On UN's 38th Floor for Compacts, Of Jobs for Sale in Haiti & DR Congo, Of Myanmar & Missing Nambiar, Ladsous and Lack of Accountability

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 13 -- When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon signed 29 “compacts” with senior UN officials in his 38th floor conference room on February 13, there was an elephant in the room. 

  Herve Ladsous, in charge of UN Peacekeeping, has overseen and seemingly covered up a scandal in which position in the missions in Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo were sold for money. See Inner City Press exclusive report here.

   Ladsous has refused, since Inner City Press asked about corruption, to answer any Press questions. Video compilation here, most recent here. But on February 13, as Inner City Press rode a UN elevator up to the 38th floor chatting with another Under Secretary General, Ladsous got on the elevator. Silence descended.

   In the conference room, as Ban's officials assembled, outgoing Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said, “Where are all the women?”  (Later the envoys on Children and Armed Conflict and on Sexual Violence in Conflict arrived, group photo here.)

  Amos is leaving in March, and the UK proposed as her replacement -- thinking it owned the position in the same way France owns UN Peacekeeping -- Andrew Lansley, now opposed by more than 70,000 people, see Inner City Press story here.

  During the signings, Yuri Fedotov by video made the first or best joke - he signed two contracts but “only one salary,” he quipped. Joan Clos of HABITAT from Nairobi, too, made a joke, saying “Okay” then being told his Compact hadn't yet been signed.

   At the UN noon briefing two hours later, Inner City Press asked why Vijay Nambiar, Ban's Special Adviser on Myanmar and presumably still an Under Secretary General, had not signed a compact. Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Nambiar might be on travel. 

  But in the side room Inner City Press was led through, a table was set with Nambiar's name on it. We'll have more on this - and on Nambiar's praise of the Burmese government but silence so far on its revocation of voting rights for the Rohingya Muslim minority.

  On Ban's side of the table was his senior adviser Kim Won-soo, whom Inner City Press has reported is in the running, alongside Dmitry Titov, for the Department of Political Affairs position vacated by Oscar Fernandez Taranco (who after meetings in DC about Bangladesh was present Friday and signed his compact).

   Ban in his speech emphasized that journalists can see these Compact and will hold the UN accountable. That is in part the reason this report is being written this way. Inner City Press notes that in Ban's “public financial disclosures,” Ladsous' name goes to an error message: no file. 

 Accountability, the new Free UN Coalition for Access posits, inevitably must involve answering questions. Watch this site.

   

Exclusive Follow Up: In UN OCHA Race, Now Inner City Press Is Told of Interview Panel, Red Cross, South Africa in Mix

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive Series

UNITED NATIONS, February 12, more here, Video I here-- After Inner City Press reported on UK Prime Minister David Cameron's angry or "rude" call to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and more than a month after Inner City Press exclusively reported on Cameron's second and third nominees to replace Valerie Amos, then on a United Arab Emirates candidate, on February 12 Inner City Press learned more about the selection process.

  Beyond Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson, who as on many similar issues Ban Ki-moon has put in charge of this process, Inner City Press is informed that the interview panel consists of two senior UN officials and two outside officials, including "the Swiss chief of the International Committee of the Red Cross."

   That would be Peter Maurer, formerly Switzerland's Ambassador to the UN. As one source put it, this puts the UK with its "weak" candidates "even further behind the eight ball."

   Non-UK candidates, as Inner City Press has already first reported, include Germany's Martin Kobler, the United Arab Emirates' Lubna Khalid Al Qasimi -- for whom Ban was heavily lobbied when he was in the UAE recently -- and, Inner City Press now hears, "a South African candidate." We'll have more on this.

 Back on February 9 Inner City Press asked the UN more about the process, and a protest:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask a follow-up on the replacement of Valerie Amos.  The group Avaaz has said that it has collected 70,000 signatures saying that Andrew Lansley is not qualified to head OCHA. I wanted to know whether the UN is aware of that petition, what they think of it, and also how the selection process jibes with what the Secretary-General said in the UAE, which is that people should be involved in decision-making.  What is the process for which either aid groups or individuals that are beneficiaries of UN humanitarian assistance have to impact this important decision?

Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq:  The Secretary-General stands by what he said.  The Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, is in charge of the process of determining a successor and is relying on people both inside and outside the system in terms of helping with that determination.  Beyond that, we wouldn't have much detail to give until a selection is made.  Regarding the petition:  Yes, the United Nations has received that petition.

Inner City Press:  And will the candidates be interviewed generally, I’m asking generally?  And two, is Martin Kobler in the final list?

Deputy Spokesman Haq:  I wouldn't confirm any names of candidates.  There is a list of candidates, and there are people who will be interviewed, yes.  And with that, Mr. Šimonovic, please come up. (video here, transcript here.)

 Meanwhile, UK Channel 4 today reported that a decision will be made this week.

  Citing Inner City Press' exclusive reporting on  Caroline Spelman and Stephen O'Brien, the UK's second round of candidates after opposition to Andrew Lansley, C4's Lindsey Hilsum says Germany's candidate Martin Kobler led in a poll of 200 UN staff by Avaaz.

  Whatever the other merits, there is now another unaddressed scandal at the UN Mission in the DR Congo, MONUSCO, which Kobler is in charge of. As exclusively uncovered by Inner City Press, UN Police posts in Kobler's mission were for sale, by the Deputy Permanent Representative of Cote d'Ivoire to the UN. Click here for that.

  Inner City Press 24 hours before this report sought comment and explanation -- particularly for the UN having sat on this report since April of 2014 -- from Kobler and MONUSCO, but so far, nothing.

  Shouldn't Kobler have to answer? Watch this site.

   Back on January 14, Inner City Press was informed by sources of a minister from the United Arab Emirates, Lubna Khalid Al Qasimi, a member of the ruling family of Sharjah, put forward as a candidate by the UAE. The UAE has, it was noted,, the "Humanitarian City." And the UAE did give $1 million to OCHA's CERF last month.

  But the UAE sought, and has been unable to obtained, UN Asia Pacific Group consensus support for their candidate. This is a set-back. 

The UK's second duo of candidates, after opposition to Andrew Lansley: Caroline Spelman and Stephen O'Brien. Are those who oppose and opposed Lansley being lobbied?

  Germany's candidate Martin Kobler, a close observer emphasizes to Inner City Press that Kobler was for a time the UN's first choice to be UN Special Coordinator on the Middle East, before after opposition by a Permanent Five Security Council member the position went to Robert Serry.

  Now Serry is to be replaced by Nickolay Mladenov, currently UN envoy in Iraq. The UK -- seeming to reflect a lack of confidence it will retain OCHA -- sought to name one of its national to replace Mladenov, but was shot down by Iraq. That process is now in its final stages.

  While Inner City Press exclusively published the Mladenov to Serry switch before midnight in New York on January 30, eleven hours later one of the board members of the UN Censorship Alliance put it out without any credit at all. That's UNCA - Inner City Press quit and co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access, after attempts at censorship and refusal of UNCA's board to issue even guidance about not stealing exclusives. Call it sleaze.

  Back on November 26, minutes after the UN announced the departure of Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs chief Baroness Valerie Amos, Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq if the vacancy would be advertised for candidates from all countries, or if it is set aside for Amos' United Kingdom.

  On January 30 Inner City Press was reliable informed that UK Prime Minister David Cameron telephoned Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and said -- "rudely," according to denizens of the UN's 38th floor -- that despite the UK's submission of two additional names, below, Ban "must" pick Andrew Lansley.

  These sources say that Ban, as if to prove independence, will NOT choose Lansley but will keep the post UK, choosing on a progressive basis the female candidate,Caroline Spelman. Are those opposed to Lansley being lobbied for her?

  We'll have more on this.

   

In Munich, The Elders Slam Opaque UN Secretary General Race, FUNCA Says Look at OCHA, UNCA, Opaque

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 7 -- When Ban Ki-moon was selected as UN Secretary General in 2006 it was an untransparent process, with secret ballots in the Security Council.  

