In Sahel, EU Projects Postponed, Piper Says, Prodi Plan Slow, Now in Bamako As Well As Dakar

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 16 -- When Robert Piper, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sahel, held a press conference on October 16 during the vote in the General Assembly between Spain and Turkey for a Security Council seat, Inner City Press asked him a question about the European Union.
 
  The European Commissioner in charge of the budget has said "some projects in the Sahel region of Africa, the Horn of Africa and Haiti have been postponed." (Piper identified the speaker as Kristalina Georgieva, incoming Vice President for budget and possibly one day UN Secretary General, but it appears to have been Jacek Dominik.)

  Piper said yes, project were postponed, but will not be canceled. Inner City Press asked him about the UN Sahal Strategy begun under Romano Prodi, and as Chad has complained not based in the five targeted countries but rather in Dakar.

  Piper said a sub-office with the African Union is being opened in Bamako; he admitted the progress has been slow but says he chairs the "resiliency" pillar of the Sahel strategy. We'll see.

  Back on June 11, 2013 Piper, then only recently tapped to coordinate humanitarian issues on the Sahel, told Inner City Press he had gotten involved in the long delayed Sahel strategy report that Romano Prodi was put in charge of back in October.

  He said while there is a humanitarian component, Prodi was focused on big picture infrastructure projects. Would that be solar? Uranium like in Niger? Whatever it is, has taken taken too long. And meanwhile Prodi charged the UN $1,200 to travel between Bologna and Rome.

  Despite this waste, Piper's pitch was to raise funds. Inner City Press asked him, if Cameroon is at 130% of the amount requested for food security, and Niger at only 12%, couldn't the UN shift the month? Video here, from Minute 20:33.

No, was the answer, the appeals are country specific. Piper said that "the money comes in earmarked for particular appeals in almost 100% of the cases... We naturally try to influence the donors to countries falling off the map, and sectors being neglected. But the money comes with a country's name attached and even a sector."

  One might wonder: why? If Piper is the humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel, why don't they do an appeal for the region, and not country by country? Watch this site.

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Two Masters: UN Tells Inner City Press That Ray Chambers Can Serve Ban Ki-moon and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie - But Was UN Ethics Office Told? When?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 11 -- The UN Charter is clear: a person cannot serve both the UN and their own government. But does that also mean “local government”? Or, as the UN today told Inner City Press, it is fine to serve both Ban Ki-moon and Chris Christie?

At the August 11 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

Inner City Press: on Ray Chambers. He was recently named to a panel by Chris Christie of New Jersey and the article reporting that said that he’s a former UN official. But, the website says that he’s the current, you know, adviser to the Secretary-General on…

Spokesman Dujarric: I’m not aware of any changes to Mr. Chambers.

Inner City Press: Can he do both? Can he serve the State of New Jersey and the UN at the same time?

Spokesman Dujarric: Let me check what his exact status is.

Five hours later, Dujarric has still not answered. So Inner City Press asked (on this) in writing:

On Ray Chambers and his new New Jersey post, here is a citation[calling Chambers a "former" UN official - misleading?]

Again: can he do both, UN and NJ? Any ethics office ruling?

And any answer on the UNDP audit I sent you?

Finally: does SG's “press availability” at noon tomorrow mean no noon briefing? Is so, why? As you know, there are questions about the full range of the UN system and missions. Please explain.

Dujarric said, no UN noon briefing on August 12 -- the Free UN Coalition for Access objects -- and on Chambers, he then replied:

“On Ray Chambers, he remains the UN SG’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals and for Malaria. His post is on a $1 a year. We see no conflict with his serving on New Jersey-focused commission.”

Is that consistent with the UN charter? And why not answer on if the UN Ethics Office was asked? Recently Dujarric's office refused to say if the UN Ethics Office was asked about Ban accepting free private jet travel to the Middle East paid for by Qatar, with its own interests in the region.

In the past, Ban's spokesperson's office dodged Inner City Press questions about then UN envoy on the Sahel Romano Prodi simultaneously running for office in Italy (more recently he called Egypt's Sisi about Libya and was identified, still, as a UN official).

But can Chambers serve Ban Ki-moon and Chris Christie at the same time?

Ban's previous “good offices” envoy on Cyprus Alexander Downer was vying for political roles and then Australian Ambassadorship(s) while serving the UN, and working for consultancy Bespoke Approach. Now Inner City Press is told the UN is being lobbied to name as Downer's successor a former UN (and US) official, B. Lynn Pascoe. We'll have more on this.

