At the UN, Budget Games Stretch from Baghdad to Basement Bazaar, Procurement Task Force Down to the Wire

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ptfbudget121707.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 17 -- Two days before the UN's budget is supposed to be voted on, its proposed $185 million expenditure for a new headquarters in Iraq was introduced Monday for the first time in the UN's budget committee. Japan's representative Ken Mukai criticized the late submission of the budget proposals for special political missions like that to Iraq, suggesting that at this late stage these proposals should be separated from the rest of the budget, which optimists still say will be approved by consensus by the Fifth Committee on December 19, and by the full General Assembly on December 21.

The GA President's spokesman reiterated this timeline at Monday's noon briefing:

"Over the weekend there were more informal consultations and these continue and will continue until the 19th. The hope is that by the end of the day on the 19th there's going to be some agreement reached on the budget... It's very difficult to ascertain whether we're heading for a deadlock or whether there are positive developments. At the moment everybody is engaged and there's genuine consultative work going on with the intention of agreeing on a budget by the end of the 19th."

Monday morning in an open meeting about the UN's Procurement Task Force, Singapore's Deputy Permanent Representative Kevin Cheok asked "who watches the watchers?" Of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, Cheok riffed that "surely we cannot blindly accept anything they do simply because they are investigators... The Spanish Inquisition once operated under similar premises... Why not have an investigation into the behavior of the investigators?" Why not, indeed.

Monday night down in the UN's basement, meetings continued, with a group of eight men in dark suits huddled around a single laptop. Later, a delegate told Inner City Press that while there's "hope," there's still much trading, the Group of 77 pushing for development, and the U.S. lying in the weeds. Fifth Committee staff said things are on track. But upstairs, Angola's Ambassador Ismael Gaspar Martens told Inner City Press there are still unanswered questions, including about the UN's $250 million no-bid contract with Lockheed Martin for Darfur. Amb. Gaspar Martens raised questions about the lack of competition, on behalf of the African Group. Now Egypt's Ambassador is said to also be demanding answers. Whether they will be given, and be made public, remains to be seen.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ptfbudget121707.html

As Turkey Bombs Iraq, Not Even Raised in Security Council, UN Baghdad Budget Introduced

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/turkiraq121707.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 17 -- Over the weekend there was a cross-border bombing raid, Turkey into Iraq, and on Monday not a word of it in the UN Security Council. When Turkish soldier were being shot at across the border, similarly nothing was said in the Council. The standard, apparently, is not disturbances to international peace and security, but rather that none of the Permanent Five members of the Council have any over-arching interest in a topic. The U.S. would not want the Iraq - Turkey issue to be discussed at that UN, and therefore it is not. Last week Iraqi Ambassador Hamid Al Bayati stressed to the press that his country's sovereignty must be respected in the upcoming Security Council resolution, and on the ground, where, he said, no permanent bases would be accepted. But now the U.S. brags about opening Iraqi air space for Turkish bombing runs, and Iraq is not heard from.

In fact, final Council consultations had been scheduled for Monday afternoon, but then were cancelled. Indonesian Deputy Permanent Representative Hasan Kleib told Inner City Press that the slow-down in the MNF resolution concerned a dispute about the difference between "non-interference" and "non-intervention." Another Council diplomat, on the Permanent Five side, said that at the last minute the U.S. wanted to check with Iraq's Maliki if the text was alright with him, and called this an aftermath of the little trouble the U.S. had in the Council on the post-Annapolis resolution. That time, the U.S. formally introduced a draft resolution and then quickly withdrew it, after criticism from Israel.

Meanwhile, two days before the UN's budget is slated to be voted on, its proposed $185 million expenditure for a new headquarters in Iraq was introduced for the first time in the UN's budget committee. While on the overall budget it is the U.S. which is complaining most, on this item the U.S. is not complaining, as increased UN presence is viewed as helping the U.S.. But Monday Japan's representative criticized the late submission, suggesting that at this late stage the proposal should be separated from the rest of the budget. And the UN's Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions has just made public its critique of the Baghdad plan, listing issues that "need to be clarified before the proposal can be considered by the General Assembly," including the "nature of the requirement for the UN Office in Baghdad" and the "level of the financial and other contributions by the Government of Iraq." To be continued.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/turkiraq121707.html

At the UN, Chinese Painting Mirrors Quiet Council Role, Carrying Veto for Sudan, Leaving Much Space Blank

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at UN
www.innercitypress.com/chinesestyle121707.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 17 -- In Chinese painting, it was explained Monday night in the UN's lobby, much of the page is left blank. Alongside a demonstration by Wang Shuping, attended from outside the UN by Henry Kissinger and by a number of countries' ambassadors, the analogy of under-statedness was to China's approach to the Security Council. Whereas other Permanent Five members push their positions and display their bona fides at nearly every change, China even when blocking proposals in the Council rarely explains why.

A recent example was a draft Presidential Statement calling on Sudan to arrest two indictees of the International Criminal Court. Several P-5 diplomats complained about what they called China's obstruction. China's Ambassador Wang Guangya chose not to come to the media stakeout and explain his country's opposition, perhaps seeing no need. Later on December 7, Inner City Press asked Amb. Wang about his position. "It's simple," he said. "Since there is going to be the meeting in Lisbon" of the African Union, the EU and UN, "we should see what happens there first." One may not like the position, but there it is.

As it happens, Sudan's Ambassador was at the painting exhibition opening Monday night. He told Inner City Press the UN's Darfur mission budget is still not done, and it is nearly the holiday. Likewise Angola's Ambassador Ismael Gaspar Martens told Inner City Press there are still unanswered questions, including about the UN's $250 million no-bid contract with Lockheed Martin for Darfur. At the exhibition, diplomacy ruled the day. UK Ambassador Sawers put in an appearance; Chinese Ambassadors Wang and Liu chatted animatedly with Swiss Permanent Representative Peter Maurer. That war crimes charges have swirled around Kissinger was noted by more than one wag in attendance.

