At
UN,
Ban
Ki-moon
in Turbulence Blames Roth for Human Rights Critique, Puts Orr on DC
Despite History
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January
27
-- Some troubles have hit Ban Ki-moon after four
years and a month as UN Secretary General.
As
he seeks a
second term he has been accused of being weak on human rights, while
the UN and
its Human Rights Council have been pilloried in the US
House of Representatives.
Ban
has been
portrayed as a bad manager and even corrupt by former UN investigator
Inga Britt Ahlenius, in response to which Ban claimed that 99% of his
officials publicly disclose their finances.
This
is
patently
false: even Ban's close ally and architect of his becoming S-G, Choi
Young-jin, refused to make public his finances. Ban has gone to
Davos. In New York, Inner City Press has for days after for an
explanation or retraction of Ban's 99% claim, but has gotten no
response.
To
counter the
growing storm in the Republic led House Foreign Affair Committee, Ban
has reportedly tapped former Democratic aide Robert Orr. But how will
he face off or even meet with Committee chairperson Ros-Lehtinen
(R-FL)?
She
issued a press
release about the investigation of the UN's acting top investigator
Michael Dudley. When Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin
Nesirky for the status of the case against Dudley, the belated
response was only that “On Michael Dudley's case, the case is
ongoing before the Dispute Tribunal and we would have no comment as
it proceeds.”
In
Washington the
word on Orr is that he designed for Kofi Annan the Human Rights
Council “solution.” Since both Republicans and Democrats on
today's Foreign Affairs Committee are critical of Orr's brainchild,
it seems ill advised for Ban to make Orr the point man. But this is
Ban.
The
picture that
emerges is of an Executive Office of the Secretary General in which
Kim Won-soo and to some degree Vijay Nambiar advise Ban. Others have
been marginalized into being mere notetakers, synthesizer of the
cables that come in to the UN from the field.
The
small team
around Ban, when faced for example with the criticism leveled by
Human Rights Watch about Ban's weakness on rights in such places as
Sri Lanka, China and Myanmar, is not to listen to or think about the
critique, but to personalize things. So it is all blamed on HRW
director Ken Roth, with much complaining that Roth was given access,
but that this will not continue. Faced with tough questions,
it seems, Team Ban retaliates.
UN's Ban, No-Tunisia Nambiar, HRC Orr, human rights
not Watched
Sample
advice
that
Ban
receives is for example to not get involved in Tunisia, and to
say even less about protests in Egypt than the Obama administration
does. This of course conflicts with Ban's exhortations in the name
of democracy in Cote d'Ivoire, to which he sent his ally Choi
Young-jin as envoy.
Team
Ban
seems
to
think that their stand on Cote d'Ivoire is a high point of their four
years, a platform for a second term. Meanwhile more and more African
country peel away from the position -- South Africa, Ghana, Uganda.
Will Ban put this genie back in the bottle at the upcoming African
Union summit? Watch this site.
* * *
UN
Officials
Refusing
Financial
Disclosure
Range from Sudan to Security, Abidjan to
Lebanon, Ban's Friends & UNtrue Claim
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
January
25,
updated
-- In the run up to
UN corruption hearings in the
US House of Representatives today, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
angrily answered questions about lack of transparency by claiming
that 99% of his officials publicly disclose their finances. This is
not true, as Inner City Press has said and now documents.
On
the UN's website
for such disclosures, numerous Ban officials simply state “I have
chosen to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed
by me in order to comply with the Financial Disclosure Program.” This
is not public disclosure of finances: it is its opposite.
Those
Ban
officials
refusing
make
even the most basic disclosure -- as simple
as in what country they own property, such as the one line disclosure
by top
UN
lawyer
Patricia
O'Brien that she owns “farmland, Ireland”
-- ranging from both of Ban's envoys in Sudan, Ibrahim
Gambari and Haile
Menkerios to UN officials with outside jobs that might
conflict, such as Terje
Roed-Larsen
(Lebanon
and
IPI), Peter
Sutherland
(migration
and
BP) and Ray
Chambers (malaria and hedge
funds).
When Chambers
took the job, Inner City Press asked him
about
his outside interests. Now Chambers
simply
states,
“I
have chosen
to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed by me
in
order to comply with the Financial Disclosure Program.”
There
are
other
ways
to
not disclosure. Philippe
Douste-Blazy, whom Inner City Press
has exposed
as
wasting
millions
of dollars through the “MassiveGood”
scheme, discloses no finances, only service for the Millennium
Foundation.
Alexander
Downer, Ban's man on Cyprus, makes no
financial disclosure although he lists he works at the business
consultancy Bespoke Approach. And do its clients, in Turkey for
example, raise conflicts? There is no way to know.
Ban's
close
ally
and
Cote
d'Ivoire
envoy Choi Young-jin states that “I have chosen
to maintain the confidentiality of the information disclosed by me in
order to comply with the Financial Disclosure Program,” as does
Ban's UN Security chief Gregory
Starr.
UN's Ban & chief of staff Nambiar in Dept
of Management: empty forms not shown
These
refusals
are
noteworthy
given
how superficial even the “public disclosures”
are. Peacekeeping
logistics
deputy
Anthony
Banbury, who famously said
that “only” three rapes in a Haitian IDP camp “elated” him,
lists “Nil” for both assets and liabilities, as does General
Assembly Affairs chief Shaaban
Shaaban.
Some
officials
are
listed,
but
there is no link to any form, even one refusing to
disclose. These include Achim Steiner of UNEP and former UN lawyer,
still listed as adviser Nicolas Michel, who took money from the Swiss
government for his housing while serving as the UN's lawyer. Since
that scandal, there are issues about Ban officials receiving housing
subsidies through their spouses, not disclosed on the “public”
disclosure forms.
Other
Ban
officials
stating
“I
have chosen to maintain the confidentiality of
the information disclosed by me in order to comply with the Financial
Disclosure Program” include West
Africa
envoy
Said
Djinnit, Middle
East and Lebanon
specialist
Michael
Williams, UNDP Asia boss Ajay
Chhibber (in
charge, another other places, of Myanmar), Jan Mattsson of UNOPS,
where Ban's son in law got a controversial promotion, and Cheick
Sidi
Diarra, whose brother
has been Microsoft's Ambassador to Africa,
allowed to use a UN dining room for this purpose.
In
another display
of non - transparency, Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky on January 21
told Inner City Press he would
not answer any more questions until
Inner City Press acted “appropriately.” This outburst came after
Inner City Press asked for the second day in a row how UN Staff
Regulation 1.2 applies to UN official's outside political activity.
Ban
named Jack
Lang as his adviser on piracy, reporting to the Security Council
today. But Lang
continues
to
write
letters as an official of a
political party in France, for example regarding Ivory Coast
(where, again,
Ban's envoy Choi Young-jin refuses to disclose his finances). The UN
has refused to apply its Regulation 1.2 to this or other case, or to
even answer questions about it.
One
wonders how this will be dealt with at today's US House of
Representative hearings and afterward. Click here
for
footage
of
Ban's claims from a recent piece on Swedish TV
including Inner City Press and a hearing witness.
Ban's
main
claim
to
transparency,
the 99% of his officials make public financial
disclosure, is simply not true, and his spokesman refuses to answer
any questions. Watch this space.
, 