   Today both processes were criticized by "The Elders." Appearing at the Munich Munich Security Conference, four Elders including Ban's predecessor Kofi Annan along with Gro Harlem Brundtland, Martti Ahtisaari and Graça Machel unveiled a UN reform plan.

  Beyond Security Council reform, they specifically criticized Secretary General selection process for lack of transparency and choice, and suggested a single seven year term to avoid simply trying to get re-elected.

  To replace Ban, the Elders say "we call on the General Assembly to insist that the Security Council recommend more than one candidate for appointment as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, after a timely, equitable and transparent search for the best qualified candidates, irrespective of gender or regional origin. We suggest that the next Secretary-General be appointed for a single, non-renewable term of seven years, in order to strengthen his or her independence and avoid the perception that he or she is guided by electoral concerns."

 Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access, fighting for transparency including a Freedom of Information Act at the UN, agree and believe the Elders should have gone one level down, more timely, and criticized the ownership of Under Secretary General positions by P3 Security Council members like Peacekeeping and France's Herve Ladsous, and theprocess to replace Valerie Amos as OCHA, here.

  Even further down, the under-performance of Team Ban, including for example UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, has been enabled and concealed by what has become the UN's Censorship Alliance, formally the United Nations Correspondents Association.

  On November 14 this organization in decline formally announced a slate of six officers -- all without any competition at all. It was a pure rubber stamp, "yes," with the only question being turn-out. The top post was handed (back) to Giampaolo Pioli, who engaged in outright censorship while last using the position. 

  Pioli, who had rented one of his Manhattan apartments to Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's ambassador, unilaterally granted Kohona's request to use UNCA to screen inside the UN a government film denying war crimes.

  Then Pioli demanded that reporting of these facts must be removed from the Internet (compilation of audio here) or he would use UNCA to try to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN.  

 Voice of America, then on the UNCA Executive Board, wrote a letter to the UN asking that Inner City Press' accreditation be reviewed; a Freedom of Information Act request showed that VOA said it had the support of Agence France Presse and Reuters (which they tried to censor its anti-Press complaint to the UN by claiming it is copyrighted, here.)

  Now in 2015 Pioli has returned. Reuters has on the board its current correspondent as well as its retired UN bureau chief. Agence France Presse, which had been off the UNCA Executive Committee after having used it to complain about Press reporting on Herve Ladsous, wanted to return but did not make it; it was handed a seat on another board announced by UNCA.

 Only News Agency of Nigeria, which ran in 2013, did not run this time: its UN office space was taken away in 2014, ostensibly due to scarcity when UNCA is given a big room that sits empty and locked most of the time, then opens for events that could and should have occurred in the UN's Press Briefing Room, open and on UNTV. This is the UN's Censorship Alliance. We'll have more on this.

 As to the Secretary General's race, an earlier reform letter's signatories included Avaaz, Amnesty International, CIVICUS, Equality Now, FEMNET, Forum-Asia, Global Policy Forum, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Social Watch, Third World Network, Women’s Environment and Development Organization, the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy and the World Federation of United Nations Associations.

The new Free UN Coalition for Access, formed in response to the decline in media access and transparency generally under Ban Ki-moon, heartily agrees with the need to reform and improve the Secretary General selection process. 

 Candidates so far including Helen Clark of UNDP, who virtually never takes press questions while in New York, the headquarters of UNDP, amiduntransparent layoffs, and Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO, an agency which on November 3 led an event about journalists at which not a single question from a journalist was taken. There's also among others, in this SG race we will closely cover, a Latina trio, Kristalina Georgieva, Miroslav Lajcak, Kevin Rudd, Dalia Grybauskaite, Vuk Jeremic, Danilo Turk, Jan Kubis - that is, unlike the UN's Censorship Alliance, at least there is some competition.

Tellingly, after September's General Assembly debate week, UNCA's“complaints” to Ban's Secretariat are to ask for fewer events, for a private wi-fi network for in-house UN journalist and not those who cover to cover the week, and a booklet co-signed with Ban.

