Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis UNITED NATIONS, November 6 -- Salva Kiir, first vice president of South Sudan, began his trip to the U.S. with a UN stop on Tuesday. He met with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and then spoke to the press. Aside from two mysterious answers he was generally upbeat, saying that just has he built bridges between Eritrea and the National Congress Party of Omar al-Bashir, he aims to do the same between al-Bashir and George W. Bush. ("I hope so," Sudan's Ambassador to the UN Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad said with a smile when asked later about this comment by Inner City Press.) He said, in Arabic, that he has high hopes to get the Comprehensive Peace Agreement back on track upon his return to Sudan. On Darfur, he urged the rebel movements to re-unify, adopt a common negotiation position and a single delegation to what the UN has been calling the third and final stage of the talks in Sirte, Libya. Inner City Press asked Kiir, in his trademark black cowboy hat, about the Lord's Resistance Army's talks with Ugandan president Museveni, and the International Criminal Court's indictments of Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti and two other LRA leaders. Kiir said that there is almost peace in Uganda, that an LRA delegation is in Kampala, and that if a peace agreement is signed, "the local community" will ask the ICC to drop the indictments. Not addressed is whether the ICC could, should or would accept such a request, based on alternative local arrangements. Salva Kiir in U.S. in trademark black hat, Vincent Otti not shown Inner City Press asked Kiir directly if he know if Vincent Otti is alive. There are reports that Otti is dead; some of these reports say that Joseph Kony killed him. Kiir said these are rumors, that someone can be sick and them become restored. Video here. While there was some laughter at the press stakeout at this line, a source with knowledge of the LRA process, Kiir and Northern Uganda tells Inner City Press that the answer only gives more credence to the reports of Otti's demise. We'll see. The other mystery in Kiir's answers concerned non-Sudanese now in Darfur. Kiir said there are "foreigners" in Darfur, brought there by the National Congress Party. He was asked, who are they? Not necessarily from Chad, Kiir said. Mysteries, mysteries...

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 2 -- Documents obtained by Inner City Press reveal substantial disagreement inside the UN before a no-bid $250 million contract was given to U.S.-based military contractor Lockheed Martin, through its subsidiary Pacific Architects & Engineers, for the upcoming Darfur peacekeeping mission. Contrary to defense that have since been offered for the sole source process with Lockheed, that it was an unavoidable emergency triggered by the Security Council's July 31 resolution on the peacekeeping mission, and only Lockheed could provide the infrastructure services, numerous UN officials internally urged competitive bidding.

Documents show that the decision to go sole-source with Lockheed was made as far back as April, three months before the Council resolution, based on a request by the chief of the UN's Department of Field Support, Jane Holl Lute. Click here for Ms. Lute's April 19 request and UN Controller Warren Sach's April 25 approval, which urged that any "follow on arrangements will be executed until established procurement procedures and rules" and that "DPKO develop a logistics concept no later than three months to respond to emergency situations of this nature to prevent reoccurrence of exceptions to competitive bidding." Contrary to Mr. Sach's proviso, more than five months later, a no-bid contract was given to Lockheed, outside of established procurement procedures.

            The reason for the second round of rushing, it now appears, went beyond the Security Council's July 31 resolution. Lockheed's contract with the U.S. Department of State was expiring on August 31, and that day the UN's Headquarters Committee on Contracts met on "an urgency reported by Procurement Services and the Department of Field Support... involving an award of a contract for the provision of the multi-function logistics services in Darfur." See Minutes, obtained exclusively by Inner City Press and now online here.  According to the Minutes:

"The Committee questioned the terms of the PAE contract with the US State Department (USDOS). In response, Procurement Services stated that they are given to understand that the contract with PAE is expiring at midnight today (31 August). They are also given to understand that a new bidding exercise is at the concluding stage with DynCorp and PAE as the two finalists vying for the new contract." (Page 4)
            The U.S. State Department had been criticized, including by U.S. government auditors, for lack of competition in giving its Darfur camp services contract to Lockheed's PAE. Therefore the USDOS has put it out to bid, and had another finalist, DynCorp (which has its own contracting issues with the U.S.). But Lockheed was able, despite the GAO criticism, to keep getting paid in Darfur on a sole-source basis, by being selected by the UN without bidding for the infrastructure contract. The Minute reflect substantial questioning and criticism of the process, and even a dissenting opinion, based on a lack of "comparators to the agreed price" and "overhead charged by PAE on airfield related services." Click here.  As the controversial nature of the approval, however qualified, to eschew competitive bidding for this contract because more clear, the participants decided to in essence further immunize themselves by convincing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to issue an October 2 letter waiving the applicability of procurement and other rules to the Darfur peacekeeping mission.

            Ban's letter and its reasoning have been sited by defenders of the contract, notably from the Mission to the UN of the United Kingdom and of the U.S.. As reported, the U.S. Mission's spokesman on November 1 said that if there were irregularities beyond "innuendo" concerning the no-bid awarding of the Darfur contract to Lockheed, the U.S. would be the first ones to demand more transparency. That time has come.

            The August 31 Contract Committee Minutes also "note that the US Government has a contract with PAE for the provision of these kinds of good and services. The Committee was informed that the Procurement Service... had not been able to obtain all the prices under that contract from the US Government. The Committee opined that such prices could have been used as a benchmark. The Committee was not informed of the reasons why the US Government would not share such prices with the UN."
            These documents and others more generally lead some to see the involvement of the U.S. State Department, perhaps not through its formal Mission to the UN, as involved in the timing and no-bid awarding of the Darfur contract to Lockheed Martin. Others point to the hands-on involvement of the UN procurement official put in charge of the so-called "Darfur Team," Dmitri Dovgopoly. These sources say that Dovgopoly remains in touch, including by cell phone, with disgraced and convicted UN procurement official Alexander Yakovlev, who pled guilty among other things to soliciting bribes from contractors in the UN Oil for Food scandal.

            The day after the UN contract with Lockheed was announced, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon why it had been done without competition. Mr. Ban said that it had been an emergency triggered by the tight timelines in the Security Council's July 31 resolution, but vowed that the UN would be transparent about the contract. But Ban's spokesperson then reversed course and said that the contract will not be made public. It is in this context that Inner City Press is putting online the Headquarters Contract Committee meeting minutes and the Lute - Sach correspondence of April, putting the sole-source process in place, with a three month time limit, well before the Council's July 31 resolution, and five months before Lockheed got its $250 million no-bid contract. The time for more transparency has come. Watch this site.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, October 29 -- The UN itself may be engaged or complicit in extra-judicial executions, the UN's special rapporteur on the topic has told Inner City Press. Concerns about the UN's own practices were echoed by the rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism. On Friday, law professor Philip Alston told journalists that he limits his inquiries to execution cases that are not being effectively investigated by the responsible authorities. Inner City Press asked Prof. Aston if, given that the UN system does not discipline its peacekeepers but rather allows them to return to their home countries, he has made such inquiries with the UN. Yes, he said, "the UN has a long way to go," adding that he intends to make further inquiries with the UN.

It emerged that he has already written to the UN's mission in Haiti. Inner City Press raised to further example: allegations of torture and even executions by peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the case of the shooting death of Kosovar protesters by Romanian peacekeepers using 13-year old rubber bullets. These peacekeepers returned to Romania, where neither they nor the officials who, with presumptive criminal negligence, supplied long-out-of-date rubber bullets, have faced any justice.
The UN rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, had been quoted that "as long as the military in Nepal tortures, no (Nepalese) troops should be consulted for peacekeeping missions" of the UN. Inner City Press asked about the quote, and Nowak specified that he had made a finding of torture in Nepal, in 2005, and that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DKPO) should able stricter scrutiny to peacekeepers offered by countries engaged in torture. He said that he personally had spoken with a Nepali officer who served as a UN peacekeeper and also admitted to engaging in torture. Video here. Nowak said similar issues exist as to Jordan, in terms of torture, and cited the unresolved case of sexual abuse allegations against Moroccan peacekeepers in Cote d'Ivoire.

UN headquarters in Geneva: human rights are a two-way street
At Monday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Michele Montas if Nowak had spoken with, or would be listened to by, the UN's DPKO. Ms. Montas said that Nowak as a special rapporteur directs his recommendations to the Human Rights Council. But is DPKO listening? A report emerged of more Fijian peacekeepers headed to Sudan. In light of previous UN statements about not accepting more Fijian peacekeepers until Fiji is returned to democracy, Inner City Press inquired into this as well. Ms. Montas responded that seven Fijians initially slated to serve the UN in Iraq had been kept in Fiji, based on "criminal" issues. Video here, from Minute 22:21. Whether this indicates DPKO listening to the issues raised by human rights experts like Nowak remains to be seen.
Finnish academic Martin Scheinin, the rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, also said that the UN could and should do more. Inner City Press asked about the UN having "cast its lot" with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, even as TFG figures began openly characterizing as "terrorists" women and children of clans which generally oppose the TFG. Scheinin said that while he is just beginning inquiry into Somalia, he is of the view that the UN Security Council, which calls on member states to respect human rights while implementing its resolution, should require the same of the UN itself. Video here. He also said that human rights should become a formal part of the work of the UN's Counter Terrorism Committee, which for now is set to sun-set by the end of 2007. Scheinin predicted, like most including Slovak Ambassador Peter Burian, the Council's liaison, that the CTC will be continued. But will it give more place to human rights? We'll see.
UN rapporteur Paul Hunt, beyond meeting with pharmaceutical companies, was one of five rapporteurs who tried to go to Guantanamo Bay. Inner City Press asked about this; Hunt said that the U.S. invited three of the five, and disallowed two. While Hunt did not say it, he was one of the two who was disallowed. The five issued a scathing report, without having made the visit.
Following his last appearance before the UN General Assembly's Third Committee, the outgoing rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, told reporters that "bio-fuels are a crime against humanity." Inner City Press asked if he knew the view of Ban Ki-moon. Ziegler said he had raised the issue to Ban at a lunch on the 8th floor of the UN's Palais in Geneva, but could not ascertain Ban's thoughts. Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson, who said, "That is a controversial issue."
Ziegler mentioned that North Korea had not allowed him to enter the country. Meanwhile the UN's rapporteur for that country, Vitit Muntarbhorn, spoke again without having entered the country. He appeared to be trying to convince the Kim Jong-il government to let him in, by echoing claims by the World Food Program that access is being given, and that there is "no aid without access." In fact, WFP staffers on the ground say different, click here for that.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, October 24 -- "It's saffron, but not a revolution," the UN human rights envoy to Burma, Paolo Sergio Pinheiro, told Inner City Press on Wednesday. Mr. Pinheiro said Yangon "is not Kiev, and its not East Berlin... there will be no Orange Revolution." Triggering Pinheiro's six-minute explanation was Inner City Press' request for clarification of Pinheiro's quote to Portuguese news agency Lusa, that "I would not qualify the protests as a popular uprising and I see no possibility that they will precipitate a change of regime."

