As the UN Hears Only One Side of Kenya Struggle, the UK Claims that Others Will Be Heard, While UNDP Trust Funds Are Used, As for Tony Blair

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un2kenya020508.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 5 -- With violence continuing in Kenya in the wake of last year's disputed election, the UK on Tuesday at the UN distributed a draft Presidential Statement urging "dialogue, negotiation and compromise." Inner City Press asked UK Ambassador John Sawers to respond to criticism that the Security Council is hearing from only one side to the dispute, that of Mwai Kibaki. Amb. Sawers acknowledged that "there is a concern," and noted cryptically that "there are other mechanism... to hear, directly or indirectly, from the other parties involved." Video here, from Minute 7:28.

The reference was apparently to the Council's so-called Arria formula, named for former Venezuelan Ambassador Diego Arria, by which speakers not formally representing a government holding power can address the Council in another room of the UN. George Clooney, for example, addressed the Council in a conference room in the basement, while more recently being barred from a Troop Contributing Countries meeting. For now, the Security Council through its president for February, Panama's Ricardo Arias, has said that Kenya's foreign minister will brief the Council's members. But who will come for Raila Odinga's ODM?

Earlier on Tuesday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters that "I have assigned several members of my staff to provide necessary assistance to Mr. Annan's team, and we have established a UNDP trust fund to support this." While Inner City Press felt constrained to limit its two question to issues of high officials' incomplete public financial disclosure -- so far, not a single UNDP official's disclosure has been put on line, and UNDP Associate Director Ad Melkert is on record opposing any such public disclosure -- the off-handed reference to UNDP as a mechanism for ad hoc UN funding needs more coverage. It emerged, for example, that to pay for Tony Blair's ten rooms in Jerusalem as the representative of the Quartet, a UNDP trust fund was used. No bids were taken, nor even cost comparison's made. Inner City Press has learned that the UNDP trust fund has been paying Blair costs at far higher rates than could be supported under any UN program. Will it be the same in Kenya?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2kenya020508.html

UN Budget Defended by UK, While U.S. Hardball Links Justice to Procurement Task Force

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unuk2budget121107.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- A day after U.S. Ambassador Mark D. Wallace said that the United States "expects that the final actual total budget" of the UN for 2008-09 will "represent an increase of 25%," the UK's Permanent Representative John Sawers told Inner City Press, "I am not sure where the figure of twenty five percent comes from," and indicated the UK's hope that the budget be approved before Christmas. The lack of transparency in the UN budget process was exemplified by two closed-door meetings on Wednesday night, one about the Darfur mission and its $250 million no-bid contract to Lockheed Martin, the other about the UN's "administration of justice" proposals. The U.S., represented by Bruce K. Rashkow, is said by a participant to have called into question the proposed administration of justice budget, unless the U.S. secures funding that it wants, for example for the Procurement Task Force.

Thursday at the Security Council stakeout, Inner City Press asked U.S. Permanent Representative Zalmay Khalilzad

Inner City Press: It was said yesterday that the U.S. position is that the current budget proposal is a 25% increase, it's way too high and the U.S. won't vote for it. Some people have said the U.S. will only vote for it if it is a 12% increase or they'll put it into next year. What is the U.S.'s real position on this?

Ambassador Khalilzad: It is premature to judge -- to say how we will ultimately decide. Certainly the budget as proposed is too high. And besides we don't have the total budget yet, we have a piece of the budget. A major piece, the major piece but there is going to be perhaps, they say, as much as six to eight hundred million dollars of additional expenses. We would like to see a clear prioritization. We would like to see where savings can be made. And we are discussing with other major donors and others with influence over the membership of the United Nations and we are talking to the Secretariat as well as to what are the options to deal with this. We have not come to a final judgment on it because we are in the midst of the discussions. I've had personally some discussions with some of my colleagues, permanent representative of some of the countries.

Apparently not with UK Ambassador Sawers. We will have more about the budget.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unuk2budget121107.html