UN Censorship Alliance lunch, Feb 11, 2014 including Pam Falk and continuing Kahraman Haliscelik, Sylviane Zehil, Erol Avdovic, Bouchra Benyoussef, Seana Magee, Nabil Abi Saab, Evelyn Leopold, Talal Al-Haj, Melissa Kent, Michelle Nichols, Sangwon Yoon, Valeria Robecco, Sherwin Bryce-Pease, Zhenqiu Gu UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

  And now - the 2015 version, here. No improvements, at the UN.

Meanwhile, UNCA makes no mention of restrictions of access that week such as the French mission ordering all non-French journalists out of the UN's Press Briefing Room, and UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous physically blocking the Press' camera, Vine here.

  The new Free UN Coalition for Access has raised these issues, publicly, in fliers and in the UN's Press Briefing Room. Tellingly, the UN Secretariat appears ready to limit its "interlocutors" on media access to the very insiders at UNCA who have overseen and promoted the decline in access. It's the UN Censorship Alliance.

  An analogy that some have now made: it's one thing that Kurt Waldheim was UN Secretary General once. But what would it say about the UN if he were to return, after a haitus, for more time atop the organization?

  Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, is appearing in polls as running for president of his native South Korea in 2017. Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesperson about it, who said Ban is “currently” focused on his current job. This has been repeated in South Korea, here. The UN is being used; the UN is in further decline; there are moves afoot to stem the tide of decay. Watch this site.

   

Given How Ban Ki-moon Gave UN Pension Fund Post, OCHA Successor Concerns Multiply

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 19, more here -- When the UK's David Cameron put forward dubious candidate(s) to replace Baroness Valerie Amos as the UN's chief humanitarian officer and Inner City Press asked if there will be any outside review, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman replied that Ban can and will do such reviews himself.

   The reason some are not convinced -- including for example the more than 80 non-governmental organizations who have written to Ban demanding a credible independent review of OCHA candidates -- is exemplified on Ban's schedule for the afternoon of January 19.

  From Ban's schedule: "3:30 p.m    Ms. Carolyn Boykin, Secretary-General’s Representative for United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund Asset Investments"

  Many people raised concerned to Ban, including that Boykin "served as CIO of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System.. before leaving abruptly."

  Why? Here's from the Baltimore Sun:

Boykin also disclosed that Chapman had told her as far back as August 2001 that a money manager he selected had invested in a Chapman-controlled company.

She didn't act on that information, she said, because she thought Chapman meant the manager had invested personal funds, not state pension money - a misinterpretation Chapman yesterday called "incredible."

"What else could I have been talking about?" Chapman said. Boykin declined to comment for this article.

  Declining to comment? This is a badge of honor in today's UN: witness Herve Ladsous, video here, UK coverage here.

  Meanwhile UN Pension Fund staff informed Inner City Press they are told that they cannot complain to the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services without first telling the very people of whom they would be complaining. 

 Not only did Ban go ahead and appoint, and today meet with, Boykin - there has been no public explanation of why this is ok, why the above was ignored.

  Who will it be on OCHA? We will continue to pursue this.

Exclusive Follow Up: In OCHA Race, Minster from UAE Joins Italy's Bonino, Kobler of Germany, UK 3

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive Follow Up

UNITED NATIONS, January 14, video here -- Minutes after the UN announced the departure of Humanitarian Affairs chief Baroness Valerie Amos on November 26, Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq if the vacancy would be advertised for candidates from all countries, or if it is set aside for Amos' United Kingdom.

  Then on January 9, Inner City Press exclusively reported that the UK after first submitting only the name of Andrew Lansley has added too more, scarcely more qualified. 

   And, significantly, the Italy had nominated Emma Bonino, sources exclusively told Inner City Press, and Germany nominated Martin Kobler, currently the head of the UN's Mission in the Congo.

  Now on January 14, Inner City Press is informed by sources of another candidate, a minister from the United Arab Emirates, Lubna Khalid Al Qasimi, a member of the ruling family of Sharjah. The UAE has, it is noted,, the "Humanitarian City." And the UAE did give $1 million to OCHA's CERF last month.

   Bonino is well regarded in international circles -- one source said she is "too strong a character" for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to choose -- and Kobler after Iraq has his experience in the Congo, for better and worse. Either is more experience than the UK troika.

