With Oxfam Exposed for Sex Abuse, Inner City Press Asks UK, Which Answers Only on UN

By Matthew Russell Lee, Video here

UNITED NATIONS, February 14 – The abuse of Haiti after the 2010 earthquake was not limited to the UN, which killed 10,000 plus by negligently introducing cholera and lying about it - now the UK based charity Oxfam is being exposed for sexual abuse. The scandal extends to Chad and South Sudan. Inner City Press on February 14 asked the UK's Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Allen about it, video here. 

Allen's answer involved the UK scrutinizing the UN's also law practices. But what about Oxfam?

 

Meanwhile the UK continues to delay responding on a months-old Freedom of Information Act request concerning its policies in not only Yemen but also Cameroon, the former British Southern Cameroons. As Inner City Press pursues these questions at the UN, it remains restricted to minders by the head of the UN Department of Public Information Alison Smale, who it is noted is British - and functionally a censor. A retaliator, too? Smale has not explained why Inner City Press' long time work space is assigned to no-show, no-question Egyptian state media Akhbar al Youm. 

While an Oxfam official has resigned, when was the last time that a UN official took responsibility for anything and resigned? 

On February 12 Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, video here, UN transcript here: Inner City Press:
I'm sure you've seen or the UN has seen the reporting about Oxfam in Haiti, where the UN has had a long mission, saying basically there was a history of the use of prostitutes, including underage prostitutes.  And at least one of the Guardian stories quotes a former UN staffer about how even UN people that tried to raise it faced retaliation.  The quote is, "If you blow the whistle when you're out in the field, you may never be hired again.  It makes you very vulnerable."  I wanted to know, what does… what does the UN, with its presence in Haiti, think about these allegations?  What does it think of the call by some that the UN establish kind of a register of even non-UN, you know, international humanitarians who have been charged with these things so they're not just moved from one field of operation to another?  And what do you say about this [inaudible]… Spokesman:  I think the allegations as reported are extremely troubling.  It is, again, the abuse of the most vulnerable.  It is an abuse of power.  They're extremely troubling.  From our standpoint, I think what the Secretary-General and his senior managers have really pushed forward and especially in the last year is to ensure that there is a climate in which people feel free to come forward without any fear of retaliation.  I think that this is a message that has been made repeatedly to staff throughout the UN system.  We are trying and are improving, I would say, our recruiting… our way of doing background checks on people who are recruited, either between agencies or within the UN system, so as to avoid cases of people who've had allegations made against them finding employment within the UN system."  UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres says he has a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual harassment. But his chief of "Global Communications" Alison Smale argued that all UN staff including victims should "speak with one voice" which several staff told Inner City Press they took to mean, Don't make the UN look bad. Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric about it, despite getting cut off (Vine here), UN transcript here and below, longer tweeted video here. 

As Fake Brahimi UN Twitter Feed on Syria Is Suspended, UN-based Trolls Counterfeit @InnerCityPress, Oxfam Spox Re-Tweets

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 9 -- On Syria, the fake Lakhdar Brahimi twitter account has now been suspended. But before it was, several of its clearly fake statements were re-tweeted, including by some journalists. Was this intentional?

The UN is aware of and does nothing about a range of counterfeit and trolling twitter accounts. Benign is the@SecGen account, which robotically takes Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's daily schedule and tweets it out -- "Meeting so-and-so" -- even if it is not happening, or Ban is running late. But there are others.

  Sometimes the UN benefits from counterfeit or trolling social media accounts. For example, back in February 2013 Inner City Press showed the top officials at the UN Department of Public Information that DPI's partners in the UN Correspondents Association Executive Committee had started seven anonymous social media accounts to target not only Inner City Press but also the alternative Free UN Coalition for Access, which it co-founded.

  Nothing was done; the trolling continued, including attempting to link Inner City Press to Syria's Assad, as UNCA tried with regards to Sri Lanka in the past. 

  Not only did DPI not act: it has threatened to suspend or withdraw Inner City Press' UN accreditation for hanging a FUNCA sign on the door of its shared office, when UNCA has five signs.