A Chinese mission staffer was asked if Kissinger's appearance sprang from his interest in Chinese painting. "You can believe that if you want," was the response. Kissinger is "a Friend of China," through thick and thin, it was said. The paint used by Wang Shuping was thin, the most watery of water-colors, as he sketched an eagle flying over a mountain. Ambassador Wang Guangya mugged for the cameras, as if the painting had been done by him. The media covering the event, nearly all from China, snapped photographs then ran to computers to file stories. At the UN, China leaves blank much of the space it controls.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/chinesestyle121707.html

At UN, Reticence to Vote Confines Kosovo to Private Meeting, No Room for Transparency on Budget and No-Bid Contracts

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unprivate121407.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 14 -- In the run-up to the Security Council's December 19 meeting about Kosovo, even the format of the meeting has been in dispute. On December 12, Italian Ambassador Marcello Spatafora, this month's Council president, said that in that day's discussion, which he called a tour de table, the disagreement was whether Kosovo would be allowed to speak for itself, or only, as the current legal framework dictates, would be spoken for by the UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK. Amb. Spatafora, always upbeat, emphasized that there had been unanimity that the meeting would "not be in the consultations room" and that it would be "transparent."

On Friday Amb. Spatafora returned to the same microphone and announced that Kosovo would speak for itself, in the main Council chamber -- but that the meeting would be "private." That means, no attendance by the public or the press. How then is it transparent? Inner City Press asked, and the response was to emphasize that the meeting is being held in the big room, the chamber, and not the consultations room. Video here. So at the UN, does the concept of transparency depend more on which room a meeting is held in than on whether the public and press can hear what happens?

Ambassadors, at least some, at the UN can be reached with questions. Inner City Press asked the UK's Permanent Representative John Sawers for his view on the meeting being private. "Our priority was the representative of Kosovo speaking at the Council," Amb. Sawers said. "Russia tried to prevent that [but] in the end gave in, in return for a private meeting." But what about transparency? Inner City Press asked France's Deputy Permanent Representative Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who explained that "what we had to come to was an agreement, a consensual one." He said "Russia knew we had the votes" so "the Russian came up with this proposal" to have Kosovo speak for itself, but only in a private meeting. "What prevailed was the sense that if we can resolve through consensus, let's do it... we can have it without resort to the vote."

This aversion to voting is at work on the UN budget as well. It is said that the while negotiations continue among staff experts in the Fifth Committee's meetings in the basement of the UN, around $100 - $150 million, the U.S. is calling around at the level of ambassadors and even capitals, promoting the idea of merely extending the current budget for six months, until the Secretariat some up with a proposal that is not "piecemeal," and not, from the U.S. perspective, such a large increase. On Friday several insiders told Inner City Press that yes, the budget is the big story at the UN, not covered because both the Secretariat and most of the member states, even those which temporarily go public, like it that way. But when public business is conducted in private meetings, the press must ask questions.

As has previously been emphasized to Inner City Press, in connection with the review of the UN's no-bid $250 million contract with Lockheed Martin, at the UN transparency may only mean disclosure to states, in closed meetings, not to the public. At Friday's noon briefing, Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe said that she does not speak for the Department of Peacekeeping Operation's Number Two, Edmond Mulet, who Thursday declined to answer Inner City Press's request for a description of the responses given to the budget committee's questions about the contract. Video here, last Minute. He referred to another split-off unit, the Department of Field Support, for which Ms. Okabe also seems not to speak. So who speaks for these UN departments? To be continued.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unprivate121407.html

At the UN, Darfur No-Bid Contract to Lockheed Martin and Budget Confined to Secret Meetings

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsecrets121307.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 13 -- After briefing the Security Council about the prospective UN - African Union hybrid force in Darfur, the deputy chief of the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Edmond Mulet, appeared to take questions from journalists. He made much of Sudan releasing communications equipment it had impounded for two months. But when asked by Inner City Press to explain DPKO's responses to questions raised in the UN's budget committee about the UN's no-bid $250 million contract with Lockheed Martin's Pacific Architects & Engineers (PAE) to build and maintain camps for peacekeepers in Darfur, he pointedly refused to answer. That is a question for the Department of Field Support, he said, one that I am not prepared to answer. With that he left the microphone. On his way to the elevator, Inner City Press asked when a briefing or availability by DFS could be arranged. You have to ask them, Mulet said. So the split of peacekeeping into DPKO and DFS allows public questions about the UN's largest peacekeeping contract, given out without bidding, to go unanswered for two months. Ah, UN reform...

In any event, the head of DPKO, Jean-Marie Guehenno, wrote a letter as far back as December 2006 pitching Lockheed's PAE for the sole-source Darfur contract, click here to view.

Meanwhile the UN's budget committee, the Fifth, continues its late night meetings in the basement of the UN. Thursday night the signs outside Conference Room 5 mere said, "Closed." While at the U.S. Mission predictions were made that at least some parts of the UN budget will be deferred to the Fifth's "resumed" session beginning March 2008, Committee insiders scoffed, saying that deals always get done before the deadline. Staff Union source worry that the reductions from the Secretariat's budget proposal will come out of the hide of relatively lower level staff. From a journalist's perspective, the story is the near total lack of coverage. But as one well-meaning observer tried to argue, at the UN transparency does not mean to the public, but to the member states. The late night meetings in the UN's basement continue as outside snow and sleet fall, on police cars checking packages more suspicious now than ever. So it goes at the UN.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsecrets121307.html

UNICEF's Work Includes Giving Voice to Children, Staying Silent in Sri Lanka

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
www.innercitypress.com/gaunicef121307.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 13 -- Who does not believe that the children are the future? This week UNICEF has hosted 90 children from over 50 countries, in connection with a debate in the General Assembly at which two children spoke. After Thursday conclusion, Inner City Press asked a few questions of perhaps the most compelling spokesperson UNICEF has yet produced, 15-year old Millicent Orondo from Kenya. She said her message for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the rest of the UN was to help the children raise their voices, to create a better world. She told the story of one another youth-visitor to New York, a former child-labor victim from Cambodia. Since UNICEF had earlier in the week said that climate change is one of the two top issues to youth, Inner City Press asked Ms. Orondo if it had come up in her meeting at UNICEF. Not in front of her, she said, adding that she is in a different committee, one concerning education. Long after her interview was aired on UN Television, click here to stream, viewers in the UN marveled at her composure. Yes, as the song has it, the children are the future.