Piniero began, "Perhaps in Portuguese I was speaking too much." Other reporters reviewed Pinheiro's candor as rare at the UN; some thought it inappropriate that a UN expert would say that protesters being clubbed in the street then arrested have no chance of bringing about change. "I refuse to read the marching of the monks as a prelude to revolution," he said. He said that monks had been seeking an apology for an attack on a single monastery. The monks are inter-dependent with society, as unlike Catholic monks, they do not "produce wine or honey." But after the junta's "terrible mistake," the monks stopped soliciting or accepting donations from the military. "They refused the military a safe route to salvation," Pinheiro said, predicting that this might bring political change, but far in the future.

Pinheiro at the UN, in 2005. Plus ca change.
Pinheiro said his trip to Myanmar will follow UN envoy Gambari's, but will finish before the November 17 ASEAN meeting. He will visit, or seek to visit, detainees in jail. If he is not allowed, he said, he will leave the country. Can the same be said of Gambari? We'll see.
Inner City Press asked Pinheiro about two of his other human rights jobs, to push for a new UN office on violence and children -- the Latin America group GRULAC has agreed to it, Pinheiro confided -- and monitoring U.S. prisons for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. "Today's not about that," Pinheiro said. The world is a prison...

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, October 23 -- When the Somali Transitional Federal Government released the local head of the UN World Food Program, UN spokesperson Michele Montas in New York said "he is supposed to be out on bail, according to the people in charge." Video here, from Minute 14:20. The phrase "on bail" was later deleted or omitted from the UN's transcript of the briefing. Inner City Press asked if the UN had agreed to stop distributing aid through mosques, reportedly the reason for the TFG's arrest of Idris Osman. Ms. Montas answered that "the distribution through mosques has been continuing." Video here, from Minute 17:16. Soon thereafter, two corrections arrived:

Subj: Info on Somalia
From: WFP NY Spokesperson
To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com
cc: OSSG
Date: 10/23/2007 12:54:49 PM Eastern Standard Time
Hi Matthew,
Here is the latest on Somalia about release of our WFP staffer and your questions: No bail was requested. Mr. Osman was released because of a decision by President. WFP and the Transitional Federal Government will shortly launch a joint fact-finding mission looking into the circumstances of his detention on 17 October. Food distributions will resume in Mogadishu as soon as possible with the agreement of the Transitional Federal Government. We will distribute food in the most effective way to reach the people in need. We cannot rule out it being through the mosques.
This was reiterated -- and inserted into the UN's summary of the noon briefing, as if it had been said:
Subj: revised if-asked on Somalia questions
From: ossg [at] un.org
To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com
Date: 10/23/2007 3:01:23 PM Eastern Standard Time
Asked why Osman had been detained, the Spokeswoman said that he was now back at work at the UN office in Mogadishu upon a decision by the President, with no charges laid against him. WFP and the Transitional Federal Government will shortly launch a joint fact-finding mission looking into the circumstances of his detention.
Asked about WFP food distribution through mosques in Mogadishu, Montas later added that food distributions had been interrupted after Somali National Security Service officers entered the UN compound in Mogadishu on 17 October. They will resume in Mogadishu as soon as possible, with the agreement of the Transitional Federal Government. Asked whether distributions will resume through mosques, Montas said that WFP had announced that they would distribute food in the most effective way to reach the people in need, including through the mosques.
If the UN can re-write the summaries and transcripts of its noon briefing, why not its relations with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government?

UN WFP truck in Somalia, bail not shown
Inner City Press on October 18 asked UN humanitarian coordinator Eric Laroche if the issue underlying the arrest was the TFG ordering the UN to cease delivering aid through mosques, Mr. Laroche answered that no charges had been filed. He said he would not answer "political" questions; the UN office that would is still based in Nairobi, not Somalia. After some initial misunderstanding, he largely dodged Inner City Press' questions about what he'd done in meeting in Washington. A DC source tells Inner City Press that at an October 17 meeting there, Laroche made excuses for the mayor of Mogadishu, who equated non-TFG-supporting refugees as "terrorists" by saying, "Mohamed Dheere is Mohamed Dheere and he is known to speak aggressively but..." But what?
Inner City Press asked if Laroche now acknowledged that the UN had gotten too close to the TFG and the organizers of the National Reconciliation Congress. Video here. Laroche called the latter a political question he would not answer. On the former, he said that "no one" -- he listed the donors, NGOs, the international community and the UN -- is against the idea of there being structure in Somalia. No one, indeed. But structure imposed by whom, and how?

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: Political Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, October 22 -- As the UN Security Council put out a Presidential Statement Monday about the Ivory Coast, virtual ignored was the call by the Ivorian representative at the debate to stop France from being the drafter of such statements. There are three African nations on the Council, was the Ivorian argument. Why is France as ex-colonial power the one doing the drafting?
Inner City Press asked French deputy Permanent Representative Jean-Pierre Lacroix for his response, in the corridor outside the Council. "Yes, we are holding the pen," Amb. Lacroix said. "But the decision are up to the full Council."
Inner City Press asked for France's position on the call by Cote d'Ivoire, during the General Debate and on Monday, that sanctions be removed. "There is a delisting procedure," Amb. Lacroix noted. "There is a similar procedure to apply to if they seek the lifting of the arms embargo." He paused and then let slip his view that the Security Council is not leaning n either issue toward the position of Cote d'Ivoire, at Monday's Council meeting or as set forth by President Laurent Gbagbo in his September 26 press conference, about which Inner City Press the next day asked French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, who bristled about Gbagbo's electoral duties.
While the question is broader than why does France, which colonized Cote d'Ivoire, still play such a central role in the UN's Ivorian considerations, two more Ambassadors answered or dodged this specific question from Inner City Press. China's deputy representative Li said that the African Union and ECOWAS should take the lead. Ghana's Leslie K. Christian, Council president this month, said he had "yet to digest" the Ivorian proposal.

Jean-Marie Bockel, French Secretary of... Francophone Affairs, Ivorian pen not shown
Security Council analysis: Inner City Press asked several diplomats and staffers how it is assigned which Council members take the lead on particular issues and peacekeeping missions. The deputy spokesman of a Permanent Five Council member acknowledged that the process of assignment is informal, and thus lacks transparency. Each January, he said, formal decisions are made of which new members will chair which committees; the doling out of leadership roles for drafting might take place at the same time, but without formality.
He who drafts, it is said, controls. The deputy spokesman pointed that some non-permanent members are "given" countries and missions on which to take the lead, given as the example the shift for Greece to Belgian as leader on Ethiopia - Eritrea, went Greece went off the Council.
A staffer scoffed that Ethiopia - Eritrea is always assigned to European Council members; of Cote d'Ivoire, he said that if the three current members from Africa wanted to make a stink about France's Ivorian role, they might get somewhere, but in fact no one is pushing on it. Will Burkina Faso, which will begin a two-year term in January, take the lead on Cote d'Ivoire? We'll see.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press

UNITED NATIONS, October 17 -- "Darfur Now," a just-released documentary film, cuts from actor Don Cheadle at home to women in Darfur chanting the name of Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the International Criminal Court prosecutor who has indicted Sudan's humanitarian affairs minister Ahmad Harun for war crimes. There are scenes of Mr. Moreno-Ocampo in his home, musing that if the ICC process doesn't work, the whole world will become like Darfur. California governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, faced with legislation divesting from Sudan, signs it, six times to be exact, handing one copy to the ubiquitous Mr. Cheadle. There is Mr. Cheadle in Beijing with George Clooney, and the same duo in Cairo, meeting with the son of the president of Egypt, referred to by Cheadle without apparent irony as "next in line."

There is footage of Messrs. Clooney and Cheadle at a surreal UN press conference, which Inner City Press covered at the time. There is more convincing footage of a World Food Program official in his room in Darfur, worrying about truck drivers getting killed, as happened only this week.
"Darfur NOW" portrays the rebel groups, which it does not name, as being only about returning to their land. The director, Ted Braun, told the audience at the UN's screening Wednesday night that the rebels "do not want to secede," they only want help from what the film's subtitles translate as "the white man." Mr. Braun said the root of the word is "teacher... because the first people to arrive in Sudan from Europe were teachers." Well, no. The first to arrive in Sudan were colonialists.
The film's Achilles heel is not only its failure to mention that there are now twenty separate rebel groups, some of which kill the African Union peacekeepers, but also its naive presentation of the Save Darfur movement in the United States. For showing so many activists, and with such upbeat music -- by Stevie Wonder and U2's Bono, no less -- it is striking that the war in Iraq is nowhere mentioned. There is bloodshed there, too, and refugees and war crimes -- all of which Americans have more responsibility over, and perhaps more ability to impact, than events in Darfur.
Mr. Braun afterwards said that complexity can become an excuse for procrastination. You just have to do something, he said, giving as one example his ability to make the film, after "the best journalist" -- on information and belief, Nick Kristof, who is thanked in the credits -- predicted that it could not be done. Mr. Braun diagnosed, not unreasonably, that some in the UN system were paralyzed by complexity.

Cheadle, Clooney, Loroupe and Cheeks, bad rebels and Iraq not shown
An example of this is the issue of enforcing, or even genuinely trying to enforce, the ICC warrants against Ahmad Harum and Ali Kushayb. Inner City Press asked a post-film panel including Braun and five UN officials to explain why, while the name "Ocampo" is shown in the film being chanted by women in Darfur, it is not chanted in UN headquarters. Earlier this week, the prosecutor chided Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for not including justice in his reports on Darfur. At Wednesday's UN noon briefing, spokesperson Marie Okabe answered that "Mr. Ocampo is simply doing his job by bringing the world's attention to the justice side of this issue, which as you know is very complex." Inner City Press asked the UN panel at the film to article to other side to justice.
The most direct answer was provided by Jack Christofides of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, who said that trying and convicting a few war criminals "will not solve Darfur's problems," and who spoke of an "over-focus on indicted war criminals." That is the view of many in the UN, but is usually not said publicly. Isabelle Balot of the UN's Department of Political Affairs introduced in her answer the complex word "sequencing," meaning that peace may (have to) come before justice. A UN human right official, who had said he was speaking in his personal capacity, noted that the UN has different arms doing different work. Perhaps that explains the UN's Jan Egeland, and now Joaquim Chissano, meeting with the indicted leadership of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army and not moving to arrest them. On that one, even the ICC's Moreno-Ocampo has remained strangely silent.
"Darfur NOW" is a film worth seeing. For an American audience, something balanced about Iraq should also perhaps be seen, lest the lure of moral self-satisfaction become too tempting.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, October 16 -- A day after the UN quietly announced a $250 million sole-source contract with American defense contractor Lockheed Martin for infrastructure for its hybrid peacekeeping operation in Sudan's Darfur region, a UN briefing document emerged claiming that the UN "as a result of negotiations" with Lockheed Martin got the "price reduced from $700 to $250 million."