   

Egypt Says al-Sisi Spoke Today with Romano Prodi as "UN Envoy" - But Prodi Was Out of that Post by May 1

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 16 -- Today the Egyptian government's information service reported that "President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has received a phone call from Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Sahel region Romano Prodi. They discussed the latest regional developments, specially the situation in Libya and the Horn of African, said Presidency Spokesman Ihab Badawy."

   But there's a problem -- Prodi was replaced as UN envoy on the Sahel back on May 1, by Hiroute Guebre Sellassie, who briefed the UN Security Council in that capacity on June 19.

  So in what capacity did Prodi call Sisi? Inner City Press is inquiring - watch this site.

  Also, how or why did the Kuwait News Service, among others, "report" on July 16, 2014 that Prodi is the UN's enovy on the Sahel?

  Back on June 26, 2013, Inner City Press reported how it took Romano Prodi more than eight months to complete the Sahel report he presented to the UN Security Council on Wednesday. 

   During that time, Inner City Press received complaints from within the UN's Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions that Prodi was charging $1200 for travel between Bologna and Rome. 

   Diplomats complained about his ideas for a fund, and about the UNOWA operations in Dakar, Senegal.

After Prodi's low key presentation and consultations, June's Security Council president Mark Lyall Grant came to the stakeout, saying among other things that Morocco will prepare a Presidential Statement on the topic.

Inner City Press asked why the report took so long, if Prodi will has a role, and what the role of UNOWA would be in the strategy.

Lyall Grant replied, as transcribed by the UK Mission to the UN:

Lyall Grant: It was explained that there have been very close cooperation between UNDP and DPA in producing this report that, Mr Prodi himself said that, his job was to inject some new thinking, present the report, ensure that implementation began, but then fade away. He was not looking to sustain his role in the longer term. His role was not completed yet, but once the train, I think the expression he used was, once the train had left the station on implementation then he was not looking to do his role, continue his role, and that the next stage would be taken forward by perhaps operating out of the UNOWA office in Dakar. Now there was a recognition that the mandate of UNOWA of course goes much wider than the Sahel countries, but that UNOWA mandate was also on the Security Council’s agenda later this year and there might be some adjustment of that to take account of this fact.

  The “train leaving the station” image brought to mind Prodi's travel and cost: seems he doesn't take the train. Another Council member told Inner City Press it was that Prodi said he wanted to see the train start moving. Would that be the gravy train? Watch this site.

  

Rwanda Formal Complaint Letter to UN Security Council on Ladsous Travel Waiver Bid for FDLR Leader

By Matthew Russell Lee, Follow up on Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, June 27 -- Rwanda has complained to the UN Security Council that UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous requested and carried out a travel ban waiver for FDLR leader Gaston Iyamuremye / Rumuli Michel. 

  Inner City Press has obtained the complaint letter, on which it first reported yesterday, and puts it online here. 

  The letter recounts irregularities in Ladsous' last-minute request, including that his MONUSCO mission under Martin Kobler effectuated an airlift to Goma and then to Kinshasa on a MONUSCO aircraft even as the request was denied by the 1533 sanctions committee. The accusation is of a "hidden agenda of sanitizing the FDLR genocidaires."

Despite a request to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric yesterday for the UN's explanation, no response has been received.

  When Herve Ladsous was appointed head of UN Peacekeeping by France and UN Peacekeeping, Inner City Press asked him to address his past as French Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN during the Rwanda genocide, arguing for the escape into Eastern Congo of thegenocidaires who would become the FDLR.

  Ladsous refused to answer, and then adopted the policy of trying to block Inner City Press questions, going so far as to have his spokesman grab the UN Television microphone to prevent a question. Video here,compilation here.

  Now -- not surprisingly -- a scandal has arisen, with Rwandan officials exclusively complaining to Inner City Press, citing letters, about Ladsous granting a travel ban waiver for FDLR leader Iyamuremye / Rumuli to fly from the DR Congo to Rome -- to meet with UN envoy Mary Robinson.

  Of course, Robinson could have met the FDLR leader without him breaking the travel ban. But in a UN trend, Robinson has been allowed to remained based in Ireland, just as Romano Prodi was allowed to remain based in Italy and to (over) charge the UN for his travel inside Italy.

  Earlier this year, Ladsous refused to answer Inner City Press' simple question on when UN Peacekeeping under his watch might belatedly go after or “neutralize” the FDLR, video here.