Inner City Press asked Ms. Orondo if she had recorded her story for the future, using one of the One Laptop Per Child machines in use in UNICEF's lobby this week. Inner City Press has asked UNESCO what the UN system thinks of the One Laptop Per Child initiative; UNESCO declined to comment. on December 11, UNICEF director Ann M. Veneman praised the low-cost laptops, and described their use by the youth delegation camped out in UNICEF House. Inner City Press went to check it out, and found teenagers in a glassed-in room recording their stories into the white-and-green laptops.

But how many of the stories really had to do with global warming? Wednesday in a press conference and report, UNICEF tried to link nearly all of their work to the current buzzword, climate change. Suddenly all sanitation projects are climate change-related, because water availability is impacted by heat. Inner City Press asked if there is or has been any particular UNICEF budget for climate change. It permeates our work, was the answer.

In fact, the concept of climate change was not in previous UNICEF budgets. Many see the new re-branding is sheer opportunism, as something beneath UNICEF's previous sticking to its mission. And a question about Sri Lankan controversies, previously asked of UNICEF and at a UN noon brefing and re-posed Wednesday directly to UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Hilde Frafjord Johnson, was answered late Thursday, thusly:

"Regarding questions raised in Sri Lanka about UNICEF's purchase of 'Meals Ready to Eat' (MREs), UNICEF has explained to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the food ration packs were purchased by tender on behalf of 12 UN agencies operating in Sri Lanka. Under UN emergency preparedness procedures, UN field offices are advised to hold such emergency rations, to be used to feed UN staff in the event of an emergency. UNICEF purchased sufficient MREs to feed staff for three days.

"Regarding the question raised in Sri Lanka about bulletproof vehicles, the UNICEF Country representative has informed the Ministry that UNICEF only purchased bulletproofing for one vehicle, which UNICEF operates in Batticaloa. The use of this vehicle is to ensure the protection of staff from explosions."

While the belated answer is appreciated, it has become more clear that staff are unsure of their full protection by UNICEF management, including for having participated in a memorial for humanitarian workers killed in Sri Lanka. The government attacked the UNICEF staff for their attendance, and so far there has been little public response. Yes, sometimes silence is the better part of valor. But when the UN is under attack, failure to defend staff is less defensible.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/gaunicef121307.html

As Carrion Downshifts to Race for NYC Comptroller, Human Rights Disinvestment Balanced by Returns

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/carrionabny121307.html

BRONX, NY, December 13 -- As Bronx borough president Adolfo Carrion spoke at the Grand Hyatt Thursday morning, quoting from James Joyce and Emma Lazarus' poems on the base of the Statue of Liberty, he seemed inexorably to be moving to declaring himself a candidate for Mayor. In the audience were generations of Bronx elected officials, Jose and Joel Rivera, the Yankees' Randy Levine and a table bought by the Bronx Zoo, Herman Badillo at a table of lobbying firm Tonio Burgos and Associates. The real estate industry was making introductions, and filling the ballroom. There was no talk of rising rents, only of rising hopes. And then Carrion declared for... Comptroller.

In the media scrum that immediately followed, he was asked "why not run for Mayor?" His answer was "I've got kids," and that there are other young talents running for Mayor, two on whom he said he would call with the news: Christine (Quinn) and Anthony (Weiner). He shifted to say that New York's economy is doing well, even with the subprime lending crisis. He said there are "ten to twelve thousand families with subprime mortgages," an estimate that readily-available Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data calls into question. But he's not yet Comptroller.

Looking ahead, Inner City Press asked Carrion for his views on using the city's pension fund and investment to advance human rights. "It's one of the strongest instruments municipalities have," Carrion said, "to go to enterprises, to multinational corporations or funds, and say we are uncomfortable with practices in parts of the company, in countries, the treatment of workers."

Inner City Press asked if he would divest from specific countries, and from companies doing business in them, using as examples what other government subdivisions have targets, Sudan and Syria. "Anywhere human or workers rights are violated, we need to rethink strategy," Carrion said. He went on to say he would "also take into consideration the return for pensioners." So if human rights violators are profitable? We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/carrionabny121307.html

At UN, Deadlock Even on Format of Kosovo Meeting on Dec. 19, Croatia Joins a Council in Chaos

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/scbalkans121207.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- As the issue of Kosovo's status moves into overtime, Thursday the UN Security Council could not even agree on the format of its upcoming meeting on the subject on December 19. One question concerns whether Kosovo will have a seat at the Council table. Thursday night Inner City Press asked Serbia deputy ambassador Slavko Kruljevic about the issue. Amb. Kruljevic said that the Council's resolution 1244 assigns Kosovo's foreign policy to the UN mission, UNMIK, and that it is they would should speak for Kosovo. Russia and China, both with veto power in the Council, are opposed to any more involvement by Kosovo than was allowed in April, when UNMIK spoke for Kosovo. Other countries disagree. UK Ambassador John Sawers, for example, told Inner City Press on Thursday that since Kosovo negotiated with Serbia for the past 120 days, it should have a place at the table. He said that the "elements" that Russia had circulated hoping for a consensus Presidential Statement by the Council calling for extended negotiations were, in essence, dead.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin saw and said it differently: some would like them to be dead, he said, but they are "very much alive" and on the table of the Security Council.

