UN Meets Afghan Taliban in Doha, Works Quietly with ICC, On LOTFA & Death of Louis Maxwell

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 19 -- After the UN Mission in Afghanistan's new chief Fink Haysom briefed the Security Council on December 18, he came to the Council's stakeout and took questions from the Press.

His predecessor Jan Kubis had previously answered about the scandal plagued UN Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, promising a “public accounting;” further back when he was Afghanistan envoy, Staffan de Mistura told Inner City Press he would get to the bottom of the killing of UN staff member Louis Maxwell there.

  Haysom on December 18 said that the Louis Maxwell case was being handled by the UN Department of Safety and Security. On December 19, when to his credit he held a sit-down press conference, he said that the LOTFA issues were more for the UN Development Program -- which has been far from responsive -- and that it is largely a matter of answering the questions from donors. That's certainly part of it. But what about the “public accounting”?

  Some of these issues go beyond Haysom as SRSG. It was up to Ban Ki-moon to push the Karzai government about the killing of Louis Maxwell, and he didn't. UNDP should be answering the questions about LOTFA, but isn't. Still, doesn't this make the UNAMA mission's job more difficult?

  Again to his credit, Haysom said that UNAMA formally reached out to the Taliban, on human rights issues, and meet with them in Doha. He emphasized there can be no (entirely) military solution.

  Inner City Press tried to ask UNAMA Human Rights Office chief Georgette Gagnon if her office works with the International Criminal Court's inquiry into Afghanistan. 

 But it was Haysom who answered, saying yes UNAMA participates constructively but that it is confidential. With the release, even redacted, of the summary of the US torture report, the ICC's Afghanistan inquiry has become all the more interesting. We'll have more on this.

Footnote: in terms of accessibility during his visit to UNHQ in New York, Haysom should be credited. Under Secretaries General like Herve Ladsous and even, less abusively, Jeffrey Feltman rarely speak to the media. Inner City Press for the new Free UN Coalition for Access on December 19 thanked Haysom -- and posits that willingness to answer questions from the media should be one of the criteria by which UN officials, including for example the next head of OCHA, are chosen.

   

At UN, All-Afghan Electoral Bodies Are Given Thumbs Up LOTFA Scandal "Being Worked Through" - But What About Louis Maxwell?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 20 -- After the International Contact Group on Afghanistan and Pakistan met Friday in New York, its chair Michael Koch of Germany said the theme had been the UN's work there over the past decade.

Inner City Press asked Koch and James Dobbins, Special Representative of the United States of America to Afghanistan and Pakistan, about the UN's Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, the financial scandal of which Inner City Press covered with exclusive publication of leaked audits showing double-payment of phantom Afghan police, for example.

Koch acknowledged that LOTFA is the mechanism through which funds pledged at the NATO summit in Chicago would get to the Afghanistan police; he said it has been "worked through." But where is a credible report to that effect?

  Inner City Press also asked about the mix of people selected for the Electoral Complaints Commission, given that they are all described as Karzai allies. Dobbins was quick to express satisfaction with how both electoral commissions have been formed. He said the process is "in good shape."

  Koch said that deputy foreign minister Ershad Ahmadi has argued for full sovereignty, including an Independent Electoral Commission being filled only by Afghan nationals. Fine: but all Kazai allies?

  After the two-question briefing, Inner City Press asked Dobbins if he had heard of the case of Louis Maxwell, an American national who while working for the UN was killed while defending other UN staff, allegedly by Afghan national forces. 

  UN officials have several times told Inner City Press that it is up to the US to push the issue. Dobbins had not heard of it; another staffer promised to look into it. Maybe Greg Starr, formerly of the UN and now US State Department, should be asked. Watch this site.

Footnote: Also on the panel, but not answering either of Inner City Press' questions, was the UN's genial envoy Jan Kubis. For that reason, apparently, the spokesperson for UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous moderated the press conference. Unlike for Ladsous, video here, Friday he called on Inner City Press, and everything went fine, even on a question about UN corruption. One would think that would turn the corner. But what's the issue with Ladsous? We'll have more on this, it seems.

   

Big Talk in Doha Omits Bahrain, Turkey, Qatar Role in Golan Kidnaps, Insults of Royal Family; Karzai Raises Questions at US - Islamic World Forum

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 9 -- As Qatar provides arms into Syria, it pays to play peacemaker and intellectual locus, now with the US - Islamic World Forum. 