Ladsous (and see Inner City Press video below, Creative Commons)

  Under Ladsous, UN Peacekeeping is involved in other scandals, for example not enforcing Ban Ki-moon's stated “Human Rights Due Diligence Policy” with respect to the 41st and 391st Battalions of the Congolese Army after only two convictions for 130 rapes in Minova in November 2012. 

  The UNAMID mission in Darfur, Sudan, not reporting the killing of civilians has also occurred on Ladsous' watch, but he refuses to answer questions.

We will have yet more on this.

On June 26 Inner City Press, copying the Free UN Coalition for Access, has asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

This is a formal request for the UN's response to allegations, including but not limited to in the letter(s) from the Rwandan government, about a travel ban waiver for FDLR's Gaston Iyamuremye / Rumuli Michel and the involvement of USG Ladsous.

Last Friday Inner City Press' written request and question about legal papers about cholera in Haiti was never answered while it was answered, by email, to other media. That should not be repeated. Please confirm receipt of this request.

  There has still been no answer. Watch this site.

   

On DR Congo, Mary Robinson Calls for Calm, UN"s Kobler on the Race Card, Reuters in the Tank

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 24 -- The UN has become schizophrenic, with its Congo envoy Martin Kobler vowing to "punish" groups opposed to Congolese president Joseph Kabila while UN peace envoy Mary Robinson speaks of calm.

  On Saturday without noting which country she was in, Robinson issued a statement which concluded:

"I strongly urge all authorities in the region to observe maximum restraint, to ensure that civilian populations are protected, and to minimize the risk of escalation of the situation. I am in close contact with all parties and continue to monitor the situation very closely. My Special Adviser is currently involved in consultations with relevant authorities in order to appeal for calm and restraint."

   The last line would to indicate that Robinson is not in the region, but rather probably in Dublin, just as the UN's envoy to the Sahel Romano Prodi purports to solve Mali's problems from Bologna, Italy.

  It seems the UN is becoming a club of former heads of state from Europe. In the Congo, Kobler was quoted decrying the M23 rebels playing the ethnic card -- apparently without irony or self-consciousness. 

   Reuters chimed in with a story asserting that the shelling of Goma came from M23. How do they know?  After the UN bragged that the M23 rebels have been pushed back so their artillery can't reach Goma, it's the same UN which continues to ascribe the shelling to... the M23.

   But even more symptomatic of the UN further losing its way is a comment by UN envoy Martin Kobler, perhaps through this spokesperson, that the shelling "will not go unpunished," that the UN and its Intervention Brigade should launch an "energetic" response... and punishment.

   When did the UN get into the business of military punishment? WHO got it into this business? Inner City Press has tracked this shift in UN Peacekeeping under its fourth French chief in a row, Herve Ladsous.

  Given that Ladsous as France's Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN during the Rwanda genocide argued for the escape of the genocidaires into Eastern Congo, his Department of "Peacekeeping" Operations' vow now of "punishment" is even more striking. We will have more on this.

    For now this remains outstanding: at Friday's noon briefing, video here from Minute 10:15, Inner City Press asked the UN's outgoing deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey about the answer, when Inner City Press and another journalist asked UN Peacekeeping acting chief Edmond Mulet Thursday if the M23 rebels had entered the security zone established around Goma.

  "No," Mulet said. "Just mortars." He went on to refer to the separate "red line" established when M23 agreed in Kampala to pull out of Goma. (The portion of that agreement that gave M23 one third of the security force at the Goma airport remains unimplemented.)

  But later on Thursday, the wire service Reuters reported "a senior U.N. official, who asked not to be named, said that on Thursday the rebels entered a security zone surrounding Goma" -- which Mulet, the acting chief of DPKO, had just denied. Inner City Press and the other journalist waited to ask Mulet again, and got the same answer.

  So who is this "senior UN official who asked not to be named"? In UN Peacekeeping, only Herve Ladsous is senior to and could over-rule Mulet.

  Ladsous has in the past spoon-fed answers of dubious veracity to this same Reuters UN bureau bragging for example about the Congolese Army imposing accountability for the 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012.

   But with only a few arrests for the 135 rapes, Ladsous' DPKO continues supporting the 391st Battalion, even as it is now implicated in corpse desecration.

That the UN would try to use Reuters, willingly, resonates with a documented instance in June 2012 when Reuters UN bureau chief Louis Charbonneau gave to UN official Stephane Dujarric an internal UNCA anti-Press document,three minutes after saying he would not do so. Story here,audio here, document here, in which Charbonneau tells Dujarric, "You didn't get this from me."

  So is Reuters' "senior UN official who asked not to be named" someone junior to Mulet, or as another journalist suggested, no one at all? 