Meanwhile, another Balkan country, Croatia, is set to join the Security Council in January. At a welcome-to-the-Council event at the Chinese mission, Inner City Press spoke with Croatia's permanent representative, Mrs. Mirjana Mladineo. She estimated that her mission will need at least six more staff, to handle being on the Council. But the country is between governments, and so there are no extra staff in sight. She would be returning to her mission to work, after the Chinese reception. She said that the so-called "Finnish Workshop" held in November for new Council members was useful; she said that the decisions on new members' committee and drafting assignments are made, in essence, by the Permanent Five members. A P-5 Ambassador who joined the conversation said that the assignments are done "after consultations." The Security Council's work, such as it is, is done in such consultations.

Inner City Press footnote on the Security Council: The UN Security Council met until 7:15 p.m. on Thursday night, until finally adopting a so-called Presidential Statement condemning the assassination of General Francois al-Hajj in Lebanon. Council president Marcello Spatafora then came to the stakeout microphone and read what is called a press statement, about drugs in Guinea-Bissau. Not only was no agreement reaching on the format of the upcoming meeting on Kosovo; the issue of Iran moved further from the Council's agenda; Myanmar appeared forgotten. "They do nothing here," one frustrated Balkan journalist said, shaking his head. Amb. Spatafora said the long day showed that the Council was accomplishing something. What, it wasn't clear...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/scbalkans121207.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

As Congo Chaos Spreads, Council Questions UN's Military Role, Behind Closed Doors

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/scmonuc121207.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- Events in North Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo have reached the stage where the UN mission, taking part in a military offensive by the government against the forces of Laurent Nkunda, has issued warnings to civilians to leave, and to Nkunda that it is ready to engage him directly. Wednesday at UN headquarters, the deputy head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet spoke of North Kivu in a closed-door consultation session of the Security Council. According to participants in the meeting, DPKO was "reminded" to focus on its main mandate, the protection of civilians, and to consider whether providing logistical help to President Kabila to go after a political opponent, Nkunda, before dealing with the genocidaire FDLR made any sense. (Meanwhile, knowledgeable Inner City Press sources in recent days have said Nkunda's been in Rwanda.) Participants in Wednesday's Council meeting opined that Mulet requested and did the briefing so if things get even worse, no one can say that DPKO had not provided information. But will MONUC's policy change?

The issue itself has been asked and evaded for a week at the UN. On December 4, Inner City Press asked spokesperson Michele Montas:

Inner City Press: "Okay. Laurent Nkunda has been quoted that he wrote to MONUC and he wrote to William Lacy Swing asking them to either appoint a mediator or somehow play, he would say, a more neutral role than is being played. Did the United Nations receive that request, and... why is the UN, I guess, from his perspective, so clearly siding with what's described as an offensive against a particular area of the Congo?

Spokesperson: Well, MONUC troops are not engaged in fighting directly. They have been engaged, as you know, it was said yesterday, I think at the briefing, that they were transporting munitions, mostly for the Government. And it is in accordance with their mandate. As far as Mr. Nkunda's letter, I am not aware of it yet. We will try to reach MONUC and try to get more information on it.

[The Spokesperson later said that the United Nations had received no such letter from Mr. Nkunda.]

Inner City Press: I've heard Mr. Swing say we have to back up the Government, [that] it's the Government's decision to attack and if they attack, we support them. It made me think, how would it be different necessarily, let's say in Sudan or in other countries? Who at the UN decides when to support a Government military initiative?

Spokesperson: The Security Council decides. The Security Council, and the mandate that is given to every peacekeeping mission, the Security Council decides what the parameters are."

But as Wednesday's consultations revealed, the full Council does not necessarily support MONUC's recent support to President Kabila's military offensive against Nkunda and its impact on civilians. So what safeguards are in place?

On December 9, Inner City Press asked

Inner City Press: "In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it seems like the MONUC has advised civilians to leave areas in advance of attacks or movements by the Congolese army. Who is the UN implying would target civilians -- the Congolese army or the forces of General Nkunda?

Deputy Spokesperson: This is the first I have heard of this warning, so, again, I would have to check with MONUC for you. But if, in any position, the UN is aware of any potential harm to civilians, I'm sure that is part of their mandate to warn them against it.

Inner City Press: If they're the ones carrying ammunition and soldiers for the Congolese army and then giving warnings to civilians, my question is, does this imply that they are acknowledging and accepting that civilians might either be targeted?

Deputy Spokesperson: The United Nations, in no matter what circumstances, will not be in a position to advocate the targeting of civilians in any conflict. So if they have any knowledge that there is any harm coming to any people, no matter if it's in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or anywhere, it's their duty to warn them."

As one observer noted, this sounds a lot like Iraq's Falluja...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/scmonuc121207.html

US Talk on UN Budget Called Transparent or Grandstanding, Bolton In a Different Key

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/unus1budget121107.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- When a U.S. Ambassador convenes reporters outside a closed-door meeting about the UN's budget, it is grandstanding or a glimpse of transparency usually lacking from discussions of the world body's finances? On Tuesday Mark D. Wallace of the U.S. mission appeared in the UN's basement with copies of a statement he had read to an informal session the General Assembly's Fifth Committee. These informal session are invariably closed-door, and usually those in attendance emerge tight-lipped, other than whispering into cell phones and smoking in the UN's Viennese Cafe. News of the Fifth Committee's informal leaks out only by drip and by drab, often via staffers who are summoned to answer questions about budgets. Recently, the delegate of Singapore in a public session asked six detailed questions about the UN's no-bid $250 million contract with U.S.-based military contractor Lockheed Martin. The answers, if they are being provided, are all secret. The U.S. is aware of a request that the responses be made public. The odds still seem against it.