In closed door session of the UN's Administrative Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, several members sarcastically marveled at the UN's new-found haggling skills. Others questioned the credibility of a contractor which would inflate its initial bid by nearly 200 percent. Still others pointed out that the UN's October 15 press release mentioned that the $250 million is for six months, with the option to review for two three-month periods, making the contract potentially worth $500 million. This would make the negotiated savings less than presented to ACABQ, in what would in this scenario become a functionally misleading document.

            Inner City Press asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about why the UN dispensed with competitive bidding, and if future Darfur and UN Peacekeeping contracts would also be sole-source. "I assure you full transparency and accountability in carrying out" this Darfur infrastructure contract, Mr. Ban responded. Video available through here. "There is only one company with all the equipment and readily available to construct the camps" for the hybrid peacekeeping force, Ban said, adding that "I am going to make it very accountable and very transparent."
            But at Tuesday's noon press briefing, basic questions such as who signed the contract and whether it allows for subcontracting were asked but not answered. The UN spokesperson spoke in general terms that "there has been a transparent process" about the contract, that a rule (FR 105.16) was "evoked... in this emergency case." Inner City Press asked how it was an emergency, if the Darfur hybrid force had been discussed all the way back when Kofi Annan was Secretary-General, and there have been fifty people working on planning. "There is always a gap," the spokesperson said.
     "Will the contract be made public?" Inner City Press asked.
            "Sure... yes, yes," the spokesperson said. Video here, from Minute 16:40. That statement, combined with Mr. Ban's later vow of transparency, would seem to militate for the contract to be made public forthwith.
            The General Assembly president's spokesman also took questions. Inner City Press asked about the eight-page briefing paper, whether it had been presented to the GA's Fifth Committee as well as to the ACABQ. The spokesman answered that there is a Fifth Committee consultation scheduled for November 8, at which it will be considered. Video here, from Minute 34:05. The Secretariat spokesperson asked that questions about the contract be pursued later, directly with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. "Did DPKO sign the contract?" Inner City Press asked.
            "DPKO is in charge of the mission" in Darfur, the spokesperson answered.
            Inner City Press has been told that the contact was signed by the Under Secretary General for Management, Alicia Barcena, with the "blessing" of UN Controller Warren Sach, who must approve waivers of bidding and procurement rules. Sources say that Jane Holl Lute, the acting head of the Department of Field Support, spun off this year from DPKO, was most involved in dealings with Lockheed Martin.

African Union peacekeeper in Darfur, Lockheed Martin not shown
The eight-page UN memo rationalizing the sole-source contract states that Lockheed Martin's Pacific Architect Engineers, Inc. unit "as a contractor to the US Government, has been performing in Darfur since 2004, constructed and is maintaining all logistical services to the existing 34 AU camps, and already has personnel and assets on the ground." The timing of Lockheed's selection followed a July 16 "sole source request for proposals," which was submitted on August 15.
"Extensive negotiations [were] conducted from 20 August through 9 September 2007. Negotiations centered around price, terms and conditions, performance bond and insurance. The UN used commercial information available from the US Government sources for benchmarking purposes. OIOS, in its capacity as observer, had been briefed on several occasions during the process of the sole source contracting.
"As a result of negotiations prices reduced from ~$700 million to ~250 million. All other issues [were] resolved to the satisfaction of Procurement Division, Department Field Support [sic], Office of Legal Affairs and Insurance Services... The UN has ensured that PAE maximize local sourcing i.e. cement, gravel, labor, etc.... The suggested approach is... consistent with the principles contained in the Secretary-General's letter to the President of the General Assembly dated 2 October 2007."
This S-G letter, on which Inner City Press reported yesterday, announced as Ban Ki-moon power "the immediate reassignment of civilian personnel for key administrative positions without advertisement of the posts... [and] entering into non-competitive, single-source contracts for the provision of medical, real estate and security-related equipment and services, as well as prefabricated buildings and water supply equipment, should insufficient time be available to follow normal procurement procedures." Less than two weeks later, the $250 million sole-source contract to Lockheed Martin was quietly announced. What's next?
News analysis: UN insiders requesting anonymity due to fear of retaliation had predicted that one purpose or effect of splitting off the Department of Field Support, and of having an American run it, at least on an ongoing "interim" basis, would be to award more of UN peacekeeping's logistics funds to U.S.-based contractors. Whether true or not, this view is not uncommon along the Group of 77 and China, and has been heard at the margins of the ACABQ's now-moot consultations.
The insiders pass along the tale that ultimately the U.S. cannot control both the Department of Political Affairs and the Department of Field Support, and that DFS may be being prepared for Pakistan, a major troop contributor, possibly in the form of its Ambassador Munir Akram, currently the chairman of the Group of 77. This elicited a scoff from a denizen of the UN's 38th floor, who also said it is his understanding that the drop from $700 million to $250 million is explained by the UN having removed from the scope of the contract certain heavy American equipment. But how then is Lockheed Martin the only company with the necessary equipment? And how is such a designation not self-reinforcing for the future? Perhaps the transparency and contract-disclosure promised on Tuesday will make all of this clear.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, October 15 -- Two weeks after notifying the UN General Assembly that he had "exceptionally authorized" himself for "entering into non-competitive single-source contracts" for the Darfur hybrid force, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday announced, through his spokesman, at $250 million contact with Pacific Architect Engineers, Inc. (PAE).

Not included in the press release was the name of PAE's corporate parent, U.S. military contractor Lockheed Martin, nor that until now half of PAE's revenue has come from the U.S. State Department, nor how Lockheed's PAE was selected. Inner City Press asked, at the UN's noon briefing, if the process had been competitive. "It was competitive," the spokesperson said.

            Later in the briefing, an aide brought in a note, which the spokesperson read and said, no, it was sole-source. [Video here, from Minute 15:17, and see below.]

            Inner City Press asked Sudanese Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad for his country's view of the contact award. "We are very concerned about the UN going outside its own rules," he said. "Who knows, maybe a Sudanese company would have been qualified to do this work. We will be raising it in the General Assembly."
            While some in the Ban Administration express skepticism at the Sudanese Ambassador's skepticism, the question remains: why didn't the UN follow the normal procedures and take bids for this contract? Or at least, wait for the General Assembly or its budgetary Fifth Committee to have a chance to give assent to the waiving of procurement rules?

            Inner  City Press asked the spokesman for the General Assembly president about Ban Ki-moon October 2 waiver letter. This spokesman, Janos Tisovszky, responded that "the President of the GA received [the letter A/62/379 and] Member States within the Fifth Committee when they review the UNAMID budget proposal will have a chance to also consider this aspects and voice their views on it."

            As Inner City Press reported last week, the Fifth Committee is not slated to have a chance to speak on the UNAMID (Darfur Mission) budget and, now, Ban Ki-moon's assertion of waiver authority for another week or more. UN's Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions is holding closed-door consultations, and has yet to accede to anything.

After Monday's noon briefing, the UN Spokesperson's Office clarified:
Subj: your question on contract in support of UNAMID
From: unspokesperson-donotreply@un.org
To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com
Date: 10/15/2007 12:50:24 PM Eastern Standard Time
The contract awarded to PAE is a sole source contract in accordance with the Financial regulation 105.16, which provides for an exception to the formal methods of solicitation when the United Nations is faced with an exigent requirement. The nature and the complexity of the requirement, coupled with the challenging timeline mandated by the Security Council, have made so that the PAE was the only contractor which could be selected.
However, the negotiations on the contract were completed by the Procurement Service, and the Contract was subsequently reviewed by the Headquarters Committee on Contracts.  As an intermediary measure, PAE was awarded a contract for 6 months to allow for a more complete solicitation exercise, which has started with the Expressions of Interest.

News analysis: Diplomats consulted by Inner City Press questioned whether this contact could legitimately be described as "exigent," given that the Secretary-General has been speaking for months about the Darfur hybrid force and its requirements. Some more conspiracy-minded UN insiders, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, speculated that a sole-source contract to an American military contractor might be viewed as "pay back" for the U.S.'s support for Mr. Ban as Secretary-General, or at a minimum, might provide Sudan's al-Bashir government with more fodder with which to complain about Westerners' designs on and profits from Sudan.

Beyond providing needless fodder for the "U.S.-payback" theorists, more nuanced observers said they now understood why the U.S. was pushing the Darfur funding timeline, to "get this [PAE] off the U.S.'s books and onto the UN's."

            At a demonstration Monday six blocks from the UN on Park Avenue, protesting JPMorgan Chase's investments which support oil extraction and profits in Sudan, a demonstrator who requested anonymity as a financial services employee, when asked by Inner City Press about Lockheed Martin's $250 million contract, said, "See? Money can be made by doing the right thing."

            We'll have more on this. Developing.
* * *

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UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, October 8 -- To highlight the need for military aircraft for the upcoming peacekeeping force in Darfur, the UN's Jean-Marie Guehenno on Monday gave the press a list of 16 troop contributing countries and three "shortfalls in critical areas," two involving helicopters and one "medium heavy transportation company." Through questioning it became clear that a problem in gaining a commitment for these aircraft is that Sudan has been given implicit veto power over the identity and nationality of the pilots. But what country is going to give its helicopters for someone else to fly them?
            Inner City Press asked Guehenno about the Sudanese Ambassador's claim that his Department turned down Egypt's office of 3000 troops. Egypt will be a "very significant participant" in the force, Guehenno answered. But at the level of 3000 troops? "Less than three thousand," Guehenno said. "But still a significant number." But how many? Why play hide the ball?
            Similarly, Inner City Press asked Guehenno how it was that the UN reviewed allegations of human rights violations by Rwandan general Karenzi Karake. Once the allegations were made, the UN said it invited human rights groups and other to submit information. "No member state came up and substantiated such allegations," Guehenno said. But did the UN consider information only from member states? "Of course we listened," Guehenno said. "But we can only act on the basis of evidence."
            Guehenno was asked about the International Criminal Court indictments, including of Sudanese humanitarian minister Harun. Guehenno answered that there should be "no impunity," but that the "peacekeeping mission is distinct."
            Some observers conclude that, in order to get the al Bashir government's support for the hybrid force, the UN is going too far with its accommodations. On Monday, Guehenno declined to confirm reports of the al Bashir government burning the town of Haskanita in response to last week's attack on African Union peacekeepers there. Other sources have put the death toll in the town at 105. The UN, despite reportedly being now in control of the town, has not come out with any figure.

