UN Censorship Alliance in Disarray as CBS' Falk Deletes Tweets, Dujarric Blocks Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 1 – The UN has seen some loud if not illuminating debates in its day, for example Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe on the Security Council table. 

  During the Russia - Georgia conflict, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin memorably asked if US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad had lost his earpiece.

  But the United Nations' media apparatus, the UN's Censorship Alliance, can't seem to handle any on the record debate. One week ago, current UNCA president Pamela Falk screamed at Inner City Press, “you call yourself a journalist?”

  Inner City Press had already said, also loudly, “you are on the record,” and Falk had replied, “He's going to write about this.” Audio here.

  But when Inner City Press did write about it, the response was from the boss of UN Media Accreditation Stephane Dujarric, criticizing Inner City Press for the article, falsely claiming that the session in which UNCA's Falk screamed had been off the record.

   Inner City Press immediately replied and asked for an explanation of Dujarric's formal letter of complaint -- but in the 48 hours since, Dujarric has not provided any explanation much less retraction of the letter, now exposed as false.

   Thirty six hours into his radio silence, Inner City Press published a media critique mentioning and linking to a few of the tweets of UNCA's Pamela Falk, who promoted both the UNCA executive committee and herself, as a hashtag and pictured at a CBS Up To The Minute desk.

   Inner City Press noted that the tweets re-heated three day old news and tweeted it as Western countries' missions to the UN, and erred in placing the Iran nuclear talks in Rome instead of Almaty.

   What was Falk's response? 

   To take down each and every tweet that Inner City Presslinked to, as if they had never been on the Internet. Is that a best practice for a president of the United Nations Correspondents Association, who demands of others, “You call yourself a journalist?”

  While CBS did censor its subsidiary CNET from reporting, is the absolute disappearing of already reported content consistent with CBS's (devolving) rules?

  One can't directly and diplomatically ask since Falk, a lawyer, darkly and on the record told Inner City Press that even writing to media companies "might be a crime." Audio here.

   What did the UN's Dujarric do in the midst of this, rather than responding in any way to Inner City Press' request for an explanation of his false letter which sought to Ban theFree UN Coalition for Access from pressing forward with detailed reforms to the UN's media rules?

   Dujarric, a high but not the highest official in the UN Department of PUBLIC Information moved to block Inner City Press from viewing his Twitter account, on which for example he congratulates and jokes with a correspondent, Margaret Besheer, whose media the Voice of America on June 20, 2012 asked Dujarric to review the accreditation of Inner City Press.

  Might this tweet too, like Falk's, now simply disappear?

  There are at least two ironies in all this. UNCA “leaders,” ever since Inner City Press co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access, have set up at least four anonymous twitter accounts to mock those joining FUNCA and to tell countries' missions to the UN that Inner City Press, renamed, is trying to collect money not to investigate that. 

   On that dirty trick, Dujarric wrote no letter of complaint.

   In fact, before blocking Inner City Press from viewing his tweets, Dujarric tweeted at Inner City Press in defense of the UN Security Council, or France, it wasn't clear. 

   That's fine - but when Inner City Press begin a similar critique, the UN's “public” information official's response is to block access.

  

 A UN “public” information official who selectively blocks some but not all UN correspondents from his twitter account, while refusing to explain a formal letter shown to be false? This is accountability? Watch this site.

As UN Loses Its Mister Blue, Severed Fingers, Bush's Bathroom Run and Lavrov's Bar Recalled

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1misterblue083109.html

UNITED NATIONS, August 31 -- As the UN Headquarters building empties out to be gut rehabilitated, its Security Council set to move from its longtime second floor chamber down to the UN basement, an era is ending. On Monday the UN's genial "Mister Blue," Troy Setiawan the Focal Person for Security Council documentation in Security Council Affairs Division retired after more than 30 years at the UN.

Inner City Press dubbed Troy "Mister Blue" because he has been in charge of distributing version of Security Council Resolutions and Presidential Statements when they become final, or "go into blue" in the arcane parlance of the UN. His name has appeared in the top fax line of such final drafts for years. On Tuesday or soon thereafter the name at the top will change.

Beyond his work at the UN, which had him stay overnight in the building the night that NATO began bombing the Serbian forces in Kosovo, waiting to distribute the expected letter to the Council (it didn't arrive until 10 a.m., after Troy had caught an hour's sleep on one of the long couches in the UN basement), Troy is an accomplished photographer. He and his wife live on Roosevelt Island, which which he has taken the tram each morning to arrive at the UN at 8 a.m..

Once when the tram was broken, he shared a cab ride home with Kofi Annan and "Johnny Pico," author of Man Without a Gun. Troy recounts that right after Annan was elected Secretary General, the hallway of his Roosevelt Island building filled up with UN Security officers. Then Kofi moved to the Waldorff, then to the S-G's residence on Beekman Place. Troy won a UN cooking contest.