  Emboldened, and seemingly made bitter by@InnerCityPress being named in August one of two "Twitterati 100" covering the UN by Foreign Policy magazine, the UNCA trolls have now started two counterfeit accounts pretending to be Inner City Press, and have pitched them at all who have followed @FUNCA_info, as well as@InnerCityPress' followers. It is devious and meant to anonymously harm a smaller media.

  But now it gets interesting, Brahimi-like you might say. 

   The spokesperson or social media guru of the non-governmental organization Oxfam, Louis Belanger, re-tweeted out to the humanitarian twitter-sphere a blatantly counterfeit tweet, in which the fake Inner City Press comments on the UN's March 2013 raid on its office, for reporting on which UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk sent Inner City Press a cease and desist letter from her CBSNews.com email account.

The political context here is that Belanger used to send Oxfam's and Control Arms' press releases to Inner City Press until in July 2012 Inner City Press asked how their principles applied for example to France's air-dropping of weapons to anyone who could pick them up in Libya's Nafusa mountains. The press releases stopped. Belanger parties with several of the UNCA trolls; now he re-tweets their counterfeit Inner City Press tweets.

From the big level of the Syria conflict and its (social) media component, down to the muck of UN's media and NGO world, it's a struggle, with false flags, false accounts, false denials. Watch this site.

   

On Arming Syria Rebels, Oxfam Says Not Now, France Urges, Indian Clause in Arms Trade Treaty

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 25 -- As the Arms Trade Treaty talks continue in the UN's North Lawn, Oxfam came for a second time for a press conference in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium.

  A week ago Inner City Press asked the Oxfam panel, which included another NGO's representative from South Sudan, about how they viewed the call to arm the Syrian rebels, and how the treaty would have applied to the South Sudan struggle to separate from Sudan.

  The answers were not entirely responsive, implying that the international community could somehow agree in which rebel or liberation groups are legitimate and should be armed.

  On March 25 Inner City Press asked the question again, directly to Oxfam's Anna MacDonald, letting her know that in the interim, Amnesty International had said that currently the Syrian rebels should not be provided arms, under what its Salil Shetty called the “Golden Rule.”

  MacDonald said, “this treaty will not be a blanket blacklist” but rather “case by case.” Generally, she said, “any government considering arms to any group needs to go through proper risk assessment."

  Then she finally answered on Syria, saying “In the current situation it is highly likely that any country going that right now would conclude no, not right now, weapons would not be provided.”

  But France wants to arm the Syrian rebels - and also supports the so-called Indian clause in the most recent ATT draft, which also dropped the “three little words,” named “at a minimum.” So the list of arms covered, for example not including drones, would be just that: the final list. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

Amnesty Says Syria Rebels Shouldn't Be Armed, Yet, of Censorship at UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 20 -- On the second day of the Arms Trade Treaty talks at the UN in New York, Inner City Press asked Amnesty International's Salil Shetty what Amnesty thinks of calls by France, the UK and others to arm the rebels in Syria. Video here.

  Shetty replied, “We have been critical of the Assad regime,” saying its “atrocities far exceed the rebels'... [but] increasingly our reports take about abuse by rebels.” 

  He cited the “Golden Rule... Assessment has to be made of risks involved, no exception in the case of the rebel groups.”

  Amnesty's Head of Arms Control and Human Rights Brian Wood then stated Amnesty's position that “at present, no arms should go to Syria” because “for sure there's a substantial risk that arms to those [opposition] brigades are going to be used for war crimes.”

   He said “there's a slight difference” in that with the rebels, “if measures are taken and risk is removed, then the situation would change.” 

   This appears to be the claim of President Francois Hollande of France, of the prospective assurances he says he's gotten from the rebels.

  Wood zeroed in on Article 3.3 of the draft ATT, which adds after “the US put working in” to the concept that it is unlawful to assist in war crimes the need to prove intent. The American phrase is, “for the purpose of” assisting war crimes. Expect more on this.

  Inner City Press asked these questions, and others on Cote d'Ivoire, at an Amnesty International press conference that while held in the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium was not on UN Television, unlike a similar press conference by Oxfam on the first day of the ATT talks.

