfaction with President of the General Assembly John Ashe's Advisory Group of six and their recent "non-paper" supplemented by a memo from San Marino's Permanent Representative Daniele Bodini, one of Ban Ki-moon's golf partners.

Recently another Permanent Representative went to ask how he, too, could golf with Ban and was told he'd have to find out which clubs to join. That too is how the UN goes, double standards everywhere -- but with Manjeev Singh Puri going, some laughter and sharp analysis will be lost. Watch this site.

   

To Strike Syria, France Rattles Sword But Lawless in Africa, from DRC Combatant to Shifty on Mali, Franco-Phony

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 30 -- In the wake of the UK Prime Minister David Cameron modifying his Syria strike proposal and still seeing it voted down, French President Francois Hollande has presented his country as ready to hit Syria even before a September 4 "emergency debate."

  The reversal from the UK and French legal positions on the war in Iraq could not be more stark. But tellingly at the UN on August 29, right before the meeting of the Permanent Five members of the Security Council on Syria, France's Ambassador Alexis Lamek proved himself unable or unwilling to answer a simple question about international law.

Video here, from Minute 3:33.

  Inner City Press asked Lamek, repeatedly, if the UN's Intervention Brigade in Eastern Congo is a party to the armed conflict there, if the UN troops are in fact combatants.

  Legal experts have told Inner City Press it is not even a close question: when the UN uses force (here, attack helicopters) to try to "neutralize" armed groups, the UN is a combatant, a party to an armed conflict.

   Even the French-drafted Security Council press statement on the DRC, with a convoluted paragraph on when attacks are war crimes and when they are not, acknowledges the issue. But Lamek refused to answer. Has France under Hollande not only reversed its previous legal stance, but become lawless?

Perhaps France's lawlessness in its former colonies in Africa has leached out. In intervening in Mali, France claimed vaguely it was "in the framework" of international law, then switched theories.

  Now, a French Defense Department spokesman tweets that France will be closing 14 of its embassies in for economic reasons, and 22 satellite offices and cultural centers, giving as examples Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Sao Tome -- that is, African countries which were NOT French colonies. 

  It's a country turning in on itself or the remnants of its empire, while Hollande tries to say the French language is on the rise. Saying it doesn't make it so. Watch this site.

   

On Western Sahara, Debate of Who's AU, As HRW's Bungles Help Morocco

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 22 -- The politics of this year's renewal of the Western Sahara UN mission MINURSO is complicated by an unexpected factor: Rwanda's understandable mistrust of Human Rights Watch and what it has come to stand for.

  Rwanda is not only this month's Security Council president, but is also the African Union member on the Security Council which would be expected to advocate for the position of the Frente POLISARIO.

  In recent years this advocacy was done by Uganda then South Africa, while Francophone African members like Gabon and now Togo do not take that line.

  But Rwanda, which openly questioned the credibility of Human Rights Watch during its campaign for the Security Council last year, with foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo memorably saying HRW holds fundraising dinners and uses exotic African names but has neither knowledge nor respect, is adverse to HRW and its positions.

  So who, really, did Human Rights Watch serve with its open letter urging the Council “to extend the mandate to incorporate human rights monitoring in Western Sahara.”

  In fact, this served Morocco. Now the natural advocate for AU positions is against “non state actor” HRW's call to extend the mandate. 

 Ever Afro-centric, Rwanda wants there to be the promised referendum in Western Sahara. But to impose outside, HRW-style human rights “B.S.” on another African country, at HRW's request? They say no.

  So Morocco, in a sense, is lucky. Their position is that the African Union letter is “really just Zuma, that is, South Africa.” They point out that the AU under Jean Ping never wrote such a letter. But wasn't that... just Ping, and the Francophonie?

  Morocco will come off the Council at the end of 2013, which should increase the odds of a human rights mandate being added to MINURSO. But Morocco points out that Nigeria would probably be coming on, and “doesn't share the view of South Africa” on Western Sahara.

 On HRW, it's worth noting that their Ken Roth has repeatedly refused to provide even a summary of the issues he raised to Ban Ki-moon (one assumes HRW shares this with donors, at least big donors). HRW won't even send out its statements even-handedly.

  Meanwhile, we have added the full text of POLISARIO's letter to Rwandan Ambassador Gasana, as Security Council President, to our story from earlier today, here.

  There is more and more talk about the US gambit to finally include human rights in MINURSO's mission: who was behind it and how it will play out. Watch this site.

For France's Global Anti-Executions Campaign, Fabius Rebuffs Q on Francophony

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 27 -- When French foreign minister Laurent Fabius came to the UN stakeout to promote what he called France's global campaign against the death penalty, one assumed he would take questions other than in French, and that he would explain what France is doing with the group of countries in the so-called Francophonie.

But the first question selected was about Iran, and in French. Then another French journalist was called on, to ask about Japan and its executions.

Inner City Press spoke up, asking "What about the countries in the Francophonie?" But the questioning was pushed elsewhere.

Then France's Permanent Representative Gerard Araud, who several Security Council members tell Inner City Press bragged in closed consultations of being proud to be able to denigrate religion, came in whispered in Fabius' ear.

When Benin's foreign minister Nassirou Bako Arifari finished answering a question, Fabius shook his head and said no, he had to go. He had heard the Francophonie question, but chose not to answer it. And so goes this French government and its global anti death penalty campaign.

Footnote: by contrast, at the very same stakeout area on the very same morning, Inner City Press questions were taken and answered by the foreign ministers of Jordan and Italy,Australia and the Netherlands. The first two professed support for freedom of the press. This French presidency, and particularly its French Mission to the UN, does not seem to share that.