At an impromptu retirement party late Monday afternoon, Troy recounted his most memorable moments in the Security Council, as well as offering tip for cooking Swiss cheese and eggs on baguette and other delicacies.

His bloodiest memory, Troy said, involved the severing a doorway inside the Council's chambers of a staff member's finger. The UN security officer who had closed the door was reported disinterested. Inner City Press asked, could he sue? The head of the Security Council Affairs Division, who organized and spoke at the goodbye party, said that the staff member wasn't the kind to sue, but that it was a legitimate journalistic question. Then Inner City Press took leave, so allow the real stories to be told.

Troy and his colleagues mused about the time that then - U.S. Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad was given the wrong version of a Presidential Statement to read out. After this erroneous reading, the Security Council Affairs Division ran to reconvene the Council for a second reading. There was difficulty in finding any representative of Belgium. UN TV, which also had to be recalled to film the recreated Council meeting, was asked not to film Belgium's empty seat but did, perhaps in retaliation for having been called back, a SCAD staffer recollected.

Troy recounted when George W. Bush passed Condi Rice a note in the Security Council, that he had to go to the bathroom. Bush was taken to the Secretary-General's small office to the side of the Council chamber. On Bush's way back, he came through the office Troy was using. "Hello Mister President," Troy said. Then Ambassador Bolton came in, and Troy was asked to keep checking to see when the speaker in the Council, the President of Congo -- "another general" clinging on to power, a staff opined -- would finish, to go back into the Chamber only at that time.

There used to be a bar to the side of the Council, which a past director of SCAD would repair to after staff meeting that ran to eight or nine o'clock. Diplomats shared drinks, and then passed resolutions much faster than today, staff members laughed. When the UN's contractor closed the bar, complaining that since it was only open during Security Council business it was not economical, Russia's then Ambassador to the UN (and now Foreign Minister) Lavrov complained. "That's why they put the vending machines out there," a staffer said, adding that it didn't satisfy Lavrov.

Inner City Press' contribution to the proceedings was the story of Greece's past Ambassador, coming to the vending machine during a Council meeting and losing five dollars by, after paying, sliding open the door to an already empty container next to the sandwich he wanted. While the Council continued to meet, the Ambassador asked Inner City Press to help recoup his five dollars. "That's the non-Permanent Five," the story ended, in what passes for Security Council humor.

Troy opened the office each day at 8 a.m., because he has woken up at 5 a.m. since high school. Tomorrow, he said, he may sleep in until 7 a.m.. At the UN, much is being lost.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc1misterblue083109.html

At the UN, Ban's Schedule Tells of Niger Secrets, Sri Lanka Lack of Will, Chiselers and Consultants

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ban1schedule051509.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 15, updated -- A perusal of Friday's appointments of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is a profile in lack of accountability, lack of transparency, lack of independence and lack of will. At 11:30 is listed former chief UN lawyer Nicolas Michel, who was exposed as taking $12,000 a month in housing subsidy from the government of Switzerland while ostensibly working only for the UN, and then not including the payments on his UN public financial disclosure. Still he reappears, with UN benefits, as Ban's adviser on Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

In terms of lack of transparency, while we are glad that Ban's stealth envoy to Niger Robert Fowler was released, no one -- including on May 14 Canada's Ambassador to the UN -- had been wiling to address the statement by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb that Fowler and colleagues were released in exchange for AQIM prisoners, nor what Fowler was doing visiting a Canadian-owned mine in Niger on the day he was kidnapped. Perhaps there'll be a press availability.

Update: at the May 15 noon briefing, when Inner City Press asked, Ban's Spokesperson said it's up to Fowler, and that no press availability was planned.

Zalmay Khalilzad, former US Ambassador to the UN, shows up at 5:45, identified as "CEO of Khalilzad Associates." Certainly this publicly-listed face time will help his consulting business. But what's in it for the UN?

Update: at the May 15 noon briefing, when Inner City Press asked, Ban's Spokesperson said it's a courtesy call. [On May 19, the Deputy Spokesperson declined to give a read-out.]

A week ago, Inner City Press asked if there was any change of Ban Ki-moon going to Sri Lanka before what the government is calling its final assault, given Ban's desire to attend the May 11 Security Council session on the Middle East hosted by Permanent Five Council member Russia, and to meet on May 15 with a minister of follow P-5 member China. The latter meeting hadn't been announced, but Inner City Press was told by well placed sources that talking points for Ban had been ordered up.

And now it is confirmed: a meeting at 3:20 on May 15 with He Yafei, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, the country which most blocked Council action on the carnage in Sri Lanka.

A long and telling day at the UN, and a worse -- at least in Sri Lanka -- weekend to come. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ban1schedule051509.html

At UN, Outgoing Zalmay Khalilzad Quieter on Congo and Reform, the Price of Being Well-Liked?