  Beyond Lansley, whose qualification is a brief visit to UN health conferences, the other UK candidates sources tell Inner City Press are Caroline Spelman and Stephen O'Brien.  Humanitarian groups, who have petitioned Ban to establish a selection procedure including the IASC, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, are not impressed by the UK's candidates.

  Could the UK really lose this Under Secretary General post? It's looking more likely. If Kobler were chosen, would fellow German Angela Kane have to leave? What about Staffan De Mistura, USG and Syria envoy, and Bonino? We'll have more on this.

  Back on November 26, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq insisted to Inner City Press that the position is "open to people from any region," transcript below, the disposition of the top jobs in UN Peacekeeping (four Frenchmen in a row) and Political Affairs (two consecutive Americans) indicates otherwise.

  Then from the UK came word that Prime Minister David Cameron is tapping the man he in July "sacked as Health Secretary and Leader of the House: Andrew Lansley" and "has reportedly refused to come up with two alternative candidates, as requested by the UN Secretary General."

  Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric about this on December 1. Video here. He declined to comment on what "may or may not be private diplomatic communications."

  Consider, now, that Lansley's controversies include health care law conflicts of interest, carrying the water of McDonald's and KFC and using public funds to renovate his country house. OCHA, anyone?

  Dujarric, when asked by Inner City Press on December 1, insisted that Ban will put out a call to all member states to nominate candidates. We'll see -- but if true, why wasn't this done before Ban made Herve Ladsous the fourth Frenchman in a row atop UN Peacekeeping?

  While the UN refuses to be transparent about this "please submit three candidates" form of limited competition for positions already designated by nationality, it is what happened with UN Peacekeeping, multiple sources have told Inner City Press.

  But even this is often waived. It is UNclear if when B. Lynn Pascoe left as head of the UN Department of Political Affairs, the US put forward anyone beyond Jeffrey Feltman, who has the job.

  For Peacekeeping, as Inner City Press exclusively reported in July 2011, when Alain Le Roy left France put forward three candidates and Ban Ki-moon selected Jerome Bonnafont, then France's ambassador to India.

  After Bonnafont started bragging about having the job, and Inner City Press reported such boast based on sourcing in India and closer, Team Ban decided that Bonnafont was not the team player they were looking for.

  But then president Nicolas Sarkozy, angered, refused to put forward another trio of candidates, instead "dumping" on the UN Herve Ladsous, who had been rejected by Kofi Annan during a previous one-of-three process. Ban Ki-moon accepted these damaged goods, and Ladsous has gone on to cover up rapes by the Congolese Army and now in Darfur, and to openly refuse to answer Press questions,video compilation here, UK New Statesman coverage here.

  How would Lansley be? And how is the UN in such decay? Even for the Secretary General position there wassome limited competition. 

 At a much smaller but not unrelated level, the in-house United Nations Correspondents Association is set to "elect" as president, with no competition, a rarely present Italian scribe Giampaolo Pioli, who tried to censor Press articles about Sri Lanka in his previous tenure, click here for that. Also under Pioli, UNCA was used to try to censor, or censure, Inner City Press' reporting about how Ladsous was foisted on the UN, here.

  One reason the UN is in such decay is that few questions are asked, and even fewer are answered, at the UN. Here's the UN's transcript of what Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq on November 26:

Inner City Press: on the Under-Secretary-General position for OCHA, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, could describe what the process for recruitment will be in the context that many people say that at least the top three jobs are pretty much assigned by country, for Humanitarian Affairs that was John Holmes and then Amos; the US had [B. Lynn] Pascoe, now Mr. Feltman; that France has had peacekeeping four times in a row.  Is this job going to be put in The Economist?  Are you seeking candidates from any Member State that chooses to step forward, or is it essentially designated for the United Kingdom?

Deputy Spokesman Haq:  The idea that there are spots that are designated is more a popular myth than reality.  As you know, many of the positions that have been said to be earmarked for this or that country have not over time proven to be that way.  There was an idea that Political Affairs was reserved for someone from the United Kingdom.  It hasn’t been that way for quite some time.  There’s been talk of how different agencies are headed by Americans or other nationalities, for example, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), and over time you see that hasn’t held true.  That’s the case with this position, as well.  We’re seeking applicants from every area.

