Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

Ban Ki-moon & North Korea: Will “Disconnection” Continue for 5 More Years?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 28 -- Around Ban Ki-moon's re-appointment for five more years as UN Secretary General, he met with a number of visiting South Korean ministers and officials, including at a June 21 celebration hosted by the South Korean mission to the UN.

And so it seemed fair to ask about Ban and the Koreas at June 27 a press availability by Katharina Zellweger, head of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation office in Pyongyang.

Ms. Zellweger met that morning with Ban's most senior adviser Kim Won-soo. But she asked that her answer to Inner City Press' question about Ban and North Korea be considered “off the record,” unlike her review of UN agencies' performance there.

She said that, like the UN, her agency hires local staff based on recommendations from the government. Unlike UN agencies in the past, however, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation is not required to pay the employees' salary directly to the government, but rather pays them personally, “in cash.”

She said things in North Korea have gotten worse and worse, with rations down to 150 grams per person per day, people cutting grass and digging roots to eat. She said only Switzerland and Italy have bilateral programs with the government of Kim Jong-Il.

So what of Ban Ki-moon?

Ban & Kim in Seoul, Orr in between, contractless Seltzer to left, answers not seen

Wasn't improving the situation of the people of North Korea, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, one of the things it was said that Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister who often speaks of the war and hardship, would be unique positioned to do?

If not in five years, maybe in ten? One close observer in the Secretariat called Ban's relation to the North Korean issues one of “disconnection.” Will it continue? We will cover it.

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As Myanmar Blasts Away At Kachin Rebels, UN Dodges Issue for 9 Days

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 25 -- Amid an upsurge in fighting and displacement as Myanmar's military-dominated government tries to put down ethnic Kachin rebels, Inner City Press on June 16 asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky if Ban's putative envoy on Myanmar, Vijay Nambiar, had anything to say or would do anything about it:

Inner City Press: in Myanmar, there are these reports of clashes between the Government and the Kachin rebels, they say that dozens have been killed, 10,000 people have been displaced. So, one, I wanted to know whether any part of the UN system is addressing these, especially displacees [sic] in this conflict and also whether Ban Ki-moon’s Chief of Staff, in his good offices role, is he aware of this fighting? Has he communicated with the Government? What does he say about this seeming deterioration in safety within the country?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Let me check. Right, okay, thank you very much. Have a good afternoon.

Nine full days have passed, and the UN has had nothing to say, even as the situation has deteriorated to the point where other governments, even thought trying rapprochement with Myanmar's military dominated government, have spoken out.

Does Vijay Nambiar no longer work on the Myanmar issue?

Ban, Saudis, Nambiar at right, 6/23/11 (c) MRLee

Inner City Press observed him on June 23, accompanying Ban to greet Saudi Arabia's new Permanent Representative to the UN (who said he'd seen Nambiar the previous night.)

Is a new full time envoy to replace Nambiar, as requested by the UK, Mexico and others, in the offing? With Ban's spokesperson's office either refusing to answer or follow up on Myanmar questions, it is hard to know. Watch this site.

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As UK Calls for Myanmar UN Envoy Replacement for Nambiar, He Brushes Off Press

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 19 -- After the UN Security Council met Thursday about Myanmar, UN envoy Vijay Nambiar explicitly refused to answer even a single question from the Press.

Rushing out of the Council, Nambiar made a brushing-away motion with his hand and disappeared down a corridor. This despite a standing request by the UN Correspondents Association that he hold a press conference and take questions.

The Permanent Representative of the UK Mark Lyall Grant did speak to the Press. He recounted that democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has suggested that need for a full time UN envoy, adding that the UK “has long believed that it would be good to have a permanent, full time envoy to regularly visit” Burma.

Lyall Grant said that while Nambiar “felt the tone of what the government was doing since the election was better, more open than it had been before,” the UK sees “no effective response to key demands of international community.”

The military dominated government has given “amnesty only just over two percent of political prisoners, there are still over two thousand.” Lyall Grant was dismissive of “taking one year off a sixty five years sentence of student leaders, and the ninety three years given to Shan community” leadership.

He added that “there has not yet been any inclusive dialogue with opposition outside Parliament.” In the run up to Nambiar's trip, Inner City Press asked without answer if he would be meeting with ethnic minorities.

Inner City Press has previously reported calls for a full time replacement to Nambiar as envoy, by the UK along with former Security Council member Mexico and others. But Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has made no move to appoint a full time envoy, instead continuing to send his chief of staff Nambiar to Myanmar, then refusing to take questions when he comes back.

Nambiar previously seen from behind, no Qs taken

Ban Ki-moon, too, has become resistant to taking questions from the press, at least in New York. Despite multiple requests that he hold the promised monthly press conference - the last was in January, four months ago -- Ban has not held a press conference.

Since he last held a shorter stakeout, he has for example said he was “relieved that justice was done” in the killing of Osama bin Laden, a position that differs from the UN's own human rights commissioner Navi Pillay's.

Ban on May 18 granted an interview to one wire service, and used it to state that if member states want him for a second term as Secretary General, he is ready to serve.

Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky declined Inner City Press' request for a transcript. He said he would be getting clarifications from Nambiar, but none has been given, including any UN response to the Myanmar government prohibiting reporting of ASSK's comments after meeting Nambiar, and on Myanmar's push to head ASEAN. Watch this site.

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund. Video Analysis here

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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