So Amb. Wallace's handing out of his statement, even if he did then insist that his remarks were all "on background," is a breath of fresh air in underground passages wreaking of tobacco. On the other hand, several European delegates shook their heads and said, "this changes nothing" and "he's only doing it for domestic political consumption, to show Americans that they're still fighting the U.N.." Reference was made to previous U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, with whom Wallace has been described as aligned more so that with new Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Recently Amb. Khalilzad praised a fragmented UN ethics system which, based on past comments, Wallace would have criticized as not going far enough. More than one Fifth Committee observer wondered Tuesday if Amb. Khalilzad will stand behind the Wallace-delivered critique, if and when the time comes.

Tuesday morning's media availability, consisting of a half-dozen reporters including three from major dailies, has resulted so far in two wire-service stories, AP and Reuters, both hearkening back to previous Ambassador John Bolton's 2005 showdown that threatened to leave the UN without funds. In his recent tell-all memoir, "Surrender Is Not an Option," Bolton describes contentious interchanges two Decembers ago which

"left the United States in an untenable position: either continue to insist on its position and risk being isolated (a form of hell for career diplomats) or give in to what the EU had negotiated and lose important substantive ground. I was determined to break this cycle... and engage directly with the G-77."

Two years later, the American rap remains the same. Amb. Wallace's statement riffs,

"As my colleagues from the G77 and China rightly point out in paragraph 30 of the Draft Resolution before us, 'approximately 75 percent of the budget resources are related to salaries and common staff costs... We must be fully and truly informed on the whole budget before we can take an informed decision on the budget as my G77 and Chinese colleagues rightly point out."

The language about the G77 is similar, but according to a chart handed out by Amb. Wallace, the UN's regular budget has risen from $3.656 billion in 2004-05 to fully $5.2 billion in 2008-09. (Back in October, Wallace put the estimate at $4.7 billlion, though adding "perhaps even in excess of that number." It's now risen $500 million.)

Later on Tuesday, senior Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions sources noted that ACABQ's report on what was actually spent during the UN's last budget has not yet been released, and should be consulted before the next budget is considered.

At Tuesday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Spokesperson Marie Okabe for any UN response to Amb. Wallace's budget figures and critiques. The UN Development Program previously called his comparison of spending in Africa to Latin America misleading. Ms. Okabe on the other hand said that there would be no comment until "we are out of the woods," presumably meaning, until the budget is passed by the General Assembly. As Wallace said on Tuesday, that could be next spring. So when will the coast be clear? Until it is, impromptu press conferences like Wallace's on Tuesday provide the only window into the UN's finances. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unus1budget121107.html

In UN Ag Tech Spat, Israel Calls "Shameful" Abstention by S. Africa, Which Says It's Being Singled Out

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee, News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/unagtechspat121107.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- Verbal skirmishes between Israel and the Arab Group and vice versa are expected at the UN. Tuesday in connection with what Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman called a rare feel-good story, a less intuitive fight broke out, Israel versus South Africa. Amb. Gillerman summoned reporters to the microphone outside the Security Council chamber to highlight the passage in the General Assembly's Second Committee of a resolution sponsored by Israel, on the use of agricultural technology for development. He said it was the first Israeli-sponsored resolution to pass the Committee, and he noted that there were no votes against it. There were 29 abstentions, "mostly Arab states," he said, "which I do not understand but which I respect." Then Amb. Gillerman singled out South Africa's abstention, and called it "shameful... unless it was a mistake... pressed the wrong button." South Africa calls itself the leader of Africa, making its abstention all the worse, he said. The implication was that South Africa has abstained for the same "political" reason as the Arab states, but with less justification, at least in Israel's eyes.

Inner City Press, after asking Amb. Gillerman some questions (video here, from Minute 8:58), sought the South African mission's reason for abstention. It was explained that the draft resolution had not included the Africa focus found in the Millennium Declaration and the 2005 World Summit Outcome documents, lacking provisions about intellectual property, for example. Amendments had been attempted but rejected. A suggestion had been made to have the resolution be a proposal of the Chairman of the committee, but Israel, the mission said, fought to retain ownership.

Amb. Gillerman said that Israel does not want to be a "one issue" country, that it has been very active in sharing its agricultural technology in Africa, Latin America and elsewhere. He limited questions to issues of agriculture, "on this festive day," he said. Inner City Press asked for details on Israel's collaboration with the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization. Amb. Gillerman referred the question to his "expert," Ilan Fluss, who answered that FAO had coordinated with Israel on the resolution throughout the process.

South Africa has been fingered, by the U.S. mission and the New York Times, for opposing an General Assembly resolution denouncing rape in the service of governmental or military goals. There is, of course, South Africa's position on Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, previously covered by Inner City Press. But beyond that, Reuters highlighted earlier this year that on a Holocaust resolution adopted by consensus, the South African representative was not present in the meeting, along with Iran and the Sudan. One diplomat asked, Why are we being singled out? Especially by Israel, which complains of disparate treatment?

Ilan Fluss, who coordinated the resolution, was previously Israel's acting Ambassador in South Africa. Clearly there's some tension there, to single out one of the 29 abstentions. Other abstainers included Algeria, Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

It has been noted that the resolution still has to be considered by the full General Assembly, next week. Late Tuesday, Inner City Press asked the Permanent Observer of Palestine, Riyad Mansour, about the ag tech spat. Amb. Mansour riffed that "the Israeli delegate forgot the statement of his leaders in Annapolis, when they expressed thrills at seeing 16 Arab states there." He suggested that Israel, if it was interested in more than "scoring political points... with a minor victory," should have allowed the resolution to be converted into a consensus text sponsored by the Committee's chair. Amb. Mansour specifically took issue with Amb. Gillerman having "lashed out" at South Africa, which he called "a country that no one can question their integrity with regard to justice and doing the right thing." Video here. Afterwards, a Council diplomat mused that the tables were turned, with the Palestinians offering verbal defenses of South Africa. And so it goes at the UN.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unagtechspat121107.html

At the UN, Del Ponte "Stupified" by UNMIK's Support for Ramush Haradinaj, Dodges UN's Srebrenica Role

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
www.innercitypress.com/ictykosovo121007.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- As focus increases on Kosovo, which the UN has administered since 1999, on Monday Carla Del Ponte, Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, strongly criticized the UN's leadership in Kosovo for having openly praised "a person indicted for war crimes," Ramush Haradinaj, and thereby having chilled and intimidated witnesses. Most recently, the UN's second-in-command in Kosovo, Steven Schook, has proclaimed "having great respect for Ramush Haradinaj's performance as prime minister of Kosovo," and has claimed that is one of the reasons he is under investigation by the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services.