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1khalilzad011209.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 12 -- With Barack Obama set to take control in eight days, it's the time it seems for revisionist assessments of Zalmay Khalilzad, the outgoing Bush administration's U.S. Ambassador to the UN. Khalilzad is certainly better liked within the UN than his predecessor John Bolton. Liberal and moderates even sense that he is one of them. Some of this is due, however, to disinterest. Khalilzad's interests were Afghanistan and Iraq, to some degree the Middle East -- Africa much less so, and UN reform surprisingly little.

Maybe accomplishments on the first two issues had to be bought by backing off on reform. Khalilzad rarely mentions the UN's largest peacekeeping mission, and the largest global war since the one resulting in the UN: the Democratic Republic of the Congo. One assumes that this prioritization will change under Obama and the Ambassador he has nominated, Susan Rice.

In perhaps another sign of disinterest or priorities being elsewhere, there is Somalia, a peacekeeping for which Condoleezza Rice had projected before the end of 2008. While a resolution is slated to be adopted before January 20, as Inner City Press exclusively reported at New Years, it will be a largely UK-drafted proposal, different than which Condi Rice had said.

Under Khalilzad unlike Bolton, the US Mission became unwilling to comment other than "on background" about UN reform.

There are claims of accomplishing a UN-wide Ethics Program and Whistleblower Protection, as well as public access to information and financial disclosure, at UN Fund and Program like the UN Development Program, but Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accepted outgoing UNDP Administrator Kemal Dervis' assertion that the UN Ethics Office had no jurisdiction over UNDP or its firing of a whistleblowing employee. While UNDP's Administrator answers to his own Executive Board, now Ban -- and the U.S., to be realistic -- will be naming Dervis' replacement. Why not make accepting the jurisdiction of the UN Ethics Office a condition for being selected?

In one comment that Team Khalilzad allowed to be "on the record," Inner City Press asked Khalilzad if American Lynn Pascoe will be staying as the head of the UN Department of Political Affairs. Khalilzad said he has no reason to believe that he will not.

A senior UN official, asked Monday afternoon by Inner City Press about Khalilzad's general non-mention of the Congo, noted that his wife Cheryl Benard is very interested in the Congo, particularly the issue of sexual violence there. So perhaps there is a divison of labor in the family. They are nice people. Certainly they had their achievements. Why not then be on the record?

What approach will Obama, Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice take? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1khalilzad011209.html

On South Ossetia, Denials by Khalilzad of Foreign Fighters, by Yerevan of Russian Planes in Armenian Bases

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/us1sossetia081108.html

UNITED NATIONS, August 11 -- Propaganda or underground truth, on the sidelines of conflict in South Ossetia, Russian media has been reporting that foreign fighters, including Americans, were found among the dead in Tskhinvali. Russia Today quoted South Ossetia's Eduard Kokoity that "Ukrainians and mercenaries from the Baltics as well as nationals from other countries were involved in the fighting, as 'foreigners have been found among their bodies.'" South Ossetia's envoy to Russia was quoted that "in yesterday's most recent tank attack, the advancing tanks were supposedly crewed by Ukrainians. Two unidentified bodies found today... Americans... who were probably either mercenaries or instructors in the Georgian armed forces."

Against this backdrop, Inner City Press on Monday afternoon asked the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad, Russian media is reporting that foreign fighters including Americans were involved in Tskhinvali. "Some say this is propaganda, some say this is true. What do you say?" Video here, from Minute 8:44.

Khalilzad answered that "we hear a lot of propaganda. We've heard the U.S. gave the green light to this operation... I have nothing specific with regard to these report, but I would not conclude that they are true. We did not have any prior knowledge or were not consulted by Georgia." He encouraged agnosticism as to what happened on August 6, that one "not necessarily buy the line that Georgia initiated a conflict." We'll see.

Meanwhile, responding to an earlier Inner City Press report, from Yerevan comes a quote by Georgian Ambassador to Armenia Revaz countering that the airplanes that bombed Georgian airports flew off from the Russian military base in Armenia: "No Georgian official structures said this. As representative of official authorities of Georgia, I don't say it either. We don't doubt that Armenia will remain neutral in this case and no airplanes will bomb the territory of Georgia from Armenia. I have no doubt." But the allegation was made by a Georgian official. Armenian Colonel Seyran Shahsuvaryan was also quoted that "there are no bomber aircrafts at the Russian military base in Armenia," only light interceptors. Again, we'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/us1sossetia081108.html

China Opposes Any Sudan Indictments, Would Support Suspending, Darfur Threat Level Raised

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1iccdarfur071108.html

UNITED NATIONS, July 11 -- With the prospect of Sudan's president being indicted for war crimes as early as July 14, Inner City Press on Friday asked Chinese Ambassador to the UN Wang Guangya if China thinks such an indictment would be helpful to people in Darfur. "I don't think so," Ambassador Wang said. Impunity is part of the problem in Sudan, he said, but "there are more important problems" such as political negotiations, humanitarian access and "peacekeeping modalities." Video here, from Minute 1:43.

