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At
the UN, Ban's Schedule Tells of
Niger Secrets, Sri Lanka Lack of Will, Chiselers and Consultants
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee
of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, May 15, updated -- A perusal of Friday's
appointments of UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon is a profile in lack of accountability, lack of
transparency, lack of independence and lack of will. At 11:30 is listed
former
chief UN lawyer Nicolas
Michel, who was exposed as taking $12,000 a month in
housing subsidy from the government of Switzerland while ostensibly
working
only for the UN, and then not including the payments on his UN public
financial
disclosure. Still he reappears, with UN benefits, as Ban's adviser on
Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
In terms of lack of transparency, while we are glad
that Ban's stealth
envoy to Niger Robert Fowler was released, no one -- including on
May 14
Canada's Ambassador to the UN -- had been wiling to address the
statement by Al
Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb that Fowler and colleagues were released
in
exchange for AQIM prisoners, nor what Fowler was doing visiting a
Canadian-owned mine in Niger on the day he was kidnapped. Perhaps
there'll be a
press availability.
Update: at the May 15
noon briefing, when Inner City Press asked, Ban's Spokesperson said
it's up to Fowler, and that no press availability was planned.
Zalmay Khalilzad, former US Ambassador to the UN,
shows up at 5:45,
identified as "CEO of Khalilzad Associates." Certainly this
publicly-listed face time will help his consulting business. But what's
in it
for the UN?
Update: at the May 15
noon briefing, when Inner City Press asked, Ban's Spokesperson said
it's a courtesy call.
UN's Ban and Khalilzad, now consultant, Amb. Takasu,
action on Sri Lanka not shown
A week ago, Inner City Press asked if there was any
change of Ban
Ki-moon going to Sri Lanka before what the government is calling its
final
assault, given Ban's desire to attend the May 11 Security Council
session on
the Middle East hosted by Permanent Five Council member Russia, and to
meet on
May 15 with a minister of follow P-5 member China. The latter meeting
hadn't
been announced, but Inner City Press was told by well placed sources
that
talking points for Ban had been ordered up.
And now it is
confirmed: a meeting
at 3:20 on May 15 with He Yafei, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of
China, the
country which most blocked Council action on the carnage in Sri Lanka.
A long and telling day at the UN, and a worse -- at
least in Sri Lanka
-- weekend to come. Watch this site.
On Sri Lanka
On Friday
May 8, Inner City Press asked Deputy
Spokesperson Okabe:
Inner
City Press: On the invitation by the Government of Sri Lanka to the
Secretary-General to visit, is there any progress in thinking? In
the alternative, is the Secretary-General, is he considering invoking
Article 99 or responsibility to protect or making some other move of
some type on the situation in Sri Lanka?
Deputy
Spokesperson: I have nothing beyond what we’ve been saying from
this podium this week on Sri Lanka, including what the
Secretary-General himself has said earlier this week.
What Ban said
did not involve calling for a cease-fire, did not respond to the
invitation to visit Sri Lanka, or the accelerating rate of civilians
death over the weekend, during which no statement issued about Sri
Lanka. Watch this site.
Channel
4 in the UK with allegations of rape and
disappearance
Click here
for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters
footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN
Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's
mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
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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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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