Monday Inner City Press asked about this, and Ms. Del Ponte replied that she is "stupefied" by this, and that she has had "a lot of problems with UNMIK," the UN's Kosovo mission, stretching back to the leadership of Jessen Petersen and even, before Ramush Haradinaj was indicted, Bernard Kouchner. "I have nothing against personal friendship between friends," she said, "except when it has a chilling effect on my witnesses!" She asked rhetorically how a prosecution witness living in Kosovo would feel, when the UN's de facto governors of Kosovo praise a man indicted for war crimes.

Inner City Press asked a second question, about whether Ms. Del Ponte supported the UN's attempt to cite immunity when sued in Holland for its role in not providing protection in Srebrenica. She called the question "completely different" than the Kosovo question, and then pointedly did not answer it. Video here, from Minute 20:03.

Ms. Del Ponte's long-time deputy, David Tolbert, who is also leaving at the end of the year, expressed shock that UN officials would "show friendship and support to someone indicted for war crimes." Afterwards, when asked by Inner City Press where he would be heading at the end of the year, when Serge Brammertz takes over as lead prosecutor of the ICTY, Tolbert declined to say where, only that it would be announced soon. Asked why he was not chosen, he said, "Ask the Security Council." Or, perhaps, ask Brammertz.

As luck would have it, there was a Brammertz sighting on Friday night when the Ambassador of Liechtenstein threw a party in his 50th story penthouse on 40th Street and Second Avenue. A guard with a guest list stood in the lobby; upstairs Brammertz, who usually is surrounded by three or four body guards, mingled with the crowd. Perhaps it's the transition from the Hariri case in explosive Lebanon to the quieter ICTY explains the seeming drop-off in security. Then again, things are heating up in Kosovo...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ictykosovo121007.html

At the UN, Cartoons For Human Rights Exclude Denmark, Ban on Gifts Unless Given to Secretary-General

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
www.innercitypress.com/unhrcartoons121007.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- "Cartoons if they don't make enemies aren't successful," Jerry Robinson, the inventor of Batman's Joker, told Inner City Press Monday at the UN. Mr. Robinson curated the "Sketching Human Rights" show now open in the UN visitor's lobby, which includes work by 65 cartoonists from countries all over the world. Notably, Denmark is not represented. The controversy of the Danish-commissioned cartoons about Islam's prophet Mohammed was indirectly raised before the show's ceremonial ribbon-cutting. The UN's Craig Mokhiber, Deputy Director of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, referred to cartoons recently used to promote religious hatred. Inner City Press asked Robinson about the affair of the Danish cartoons. The competition, he said, could have been better thought out. But political cartoons are supposed to be controversial, he added.

A particular cartoon in the show which a UN staffer directed Inner City Press to involves a sheep on a rope tethered to a post called "Political Freedoms." The rope keeps the sheep from reaching the grazing pasture that surrounds it. The UN staffer, like Inner City Press, interpreted this cartoon, but Russia's Vladimir Mochalov, as a critique of the West's focus on civil and political rights, implying that these leave the poor tied up and hungry. Robinson, on the other hand, said that maybe the cartoon meant that the political freedoms offered by Russia weren't enough to prevent starvation. Meanwhile, UN staffers at Monday's show opening in the visitors' entrance noted the lack of the usual drinks and canapes, and alluded darkly as to how they had been incentivized to come. In the spirit of the holiday, we'll leave it there for now.

On a much less comedic front, Inner City Press has learned that the UN's human rights budget is under fire, as part of the overall budget currently stalled in the General Assembly's Fifth Committee.

Elsewhere at the UN, plentitude and magnanimity are apparently the problem. The UN's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar has put on the UN's intranet a letter to all personnel, reminding them that it is impermissible for them to accept gifts from governments. But, Nambiar adds, if you have to accept a gift, you must turn it over to the Secretary-General. [We note that the S-G' speech at Friday's UNCA ball included a rhyme, "Did you write a blog about me every week? Did Nambiar enquire into who was the leak?"] Clearly, with human rights day two weeks before Christmas, the holiday are upon us. Let the gift giving begin!

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unhrcartoons121007.html

At UN, Tour Guides Return to Work As Job Action Results in Concessions After Confrontation over Cocktails

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN: News Muse
www.innercitypress.com/unwgguides121007.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- Tour guides at the UN, after a two day sick-out in protest of working conditions, reached an interim agreement with UN management late Friday night. Tours resumed on Sunday, and the first negotiating session under the more representative format demanded by the guides is scheduled to take place Tuesday. Preceding the late-night agreement, hammered out between the Department of Public Information's office on the tenth floor and the Staff Union's fifth floor conference room, was a unplanned dialogue between tuxedoed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and one of the tour guides, who in Korean told Mr. Ban that his intervention was needed. This took place on the sidelines of the UN Correspondents' Association ball, after a cocktail hour replete with canapes and an array of ambassadors, from Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa to Wang Guanya of China.

DPI chief Kiyotaka Akasaka stood with his new Director of Outreach Eric Falt, who began the job two weeks ago after stints in Cambodia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Haiti, Baghdad and Nairobi. "Tonight just relax," Mr. Akasaka told Inner City Press. "You are working too hard." But it turned that that Mr. Akasaka himself was working, until nearly 11 p.m.. At 7, he assured Inner City Press that the tour guide matter would be solved. That is what Mr. Ban repeated to the tour guide who approached him, until she disagreed. [Ban's speech included a rhyme, "Did you write a blog about me every week? Did Nambiar enquire into who was the leak?"]