  Brookings - Doha is there, many Western journalists are there. Husain Haqqani, Martin Indyk and US Under Secretary of State Tara Sonenshine are there; John Kerry will soon be there.

  What's NOT there, at least in the two four person groups on Sunday is any discussion of crackdowns in Bahrain and now Turkey. 

  The question of involvement from Qatar in the kidnapping of UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights? Seemingly not the menu. Tellingly, very little mention of the UN. The UN is becoming, or has become, irrelevant.

  Even in the morning session about Afghanistan, there was almost no talk of the UN. They are there, with the UNAMA mission led by possible Ban Ki-moon successor Jan Kubis. But what is being accomplished?

  Raising big questions while some journalists joke-tweeted about the lack or delay of salad was Hamid Karzai. We spoke about the increase in number of universities in Afghanistan -- good thing -- but called the war on terror less successful. It has led to radicalism, he said, citing yesterday's death count in Benghazi.

  At least he was up to the moment. The other speeches, it's as if they didn't even watch CNN. No mention of tear gas and water cannons in Istanbul or #OccupyGezi. Outgoing OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu didn't mention it. Is Ibrahim Gambari still vying to replace him?

  When the morning session broke for lunch, an MC gushed about the free Wi-Fi. Great: but don't insult the Royal family. A poet was initially sentenced to 15 years for such a poem. You won't hear that, either, at #USislam13. Watch this site

Of US Bags of Cash in Afghanistan, UN Says Nothing, Oil for Food and LOTFA Echoes

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 29 -- After the US giving “bags of cash” to the Hamid Karzai government in Afghanistan was exposed and confirmed, Inner City Press on Monday asked UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky if the UN Mission there had known, and what it now said.

  Nesirky said he's “seen the media reports on that” -- good job -- but “I don't have anything for you on that.” Video here, from Minute 20:08.

  How is that possible? The UN preaches about anti-corruption, at least when it is not a Permanent Five member of the Security Council passing around the bags of cash.

  Last Friday Nesirky's predecessor and spokesman for Kofi Annan, Fred Eckhard, said that the Oil for Food scandal was not so much Annan's fault as that of the powerful countries, P-5 members of the Security Council.

  But now, Ban Ki-moon's UN has nothing to say about the passing of bags of cash to the government in a country in which the UN has a mission.

  Then again, the UN system in Afghanistan has its own corruption scandal, the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan. So perhaps it's in no position to preach.

  One thing to remember: the UNAMA Mission's chief, Jan Kubis, is in the mix to succed Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General. 

  While unlike Ban Kubis has to his credit said clearly that he thinks the UN should practice what it preaches (to the contrary, see Ban on the rule of law and then dismissal of Haiti cholera claims), Kubis would have to keep all five of the P-5 happy. This is how the UN system works. Watch this site.

Exclusive: For Mali Envoy, Ban Slates De Mistura, Who Hired His Son in Law in Iraq, African Grumbles about Italian Connection

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, April 3 -- After Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Susan Rice about the UN's plans for Malimidday on Wednesday, and she replied that robust counter-terrorism should be separate from a UN mission with a strong Special Representative, multiple sources exclusively told Inner City Press the person slated for this post.

  It is Staffan de Mistura, currently in the Italian government as deputy foreign minister 

but “not for long,” as one source put it.

  Previously De Mistura was the Special Representative of the Secretary General in Iraq, where as Inner City Press noted he hired Ban Ki-moon's son in law Siddarth Chatterjee.

  Later when De Mistura was given the top Afghanistan envoy job, he told Inner City Press he would push with the Karzai government for answers on their killing of UN staff member Louis Maxwell. There have still be no answers.

  But “like a bad penny” as one put it, now De Mistura is slated to return.

“What is this Italian connection?” one African delegate asking Inner City Press, pointing out that Ban's Sahel envoy is Romano Prodi, and that Ban recent gave the Deputy slot at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to an Italian, Flavia Pansieri.

  Another asked, “Why are there so few Africans heading up the UN missions in Africa?” 

  The three Western African missions are all led by Europeans. Bert Koenders of the Netherlands, head of the Cote d'Ivoire mission, was at the UN Wednesday, greeted Inner City Press on his way it's said to the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions.

  There is also the American Roger Meece heading the mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An African Deputy Permanent Representative opposed to this new nomination asked, “And now De Mistura? No.”

  An ambassador who Inner City Press asked to comment on De Mistura after learning of the plan laughed and said, “They're going to raid your office again.”