  Oxfam's press conference listed and was apparently sponsored by Mexico's mission. Amnesty's mistake was to rely on the increasingly discredited UN Correspondents Association, now known at the UN's Censorship Alliance.

  After devoting most of its meetings in 2012 to trying to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN -- this is evidenced by documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act from Voice of America, also concerning theReuters and AFP bureaux at the UN -- in 2013 UNCA “leaders” have torn down flyers of the new Free UN Coalition for Access -- then posted their “branding” of the AI presser on the resulting non-UNCA bulletin board won after advocacy by FUNCA.

  The day before Shetty's press conference, UNCA president Pamela Falk ghoulishly took photographs of the UN's non-consensual search of Inner City Press' office two stories above the auditorium. Golden Rule, indeed... Watch this site.

As Arms Trade Treaty Talks Starts, How Would It Apply to Arming Syria Rebels, or SPLM-N?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 18 -- As the Arms Trade Treaty talks got underway Monday morning at the UN, as if in a parallel world France and the UK among others were pushing to be able to arm the rebels in Syria. How would the proposed ATT apply to such arms transfers, or to France's air-dropping of weapons into Libya's Nafusa mountains?

A pro-ATT press conference was given including Oxfam's Anna Macdonald, the actor Djimon Hounsou and Jeffrey Duke of the South Sudan Network on Small Arms.

Regarding South Sudan, Inner City Press how the proposed ATT would have allowed the SPLA to become armed to fight aginst Khartoum? How would it apply to the SPLM-North in Southern Kordofan? And, of course, to armin the Syrian rebels.

The question was referred to Duke of the South Sudan Network on Small Arms, who said, “what you've stated is a concern world has to come to terms with when considering how to control arms... Our struggle was a genuine, legitimate struggle for liberation against oppression everyone could see.”

There are of course other oppressions that can be seen. Can rebels there all be armed?

Duke continued that it's a “high level political decision to distinguish which groups are pursuing the rightful cause of self determination.”

Fine. But who makes that determination, which rebels are legitimate? Consider Syria. Or Sri Lanka, or Sudan. Or Palestine. Or any number of other places.

Duke said, and it is not clear if this is Oxfam's position, if you “support them, make it transparent... the ATT is supposed to indicate transparency in transfers, liberation organizations must be discussed and made public. The world cannot watch while a group is being oppressed. What's important is transparency in support.”

Is that Oxfam's position? France's? The UK's?

Oxfam's Head of Arms Control Anna Macdonald was second to answer, adding that the ATT would be “preventative.” It would not immediately “solve the problems of Syria” but could “stop future Syrias, Malis, Libyas” by stopping the stockpiling of weapons where there's a risk of human rights abuse.

But still, how would such governments be overthrown? With sling-shots?

Over in the North Lawn, India was saying the draft favors arms exporters. A Permanent Five member of the Security Council called the draft “rubbish.” Macdonald said rather than a weak consensus text it might be worth taking it to the General Assembly for a vote. Coming out of the Security Council an hour later, another Council member said the key would be implementation, and laughed at the question of Syria. And so it goes at the UN. Watch this site.

In Sri Lanka, IDPs Given Passes, NGOs Told Not to Complain to UN, Election Games

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/lanka1sri1elections112309.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 23 -- Sri Lanka'a Rajapaksa administration, facing a challenge from military leader Sarath Fonseka, announced "freedom of movement" for those interned in the Vavuniya camps, starting December 1, in the run up to snap elections now set for January.

The UN's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on November 21 immediately issued a statement praising the government's announcement, and on November 23 his top humanitarian envoy John Holmes came to the UN briefing room to in essence add to the praise.

Despite reports to the contrary from non governmental organizations on the ground, Holmes said there's no ban on movement except for safety, "physical safety." Inner City Press asked about statements by Oxfam in Sri Lanka that even "freedom of movement" will involve a system of passes and only limited numbers of days outside the camps. Video here, from Minute 35:42.

Holmes replied that people will be able to leave for "days at a time," saying this "looks like freedom of movement as most would define it." But signing in and out of a camp surrounded by barbed wire, with any limitation on the number of days out, is not how many define freedom of movement.