Inner City Press:  Will it be like in The Economist?  Is there going to be some public process to seek candidates?

Deputy Spokesman Haq:  We are seeking candidates.  We don’t talk so much about the appointment process as it’s in procedure, but certainly it’s open to people from any region.

  We'll stay on this.

  There have been rumblings, noted by Inner City Press, of DPA chief Jeffrey Feltman leaving -- and of the US perhaps trading Political Affairs for Peacekeeping. But that theory seems to have been that US State Department Number Three Wendy Sherman would move up to William Burns' deputy spot, opening her position for the return of Feltman.

  Now that the Obama administration has put Tony Blinken into the State Department Deputy post, as one insider told ICP, “Feltman stays at the UN.”

Even without any double switch, Ladsous is under fire atop DPKO, not only for refusal to answer questions, back to rapes in Minova in DR Congo, but now in Tabit in Darfur as well. 

 Haq, like lead UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on November 26, would not when Inner City Press asked confirm receipt of a letter, critical of Ladsous' DPKO, from Darfuri groups, here. 

 Outgoing UN Security Council president Gary Quinlan of Australia not only confirmed receipt of the letter - he circulated it to the other Council members. A press officer of UK mission to the UN told Inner City Press, "I can confirm that we received the letter indirectly." We'll have more on this, and on Amos' work while at the UN, and perhaps reason(s) for leaving, including as, like Lansley, may related to UK politics.

  We might also suggest, if the UN under Ban is to remain so captured by Permanent Members of the Security Council, a more deserving British candidate, in connection with the April 2015 arrival of Matthew Rycroft atop the UK Mission to the UN.

  On November 25, it was Quinlan and not Amos who took question after Amos' briefing on Syria. How much will Amos speak, publicly, before her departure at the end of March? Much, is the hope and goal of the Free UN Coalition for Access. Watch this site.

   

On South Sudan Aid, UN OCHA Deputy Kyung-wha Kang Acknowledges Juba Push-Back, Renk UNresolved

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 4 -- When the UN's Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Kyung-wha Kang took questions about South Sudan on December 4, Inner City Press asked her about Juba's role in restricting humanitarian flights, in challenging the flow of funds from Oslo to aid groups and of the UN blocking some fleeing conflict from its base in Renk.

  Kyung-wha Kang acknowledged some restrictions and some talk that the SPLA-Juba has a right to control the funds committed to in Oslo; she said she was unaware of any turn-away by the UN of people fleeing conflict.

  After the briefing Inner City Press provided her office with such a report and was told it might be better to asked the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. But that is dubious, given that its chief Herve Ladsous on the same December 4 would not answer a simple question about the UNAMID mission covering up rapes in Darfur. YouTube video here.

  Still, Kyung-wha Kang is better in that she answers questions and seems genuinely interested in hearing where the UN could do better. This makes reports that the top job in OCHA could go to a FOC - Friend of Cameron - Andrew Lansley all the more troubling. Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access, which push for transparency, are on this. Watch this site.

 Back on October 22 after the UN's envoy to South Sudan Ellen Loj spoke to the Security Council on October 22, she came to take questions from the media.

  Inner City Press asked Loj to explain two separate lines from her statement to the Council, and one thing that was not mentioned: the deadly downing of a UN helicopter on August 26, allegedly after the UN was told by rebel Peter Gadet that it would be shot down.

  The first line Inner City Press asked about was Loj's statement that "UNMISS is looking into ways to support the efforts of national authorities to end the violence." Inner City Press asked, would the UN provide the Salva Kiir / SPLA forces military support?

  Loj asked to be shown the line, coming out from behind the UN microphone stand to take a copy of her own statement from Inner City Press. Video here.  Finally she said this might involve UNMISS conducting its own street patrols -- why would that be "supporting the national authorities" as opposed to the opposition, where it controls the streets -- or setting up a rape-help desk in police stations.