  On August 23, Del Buey said he knew what Mulet had said, and has "seen other reports." He said he'd have to check. But August 23 was his last day at the UN (the Free UN Coalition for Access wished him well, video here at Minute 9:55).  So we'll see. Watch this site.

   

UN and Alexander Downer Flick Away Conflict of Interest on Cyprus, Stakeout Subverted, Spies?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 30 -- This UN is lawless and unresponsive. Arrogance can be added, as least in the case of UN envoy on Cyprus Alexander Downer. 

  On July 16, after publishing a story on the question, Inner City Press asked the UN in New York how Downer could run to head the South Australian Liberal Party while still ostensibly being a UN official.

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky said, "the principle is well taken in the question that you are posing, and I will see if my colleagues have anything." But the UN Department of Political Affairs, which ostensibly oversees Downer, has provided no answer for two weeks.

And so today after he met Greek Cypriot Leader Nicos Anastasiades, and before the UN Security Council extended its Cyprus mission's mandate over Azerbaijan's abstention, Downer misrepresented the question and said he was "flicking it away." From the transcript:

Question: If and when the talks resume in October, will you be around, because of certain information…?

Alexander Downer: I really enjoy the job and I haven’t any intention to give it up. I have seen speculation, which is some speculation, let’s confront it, as you all want to ask, speculation that I might be the ambassador in Washington. I am not sure I ever want to be an ambassador. I was the Foreign Minister for a long time, and to be an ambassador you have to live permanently out of your own country. That’s not so much something I’ve been particularly enthusiastic about. No one who is in a position to appoint me as ambassador to Washington has ever raised this with me ever. It is just a speculative piece in one newspaper. And I congratulate people here on picking up something in one newspaper. It’s Google alert, I suppose. It was just a speculative piece written by a journalist that if the Liberals won the next elections in Australia, the Liberal Party won the next elections in Australia that I would be the logical person to make the Ambassador in Washington. I am not sure about that and I am not sure whether I would want to do it. Nobody has ever mentioned it to me who would be in a position to decide. So, I can just flick that one straight away.

   But the question is not whether Downer could be Ambassador to the US and a UN envoy at the same time -- though with the way things are going under Ban Ki-moon, who let his Sahel envoy Romano Prodi run for office in Italy while still a UN official, who knows?

    Rather, the question is whether being in the running to head a political party is in conflict with being a UN official, under the UN Charter. Here's what Inner City Press asked on July 16, after publishing this on July 15:

Inner City Press: Downer is the good offices envoy on Cyprus, but he’s announced, and I haven’t seen it retracted, that he is going to be running to be the President of the South Australian Liberal Party. This came up for a moment, regarding Mr. Prodi, but I wonder, what are the rules applicable to running, particularly if he were to win, the presidency of a political party in a country, and at the same time being admittedly a part-time when actually employed UN envoy?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, I mean, I think the caveats that you have provided in your own question partly answer it. And, if I have anything further from the Department of Political Affairs, I will let you know. But, I don’t have anything further on that at the moment.

Correspondent: It seems like if it’s a conflict if he wins, this may be a conflict running, because he’d have the same…

Spokesperson: …the principle is well taken in the question that you are posing, and I will see if my colleagues have anything.

  Two weeks later, nothing except Downer misrepresenting the question and flicking it away.

  Alongside the Cyprus vote, Pakistan did an explanation of vote on Cote d'Ivoire (as predicted last night by Inner City Press, here), concerned about drawing down too quickly, and the Darfur mission was extended.

Afterward UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant approached the stakeout microphone, with prepared notes. But he never spoke on camera -- he ended up speaking to a wire service reporter Tim Witcher of AFP who notably is on the Executive Committee on the UN Correspondents Association - no request that Lyall Grant speak in a more accessible way.

  This is the problem, one of many being pointed out by the Free UN Coalition for Access, with an ostensibly pro-correspondents' association being dominated by big media wires services - they have no incentive to promote access. In fact, they hold private briefings only publicized to those who pay them money. Oh, and in the case of UNCA and its first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, they spy for the UN - click here for story, here for audio, here for document. Watch this site.

   

Can UN's Cyprus Envoy Alexander Downer Also Head Australian Political Party? No UN Conflict of Interest Rules At All?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 15 – Cyprus was the topic of the UN Security Council on Monday morning; afterward the head of the UN Mission there said support was expressed for more dinners of the kind hosted after some controversy by envoy Alexander Downer on May 30 between presidents Anastasiades and Eroglu.