Inner City Press asked Holmes about a letter from the government of Mannar to NGOs, telling them to suspend any operation not approved by the Presidential Task Force headed by presidential brother Basil Rajapaksa. Holmes shrugged that the PTF is in charge.

Holmes called any connection between the announcement, made just after Fonseka left the military and was reputedly drafted into running and two days before Mahinda Rajapaksa called for snap election in January, "speculative," while he said that the efficacy of the UN's pushing for the IDPs was surely a factor in the announcement.

A large international NGO working in Sri Lanka was told by Basil Rajapaksa to deal only with the government, and to stop complaining to the UN. Inner City Press asked Holmes about this, and he said he is "not sure that is a hugely important point."

But to some, a government telling NGOs not to complain to the UN is not a small thing.

It was the UN's quiet pull out from Kilinochchi that presaged the killing of civilians that would occur. So for the UN to be less than concerned with the government tries to cut off the flow of information to the outside world is not a good sign. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/lanka1sri1elections112309.html

UN's Congo Mission Leaves Civilians Unprotected in Dungu and Kivus, A View from the Ground

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/drc1view100809.html

UNITED NATIONS, October 8 -- The UN's Mission in the Congo, MONUC, is nearly its tenth anniversary, with civilians still being killed, raped and displaced in the Kivus and in the northern Lord's Resistance Army zones. The Mission's claim to fame of late, if it has one, is that the Congolese government of Joseph Kabila is collaborating in anti-rebel offensives with Rwanda and Uganda.

Not only are these offensives causing widespread civilian suffering -- it is also not clear if the UN can claim any credit for these deals between Great Lakes member states. With that subtracted, one is left with a mostly negative assessment of MONUC and its chief, Alan Doss, under fire for other reasons as well.

While MONUC's mandate does not expire until December, the non-governmental organization Oxfam is on a "world tour," the U.S. leg of which involved meetings in Washington including with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Holt, and in New York including with UN Peacekeeping deputy Edmond Mulet. In between, Oxfam made its Congo country director Marcel Stoessel available to the Press, in the half light of the Ambassador Grill across First Avenue from the UN.

Stoessel's main point was that Operation Kimia II against the Hutu rebels of the FDLR is not working. At an earlier stage, he said, one could debate whether the humanitarian cost was worth it. But now the cost, in death and displacement, has become too great. Inner City Press asked, who can make the decision for the UN to stop assisting a military campaign with a net negative impact? The Security Council, said Oxfam's New York director Nicole Widdersheim.

But what about Alan Doss, the head of the Mission? He has come to the Council repeatedly with rosy assessments of Kimia II. He has denied that indicted war criminal Bosco Ntaganda is involved in Kimia II, when Stoessel on Wednesday said that Bosco is easily seen lounging around Goma, reported to be the de facto Number Two in the operation and army. He said that DPKO's reputation is on the line.

Even Doss' supporters concede that his forte, or what he is known for, is "closing down" UN missions, as in Liberia. When he was sent to the Congo, the UN thought the mission was winding down. But now things have gotten worse. He is not the right man for the job, a Doss supporter said. And that is without even referring to the mounting nepotism and abuse of UN resources and hiring procedures scandals.

Inner City Press asked what Oxfam knows about operations against the Lord's Resistance Army. Stoessel answered that Oxfam has just established its first presence in Dungu; the sending of special forces from Egypt and Jordan was mentioned but not confirmed. MONUC assisted the ill-fated December 2008 offensive in the area, that resulted in scattering the LRA into rampages against civilians who had no protection.

On this high-sounding topic, the Protection of Civilians, the Austrian mission has confirmed it will hold a meeting next month, when it hold the Council's presidency. There is talk of a more informal meeting, probably in the UN's basement, including the participation of NGOs like Oxfam and topics like the Congo, perhaps also Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

At press time, the Council's resolution on the ISAF force in Afghanistan was delayed, as Costa Rica held out for protection of civilians language in the pre-ambular paragraphs. And so it goes at the UN.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/drc1view100809.html

On UN's Sri Lanka Trip, Holmes Did Not Favor It, NGOs Phase Out Work

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/untrip2may1srilanka052309.html

SRI LANKA, May 23, modified May 26 at NGO request -- As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his top humanitarian official John Holmes are whisked via military helicopter to government selected camps for Internally Displaced People and a mere fly-over the beach-front Zone of Death, minutes of a meeting earlier in the week in New York between Holmes and non-governmental organizations show that Holmes did not favor the trip.

