At UN, Col. Sanders of KFC Promotes Chicken As UN's Laxity on Corporations Discussed

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un1kfc102209.html

UNITED NATIONS, October 22, follow up here -- At the UN Security Council stakeout on Thursday, Kentucky Fried Chicken was promoted by a visitor to the UN dressed up as KFC figurehead Colonel Sanders. As the Security Council discussed, among other things, the plight of refugees from Darfur in camps in Eastern Chad, KFC's Sanders stood before the flags of the 15 Council members, at the UN microphone.

Ironically, just next to the Security Council in the UN's briefing room, the UN's expert on transnational corporation and Human Rights John Ruggie explained his mandate to the Press. Inner City Press asked why the UN is so soft on corporation, through its UN Global Compact, including Deutsche Bank which holds the funds of Turkmenistan's dictators and Nestle which is reported to be involved in the production of chocolate by children trafficked from Mali into Ivory Coast.

One might have added KFC, whose Col. Sanders as one wag joked bitterly may have killed, through heart congestion and attacks, as many people as some of those indicted by the International Criminal Court, despite not being a military and therefore not a war criminal despite the Colonel in his name. The wag imagined a sign board or campaign, "Send KFC to the ICC."

Inner City Press has asked the Office of the Spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to provide information on how the KFC Colonel Sanders impersonator was allowed into the UN, and to the Security Council stakeout area, from which even UN staff members are often prohibited.

"Maybe they got observer status -- why not KFC, if they gave it to IOC?" asked the wag, referring to the International Olympics Committee, which joined the Holy See and Palestine in UN Observer Status this week. Watch this site.

Update of Thursday evening: Despite the Office of the Spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon being asked about KFC's presence in the UN at the stakeout both at the noon briefing and, again, by Inner City Press just after, no explanation was received, nor yet to these submitted questions:

1. Did any United Nations staff person facilitate the entry into the HQ of a character portraying "Colonel Sanders" on Thursday Oct 22nd?

2. Did KFC, its parent YUM! Brands, or its PR agency Weber Shandwick solicit and receive permission from the United Nations to use the the Secretary-General's and/or the UN's name in its corporate press release and advertising campaign?

3. Has the Secretary-General received the letter cited in KFC's corporate press release and advertising campaign?

4. Will the UN's Office of Legal Affairs take steps to inform YUM! Brands or its agents that it is misusing the UN's name, in violation of applicable General Assembly resolutions?

5. Has the UN's Office of Legal Affairs previously given permission to YUM! Brands or its agents to use the UN's name in other advertising materials?

6. Does the UN think that the UN Security Council should be used as a backdrop for the sale of grilled chicken?

Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1kfc102209.html

UN's Quintana Soft on Myanmar, Praises Regime's Rohinga Ruling, in Total Denial

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unhr1myanmar102209.html

UNITED NATIONS, October 22 -- As two repressive countries were reviewed Thursday at the UN, the different approach of the two UN rapporteurs emerged through torture as a story in itself. Both Myanmar and North Korea have country specific rapporteurs, to which the UN's other human rights experts defer on events in the two nations. For example, when Inner City Press asked the UN's expert on the rights of the indigenous James Anaya about the plight of Rohinga and other ethnic minorities in Myanmar, Anaya said he defers to the country expert, Tomas Ojea Quintana.

Likewise when Inner City Press asked the UN's expert on business and human rights, John Ruggie, about Total's investment in Myanmar, Ruggie said he deferred to Quintana.

But Quintana on Thursday appeared to some to defend the regime of Than Shwe. When Inner City Press asked about the Rohinga, rather than speak about the denial of citizenship and mass exodus as boat people, Quintana praised a Burmese court decision that Rohinga can marry each other.

When Inner City Press asked about Total's and others investment with the Than Shwe government in the gas and oil sector -- payments from which are said to make up the 41% of the regime's budget which goes to military spending, Quintana referred the question back to Ruggie -- who not three hours earlier, sitting in the same seat as Quintana, had said he has nothing to say on company-specific questions.

Inner City Press asked Quintana point blank if when he goes to Myanmar, he is escorted by the military. Quintana said "there are limitations," but would not describe them.

By contrast, the outgoing rapporteur on North Korea Vitit Muntarbhorn, called Kim Jong-il's a dictatorship, described the punishment of those who seek to flee, and noted that the World Food Program can't inspect its programs except on one week's notice. Click here for that.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unhr1myanmar102209.html