  Others from the Arabic and Muslim side recalled that to the recent Arab League Summit, “not only didn't Ban Ki-moon go, he sent to representative Jeff Feltman, before the US face in the region. What is going on here?”

  But to some the most dissonant note was De Mistura's jobs, prospectively this one, after hiring Ban Ki-moon's son in law Siddarth Chatterjee. 

  After Inner City Press' cusp of the year exclusive on Philippe Douste Blazy's hiring of Ban's daughter Hyun Hee Ban

, there were some calls to make this type of hiring illegal. 

  But as Staffan De Mistura might say, if it's legal and it works, why not do it? Watch this site.

Of 43 UN Staff Detained, Ban Ki-moon's UN Too Often Silent, Sri Lanka to Ethopia

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNdisclosed Location, March 22 -- There are 43 UN personnel detained around the world, the UN Staff Union reminded member states on Friday, calling on them to “sign and ratify the Convention of the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel, as well as its Optional Protocol.”

  That would be a good step. But it must also be noted that the UN Secretariat under Ban Ki-moon has remained silent in some instances where UN staff, particularly national staff, have been detained and subjected to kangaroo court proceedings.

  In some cases, UN staff are killed and the UN stops following up, as has happened on the murder of UN Security's Louis Maxwell by Afghan National Forces. The host country -- that is, the Karzai government -- views the case as closed, UN Envoy Jan Kubis recently told Inner City Press. Video here.

  And Kubis is one of the better UN envoys. Others just say nothing, or wink and nod.

  When Tamil national staff of the UN in Sri Lanka was locked up by the Rapapaksa government there, the UN said almost nothing. In May 2009 while in Colombo, Inner City Press asked the UN Country Team, which made multiple excuses.

  This happened again in Ethiopia, as Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky about on June 22, 2012, after Abdulrahman Sheikh Hassan was sentenced to seven years in prison for “terrorism” for meeting with the Ogaden Liberation Front.

  When Ban went to Ethiopia, did he raise this? Some find the UN Staff Union press release today, almost identical to that used in previous years, as strangely non-responsive to the union-wide No Confidence in Ban Ki-moon vote taken after Ban called his opponents “selfish.” Watch this site.

As UN Criticizes Media in Liberia, No Answers on Somalia or Afghan Censorship

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un1libafsom030510.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 5 -- The UN has reacted angrily to reports that its peacekeepers in Liberia's Lufa County "acted partially in favor of Mandingoes when they (peacekeepers) mounted their tanks in front of the mosque to prevent angry Lormas from attacking it."

The UN's top envoy in Monrovia Ellen Loj told a reporter that he should go to Lofa County before asking any question.

At the March 5 noon briefing in New York, Inner City Press asked spokesman Martin Nesirky about the reports and about the envoy's response to the media. Of this Special Representative of the Secretary General,Nesirky said he wouldn't second guess "him, who is on the ground." But what about the UN trying to discourage questions about its operations?

Recently Inner City Press asked Nesirky if the UN has any response to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's new prohibition on the media covering attacks by the Taliban. At first Nesirky said he hadn't heard about it, but that "generally" the UN favors free press coverage.

But when the UN's top envoy to Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdallah criticized journalists who reported on the killings of civilians by peacekeepers in Mogadishu, and said there should be a one more moratorium on such reporting, the UN did nothing to discipline him. How then could it speak against Karzai's censorship?

UN's Ban and Peacekeepers in Liberia: no questions please

On March 4, Inner City Press asked Nesirky to explain Ould Abdallah's recent call for UN agencies to return to Somalia when he himself can't or won't move to Mogadishu, but rather works out of Nairobi. Nesirky acknowledged it look contradictory and said he would get an answer. But thirty hours later, there was no answer.

On Liberia, after Nesirky's first non response and deference to an SRSG of the wrong gender, a note was brought into it him. He read it out, and this summary was placed in the UN's own "highlights"

U.N. MISSION IN LIBERIA STRESSES IMPARTIALITY IN LOFA COUNTY VIOLENCE

In response to questions, the Spokesperson noted that the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has refuted claims that its forces were partial in last weekend’s violent incident in Lofa County.

The Head of UNMIL, Ellen Margrethe Løj, said UNMIL troops acted promptly and supported no side in the violence, he noted.

Having first heard about a violent demonstration in Konia Town, a batch of UNMIL Formed Police unit was quickly deployed in the Town. On the morning of the violence in Voinjama, both military and police forces intervened to restore calm.