This last is a reference to already delayed deployment of peacekeepers in Darfur, which was at least partially suspended on Friday by the UN, as confirmed to Inner City Press by Australia's Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon. Sudan's Ambassador to the UN told Inner City Press that the UN has raised its threat level for Darfur to the highest category, Four, and raised the level for Khartoum to Three. He had just met with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, telling him "we hold you responsible if our President is indicted." Mr. Ban, he said, remained impassive. The idea of asking the Security Council to suspend any International Criminal Court proceeding against President Omar al Bashir has been broached.

Inner City Press asked Amb. Wang for China's view on this. "There are elements in the [Rome] statute," he said. "It depends on the Council... the Council members have to take up this responsibility." Video here, from Minute 1:43. This last is taken to mean that China supports putting a stop on the ICC and prospector Luis Moreno Ocampo. People were racing around Friday at the UN trying to determine when such a suspension resolution would have to be passed: before Ocampo asks the judges to indict or between the request and the indictment? Or, as Ugandan indictee Joseph Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army has demanded, in exchange for any peace, after the indictment?

Inner City Press ask this month's Vietnamese Security Council president Le Luong Minh if any request had been made to discuss ICC suspension. "Not in the Security Council framework," he replied. Video here.

But, looking forward, would the U.S., France and / or the UK veto any draft resolution to suspend ICC proceedings? Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad, but he said, "I don't want to answer that today." In fairness, the U.S. sponsored Zimbabwe sanctions resolution had just be vetoed by both China and Russia, and Amb. Khalilizad wanted to speak about their votes, and that of South Africa, which he called "disturbing" as well as longing for Jacob Zuma to take over, click here for that.

After the Zimbabwe sanctions resolution was voted down on Friday afternoon, French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, when asked if the proponents miscalculated by calling the vote, pointed out that there were 9 votes for -- including, notably, Burkina-Faso -- and that the EU can continue with its own moves against Zimbabwe.

Inner City Press asked about South Africa's statement that Bernard Kouchner's statement that only a government led by the MDC would be legitimate worked against passage of the resolution. Ripert bristled, saying he was only answering so Inner City Press wouldn't call him unresponsive, and pointing to a July 4 statement referring to the March vote in Zimbabwe. Then he left. Video here, at end.

But the Kouchner quote, by Agence France Presse, was that "the government is illegitimate if it isn't led by opposition leader Mr Tsvangirai."

Would France veto a resolution to suspend an ICC indictment? We will ask the question. Watch this site.

Footnote: Of Burkina-Faso vote in favor of Zimbabwe sanctions, Sudan's Ambassador pointed to the appointment of that countries former former minister Bassole as Darfur mediator and said, "everything must be paid for." He said he no loner favors expansion of the Security Council to include more developing countries, after Burkina-Faso's vote, he prefers to stick with the Permanent Five and their vetoes. "It is better to deal with the Devil than the disciplines," he said.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc1iccdarfur071108.html

At UN, of Dressed Dogs and Ban's Beef, Nigeria Reviewed under CEDAW, Gambari's Niger Delta Days

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un748muse070408.html

UNITED NATIONS, July 4 -- There were seventy-two women from Nigeria in a room in the UN's basement in New York, listening as a Moroccan feminist exhorted them, in French, to "defendez vous!" (defend yourselves). Nigeria was being reviewed by the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and the Islamia shari'a law in effect in the northern part of the country was much discussed. "It does not apply to non-Muslims!" a government minister, male, argued. Let's hear from the women, was the sense of the Committee.

But who had paid to fly these seventy women to New York and put them up? The previous record was Saudi Arabia, which brought forty-some to a similar CEDAW review. "It's not necessarily just a shari'a thing," said one wag. "Maybe it's also an oil thing."

On that, the UN allowed its Under Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari to moonlight, on his own time, as a mediator in the Niger Delta. But the rebels there have reportedly not accepted him, noting that he represented the Sani Abacha regime at the UN, including at the time of the killing of Ken Saro Wiwa. Gambari was seen this week back in New York. Next stop Myanmar?

Pushing loudly for inclusion of Myanmar, or Burma, on the Security Council agenda is the United States, represented at the UN by Zalmay Khalilzad. On July 2, Khalilzad invited other Ambassadors and staffers, and select journalists, to his suite in the Waldorff towers for hamburgers and hot dogs. There was the Khalilzads' white dog, dressed in an American flag sweater. There was a heated exchange between the Ambassadors of Sudan and the UK; there was a framed automatic weapon on the wall, and numerous Iraqi artifacts. As Donald Rumsfeld once said, and one attended wag paraphrased, a bit of looting is par for the course.