Backchannel via leaked e-mail, the tour guides told Mr. Akasaka, "We insist that the six individuals on the list submitted by us will not merely be advisors, but be there to represent us, with full right to participate and speak on our behalf."

This was in response to Mr. Akasaka's message of December 6, that

"As announced during my visit to the Guided Tours Unit this afternoon, I am pleased to confirm that establishment of a Working Group to look into the concerns of the part-time Tour Guides. I have asked Eric Falt, the newly-appointed Director of the Outreach Division, to convene this Working Group at the earliest possible time -- hopefully next Monday or Tuesday. The Working Group is expected to include:

-Netta Avedon, OHRM; Lena Dissin, DM; Marry Ferreira and Mampela Mpela, staff representatives of DPI; Elizabeth Baldwin-Penn and Isabelle Broyer, Public Relations section, Louis German, DPI; and up to three representatives of the part-time Tour Guides."

The internal response was that this proposed panel was far too management dominated; it was noted that Ms. Dissin was previously the head of the Guided Tours Unit. Friday at 624 p.m., the guide transmitted a list of six more representative people. At 10:45 on Friday night, Mr. Akasaka wrote back:

"You may interpret your delegation members as you see fit. Any member of your delegation is free to speak, of course. The most important thing is to start our dialogue, in the interest of our tour guides and of our organization. I look forward to seeing you next Tuesday."

And on that basis, the guides returned to work on Sunday, and tours resumed. Tours of UN headquarters are a source of profit to the UN. Budget documents show that in 2006-07, "services to visitors" at headquarters generated gross revenue over $ 8 million, with $736,600 of that being net revenue. As one participant put it, the guides have the lowest pay, and least security, in UN headquarters, and yet had the courage to take this job action. There are those who say it may be spreading.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unwgguides121007.html

Darfur War Crimes Statement Dies In Security Council, Called "Gutted" and Not Needed

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
www.innercitypress.com/iccprstdies120707.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 7 -- With a whimper in the Security Council on Friday, a proposed statement on Darfur, supporting the call by International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo for Sudan to arrest two ICC indictees, died on the vine. Thursday it was said that China had asked for changes to the draft. Friday morning, a diplomat from another Permanent Five member of the Council said that China was "gutting" the proposed statement so much that their might be no statement at all.

When Inner City Press asked Moreno-Ocampo about this, late Friday morning, he said that the statement was coming out soon, he'd been told. Sudan's Ambassador, on the other hand, told Inner City Press that the opponents of the draft included not only China, but also Qatar. South Africa, he said, would also be opposed, but as a state party to the ICC, felt a need to take a different position.

At one p.m., Council president Marcello Spatafora stepped to the stakeout microphone and spoke about Cyprus. After asking unsuccessfully if the issue of Northern Cyprus' "isolation" had been discussed in the Council, Inner City Press asked Amb. Spatafora about the status of the ICC statement. Amb. Spatafora read from notes that sounded suspiciously like a version of the draft statement. Video here. Inner City Press asked, so has the statement been adopted? No, Amb. Spatafora said, arguing that what Council members had said after Moreno-Ocampo's briefing had been "so clear" that no statement, it turned out, was necessary. But why had one been proposed?

Later, Inner City Press asked a Council diplomat if it would be fair to say that the draft had been so watered down that the initial proponents no longer wanted it. You got that right, the diplomat answered, insisting that this be not for attribution. And so it goes in the UN Security Council...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/iccprstdies120707.html

In Burundi, FNL Dissenters Are Only "Alleged," UNICEF Ready for Child Soldiers, Silent on Sri Lanka

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
www.innercitypress.com/fnlsri120707.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 7 -- The biggest problem in the small state of Burundi, the UN's integrated mission there (BINUB) says, is the remaining rebel group, the FNL. Friday at UN headquarters, Inner City Press asked the UN's Burundi envoy Youssef Mahmoud how many fighters, more or less, the FNL still has. "I don't know," Mahmoud replied. "Some say three thousand." Inner City Press asked about the supposed deserters from the FNL, now assembled in camps.

"In the UN, we call them alleged dissidents," Mahmoud replied. Last week, South African mediator Nqakula said there are child soldiers in the camps, and called on the international community, including UNICEF, to visit the camps and demobilized the under-aged fighters. Video here. Inner City Press asked UNICEF and then Mr. Mahmoud, does UNICEF or others in the UN system have access to the camps? "We have access, but not for giving assistance," Mahmoud said, adding that the young fighters don't want to give their ages, preferring to remain in the camps. But if they are identified as children, he added, then UNICEF stands ready to help them. UNICEF, meanwhile, has yet to answer Inner City Press' week-old question about what it had done and will do in Burundi.

Another UNICEF question arose on Friday at the UN's noon briefing: what is the response to the government of Sri Lanka's charges that UNICEF improperly armor-plated a car and imported meals-ready-to-eat from a military supplier? UN spokesperson Michele Montas said, "let's wait, if they are meeting, they are meeting, we will know more later." Video here, from Minute 11:46.

The issue has been brewing for some weeks. While it's understandable that UNICEF might not want to speak on the issue of staff members' right to attend commemorations of murdered humanitarian workers if a government views this as "political," the simpler issues of armor-plating cars and procuring MREs from military suppliers should be able to be answered. As should what's being done on the issue of child soldiers in Burundi. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/fnlsri120707.html

As UN's Ban Heads to Bali, Caps on Greenhouse Gas by Poorer Countries is the Question

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
www.innercitypress.com/ban1bali120607.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 6 -- As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon prepares to travel to the climate change summit in Bali, Thursday he read prepared remarks and took questions from the UN press corps. The topics ranged from Darfur -- the lack of helicopters and the UN's $250 million no-bid infrastructure contract with Lockheed Martin -- through Lebanon, Kosovo and Iran before any global warming question was asked. Inner City Press sought Ban's position:

Inner City Press: The UN Development Program issued a report that's recommended, among other things, that even developing countries like China and India, commit to caps of emissions. But Dr. [Rajendra] Pachauri of the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] and India have both been critical of the report, calling it misplaced to call in advance for those caps. What's your position? Do you think that all countries, including relatively lower income developing countries, like India and China, should commit to hard caps on emission of greenhouse gases?