The minutes also show that some of the NGOs, including convener Crisis Action, plan to "phase out" their work on Sri Lanka. Doubts about the UN's and international community's including civil society's commitment to those who suffer in Sri Lanka, Tamils and others, can only grow.

Before the phase out, and after the Government of Sri Lanka barred NGOs and the UN from using any vehicles to service IDPs in the large camps of Menic (or Manik) Farms in north Sri Lanka, a joint statement calling for access was issued May 21 by a group of NGOs including Oxfam, ASB/Solidar, Acted, Danish Refugee Council, ZOA Refugee Care, Forut, UMCOR, Relief International, Handicap International, Save the Children, Welthungerhilfe, CARE, World Vision Medical Teams International.

Further below the radar, there are Tamil NGOs which face dissolution or not working in Sri Lanka.

Before the 24 hour trip to Sri Lanka, Holmes met with a hand-picked group of NGOs in New York. Afterwards an internal summary was issued, which attendees leaked to Inner City Press, ostensibly disturbed by the approach taken at the meeting and by the UN. The memo began, "please find below notes from yesterday's meeting with John Holmes. Let me now if you have any questions. This is true especially in light of some of us (Crisis Action included) phasing out our Sri Lanka work very soon."

There followed a summary of what John Holmes told NGOs behind closed doors, which even filing from Sri Lanka we'll run in full:

John Holmes

Timing of the trip is "tricky," point is not to "join the celebrations"; will have to be careful. [In-house, JH had objected to the trip, as many of you know];

Trip will be de facto a 12-hr day; he cannot extend;

Plan is to go to camps; overfly conflict zone, depending on weather conditions; meet President and other high-level officials; speak to press; hopefully meet with civil society (not certain that would happen);

It's "pretty clear there's nobody in the conflict zone, other than soldiers." UN has flown over, nothing to be seen from helicopter. Still, possible to have bodies/people in hiding;

On overcrowding in camps: NGOs/UN has to be clear about what we want. Do we want to move them to another camp or not? Clearly we want quick returns but in the meantime...

Have not heard anything about [threat of] suspension of humanitarian activities; just got off the phone with UN in SL; ICRC had raised possibility but backed down;

On disappearances: not clear how many are sinister. Known that hard-line cadres are given over to police and are sent to rehabilitation centres. Reasonably clear that GoSL will try to make sure remaining LTTE top leadership won't make it out alive;

LTTE lower cadres are not really separated from civilians, all enter camps together, which is not necessarily a good thing, because all are then viewed as suspects;

Will be pretty hard to get UN political presence in country; govt very resistant, uses "home-grown solution" language very deliberately;

On the doctors: they are in detention but are 'healthy' and 'ok, as far as one can be ok in detention' ;

On UNSC: we have not focused on that, happy to brief if requested;

The strategy is still to keep on with high-level visits, but will see how this will happen;

On numbers: we have no idea how many have died in the last three days. Generally, hard to verify numbers, so have been using "some

thousands."

[Later on, an OCHA staffer advised NGOs to press the issue of MoUs, also to create more space for the pro-active Holmes.]

...There is no real push-back to the exclusion of vehicles from the IDP camps. The minutes say that ICRC (the Red Cross) "backed down." While some UN sources have told Inner City Press that UN staff are threatening a de facto boycott, Holmes told the Press on the plane ride to Sri Lanka that this is not the case, that access and work continues.

It appears that the Secretariat may not even push to have Ban Ki-moon briefing the Security Council upon his return to New York. Then again, in April Ban Ki-moon was only in New York three times, for a total of five days. A lot is being "phased out."

Inner City Press will be accompanying Ban and Holmes on their whirlwind tour May 23 and will report on it in real time to the degree possible given the host country's control of the tour and the lack of internet access. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip2may1srilanka052309.html