Speaking of hamburger, or American beef more generally, Inner City Press on July 3 asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson for his views on the standoff between South Korea, where he is, and the U.S. on mad cow disease. From the transcript --

Inner City Press: does Mr. Ban, while he is in South Korea, does he have any intention to have American beef? Does he have any view of that whole American beef situation? What’s his view?

Spokesperson: (laughter) I think he will certainly eat American beef. I don't think he has any special theoretical view on it. It is, of course, an issue that has really been taken very seriously in his home country, but he has no specific opinion on that.

Question: But I think the Prime Minister, whom he knows well, bought like 18 kilograms of American beef to somehow show that it is safe, I am just wondering if he wanted to say that it’s safe or does he--

Spokesperson: You mean whether he will eat it? I don't have such details! (laughter) Thank you very much.

But then came an AP article entitled " UN chief tells South Koreans to trust beef imports," quoting Ban that " it is very important for the people to support policies of the government and to actively have trust in the government and to ensure and support the Korean government's desire to act in accordance with international standards and agreements." Where's the beef?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un748muse070408.html

Iran Calls U.S. Elections Propaganda, Cites U.S. Support for Terror Groups, U.S. Ambassador Khalilzad zaDeclines to Comment on Intelligence Matters

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1iran070208.html

UNITED NATIONS, July 2 -- The governments of the United States and UK both support or assist terrorists, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the Press on Wednesday. He hearkened back to U.S. funding of Osama Bin Ladin and his base in Pakistan, and to the UK parliament's removal of Mujaheddin-e-Khalq from its terror list. Asking Mottaki about the elections in the U.S. and Zimbabwe (video here from Minute 55), Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad about the U.S.'s reported support of groups such as Mujaheddin-e-Khalq and Jundallah. Amb. Khalilzad responded that "I do not discuss any intelligence related activities." Video is here.


Here's from U.S. transcript --

Inner City Press: On Iran, Foreign minister Mottaki just criticized the U.S. for supporting what he called terrorist groups including like the Jundallah, there are a number of groups that are in the Seymour Hersh story that's in the New Yorker this week. So he spoke about and talked about the U.S.’s history of supporting such groups [including Mujaheddin-e-Khalq.] Does the U.S. acknowledge the programs that these, covert programs for example to undermine Iran?

Ambassador Khalilzad: Let me say first of all that I do not discuss any intelligence related activities but you should not take that as meaning that I believe something is going on. But it is my general policy not to discuss any intelligence issues. With regard to Mujaheddin-e-Khalq, and others, our policy has got a long history to it. We have no ill will towards the people of Iran and we want to increase our engagement with the people of Iran, this is a great country a great civilization I have personally benefited given that I speak the language from many products of Iranian history and civilization. So the issues are differences, significant differences, important differences with the government the current leadership in Iran. That has to do with the nuclear issue that we have discussed. It has to do with specific policies on the peace process, specific statements calling for the destruction of a sovereign state, support for groups, militant groups, armed groups in some of the neighboring states. Those are some of the specific issues.

I do believe that one can come to terms with an Iran that has reasonable objectives and is in compliance with international law and demands of the Security Council and as I said before we have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for the people of Iran, we have many fellow citizens here who are of Iranian origin, quite substantial in number. So there shouldn’t be any misunderstanding in terms of where we are.

Mottaki referred to just such Americans of Iranian origin, saying that Iran has hired some to work in its interest section within Pakistan's embassy in Washington. Mottaki expressed frustration that while Iran granted over 150 visas to U.S. journalists last year, Iranian journalists in the U.S. face restrictions. The U.S. Mission to the UN subsequently distinguished between independent journalists and those for state-run media. Iran's spokesman Mansour Sadeghi, at Wednesdays' press conference, pointedly called on a reporter from Voice of America, perhaps for just this reason.

On the U.S. elections, Inner City Press asked Mottaki to comment on the singing of "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" by John McCain, to a Beach Boys melody. "Let me avoid commenting around U.S. presidential candidates," Mottaki began. "For two years within a monopoly or propaganda between two parties alone and nothing outside... we do not look at individuals or parties [but rather] at the implemented policies of the U.S. government. Some previous presidents of the U.S., once they left their office and position, express positions different from they did in the White House."

It seemed clear that this referred, at a minimum, to Jimmy Carter. Mottaki went on to answer Inner City Press' request for Iran's position on the Zimbabwe elections, click here for that.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1iran070208.html

On Kosovo, UN's Ban Torn Between Sponsors and Majority and Law, Handover Under Fire

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un3kosovo062008.html

UNITED NATIONS, June 20 -- Heading into Friday's Kosovo meeting in the Security Council, Ban Ki-moon was flanked by his senior advisors, to show how seriously considered his renunciation of the UN's role has been. He entered with Vijay Nambiar and Nicholas Haysom. Kim Won-soo and Jean-Marie Guehenno followed just after. The goal was to look serious, if not contrite. After Ban called Kosovo the most complex problem he's faced in 40 years of diplomacy, Serbian President Boris Tadic said, "I want to be very clear, Serbia will never recognize the independence of Kosovo."