SG: On this special issue of capping the greenhouse gas emission reduction, I know that there are different positions in the international community. As far as I am concerned, as Secretary-General, as a matter of principle, there should be mandatory capping. However, I know that there are some concerns in some of the developing countries, therefore, this issue should be discussed in the future negotiation process. My goal, or target at this time, is to first of all, launch the negotiation with a timeline, with the future agenda. But my hope is that, in the source of future negotiations, [the] international community will be able to agree on this issue.

But in Bali so far, India and China are leading a group which is turning the tables on the developed countries, "demanding a legally binding instrument that would force rich countries to transfer clean technologies that they (and their industries) hold intellectual property rights to and also pay poor countries for adaptation to climate change consequences." This call was echoed Thursday at the UN in New York, in testimony to the General Assembly by China's Deputy Ambassador Liu Zhenmin.

Coal, major source of emissions, was not mentioned on Thursday, only new fangled light bulbs and appliances. Nor did Ban say if he will be carbon offsetting his trip to Indonesia.

In his prepared remarks, Ban referred to himself as a "climate change evangelist, banging a drum and calling on the world to follow." Clearly, there are alternative religions, and some who are ignoring the drum.

News [production] analysis: Ban Ki-moon seems to be eschewing sit-down press conferences. Thursday his staff installed a new microphone at the stand-up stakeout in front of the Security Council, with a lectern for Ban to rest his prepared remarks on. "This is new," Ban said before he began. Reporters asked if there would be an end-of-year press conference and were told, no. Some reporters have concluded that Mr. Ban is being mis-advised. An off-the-record briefing for major wire services was organized later on Thursday; another less select group may or may not be invited by Ban on December 21, when he is slated to be back from Bali. How will the coming two weeks be judged? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ban1bali120607.html

In Wake of UN Tour Guides' Sick-Out, Working Group Set Up With Union Leaders Excluded

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN
www.innercitypress.com/untours120607.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 6 -- The public face of the UN on Thursday went on strike. A decision to call in sick was reached by UN tour guides at a meeting Wednesday night. After waiting for the sick-out calls to be made, and reporting on the reactions of those who came for morning tours only to be turned away, Inner City Press at Thursday's noon briefing asked for "the Secretariat's response to the complaints raised by the Guided Tour Unit." UN Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe read from a prepared answer that a "meeting had been scheduled this afternoon to discuss these issues and Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Public Information Kiyo Akasaka had planned to join."

Tours of UN headquarters are a money-maker. Budget documents show that in 2006-07, "services to visitors" at headquarters generated gross revenue over $ 8 million, with $736,600 of that being net revenue, or profit.

In a hallway interview granted Thursday afternoon, Mr. Akasaka graceously told Inner City Press he was heading to meet with the tour guides, that the UN Staff Union should not come as this was the first meeting, and that he hoped all the issues could be resolved. The planned meeting was closed-door, to be held in the basement of the UN General Assembly lobby.

Afterwards, Inner City Press obtained a copy of Mr. Akasaka's post-meeting email to his staff, forward to tour guides:

"As announced during my visit to the Guided Tours Unit this afternoon, I am pleased to confirm that establishment of a Working Group to look into the concerns of the part-time Tour Guides. I have asked Eric Falt, the newly-appointed Director of the Outreach Division, to convene this Working Group at the earliest possible time -- hopefully next Monday or Tuesday. The Working Group is expected to include:

-Netta Avedon, OHRM; Lena Dissin, DM; Marry Ferreira and Mampela Mpela, staff representatives of DPI; Elizabeth Baldwin-Penn and Isabelle Broyer, Public Relations section, Louis German, DPI; and up to three representatives of the part-time Tour Guides."

The internal response was that this proposed panel is far too management dominated. The Staff Union has been excluded, and Thursday afternoon Department of Management chief Alicia Barcena wrote to the head of the Union that there is no need for the Joint Negotiating Committee to deal with the issues underlying the strike. A list of demands has been generated, including

"application and improvement of sick leave regulations; full time contracts for full time work and improvement of part-time contracts; To address unfair labor practices of the UN management such as hiring practices and decisions related to promotions and firing) as well as contracts, especially in light of the closure of UNHQ according to the Capital Master Plan."

In fact, the job action took place on the day the Capital Master Plan to vacate and fix the UN Headquarters Building was approved by the UN's budget committee. Also on Thursday, those in attendance at a meeting of the UN Staff Council were unanimous in their support of the tour guides. Union president Stephen Kisambira recounted a meeting with Kiyo Akasaka "some months ago," after which nothing, he said, was done.

First vice president Emad Hassanin spoke of a pregnant tour guide who was told she wouldn't be paid if she did come give tours. She did, and suffered a miscarriage, Hassanin said. He pointed out how tour guides do not have access to the UN's internal justice system, which he called broken, but also cannot sue in U.S. or New York courts. Some also spoke of the language teachers, who are also in a gray zone of employment law at the UN. Their problem is that a strike of language classes is not as visible to the public. Previously, the Staff Union has organized a boycott in support of the workers in the Headquarters' cafeteria, and has raised the issues of the day laborers of UN peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia, who perform important UN work without rights or recognition.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in response to a question on Thursday called the tour guides

"very important [in] connecting the United Nations and the outside world -- they have been playing an important role... Under-Secretary-General Kiyo Akasaka is going to discuss this matter -- what their complaints or issues are in this matter. I will get back to you through [the] Spokesperson."

We'll be waiting...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/untours120607.html