Airplane over Darfur - but not the needed helicopters
News analysis: The UN's accommodation of Sudan's al Bashir government is mirrored by its seeming covering-up for the Than Shwe regime in Myanmar. Over the weekend, the Times of London reported that Burmese authorities went in search of the UN's computer hard-drives, to identify activists to arrest. But UNDP's Charles Petrie said they were only asked for satellite phone licenses, and Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson on Monday said that even those weren't asked for. As for the Times of London's report that UN staff in Burma were deleting files in fear of the government seizing them, when Inner City Press asked, the spokesperson said, "I cannot confirm that information this morning." Everything's fine, the UN says in its way, in Burma and in The Sudan. There's diplomacy and then there's.... cover-up. When is the line crossed? The Darfur mission will be a test.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee, on UN Reform: Exclusive Flash Report

UNITED NATIONS, October 4 -- Only months after the UN's investigative body drafted a report critical the UN's Department of Management (DM), lead investigator Inga-Britt Ahlenius contacted DM chief Alicia Barcena in an apparent attempt to influence the awarding of a senior Management post. In a September 17 e-mail obtained by Inner City Press, Ms. Ahlenius urged Ms. Barcena that Ms. Danielle Coolen "be interviewed and seriously considered," adding pointedly that, "I guess you would probably be yourself on an interview panel."

Two hours later, Barcena wrote to her chief of staff Simona Petrova, in capital letters, "I want to make sure that I am in all panels of my Department to select D-2s," the senior rank Ahlenius sought for Ms. Coolen. Barcena also asked Ms. Petrova to forward to UN Controller Warren Sach the Coolen information, including the message from investigator Alhenius. Click here for the e-mails. Ms. Barcena's response late October 4, that she would be "happy to come to a press briefing anytime next week," is set forth below in context. On October 5, while still no comment had been provided, interrogation of staff began, about how the whistle-blowing took place. Inner City Press still waited until noon. Then this article went to press.
Rather than questioning if it was appropriate for an investigator, particularly one with a contested inquiry into an agency, to appear to seek to influence the awarding of a high position in that agency, the problem raised by Mr. Sach was that "this is a Belgian D-2 applicant in an office currently headed by a D-1 Belgian; steps may need to be taken to ensure the applicant is retained on the long list." Click here for the e-mail.
The "D-1 Belgian" would be Paul Buades, the Chief of the UN's Procurement Services (PS). A well-place source to whom Inner City Press showed the emails for comment quipped that the only problem seen with the pushing of this candidate was that of having two Belgian in one office, and that if that country splits in two, this obstacle would be removed.
The Office of Internal Oversight Services review of the DM was mentioned in report A/61/264 (part 1), page 19, referring to a "comprehensive audit of the Department of Management, in particularly to examine how responsibility is assigned within the Department and how accountability for actions is realized. The audit will also examine whether the Department's structure and internal processes allow it to operation transparently, efficiently and effectively."
Inner City Press, having been told by well-placed sources both that DM's Barcena has fought back against the OIOS audit, and the OIOS' Ahlenius asked Barcana for job favors, at Thursday's noon briefing posed this question:
Inner City Press: And I just wanted to ask one other thing, something I'm working on today. We've heard that there was an OIOS [Office of Internal Oversight Services] report on the Department of Management that was being prepared and that has been scuttled ... I feel it's my duty to ask you -- can you check that out?
Spokesperson: I'm not aware of this, Matthew. I can find out, but I'm not aware of it.
Inner City Press: Please do.
Spokesperson: Okay.
[After holding this story for 24 hours until noon on October 5, when Inner City Press asked if there were any answers to its October 4 questions, the spokesperson's response was that "no one seemed to know, no one that we asked." ]
Inner City Press has obtained a copy of a memo headed "Internal Audit Division, OIOS - Exit Conference Briefing," in which some of the criticisms by Ms. Ahlenius' OIOS are set forth, including about the hiring and promotion of Ms. Petrova herself. Of what has become Ms. Petrova's post, the memo says that
"the two previous Under-Secretaries-General had each selected an individual during their tenures to assume the D-2 functions temporarily and had given them special post allowance (SPA). In both cases, the Under-Secretaries-General did not issue a temporary vacancy announcement for the post contrary to the provisions stated in paragraph 5.1(e) of ST/AI/1999/17...
"The next Under-Secretary-General had selected a P-5 to perform the D-2 functions starting in March 2006 to date. This individual received an SPA at a D-1 level from March 2006 to November 2006. In December 2006, she was promoted to D-1. In February 2007, the current Under-Secretary-General applied the SPA of a D-2 level retroactively to the first day of her promotion to D-1... The lack of transparency in the selection of the candidate for assuming the D-2 functions in OUSG had created a negative perception among staff."
The UN Staff Union earlier this month issued a memo criticizing Secretariat management for adopting an "ends justifies the means" approach, which appears to have spread to putative independent investigator Ahlenius as well. Inner City Press has previously favorably reviewed some of Ms. Ahlenius' auditing work; the picture painted by her e-mail is, frankly, surprising as well as troubling.

Alicia Barcena - OIOS audit, job favors and Freedom of Information policy not shown
The same might be said of Ms. Barcena, who among other things has said she would be shepherding through a much-need Freedom of Information policy for the UN. But several Department of Management sources also indicate that the bending of rules under and by Ms. Barcena has become pervasive.
They cite the case of secretary who, in order to study Spanish -- courses for which are offered in the UN Headquarters basement -- was sent for two weeks to Salamanca, Spain. Over $2000 for this purpose was authorized by Ms. Petrova.
The sources also cite and have provided documents concerning the case of Carmen Artigas, who Barcena brought from her previous place of employ, Santiago, to New York to perform a string of temporary jobs while receiving extensive Daily Sustenance Allowance payments, including after her work ostensibly ended. In an October 2 email, Venketachalam Krishnan informed Ms. Petrova that
"I am a little lost here. Since Ms. Artigas returned to ECLAC, effective 14 September 2007 we do not have anything recorded in terms of 'assignment' to POC. As you know, while she was here, she was on a non-reimbursable loan and of course we provided the DSA for New York. Now, the proposed request, which has been approved talks about extending the assignment through 5 October 2007. I thought I will ask you for clarifications."
The whistleblowers who provided Inner City Press with these documents paint a picture of a UN out of control, in which Management bends rules to give jobs and perks to friends or the friends of those who are supposed to provide oversight.
Ms. Ahlenius has told journalists that she would like to be more transparent, and release copies of the audits her office performs, but that she is being "careful," because she came to clean up the UN and will not give her enemies any technical ground to undermine her work. Why did this carefully not extend to not asking for special consideration for a friend, by a senior UN official whom Ms. Ahelnius was in the process of auditing?
Once the draft OIOS audit was given to senior DM officials including Ms. Barcena, what one source called "push-back" ensued, as negative finding were contested "ad infinitum." Then OIOS chief Ahlenius wrote to DM's Alicia Barcena asking her to be sure to be on the interview panel for a preferred candidate for a job:
"Dear Alicia, I mentioned the other day, en passant, got a message from a person I came to know in Kosovo and who has applied for the D2 in the PS in DM. Her name is Danielle Coolen and she is a Belgian citizen as far as I know. See her e-mail to me as well as her CV below. I have deleted some personal comments.
I came to know her while she was the Head of Finance in Kosovo Trust Agency (KTA) which was and is the body in charge of governing the publicly and socially owned enterprises in Kosovo -- such as Telecommunications, Energy, Railways, Airport, etc. She was a permanent thorn in the flesh of those in KTA and UNMIK who tried to make shortcuts to arrange for their own benefit or for their friends, etc."
Several sources to whom Inner City Press showed the emails for comment noted the irony of Ms. Ahlenius' reference to "shortcuts to arrange for their own benefit or for their friends" -- in a message in which Ahlenius was trying to do just that. These UN insiders expressed surprise that Ms. Ahlenius would be "so sloppy... this kind of thing is usually done by phone," said one source, who liked others requested anonymity from well-founded fear of retaliation. Another mused that if Ms. Coolen got the DM job in this way, she would be viewed as being under the protection of investigator Ahlenius -- but also that Ahlenius would be in no position to revive or restart inquiry into the Department of Management, given this paper trail. Several sources suggested that in the name of UN reform, the stalled or buried draft OIOS report on the Department of Management should be publicly released, and other steps taken.
Responding to written questions, Ms. Barcena late on October 4 told Inner City Press that she would be "happy to come to a press briefing anytime next week." We'll be there; this story will be updated. Inner City Press also faxed a print-out of the emails to Ms. Barcena's office, holding the story to try to include her comments. But on the morning of October 5, interrogations of staff began to determine how this whistle-blowing took place. One source, reporting to Inner City Press on these "threats," analogized them to less violent version of Myanmar, the topic discussed Friday in the Security Council (click here for a previous Inner City Press story; to today's Council proceeding we now turn). After final telephone inquiry and message to Ms. Barcena, who was said to be in a meeting, and inquiry with Mr. Sach, also said to be in a meeting, and after still waiting until noon, this article went to press, but will be updated, including when Ms. Barcena provides her comments on the "Coolen emails" and, separately, responses to these six sample questions:
1. Is it true that OIOS conducted a review of executive decision-making in the Department of Management earlier this year, resulting in a draft report which was provided to your office for comment?
2. Is it true that you (or UN staff working for you) objected to the conclusions found in that draft report?
3. Has your office provided written comments on the draft report?
4. Do you believe there are any factual inaccuracies in the draft report?
5. Do you have any knowledge of the assignment to New York in recent weeks/months of an ECLAC staff member named Carmen Artigas?
6. Do you believe it an appropriate use of UN resources to provide training monies for a member of your staff to study your own native language, by flying to Salamanca, Spain, rather than using the language classes offered in UN Headquarters?
This will be updated.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, October 2 -- As the UN General Assembly winds up in General Debate, we're left with stacks of speeches and somewhat random statistics. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon held, as of Monday night, an unprecedented 129 bilateral meetings with visiting dignitaries. General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim, as of Tuesday at noon, had held 50 such meetings. On an informal basis, Inner City Press' questions about the size of two sample delegations were answered. Somalia, a country still in turmoil, sent 11 people; France sent over 60. Could that explain France's decision to exclude all non-French journalists from President Sarkozy's press conference? The longest speech was that of Iran's president, which the GA clocked in at 55 minutes.
The first walk-out was that of Cuba, during the speech by U.S. President Bush. Copies of his speech were erroneously distributed by the names and cell phone numbers of the speechwriters on them. Lower profile, we can report that the Mongolian foreign minister's speech, heavy on references to the Millennium Development Goals, was in fact written by his mission's second secretary Nemuun Gal, who because he speaks Russian used that languages' feminization, as in "Mongolia is intimately monitoring her progress on the path towards achieving the MDGs."
Some other countries used their speeches to raise complaints that might otherwise be overlooked -- and that still might be overlooked. At the noon briefings during the General Debate, Inner City Press sought and surprisingly received answers on this:
Inner City Press: Last week in the speech by Palau, they said that there’d been a commitment by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to open eight offices in the Pacific Islands of sort of the UN system, various humanitarian agencies and that those had still not opened. The speech expressed displeasure at that. I'm wondering what’s the mechanism to respond to specific things, critiques of the UN? Is there any follow-up? Is the UNDP supposed to hear that? Does the GA President's office follow up?
Spokesperson: What I can say about that is that the General Assembly President and his Office is listening very attentively to all the speeches of the Member States... and that includes of course very specific comments. So in that sense, yes, this is noted. I don't know what kind of follow-up we are supposed to be expecting, but it is definitely noted and the President's Office is aware of all of the things that have been said by Member States... He's looking at each and every speech, he's following the issue and will, of course, follow-up on those issues.
We too will follow-up.