Tadic went on to criticize Ban's June 12 report on Kosovo, which treated hand-over of responsibility to the European Union as a fait accompli. Tadic called Ban's Report "an acknowledgement that an influential and determined minority can set aside considerations of international law."

After Kosovo's Fatmir Sejdiu spoke of his outreach to Kosovar Serbs, the first Council member to speak was Ambassador Spatafora of Italy, apparently because Joachim Ruecker's replacement as head of UNMIK will be an Italian, Lamberto Zannier. It's said that Larry Rossin, too, is leaving. But what about Gerrard Gallucci? What about the UN's promise to investigate its March 17 re-taking of the courthouse in north Mitrovica?

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin critiqued Ban's report paragraph by paragraph. Graf Five, he complained, referred to only one side's challenge to UNMIK's role. Paragraph Nine concedes that UNMIK has abandoned its so-called economic reconstruction pillar, because the European Commission has stopped funding it. But doesn't the UN have its own budget? Churkin concluded that Russia expects Ban to be "ruled by the Charter" and to refrain from any reconfiguring of UNMIK without Council approval. Outside the Chamber, they speak even more harshly.

Update of 12:44 p.m. -- Ban Ki-moon and entourage left the meeting without taking any press questions. Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson when his promised report on the events of March 17 will be available; she said she will check. Back at the stakeout, Inner City Press asked Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin if it is his understanding that the report is finished. Video via here. He indicated it was, and that Ban has promised to provide this report along with briefings on UNMIK operational matters.

On a related Russian issue, Inner City Press askd if Georgia's detention of Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia will be raised in the Council. "I have no instructions to that effect," Amb. Churkin said. Then he added that it certainly was "unfortunate."

Earlier in the week, Inner City Press asked Ban's advisor Nicholas Haysom if his diplomacy is constrained or distorted by the need to please the Permanent Five members to get a second term. Haysom said you always need the powerful. But the second term issue has been raised in connection with Kosovo. Whose threat about three years from now is more credible? Watch this space.

Footnote: on his way in to the Council just before 10 a.m., U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad was asked if Kosovo would be solved. It's still early, he said, we can knock it out today. Most journalists laughed. Some will be eating chicken wings with Zalmay on July 2 at the Waldorf Towers. Call it independence day -- for Kosovo. Perhaps there will be burek.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un3kosovo062008.html

At UN, Khalilzad's Undisclosed Meeting with Ban Stumbled Onto, Of Budgets and Afghan Food Program Typos from Tribune de Geneva

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1banmeetsus032908.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 -- Saturday afternoon in the UN's near-empty Delegates' Lounge, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad came in. Inner City Press, at the UN to ask questions of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, asked Amb. Khalilzad what brought him inside on such a nice early Spring day. "A meeting with the Secretary General," he said.

Ban Ki-moon's daily schedule for Saturday, while noting the 4 p.m. meeting with Prime Minister Rudd, made no mention of meeting the American Ambassador. In fact, some who went up to the 38th floor for Ban's photo-opportunity with Rudd later told Inner City Press that Khalilzad looked surprised and not entirely happy with the arrival of cameras on the scene. "Maybe I should have worn a tie," Khalilzad ad libbed.

The impact of not listing such a meeting on Ban's schedule is that, normally, journalists would not then know to ask for a read-out on the meeting. What might Ban and the U.S. Ambassador have been meeting about, on Saturday afternoon? While some speculate it involved a report on Rudd's Washington meetings, Friday the UN budget committee voted to approve some $48 million in "Special Political Missions," as part of a $1.1 billion add-on package which Khalilzad's outgoing colleague Mark Wallace had criticized as an unprecedented 25% increase in the UN budget.

Khalilzad, asked about the increase by Inner City Press, said that the UN has to get better and setting its priority, that he might like to drive a Ferrari, but can't afford one. Perhaps a Japanese luxury car -- sources tell Inner City Press that Japan only reluctantly voted for the $48 million in budget add-ons, and even then, only with an understanding that the Secretariat will make $3 million in cuts elsewhere. It's considered strange that Japan rather than the United States made the most noise in the budget committee about the ever-rising spending. Perhaps the U.S.'s view on the budget were delivered more quietly, in an undisclosed Saturday afternoon meeting.

The end of the budget committee's March session was hard to cover: it was impossible to get audio recordings of the meeting once it finished, and the resolutions voted on Friday afternoon were not available, even as of noon. At the noon briefing, Inner City Press asked "if, hours before they vote on these things, we don’t have the documents, do the people voting have the documents now or do they just vote on them when they get them?" The General Assembly's spokesman replied, "I would assume that within the informal consultations, if we have these drafts listed, I have the feeling that probably those drafts have been worked on. Otherwise these would not be here."