  Call it dinner diplomacy, then. But what about conflicts of interest? When July's Council president Rosemary DiCarlo of the US came out, Inner City Press asked her if it is acceptable for Downer to continue as UN envoy while running for the presidency of the South Australian Liberal Party.

At Monday's noon briefing, Inner City Press had planned to ask the same question to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky – but Nesirky abruptly ended the briefing after a Press question about the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Geneva Conventions, declaring it the “last question.”

  Ambassador DiCarlo said to ask Downer about his plans, she hadn't heard of them, which is fair – the Secretariat should be policing this. Downer has been quoted, “"Steven Marshall approached me . . . and I told him I'd be happy to do it.”

  Ban's Secretariat has allowed its envoy on the SahelRomano Prodi to run for office in Italy while remaining a UN official; Resolution 1540 envoy Terje Roed-Larsen also runs the International Peace Institute, which opened an office in Manama with money from the government (that is, Royal family) of Bahrain.

  As Inner City Press exclusively probed and reported on, Downer was allowed to work in an advisory firm, Bespoke Approach, while serving as UN Cyprus envoy.

  But to be the president of a political party while representing the UN on Cyprus? Watch this site.

   

At UN, West Africa Envoy Said Djinnit Brags About Guinea, Dodges Press on Mali: Fakeout at the Stakeout

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 10 -- On West Africa, UN envoy Said Djinnit gave a surprisingly upbeat (some said, self-serving) briefing to the Security Council on Wednesday morning. The UN said, by e-mail then at the noon briefing, that Djinnit would take press questions at 12:30.

The noon briefing ended at 12:22, and Inner City Press and two other members of the Free UN Coalition for Access went immediately to the Council stakeout, ready to question Djinnit. But even after Council members streamed out of the chamber, he did not appear.

Trying to ensure that questions could be asked,@FUNCA_info asked both the UN Spokesperson's office and the Department of Political Affairs, which oversees Djinnit's Dakar-based operation, where Djinnit might be. Neither answered, but another staff member told Inner City Press Djinnit claimed he had come to the stakeout, “you guys weren't there,” so he left.

  If he went, it was before 12:30. Click here to view the day's noon briefing (the announcement that Djinnit would appear at approximately 12:30 is at Minute 2:40), and note that it began at noon and was 22 minutes long. The new Press Briefing Room is right next to the Security Council and stakeout: no eight minutes there.

  One wag mused, given Djinnit's excuse, what should we think of his report and statement to the Council?

Djinnit found a way to brag about now only Guinea but Guinea Bissau. The real question is, with three UN envoys in the mix - Djinnit, Bert Koenders of MINUSMA andRomano Prodi of, well, Bologna -- how could it be that it was Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso who mediated and made the deal about Kidal?

And -- this is a question -- has that deal now been broken? MINUSMA engaged with attacker outside Kidal. Is MINUSMA covered by the International Criminal Court? Click here for that. These are questions Djinnit should have taken and answered, and should still answer. Watch this site.

   

In Libya, UN Urges IDPs Not To Return, No Protection of Civilians, Chad's Borders

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 18 -- The UN talks a lot, in Libya and elsewhere, about protecting civilians, and about the right to return of internally displaced people.

  But when in Libya the Tawerghans set June 25, a week from now, as the date on which they aim to return to their homes, the UN through envoy Tarek Mitri urged against it, calling it " a move fraught with risks."

Inner City Press on June 18 asked Mitri what the UN is planning to do for the next seven days, to try to protect the Tawerghans from the blood bath the UN is predicting.

  Mitri said the UN can't protect the Tawerghans; he said the government can't either. The UN is trying to convince the government to offer some guarantees -- he mentioned "compensation" -- to convince the Tawerghans not to return for now.

  This seems like a strange form of protection of civilians, a Ladsous-ian one to use a phrase coined yesterday referring to UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous who wants to use in Mali an army that's on the UN list of child soldier recruiters, and who continues to partner with units of the Congolese Army implicated in 135 rapes in Minova. Video stonewall here and here.

  Mitri to his credit at least answers questions. He said that Libya has no intelligence service, and needs cooperation to secure its borders.

  Inner City Press asked June's Security Council president Mark Lyall Grant about the claim by Chad's president Idriss Deby that Islamists dislodged by France from northern Mali have gone into southern Libya. 

  Lyall Grant said that hadn't come up as such in consultations, but that border security had, particularly between Libya and Chad, Niger and Algeria.

  Isn't this the type of Sahel issue that Romano Prodi has been getting paid since October to work on, or at least develop a report on? Watch this site.