General Assembly, broken microphones not shown
An incongruous issue that arose late on September 28 was the break-down of microphones while Iran and the United Arab Emirates, and Norht Korean and Japan, faced off. Audio insiders tell Inner City Press that some of the amplifiers "got kicked," and through a "Christmas tree" electrical effect, a whole line of microphones went out. The representative of Iran was left wandering around holding his name plate, until someone said, "Mexico works," meaning the microphone. Inner City Press asked about this:
Inner City Press: Did they fix the microphones before the general debate? Were they turned off at a certain time? Why did that happen?
Spokesperson: I don't know why that technical glitch happened, but I think if you watched what happened in the end basically none of the Member States wanting to exercise the right of reply felt terribly annoyed by this incident. They just worked with Assembly Affairs and with the President to work this out and do it. Obviously it’s not a good thing what happened, but in the end I think it was pretty well solved. But I don’t know what exactly happened and what were the technical problems.
Question: Can we tie it somehow to the Capital Master Plan (CMP) or is there some need to rehabilitate...?
GA Spokesperson: Matthew, if you mean can we, does that mean you and me? You can tie it. I would rather not tie it, because I don’t know. I really don't know what was the reason behind it.
But at the next day's noon briefing:
Spokesperson: Matthew, I did want to mention, because you were asking about the technical glitch with the microphone on Friday evening, it was purely a technical glitch, no political 'messages' there. So, therefore, when you mentioned yesterday the connection with the Capital Master Plan, yes, you can draw a connection there.
Connection drawn...

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: Council Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, October 2 -- The Security Council was deadlocked for two days in responding, even with a mere statement, to the over-running over the weekend of the African Union peacekeepers' camp in Haskanita in Darfur. Finally on Tuesday, a compromise was reached: the statement says the attack was "reportedly committed by a rebel group." Sudan's Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad told Inner City Press that "they are quick to criticize my government, but when it is the rebels, they do not want to say anything." When asked who he meant by "they," he said mostly the United States, but also the UK and France.

When it was argued that the on-the-ground perspective has not yet provided clarify as to those behind the attack, the Sudanese Ambassador countered that on-the-ground information is accepted, and quickly, in order to denounce misdeeds by the central government. He ask, when this sudden or selective caution?
Stepping back, there are historical reasons that the Council might want to be more cautious than it is, across the board and in an even-handed way. Just after the subway bombings in Madrid, with Spain serving on the Council, a resolution was rushed through adopting Jose Maria Aznar's government's position that the Basque group ETA was behind the bombing. UNSC Resolution 1530 "condemns in the strongest terms the bomb attacks in Madrid, Spain, perpetrated by the terrorist group ETA on 11 March 2004, in which many lives were claimed and people injured, and regards such act, like any act of terrorism, as a threat to peace and security."
When it quickly became clear that ETA had nothing to do with it, the Council looked foolish (as did Aznar, who lost the election). So the U.S. could have made a public argument for the positions it was adopting behind closed doors. But the U.S. did not make such an argument; those who came out and spoke on the topic were the Ambassadors of Sudan and of Russia.

Ghana's Leslie Christian at the Council, ETA not shown
Later, Ghana's Ambassador Leslie K. Christian, president of the Council for October, said he was happy with the result of the two day deliberation. Inner City Press asked Amb. Christian three questions about those coming month's work. There will be meetings on Cote d'Ivoire, including on the sanctions which President Gbagbo recently called for lifting. Amb. Christian indicated that he did not know when the new Special Representative of the Secretary General for Cote d'Ivoire will be unveiled, nor who the person will be (although Gbagbo answered Inner City Press' question last week by saying that he and Ban Ki-moon have already made the decision). The Lords Resistance Army conflict, and UN mediator Joaquim Chissano, are "out there," but not on the Council's agenda (they have not been since March). And on making sure that the UN's long overdue report on human rights in Iraq is actually released, Amb. Christian threw up his hands. "I know you are a friend," he said. But information is information.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, October 2 -- North Korea does not need the UN's mediation help, and does not need the UN Development Program's money, nor its auditors, the country's Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Choe Su Hon told reporters on Tuesday. "We do not need any mediation from the UN," Minister Choe said, adding that "there is no need for the UN to send new auditors" to Pyongyang.

A day earlier, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had "telephone talks with the President of the Republic of Korea, Mr. Roh Moo-hyun and I conveyed the same message to him [that] as Secretary-General of the United Nations, I'll spare no efforts to facilitate such a peace negotiation between South and North Korea." (This offer was presaged in an internal UN memo which Inner City Press first reported on, here.) Earlier still, Mr. Ban ordered a full scope audit of UNDP's spending in North Korea, and urged the Kim Jong-il government to grant visa to the UN's auditors. Minister Choe brought into the open North Korea's direct denial of Mr. Ban's plea, saying that auditors are unnecessary and won't be allowed to enter. "We don't care about such a small amount of money," Minister Choe said. One of the reporters waiting on Second Avenue outside the North Korean mission mused, Sure they don't care anymore about UNDP's money, now that South Korea is offering in the billions.
Minister Choe spoke to only three media outlets: the state wire services of China and Russia, and the president of the UN Correspondents Association. This last collegially transmitted quotes and his tape to other reporters, including Inner City Press. The majority of those interested work for Japanese media, which North Korean representatives have referred to as "reptile media." This gave rise to several jokes while waiting for the pooled report, in which Minister Choe said that Japan must apologize "like Germany" for what it did in World War Two, and must provide full compensation. In his speech to the General Assembly, Minister Choe said that peace "depends particularly on how practical measures the US and Japan will take to remove their hostile policies on the DPRK."
In his subsequently by-invitation-only press conference, Minister Choe said that Ban Ki-moon had offended North Koreans' "dignity and integrity" by ordering the audit. He claimed that the first round of work of the UN Board of Auditors vindicated North Korea, while in fact the report made clear that the money spent could not be traced, and that on-site auditing would be needed. Now that will apparently not happen.

North Korea's Choe Su Hon, previously at the UN
At Tuesday's UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban's spokesperson if the issues of the auditors and granting them visas had come up in Ban's meeting Monday with North Korean Ambassador Pak Gil Yon. No, she said, promising to provide an update on the issue. Given North Korean Minister Choe's statements four hours later, it appears that the update is that Ban has been disobeyed, that the visas won't be granted and the ordered audit will not be carried out. Can such issues simply disappear like political opponents? We'll see.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, September 26 -- Following the death of protesting monks in Myanmar, the UN Security Council held an unscheduled meeting on the topic on Wednesday afternoon, after which UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari went to the airport and flew "to the region." He had not yet gained approval from Burmese authorities to visit the country. Security Council diplomats tell Inner City Press that inside the chamber, there was no talk of sanctions, other than a reference by Mr. Gambari to a sanctions call made elsewhere by French president Sarkozy, but not followed-up on by the French representatives at Wednesday's closed-door meeting. "Let's hope Gambari gets in," the Ambassador from a Permanent Five Council member told Inner City Press. "Then we'll see what he has to say when he comes back."

At UN's noon briefing on Wednesday, Inner City Press asked if the UN could confirm how many dissenters have been killed in recent days in Burma:
Inner City Press: Does the UN have any information to confirm the death of protesters? There are some reports saying five people have been killed. Is that your understanding?
Spokesperson: I don't have a direct report from our office in Myanmar confirming the violence and, as you note, the Secretary-General's statement also referred to 'reports' of the use of force and arrests and beatings. Our presence -- I just wanted to let you know -- on the ground, at the moment we do have a Resident Coordinator who is also the Humanitarian Coordinator, and most of our activities are in various humanitarian and other agency work on the ground.
The referenced Coordinator is Charles Petrie. Why not have him come to New York to brief the Council on events in Myanmar, rather than waiting to see if Gambari can get in? Or, as some cynics see it, is Gambari's trip of interest to both the back-off and the red-meat sides, to the former because it buys time, and to the latter because of the possibility that Myanmar might not let him in?
In Washington, a new phrase surfaced, disturbingly perfect: "the Saffron Revolution." This is "straight out of a P.R. or lobbying firm," one source opined. A Council diplomat asked Inner City Press, "Did you guys coin the phrase?" The word is copyright.

