Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

UN Has No Comment on Myanmar Deportation, DPRK, Ban's Quiet Diplomacy?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 28 -- How quiet can Ban Ki-moon's diplomacy get, and still be called diplomacy? On June 28 Inner City Press asked Ban's associate spokesperson about the military dominated government of Myanmar having deported Michelle Yeoh, who plays pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in an upcoming film.

Inner City Press asked, is Ban's envoy Vijay Nambiar aware, and does he have anything to say on it, or on the casualties from the government's Kachin assault?

Nambiar is aware of the deportation, the spokesperson said. But she had no comment, just as acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said that Nambiar has not comment on the Kachin fighting.

So Inner City Press asked, in light of an earlier back and forth about Ban's “quiet diplomacy,” if this might not constitute VERY quiet diplomacy. Or TOO quiet diplomacy. Or no diplomacy at all.

Nambiar previously seen from behind, no Qs taken

The associate spokesperson also declined to provide any readout of Ban's senior adviser Kim Won-soo's meeting on June 27 about North Korea, or Ban's meeting with a Congolese political figure. Of the latter, she said that Haq had already answered (by not answering). Nambiar, Inner City Press is told (not by the Secretariat but a country's delegation) has said he was not at the Congo meeting.

Here were three questions Inner City Press posed to Haq on June 27, none of which were answered, on how Ban will monitor human rights in Abyei, Sudan, as requested in the day's Security Council resolution, on Ban's “opaque hiring practices” and withholding of documents from the UN's own Joint Inspection Unit, and finally on Myanmar:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you on this resolution that was passed on Abyei this morning. There is no human rights monitoring component in the peacekeeping mission, so the UK Deputy Permanent Representative said that it will be up to the Secretary-General to report on human rights and to somehow make sure that he can report on it. So, I wanted to know what steps is the Secretariat going to take to ensure that it will in this six-month period be able to report on human rights in Abyei?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Well, regarding that, if you look at the resolution itself, this resolution that was just passed over the last hour, says — and this is an operative paragraph — it “requests the Secretary-General to ensure that effective human rights monitoring is carried out and the results included in his report to the Council”. So we will follow up on that, and we will report on how effective human rights monitoring is to be carried out in the reports to the Council in accordance with this resolution.

Inner City Press: Will that be the existing UNMIS [United Nations Mission in Sudan] human rights monitoring? How will it actually be done?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Like I said, the way in which the human rights monitoring will be done will be reported to the Security Council; we’ll let you know at that point....

Inner City Press: there is this Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) report has come out about the hiring practices under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, saying that it is opaque, saying that the Secretariat refused to provide documents to JIU to conduct its work; urging Member States to actually get these documents, and I wonder, I am sure you have seen the report — what is the Secretariat’s response, particularly to the idea that it wouldn’t provide information to the Joint Inspection Unit?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Well, first of all, yes, we are aware of the Joint Inspection Unit report. I believe there is work being done on a reply. Once we have a reply for the report of the Joint Inspection Unit, we will let you know what that information contains....

Inner City Press: I had asked Martin [Nesirky] about this fighting between the Government of Myanmar and the Kachin rebels. It’s continued and various Governments have now spoken out and called for forbearance by the Government. I just wonder, has there been on that or the more recent bombings in Myanmar, has there been any response by the Special Envoy and Good Offices of Mr. Vijay Nambiar to these events in Myanmar?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Yeah, we are aware of the reports and we are studying them. Certainly, when we have a response to these latest reports we will put that out. We don’t have it at present.

Again, when does diplomacy become so quiet that it is no longer diplomacy? Watch this site.

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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.

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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