She described the incident as unfortunate and said it was based on what she called unfounded rumours that spread from Konia to Voinjama. Løj said the Lofa incident, which has ethnic undertones, shows that more challenges still remain despite the progress made so far in maintaining peace and security in Liberia.

She said while the United Nations is in Liberia to keep the peace, it is up to Liberians themselves, regardless of religious and ethnic affiliation, to decide whether they want peace.

Nesirky added that UNMIL has confirmed that shotguns and firearms were actually used in the violence by the mob, resulting in four deaths.

He also said that all UN peacekeeping mission work impartially to serve all the people in the countries where they are deployed.

And questions should not even be raised about their impartiality, apparently...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1libafsom030510.html

To Speak or Not with Taliban, Behind Karzai's Expulsion of UN, Its Policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and Don't Explain

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/pngkarzai122707.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 27 -- Afghan president Hamid Karzai has ordered the expulsion of Mervyn Patterson, described as the third-highest UN official in the country, and Michael Semple, said to be with the European Union, for allegedly talking with the Taliban. Wednesday the UN denied that Patterson spoke with the Taliban. But Tom Koenigs the highest UN official in Kabul ten weeks ago told Inner City Press that the UN does not ask who is Taliban and who is not. Video here, from Minute 4:28. Press accounts link this with reports of Britain's MI6 also speaking with the Taliban, contrary to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's statements two weeks ago. In Afghanistan, the issue seems to be that President Karzai does not want it perceived that foreigners, including the UN, are working around him and speaking to the Taliban.

Mervyn Patterson is included in the UN's official "List of Staff," a document the UN considers confidential -- but of June 30, 2006 (and 2005 and 2003) Patterson is designated as "on special leave without pay." In 2002 he was quoted by wire services as mediating between warlords in northern Afghanistan, for example between Abdel Rashid Dostum and Atta Mohammad of Jamiat-e-Islami party, and between Abdul Saboor and Ahmed Khan. A UN insider who worked with Patterson in 2002 describes him as a consummate negotiator, and also says that Michael Semple worked with the UN. (Semple is not listed at all in the UN's List of Staff.) As of 5 p.m. Wednesday at UN Headquarters in New York, the spokesperson's office said Mr. Patterson had not yet left Afghanistan, but that more would be known by morning. The following day, the office confirmed that Patterson had left. Inner City Press asked this office a series of questions, and the response was that

"We can confirm that a UN official had been asked to leave the country on the grounds that their presence is detrimental to national security. This followed a visit to Helmand province to discuss stabilization efforts with local authorities and community representatives in the province. We believe that there is no basis for such a decision and that this is a result of a misunderstanding with the Afghan authorities. Discussions are currently ongoing with the Afghan authorities to rectify this situation so that we can continue with the vital efforts to secure peace, stability and progress for the people of Helmand province.... Was he talking to the Taliban? No. We have been talking to the local authorities and community representatives, we are not talking to the Taliban."

First, if the UN's Tom Koenigs has said that the UN "keeps contact with everybody without asking him or her if they are Taliban," how would the UN so quickly know? Second and more fundamentally, how can one make "efforts to secure peace" without talking to the insurgency?

One week ago, upon his return to New York from visiting survivors of the bombing of the UN building in Algiers, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said:

"We must do even better in explaining to the public and the media the role of the United Nations, wherever we operate -- why we are there, what we do, what we stand for and what we don't. We must make clear we are not there to represent the interests of any one group of nations over another."

While currently this public explaining is lacking, for example here and in Sri Lanka where the UN has remained silent as the government accuses UNICEF of supporting the Tamil Tigers, back on October 15 the UN's outgoing Special Representative to Afghanistan Tom Koenigs said that the UN "keeps contact with everyone, without asking him or her if they are Taliban or not." He also specified, as is relevant here, that ultimate authority for negotiation must rest with the government of Afghanistan. Video here, from Minute 4:28. (Inner City Press had asked, at the televised stakeout in front of the Security Council chamber, about Iran's chiding of the UK and others reaching out to the Taliban.")

News analysis: If, as Mr. Koenigs said in October, the UN does not ask who is Taliban and who is not, this would be the time to explain what the UN is doing, and why. That the UK would desire secrecy, particularly after Gordon Brown's categorical statement two weeks ago, is understandable. But the UN, as called for by Ban Ki-moon, should do "better in explaining." Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/pngkarzai122707.html