Monks march in Burma, as UN's Gambari heads to airport
Other questions were left unanswered, in the transcript:
Inner City Press: I noticed the Secretary-General's meeting with the Foreign Minister of Myanmar at 5:20 this afternoon. Is it expected that he will raise this issue of letting Mr. Gambari in and the...
Spokesperson: Well, obviously he raises it publicly already; he calls on the senior leadership in this statement to welcome his visit. Let's get a readout of that meeting as soon as it happens.
Hours later at a reception at the Chinese Mission to the UN, Myanmar's representative sat engaged in conversation in a corner, before he quickly left. Reporters stood back, waiting for a change that never came. There was roast duck and moon cakes, spring rolls and watermelon. "Wait for the ASEAN meetings," a number of attendees opined. And, "Where did all the watermelon go?" Developing.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, September 26 -- In Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo's meeting Monday with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the two agreed on the identity of Ban's next envoy to Cote d'Ivoire, Gbagbo told Inner City Press on Wednesday in New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. In response to this correspondent's questions about previous envoys Pierre Schori and Gerard Stoudmann, Gbagbo said that neither wanted peace, and that he could have declared them persona non grata, but preferred to have the UN simply voluntarily remove them, which happened.

Regarding the UN's investigation into the Moroccan peacekeeping contingent in Bouake, Gbago told Inner City Press that he twice met with Moroccan soldiers and they were "fine," that the investigation was not requested by Cote d'Ivoire.
Contrary to what Security Council diplomats have told Inner City Press, Gbagbo tried to say that no request had been made for him to address the Council. "We are not Council members," Gbagbo said. "I don't like to take a chair that is not offered to me." He spoke before the General Assembly, and asked for a partial removal of the UN's arms embargo, and removal of UN sanctions in place against three individuals, one of whom Gbagbo described as very engaged in the peace process, having "invited the youth continent of his opponents to visit him in his village."
"Sanctions do not help us," Gbagbo said. "The UN was too quick to send in peacekeepers. The problems in Cote d'Ivoire are small problems, smaller than those of our neighbors Liberia and Sierra Leone, to say nothing of what happened in Biafra in Nigeria."
Asked if he wants to close down French bases in Cote d'Ivoire, Gbagbo answered in the affirmative, but indirectly. He said he entirely agrees with statements by the African Union's Alpha Omar Konare, that all non-African forces should leave the Continent.

Laurent Gbagbo: from The Baker to The Cleaner
The press conference began nearly an hour late, and the first questions were taken by a Reuters commodities reporter, Marcy Nicholson, who perhaps not surprisingly focused on cocoa production and investment in cocoa processing factories ("usines," in French). The high-ceilinged room, decorated in vaguely surreal Versailles style, was filled by the Ivorian delegation, many of whom groaned at the commodities focus of these initial questions. A man from Washington-based Whitaker Group, is owned by Rosa Whitaker, the US's former Assistant Trade Representative for Africa, made the introductions, and controlled the wireless microphone. A man who identified himself as from "West Africa Radio" reminded Gbagbo of his old nickname, Le Boulanger (the baker), and his new one, The Cleaner (of opponents).
"Anyone who is anybody in politics has nicknames," Gbagbo replied, joking in French that he should be called "le patissier" (the pastry chef) because he makes good "gateau" (cake). Asked if he had met French president Nicolas Sarkozy while in New York, Gbagbo said that reporters shouldn't "over-personalize" the news. He spoke briefly with Sarkozy inside the Security Council chamber. There was no drama, Gbagbo said, contrasting this with what he called his negative relationship with previous French president, Jacques Chiraq. A longtime Radio France reporter, Jean-Karim Fall, asked about reports that Gbagbo has been invited to and will be in Paris in October. Gbagbo said no, he has not been invited. Fall followed up, "Not even by UNESCO?" There was a smile of recognition.
Before the press conference began, a DVD was projected about Gbagbo's visit "with the Muslim community in Gagnoa and Mama." There were white robes and testimonials, and an absurdly over-voiced English translation attributed to Charles Seri. There was cheering when the film came to a close.
In fact, repeatedly throughout the press conference, the Ivorian delegation burst into applause. Even those a pamphlet handed out said that "For President Laurent GBAGBO prison is not a good place for a journalist," this room at the Waldorf did not seem like the right venue to ask about allegations surrounding the toxic waste scandal in Abidjan, about spousal issues or even, who shot at Soro's plane? Inner City Press asked about singer Alpha Blondy's comments on the plane shooting. Gbagbo's response was that he likes Alpha Blondy and has most of his records, but that he is not liable for every comment that he makes. Touche, Monsieur le President. And with his extensive entourage, Gbagbo set off down the long hallways of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, knowing the name of the next Special Representative of the Secretary-General and telling Inner City Press to ask Ban Ki-moon to confirm the name. Developing.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, September 25 -- French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday gave a speech in which he praised the UN as "the only place in the world where all people can speak to one another." Then he held a closed-door press conference in the UN's briefing room, from which journalists without French passports were excluded. A French-speaking reporter who writes, in French, for a newspaper in Lebanon was asked if she holds a French passport. When she said no, she too was excluded.

This unprecedented approach was echoed, diplomats tell Inner City Press, in M. Sarkozy's attempt to ensure that during the Tuesday afternoon Security Council session over which he will preside, the Council's resolution to send peacekeepers and police to Chad and the Central African Republic be voted on. African heads of states rebelled, saying they would not be extras in Sarkozy's photo-op, raising their hands to vote for a resolution he would claim shows his commitment to Darfur, Chad and the CAR. After their protest, France agreed to pass the resolution more quietly in a morning session, after which France's Ambassador to the UN Jean-Maurice Ripert declined to come to the stakeout microphone and answer any questions. Amb. Ripert was reportedly deferring to the wishes of Sarkozy, not to be upstaged. Then Sarkozy spoke only to media with French passports.
Outside the briefing room, before Sarkozy began, Inner City Press suggested to the French mission's spokesman that if the small size -- less than 100 seats -- of the UN's Briefing Room 226 was the issue, the event could easily be shifted to the much larger Conference Room 4, where the presidents of Iran and Venezuela have scheduled briefings. In the alternative, if Sarkozy was intent on speaking only to French journalists, he could hold it in the French mission to the UN, or the bilateral meeting rooms that France and the other Permanent Five members of the Security Council are given.
While the protest by heads of state managed to switch Sarkozy's Security Council schedule, the complaints of journalists outside his press conference were ignored. The Spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon came down and spoke to the French mission's spokesman, heatedly. Afterwards, the French spokesman said, She does not control the briefing room.
Inner City Press telephoned a senior official of the UN's Department of Public Information (DPI) and was told that member states can do what they want. A story was recounted, in which a particular member state, a Permanent Five member of the Security Council, prevailed on then Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali to exclude a dissident from entering the UN, even to speak in the third floor venue of the UN Correspondent's Association. At that time, DPI pushed back, saying that UNCA has been open to all journalists and all speakers since the time of Dag Hammarskjold. Sarkozy's speech said "it is up to us to remain true to the values in whose name we are gathered here today."


In his speech to the General Assembly, Sarkozy had said that "France remains loyal to its friends." Inside the briefing, according to an attendee, even French journalists based at the UN but not known as friends of Sarkozy were not called on. Afterwards there was dark talk of the Sarkozy administration cracking down on journalists, at Paris Match and elsewhere, who did not provide positive coverage. Sarkozy's speech said that "against egotism... it is our duty to renew that appeal.. to open our minds," and that "the UN must be strengthened, not weakened."
News analysis: Setting a new precedent under which a country, or perhaps only one of the veto-wielding Permanent Five members of the Security Council, has use the UN's briefing room as a stage for propaganda to journalists chosen based on passport and ideology does not strengthen the UN and the principles behind it, but rather weakens it.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, September 24 -- The obvious questions at the UN's High Level Event on Climate Change on Monday were, will the U.S. support emissions caps or try to undermine them, and will new coal-fired power plants continue to be built, undermining most other mitigation measures? Attempts to ask the first question to President George W. Bush himself proved fruitless: Bush attended a dinner with Ban and others, but then rushed past the press afterwards. Inner City Press managed later to ask Mr. Ban about Bush:

Inner City Press: Did you get any sense, Mr. Secretary-General, from President Bush, of how he viewed the outcome of today, or what will take place in his meeting in D.C. with the major emitting countries?
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:  He also mentioned that, while he explained how technological innovation can help in addressing these issues, and he explained what he wants to discuss and wants to achieve.  In forthcoming meetings, he has invited all these industrialized countries.  He made it quite clear that what he is going to do was to help the United Nations influence, and the United Nations so that the United Nations can work to address these global warming issues, and I appreciate it for his firm commitment and support for that.
Inner City Press: Was there any discussion of just capping emissions...
The Secretary-General:  Of course, emissions, how to cap emissions was an important issue.  There were some ideas that industrialized countries should set the target and lead this process, but I understood that that is something which we will have to discuss in a negotiating forum. Thank you.
            Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada also told Inner City Press that "President Bush made clear publicly and privately that he view [his meeting in DC] as assisting the UN process by trying to bring the parties together." We'll see.