We'll see. As of Saturday, 9 p.m., Ban's schedule still read as follows:

Saturday, 29 March 2008

All other appointments are internal

4.00 p.m H.E. Mr. Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia

Monday, 31 March 2008

12.00 p.m. Mr. Serge Brammertz, Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (courtesy call)

12.30 p.m. Ambassador Elbio Rosselli, Permanent Representative of Uruguay to the UN (farewell call)

3.30 p.m. Rt. Hon Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, Chairman, Commission for Global Road Safety

4.45 p.m. H.E. Mr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh

5.30 p.m. Mr. Ibrahim A. Gambari, Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Iraq Compact and Other Issues

Inner City Press annotations: apparently, Ban meeting with the U.S. Ambassador is now considered an "internal" meeting. Of Monday's disclosed meetings, one imagine with Bangladesh the issue surrounding the mandates combined with the Office of the Special Advisor on Africa coming up. Does Gambari being identified with reference to Iraq mean that Myanmar will not be discussed?

Footnote: While Zalmay Khalilzad has denied the reports that he might seek the presidency of Afghanistan, perhaps the rumors will revive, now that the august Tribune de Geneve has, if only as a typo, named Hamid Karzai as having joined that agro-bureaucrats at the World Food Program, click here for that (in French). It's nice work if you can get it -- a recently released ECOSOC report E/2008/36 reports that the WFP's Executive Board voted to set the housing allowance of executive director Josette Sheeran Shiner at 121,440 Euros per year, "indexed annually against the Italian retail price index." The price of food is not the only price that's going up. To be continued.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1banmeetsus032908.html

At UN, Ban's Team Blames Budget on U.S., Whose Ambassador Khalilzad Eschews Ferrari-Driving

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1budget032508.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 25 -- As governments all over the world tighten their budgets, including in light of the fall-out from the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market, the UN is proposing a 25% increase in its spending, unveiling an additional $1.1 billion "add-on" to the over $4 billion approved just before Christmas. On Tuesday Inner City Press asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson since "when the presentation was made, there was only about a 2 per cent increase, how does the Secretary-General explain this over $1 billion additional request?" The spokesperson as has become routine said that an answer would be provided later.

In the interim, Inner City Press spoke with a number of Ambassadors, finding even developing country representatives dissatisfied with the disorganized way Ban's first budget has been presented, some in December and more in March. One diplomat suggested that a move is afoot to require the Secretariat to propose a specific budget and stick to it, with no add-ons. At the Security Council stakeout, Inner City Press asked U.S. Permanent Representative Zalmay Khalilzad, "What's the U.S. position on this 25% increase requested by the Secretary-General?" Video here, last question.

Ambassador Khalilzad replied that "a 25% increase is excessive and we’re going to work with others to see what can be afforded now and what should be deferred... I’d like to have a Ferrari but since I can't afford it you know I'm probably going to get a cheaper car when I leave this job."

Subsequently, Ban's spokesperson's office told Inner City Press that "the Secretariat has only provided a projection of how financing needs would evolve, if the Member States were to support a wide range of political missions and management reform proposals currently on the table. However, that projection is not the final amount, since this is a consultative process and its ultimate outcome will be determined by the Member States at large in the General Assembly, and not by the Secretariat."

So, does that mean that the $1.1 billion is a negotiating position? The spokesperson's answer then named two specific missions, both favored by the United States, particularly to so-called bunker in Baghdad, noting that "the costs for special political missions, including Iraq and Afghanistan, cannot in any sense be considered 'administrative costs.'" So there. Onward to the bunker!
mmittee on administrative and budgetary questions, financial disclosure united nations,
And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1budget032508.html

As Georgia Says Sochi Olympics May Not Happen, Russia Calls it Far-Fetched, Georgia Speaks of Abkhaz Trenches

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1abkhazia031108.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 11 -- "I won't see any Sochi Olympics happening," Georgia's Permanent Representative to the UN Irakli Alasania told Inner City Press on Tuesday, "if destabilization in region" continues. Ambassador Alasania had criticized Russia's lifting of sanctions against Abkhazia, a move that some have related to the Winter Olympics planned for 2014 in Sochi, fifty miles from Abkhazia.

Inner City Press asked Amb. Alasania about a quote by the chairman of the Georgian parliament temporary commission for the restoration of territorial integrity, Shota Malashkhia, that "if Russia continues to act in the same manner as currently, the Sochi Olympics will resemble that in Moscow in 1980."

While declining to comment directly on the statements of the legislative branch, Amb. Alasania went beyond the implicit boycott call to say that the Olympics might have to be canceled altogether. If the destabilization on the ground continues, he said, "I don't see how the Olympics can proceed." Video here, from Minute 12:47.

Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad about the Georgian statement that the Sochi Olympics might have to be cancelled. U.S. entertainer Mia Farrow has called for a boycott, citing Darfur, of the upcoming Beijing Olympics; filmmaker Steven Spielberg himself boycotted participation in the Games. After initially declining to say anything, Amb. Khalilzad when pressed said "I have no comment on that... with regards to the Olympics issues." Video here, from Minute 5:54

Afterwards another Council diplomat told Inner City Press that the idea of boycotting the Sochi Olympics due to a dispute about Abkhazia or South Ossetia was "reminiscent of the Cold War." But there are those who say a new Cold War is brewing.

Russia beat out South Korea to win the 2014 Winter Olympics. Inner City Press asked Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin about Amb. Alasania's statement that the Games might have to be cancelled. Amb. Churkin laughed and called it "a far-fetched statement... I'm surprised that he made it." Video here, from Minute 4:09. Then again, Russia claims that its lifting of sanctions on Abkhazia has nothing to do with other countries' recognition of Kosovo's declaration of independence.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, asked by Inner City Press about any link between Abkhazia and Kosovo said of the latter that as an '"ethnic" secession, Kosovo "is a first, which is another way of saying precedent... Precedents aren't announced, precedents just happen." Video here.

The commander of the Georgian peacekeeping operations, General Mamuka Kurashvili, has accused Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia of digging new trenches. Inner City Press asked the UN Spokesperson at Tuesday's noon briefing if the UN Mission in Georgia had any information in this regard, and later received a response that " UNOMIG has sent patrols to most of the reported locations. In most cases, the reports proved false. At several Abkhaz posts UNOMIG observed that 'light' works had been carried out to improve fortifications. There were also increase in manning levels at the Abkhaz posts following the February 29 incident, in which three Abkhaz police officers were wounded by a mine; the levels returned to normal as of March 7."

When Inner City Press later on Tuesday told a Permanent Five Council member diplomat about this "light fortification" work, the response was that rather than Russia using Abkhazia to gain leverage vis-a-vis Kosovo, they are using Kosovo to do what they want in Abkhazia. Other than from Olympian heights, how would one know?

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1abkhazia031108.html

At the UN, Attack on Darfur Peacekeepers Is Said to Need More Investigation, Mired in Politics of UN's Statements on Lebanon and Sri Lanka

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/sc1jan010908.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 9 -- A standoff about Darfur took place at the Security Council on Wednesday, in which UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations chief Jean-Marie Guehenno was met with disbelief by at least one Council member, Libya. Speaking about the January 7 attack on UN peacekeepers in West Darfur, Guehenno told the Council that the local Sudanese Armed Forces area commander contacted both the UN and the African Union immediately after the attack and took responsibility for it. In response to Inner City Press' question about this call, Guehenno said Sudan's rationale for shooting was that the convoy "was not identified as a UNAMID convoy." Video here, from Minute 6:56.

Sudan's UN Ambassador beginning on Tuesday disputed responsibility, pointing the finger at the rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement. And Wednesday outside the Council chamber, asked about the Council's failure to issue a press statement on the attack, and about who was responsible for the attack, Libya's Ambassador Giadalla A. Ettalhi, president of the Security Council for January, said, "This point is not agreed by all the parties. They need more investigation, that was expressed by some members." Video here, from Minute 3:16. French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert told reporters, off-camera, that only one country was blocking the press statement on Darfur, and one on Lebanon as well. This was clarified by staff to mean Libya. Some reporters mused that, given that it is the Council president who must come before the cameras and read out the Council's press statements, Libya is particularly opposed to reading out statements criticizing Sudan, and condemning a two-rocket attack on Israel.

[According to AFP, in Khartoum on Thursday, Sudan's defence minister Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein made the admission that "the army wasn't informed of the convoy's itinerary and before entering Tine (in Darfur) soldiers fired warning shots without knowing the vehicles were from UNAMID."]

Also on Darfur, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, rumored in today's Washington Post to want to run for president of Afghanistan, said that Sudan's intransigence is one reason that countries are not stepping forward to offer the helicopters the UN is requesting. Unexplained is the fact that the European Union force for Chad and Central African Republic is also delayed by the failure to contribute any helicopters, even though the Chad and CAR presidents have not laid down conditions. Sudan for its part argues that there is a double standard, in which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon quickly condemned the attack on peacekeepers in Darfur, and blamed the government for it, while not issuing a similar statement about the attack on UN peacekeepers from Ireland in Lebanon. Western diplomats quickly countered that the Council is working on a statement about Lebanon, which they say Libya is blocking, but that does not address the alleged double standards of the Secretariat.

Footnote: also on Secretariat statements, it is said that in the wake of Ban Ki-moon's statement regretting the government of Sri Lanka having declared an end to its ceasefire with the Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN is in hot water with his capital, that he should have done more to procure such statements following Tamil Tiger attacks, or have found a way to modulate Ban Ki-moon's more recent statement. Georgia, for example, managed to avoid a Ban Ki-moon statement during the crackdown on protests there. At the UN, the politics and timing of statements are among the currencies of the realm.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/sc1jan010908.html