   When Inner City Press sought to remind Loj of the second line it has asked about, two national staffers "detained" since August, the moderator attempted to move the questioning on. Loj still replied that the UN doesn't know who has these two national staff members detained. 

    On the helicopter, Loj said that a UN Board of Inquiry was in South Sudan last week and she doesn't know the outcome. The helicopter was shot down on August 26, and transcripts of taped called between Gadet and UN officials have emerged. We'll have more on this.

    (A Voice of America scribe tried to take the first question, and then after a softball question made social banter with Loj to the side of the stakeout.)

      Back on October 20 when Sexual Violence in Conflict expert Zainab Bangura spoke about South Sudan, Inner City Press asked of her meeting with Riek Machar and whether she thinks he controls Peter Gadet, under sanctions by the US and suspected of shooting down a UN helicopter. Video here.

  Bangura called her talks with Machar "decent" including "very detailed information on where he is in command." Apparently, Machar is responsible or accepts responsibility for Gadet. But where are the results of the helicopter probe? Another UN cover-up?

 Inner City Press also asked Bangura of the 130 rapes in Minova by the DR Congo Army in November 2012, after which only two soldiers have been convicted while UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous continues supporting the rapist units.

  Bangura said she couldn't speak to that part of the UN, and linked the lack of justice for Minova to the government's delay in investigating.Video here. But doesn't the government, and Ladsous' DPKO and MONUSCO, know which DRC Army units were in Minova during the rapes, and who was in charge of them? Impunity continues.

  While South Sudan President Salva Kiir was in New York, he did not attend the UN's “High Level” event about his country on September 25.

A Senior US State Department Official, speaking on background, said that “there was a lot of disappointment expressed in the meeting that Salva Kiir who is here in New York did not attend the meeting. He sent his Minister of Foreign Affairs and some of his ministers to the meeting and several of the attendees made a point of noting that Salva Kiir was not at the meeting.”

Inner City Press asked the Senior State Department Official if the US know who was behind the recent shooting down of a UN helicopter, if it could confirm that forces under the control of Peter Gadet, already under US sanctions, did it.

The US official said “we know that the UN is investigating it, we are waiting for the results of that investigation. Gadet has been put on the sanctions list even before that happened.”

The official called the shoot-down “evidence of how difficult it is to work in South Sudan,” and added that South Sudan's foreign minister had said the government is committed to not blocking NGOs and the UN from providing aid. “We have to hold them to that commitment,” the official concluded, “people are suffering.”

Background: back on May 6, 2014, when the US imposed sanctions on Gadet, Inner City Press asked:

MODERATOR: Great. Thank you. Our next question is from the other Matt Lee, Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Great. Thanks a lot, [Moderator]. I wanted to ask, there was a – it was said that in Security Council consultations at the UN that senior government officials were named in a radio broadcast prior to the attacks in Bor on the UN compound in killing the civilians. I just wonder if you can say are these people – is that the case? Do you know the names of people that sort of called for that attack, and in which case, why aren’t they on this list?

And I also – this might for Senior Administration Official Number Two. Secretary Kerry was talking about a legitimate force to help make peace. And I just wanted to know, is the UN – is the U.S. thinking of that as part of UNMISS mission or as the IGAD force? And if so, would it require a Security Council approval? Thanks.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL ONE: On the first, I mean, we typically do not comment on actors against whom we are – we have not yet – we have not yet acted, a clunky way of saying we don’t comment on those who are not part of our designation. But anyone who is contributing to the violence, whether that’s by directing violence, whether that’s by funding it, fueling it, contributing arms, can be a subject of designation in the future. And I’ll leave it to my State Department colleague to answer the second question.

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL TWO: Yeah. On the question about the regional force and on UNMISS, we – it is something that conversations and discussions are ongoing between countries of IGAD, with New York, with ourselves and others on how best to create this additional force presence that we are working very much with UNMISS and see this as part of the same effort. But we do think it’s very important that the regional forces are able to join this effort in larger numbers and appreciate the efforts of, particularly, the governments of Ethiopia and Kenya, who are leading the mediation and who are seeking to work with UNMISS in this regard.