Ban Ki-moon watches Yvo de Boer answer Inner City Press' question on coal
            On coal, Inner City Press asked Ban and Yvo de Boer:
Inner City Press: There is an analysis that says that the continued construction and use of coal-fired plants negates a lot of the impact of other efforts by companies to reduce their emissions or to reduce the emissions of cars. So earlier today, Al Gore called for a moratorium on the construction of new coal plants until the technology exists to do capture and store. Mr. De Boer, on [Saturday] you said that China and India need to keep using coal and that they have abundant coal. So I am wondering how you respond to what Al Gore called for today?
      And Mr. Secretary-General, how do you choose either between the two approaches or balance combating climate change with poverty alleviation in countries like China and India and their use of coal?
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: Maybe I will first answer before Mr. De Boer answers in greater detail and in a more professional manner. I will try to answer you in a more general way.
      As I clearly stated during my summary, we are not asking developing countries to choose between development and addressing this issue. Both issues should be taken care of. This is our goal. According to countries, there may be differences of technological level; developing countries have a lower level of technologies. But the important thing is that we need to have some research and development to find renewable resources, alternate sources of energy. There may be coal-based energies, nuclear power, and other bio-fuels or wind-power-generated energies. So we need to look at all the possibilities to find cleaner technologies that are sustainable. Maybe Mr. De Boer can answer in a more detailed manner.
Yvo Boer: In order to grow its economy and eradicate poverty, China is building one power plant every week, and most of those power plants are coal-fired. It is, to my mind, inconceivable that you would stop building coal-fired power plants today in countries like China and India that have an abundance of cheap coal. The challenge, as the Secretary-General indicated, is to shift towards a modern energy mix, a clean energy mix, but also to use clean coal technology and, perhaps in the future, also carbon capture and storage to ensure that you can use that coal without a climate impact.
            Afterwards Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper similarly told Inner City Press that "hydrocarbons will remain an important source of energy," specifying that any binding caps on emissions would have to be based on "intensity per unit of production," and not per capita, as the latter method of calculation would mean that two-thirds of emission in the development world would not be covered for twenty years.
             Greenpeace's Daniel Mittler, in an interview with Inner City Press, said that it is a "false dichotomy that development needs coal and that you can't have development without coal." He said that the capture and store technology referred to won't be available for at least ten years. Inner City Press asked about Germany, where new coal plants are being building. "They are planned," Mittler said. "Germany can't deliver leadership... if they don't stop" the plants.  Inner City Press has previous written on this topic. Attempts to ask Germany chancellor Angela Merkel were unsuccessful. She left Ban Ki-moon's climate change dinner on the heels of South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, and did to stop to speak with the Press. We'll have more on this.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Muse
UNITED NATIONS, September 22 -- Unlike some car rides across these days' Baghdad, Saturday the UN's "high-level" meeting on Iraq ended with a whimper and not with a bang. Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki came with Ban Ki-moon into a quarter-filled UN conference room. Together they dodged questions as if they were bullets until, with far fewer than half of the 30 pre-registered questioners being called on, they left the conference room. One of the questions, despite being three times repeated, was nonetheless not answered. It involved news analysis that the U.S.'s current strategy of arming Sunni tribes to fight al Qaeda might make Iraq even less secure than it is now. "I haven't heard those press reports," Mr. Ban said.
Inner City Press had questions it was not called on to ask, concerning details of widespread corruption in Iraq government departments, and the UN's delaying release of its quarterly report on human rights in Iraq at the request of the United States. Might that report mention the activities of Blackwater USA? If not, why not?  Questions that have yet to be answered.
Surprise was expressed at the low turnout, and low energy, of the UN's Iraq meeting and subsequent briefing. This General Assembly, the buzz is mostly about Iran, Holocaust denial, denial of visit to Ground Zero. On that, UN "Messenger of Peace" Elie Wiesel on Friday said that such a visit would be akin to "a murderer visiting his victim's grave." Video here. Inner City Press ran to the briefing room to ask Mr. Wiesel if he has evidence of an Iranian role in the take-down of the World Trade Towers, and about the meaning of Messenger of Peace. But Wiesel left the press conference early, accompanied by security guards. Michael Douglas, on the rostrum with Wiesel, nodded and said nothing.

Ban Ki-moon and Iraq's prime minister, Blackwater and corruption not shown
Thirty-four hours later, at 9 p.m. on Saturday night, Japan's Assistant Press Secretary Kazuyuki Yamazaki briefed a half-dozen reporters on the bilateral meetings held by Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, including one with Ban Ki-moon. Mr. Machimura raised the issue of Japan's under-representation in the senior staff of the UN Secretariat. When Inner City Press asked for details, Mr. Yamazaki specified that Japan has only 110 staff, including only "one USG, no ASGs, only two D-2's and only four D-1's." Go get 'em!
For the elites of many countries, the annual UN General Debate is a chance for a junket to New York. Sri Lanka, it is reported, has brought fully 85 people, many of whom will never set foot in the UN. There are doctor's visits and tourism. Some heads of state are being offered a $5000 honorarium merely to attend an outside meeting (we aim to have more on the this).
Still, the General Debate allows from some strange rapprochements. One involving Inner City Press took place on Friday outside the Darfur meeting. Mark Malloch Brown, who after Inner City Press reported on the UN Development Program and its spending $700,000 to produce a self-laudatory book said "You are a jerk," now a mere twenty feet away took a question from Inner City Press, about Darfur, and ended up pointing and saying, "It's good to be back among friends." Video here, at Minute 8:30. Only at the UN...

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, September 21 -- Darfur was the subject Friday of the first "high level meeting" of this UN General Assembly. Along with the African Union, the UN issued a five paragraph press communique, which notably did not mention the International Criminal Court's warrants for war crimes pending against two Sudanese, including Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb and the al-Bashir government's minister of humanitarian affairs, Ahmed Muhammed Harun. The first attendee to emerge to take questions was former UN Deputy Secretary General and UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, now handling the UN, Africa and Asia for the United Kingdom. Malloch Brown among other things said that while he did not raise the issue of the ICC indictees in his recent meeting with president al Bashir, he did include it in his remarks in the UN's Darfur meeting. You'll have to ask others if they raised it, or why they didn't, he said.
Inner City Press asked U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte if the U.S. had raised the issue of the ICC indictees in the meeting. "We didn't raise it in this meeting, although it is certainly an issue of concern to us," he answered. Behind him stood Assistant Secretary of State Frazer, who exactly one year ago accused al-Bashir of sabotaging African Union materiel coming in through Port Sudan.
           Negroponte was asked, what about the rebel leader Abdel Wahid Noor, who still indicates he will not be attending the October 27 talks in Libya between the al Bashir government and the range of rebels from Darfur. Negroponte said that the decision not to attend "should not be cost-free," which he subsequently clarified meant the threat of U.S. sanctions.

Friday on the UN's 38th floor: 3 Americans, 2 South Koreans, and...
Ban Ki-moon, when asked Friday about Noor, gave a shorter version of his September 10 response to Inner City Press' question about bringing Noor into the process, that "giving any prominent attention to any particular person is not desirable." On September 10 he said:
"there are many leaders of movements. There is some tendency of mushrooming of these factions. I urge that all the leaders of the movements should participate in the forthcoming political negotiation. It is necessary to participate and [express] their views, rather than complaining or protesting outside of the dialogue forum. It is the same with case of Mr. Abdel Wahid Noor. I know that he is staying in France, but he should participate in this, if he really thinks about the future of Sudan and if he thinks he is one of the leaders. At the same time, I would like to point out, that, as a matter of principle, everybody should be given equal opportunity and equal attention."
The foreign minister of Noor's home-in-exile, Bernard Kouchner, expressed frustration about questions concerning Noor. "What do you want me to do about it?" he demanded, calling a reporter "mon petit gars," my little guy.
Also frustrated with the press was AU chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare. To a straight-forward question about the AU's position on whether the "hybrid" force should be entirely, or only mostly, made up of African troops, Mr. Konare said, "That is a non-innocent question," accusing the broadcaster of trying to play up differences in position between the AU and the UN. Here then is another question lacking innocence: what is the African Union's position on the enforcement of the ICC's warrants? The answer to this will be pursued.
Footnote: on another issue of impunity and international criminal law, Inner City Press at Friday's noon briefing asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson about a report that Timorese president Jose Ramos-Horta was "dismissive" of Ban's threat that the UN would not participate in the "Truth and Friendship Commission" if it allowed for amnesty for war crimes. AFP reported that Ramos-Horta "said the boycott statement was not an official UN stance." So Inner City Press asked:
"there's an article about Jose Ramos-Horta, and he said that they don’t intend to change the terms of reference of their Truth and Reconciliation Commission to knock out amnesty, and he said he didn’t think that what the Secretary-General said in July of the UN participating in that tribunal is official UN policy. So I guess I'm asking: Is it the UN's policy that it will not participate in that amnesty is given to, for war crimes, genocide, and..."
Five hours later, the Spokesperson's office confirmed that this is the policy. We'll see.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, September 21 -- In Afghanistan the UN discourages proselytizing, while working with the parliament to pass a law requiring "international security companies" like Blackwater USA to register with the government, Tom Koenigs, Special Representative for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told Inner City Press on Friday. In light of Iraq's apparently-stalled effort to oust Blackwater for shooting civilians, Inner City Press asked about the company's reported presence in Afghanistan, and for any UN policy or guidance on the issue.
"As UNAMA [the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan], we are protected by police, but this has an in-built problem," Koenigs said. Once these police are trained, they are not satisfied with policemen's salaries, and want to work for "one of the international companies." Of Blackwater, Koenigs said he wasn't sure they are in Afghanistan -- they are, including providing training to police -- but he added that "they certainly don't work for us."  Video here, from Minute 57:32.
Speaking of a "big group of U.S. and South Korean citizens" who traveled to Afghanistan in 2006 for "a peace march, they said," Koenig noted that UNAMA successfully "persuaded them to leave" Afghanistan based on "concrete threats." He added that proselytizers create a "peril for the whole international community."
In response to Inner City Press' request that he describe the UN's role in the release of the South Korean hostages last month, Koenigs said "we were in constant contact with the Korean embassy in case there would have been a necessity for us to get involved. This hasn't happened, and this make me happy." Koenigs credited the Red Cross, saying that "we have not had a role in the release of the hostages."

Tom Koenigs at the UN
On August 28, asked by a South Korean television station about the release of the hostages, Ban Ki-moon said:
"I have to take this opportunity to comment the efforts of the Republic of Korea, the Government of Afghanistan, our United Nations office in Afghanistan, UNAMA [United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan], and all other related parties who have contributed to the release of these hostages... as Secretary-General, I've exerted all the possible efforts even though I've not been able to explain publicly for the purpose of security and for facilitating smooth dialogue to release these hostages, I've spoken with the President of Afghanistan and many other leaders around the region who could have influenced and mobilized necessary influence."
Just whom Mr. Koenigs meant as the "we" that played no role in the hostages release should be made clear.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, September 20 -- Sudan should arrest its two citizens who have been indicted by the International Criminal Court, even though Sudan has not signed on to the Court's Statute of Rome and is not a member of the ICC, prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters on Thursday at the UN. While most questions concerned how Mr. Ocampo's call for Sudanese arrests jibes with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's "quiet diplomacy" of one-on-one meetings with president al-Bashir, Inner City Press raised two incongruities: the ICC's recent silence as UN agencies have engaged with the ICC's first set of indictees, the leaders of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (video here, from Minute 12:19), and the specifics of Sudan's -- and the United States' -- legal duty to execute warrants issued against their own citizens by the ICC. On the latter, Mr. Ocampo set forth a theory under which the U.S. could be responsible to arrest and turn over an American soldier, but only if the case was referred to the ICC by the UN Security Council. Since the U.S. is a member of the Security Council, Ocampo told Inner City Press, this is not a problem for the U.S..
Inner City Press asked Ocampo about his repeated statement that Sudan is obligated to turn over its humanitarian affairs minister, Ahmed Muhammed Harun, and Ali Kushayb, a Janjaweed leader, given that Sudan never joined the International Criminal Court. Sudan is "part of the United Nations," Ocampo answered, and Sudan has a duty identical to the duty of Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia to turn suspects over to the country-specific Tribunals the Security Council established.
This logic would apply to any non-ICC member country, like the United States. Inner City Press asked if, in Mr. Ocampo's statement of the law, the U.S. would be legally required even now to turn over any American, including a soldier (or, say, a Blackwater USA military contractor) indicted by the ICC.
But the United States is a member of the Security Council, Mr. Ocampo answered.  He used the example of Iraq, saying that neither the U.S. nor Iraq are members of the ICC, so he and the ICC could only open an investigation if the Security Council made a referral of the case. There is the solution, Ocampo said.
The U.S. having a veto on the Security Council is the ultimate -- and in some's view, only -- protection.

Mr. Ocampo, U.S. flag at edge, Uganda's LRA not shown
Since Mr. Ocampo spoke of the al-Bashir government sensing a "weakening of resolve," Inner City Press asked if this might not also flow from the failure to executive the arrest warrants for Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti and several other leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army, now known to be in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That's different, Ocampo said. The president of Congo is in favor of executing the warrants, but does "not fully control Northern Congo."
Inner City Press pointed out that the UN has processed funds to build an airstrip for the LRA, and that the UN's envoy Joaquim Chissano has met with the LRA leadership. Has Ocampo said anything to Chissano, or anywhere near as much about the LRA as about Sudan in recent months?
Ocampo's answer was oblique, that "comprehensive solutions" are needed in Uganda as in Sudan, but that he is in part of justice, and enforcing the law. But what's the difference between Harun and Joseph Kony? When Inner City Press asked if, to make international criminal law look more credible, Ocampo might support the Security Council putting indictments into suspension for a year to allow for peace talks, Ocampo said, "I cannot speculate on others' responsibility. I'm a prosecutor. I respond to the law always."
But what about the LRA? And the apparent misunderstanding by some in the U.S. that they are legally exempt from the ICC? These questions will continue to be asked.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN:

UNITED NATIONS, September 18 -- On the opening day of his first General Assembly session, Ban Ki-moon displayed his brand of "soft ear" diplomacy, even when compared to the officials he has appointed. On Iraq, Ban's humanitarian coordinator John Holmes on Friday told BBC that the United States "has a moral obligation" to take more Iraqi refugees, that the U.S. isn't "doing enough." Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban if this is his view, and if it will be conveyed to President George W. Bush. Ban responded without once mentioning the U.S. or Bush, saying that "the parties concerned" do have "some moral obligation to do more for refugees," and that he will "try to see what would be an opportune time... to discuss these matters with the leaders of the countries concerned."

While Mr. Ban did not answer the second part of the question, regarding his plans to expand UN presence in Iraq and his assessment of the security situation there, he did mention two non-U.S. countries, Syria and Jordan. Ban said that both are experiencing difficulties accommodating the refugees at a rate of "fifteen thousand per week," and calling this a "huge humanitarian concern." John Holmes in his BBC "Hard Talk" interview on Friday went further, saying that events in "Iraq have poisoned the well for everyone," allowing countries like Sudan to oppose at least some humanitarians as having "an interventionist agenda," while discouraging developed countries from contributing peacekeepers "because of the taint of Iraq."
One cannot imagine Ban using this language. When asked what was Sudanese President al-Bashir's response to demands he turn over to the International Criminal Court two indicted Sudanese, including government minister Ahmed Haroun, Mr. Ban demurred. Ban said that those were "private conversations," and that while justice and peace are important, "justice is a part of peace" and "for a certain period, some issues" should be "kept confidential to promote peace."

Ban and his envoy for Iraq (and Myanmar) Ibrahim Gambari
Not mentioned in the 20-question press conference was the situation in Myanmar, where the UN's silence has drawn negative editorials and calls from Congress and elsewhere. Also not mentioned was Somalia, one of the hot wars on the planet, but one on which no high level meeting has been scheduled. The week's focus on heat will be on global warming, with an all-day event on September 24 involving, Ban said, 80 heads of state and government. How will the relative success of that day be measured? Why put off until Bali in December a discussion of the reduction of emissions? Some say that heads of state are too high up to negotiate such things. They ask, then what's the point?
Nineteen days into his tenure, Ban Ki-moon faced his first UN corruption scandal, involving the UN Development Program in North Korea, paying the Kim Jong-il government in hard currency for workers the government selected. Ban ordered a comprehensive audit. But in the first round of audit, North Korea gave no visas. On Tuesday, Ban said that he hopes that UNDP's new "independent, recognized" auditors named "a few days ago" will get cooperation. But it is the same UN Board of Auditors which has been charged with gaining access to North Korea, not the new panel nominated by UNDP's Administrator Kemal Dervis, which some see as a mere attempt to substitute for and circumvent the UN Ethics Office, to the detriment of UN system whistleblowers. Ban will need to clarify this muddle. And insiders predict a closed-door dinner during this GA week between Ban and the North Korean foreign minister will be the opportunity for Ban to be invited to Pyongyang. Shouldn't the auditors go there first? Developing.

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, September 14 -- With poverty remaining prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday held a meeting of its new Millennium Development Goals Africa Steering Group, and afterwards took questions from reporters. Inner City Press asked a question it had asked earlier in the week, without answer:


Inner City Press: This week, at the UN Development Program Executive Board meeting, a number was put forward in which the UN, its main development program, last year put $1.3 billion into Latin America and $526 million into Africa. So, some people were saying - what can be done to make sure that the UN system, for a variety of reasons, puts most of its resources where it is most needed and where the MDGs are running behind. And also, for the Deputy Secretary-General, in the Working Group, another that came up in this meeting which I have been covering, was - somebody had said that maybe there’s a competition for resources between UNDP and the World Bank – this was one of the Member States that said it, threw it out there. What can the UN do in your Working Group to make sure that there’s not a turf war, and that everyone actually works together. Thanks a lot.
In fact, these very questions were asked of UNDP's putative MDG expert Guido Schmidt-Traub on Wednesday. On the first question he said he didn't have the numbers. On the second, he said to ask the member state. And so the questions had to be asked again on Friday. Thank, Guido.
UNDP's Administrator Kemal Dervis attended the Steering Group meeting, and was listed as attending the press stakeout. But he did not come, perhaps concerned of more questions about UNDP's retaliation against whistleblowers. This left Ban Ki-moon to try to explain UNDP's under-funding of Africa:
 Ban Ki-moon: The UN system is fully behind, and working very closely together, led by this UNDG chair. We have many specialized agencies, funds and programs. Their priority is focused on this, realizing MDG goals.
But what about Africa? In fact, one of the UNDP whistleblowers, Mathieu Koumoin, states that he was let go by UNDP in Senegal for having opposed a UNDP official's quiet instruction to siphon $8 million of $30 million meant for Africa to entities based in France and in Canada. So even the money that's said to be spent in Africa is directed, at least by UNDP, elsewhere.
Deputy Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro gave a longer answer:
DSG: As you have heard, I will be chairing the Working Group. The Working Group will constitute officials, at the working level, from the institutions that have been represented in the Steering Group of the Secretary-General. The intention there is, first of all, to look at the actual actions that will have to be taken in order to give further push to the MDGs. And, as the Secretary-General has said, this will identify  the areas, resource mobilization, the sectors that need to be focused and so on. But one of the intentions of having this meeting so inclusive is to ensure that each one of us plays a role, with the United Nations taking the lead, at the initiative of the Secretary-General.
So what we will do, will not only look at actions that need to be done, but also actions that can be scaled up by those who are going to participate in this. But it is not only this side, but also the side of the nations themselves. That is why the African Union has talked of national resource mobilization and acts that have to be taken at the national level as well. This will ensure not only ownership, but also sustainability of the various interventions that will have been identified, and for which the Working Group will be looking to, in order to ensure that this initiative of the Secretary-General succeeds.
The Working Group meets on September 20 on the UN's 38th floor, the UN's press guide says "media coverage arrangements (TBC)" - we'll see.
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Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, September 13 -- Overriding the negative votes of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, the UN General Assembly today adopted the Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Afterwards a series of speakers representing, among others, Inuit, Taino, Saami and other First Nations, spoke of the twenty five years of work leading to the vote -- or an Inuit speaker put it, of the work since the time of Columbus, or since 1492, as said by a Taino.

Western Canadian leader Edward John said that Canada should step down from the UN Human Rights Council, now that it had cast this negative vote. Canadian Ambassador John McNee, speaking in the Assembly chamber but not outside it with reporters, said flatly that the Declaration will have no effect in Canada "and is not customary international law." Inner City Press asked longtime Declaration proponent Willie Littlechild about Amb. McNee's comment. "That's up to courts to decide," he said, not the Canadian Ambassador.
The momentum turned in favor of the Declaration when the African group dropped its objections, after nine amendment were made, including a tipping-of-the-hat to territorial integrity and political unity not being undermined by the Declaration. Namibia's Permanent Representative said that, in his view, indigenous peoples in African are not necessarily "distinct groups," and that there should be an ability for governments to deploy their militaries, even on indigenous lands, in the public interest.
The representative of Benin said that his country had never been opposed to the Declaration, but had shown "solidarity" with the rest of the African Group until the compromise was brokered. The main negotiators, Inner City Press is informed, were Mexico, Guatemala and Peru. Ban Ki-moon had little involvement, the proponents have said, but his spokesperson did read out a statement of support, after Inner City Press asked, and after the vote's results were announced.
Most UN correspondents stayed in the main briefing room to hear about the upcoming General Debate. At the stakeout in front of the General Assembly, there were only two question-asking reporters, and then only one: Inner City Press. The speakers went on for more than an hour, including an extensive speech by a representative from Easter Island. UN Television filmed it, but did not put it online. Several people who wanted to cover it, weren't allowed to. But where then was the diplomatic press?
Earlier in the week, a report was released comparing nations' votes in the Human Rights Council on resolutions regarding North Korean, Belarus, Uzbekistan and others. In this scoring, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States all came out at the top of the human rights rankings. But with their negative votes on a major human rights instruments, those tables will have to be re-tabulated. Sadly, rogue regimes will be able to point to these votes to get themselves off the hook. And who's to blame for that?
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