At
UN,
As Ban Denies Deals with Israel and for OIOS Posts, Doubts Raised About
Both, What was US Told?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 10 -- Just as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated
on August 9 that he made no “agreement behind the scenes” that
Israeli Defense Forces will not be interviewed by his Panel of
Inquiry, he now maintains that no commitment of posts in the Office
of Internal Oversight Services was made to gain support for his
replacement candidate to head OIOS, Carman Lapoint-Young.
But
questions
arose on August 10 about discrepancies between the transcript of
Ban's August 9 remarks and the UN's subsequent denial. Ban said
“he
was one of the finalists, the South African whom you are talking
about. If he [had been] willing to take the job, then I was okay [for
him] to fill that post. There are certain cases when someone was
applying for a certain post, and where she or he was not successful
for that post, and because of the excellent quality of the candidate
– we really wanted to keep certain candidates in our system – we
offered a lower rank.”
But
shortly
after he said this -- even the
transcript is inaccurate -- Ban's
Office said
“The
Secretary-General wants to make it absolutely clear that the
recruitment process for the Director of the Investigations Division
will start only after the new Under-Secretary-General of the Office
of Internal Oversight Services has taken up her post. This selection
will be conducted strictly in accordance with the established rules
and procedures. The assertion that a South African was offered the
job is completely unfounded.”
Inner
City Press
on August 10 asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky had Ban had meant
by “we offered a lower rank.” Nesirky resplied that Ban “was
confused by what the question was,” and claimed that the comment
was a “general statement of principle not related to OIOS.” Video
here,
from Minute 31:26.
It
is not a general
statement of principle to say ““he was one of the finalists, the
South African.. we offered a lower rank.” It is a statement about a
particular individual being made an offer.
Likewise,
Israel's
Benyamin Netanyahu insisted on August 10 that despite Ban's August 9
denials, Ban has made a “discrete” agreement that the panel would
not interview IDF personnel. Ban had said he made no “agreement
behind the scenes.”
At
the end of his
August 9
press conference, Ban urged journalists to focus on the “big
issues” and not personnel (or “personal”) disputes. But if an
answer about offering OIOS post(s) in order to gain support for a
candidate for OIOS does not have credibility, how does an answer
about a “discrete” agreement about the mandate of the UN Gaza
flotilla panel?
UN's Ban and Barak, discrete agreement not shown
A Security
Council diplomat on August 10 approached Inner City Press with another
connection between the August 9 OIOS questions and Ban's panels on Gaza
and Sri Lanka. If Ban was so rattled and pushed by a single journalist
-- even the "overgrown schoolboy" --imagine, the diplomat mused, what
happens between Ban and Israel, or Sri Lanka.
As for the outgrown schoolboy, he points out: wasn't it a
schoolboy who said "the Emperor has no clothes"? Indeed...
Footnote: further to
US Ambassador Susan Rice's statement that the UN's Gaza flotilla panel
is "not a substitute" for national proceedings, Inner City Press is
that during the Security Council consultations on the press statement
by which Council welcomed Ban's panel, the U.S. opposed linking the
panel to the Council's own May 31 - April 1 President Statement calling
for an investigation.
So what did Ban tell Susan Rice and the US
about the panel and its scope? Or about post promises made to get Ms.
Lapoint confirmed as head of OIOS?
* * *
At
UN,
Ban “Melts Down, Admits” Dealing An OIOS Post to a South
African, Calls Ethics Questions Small, 2d Term in Play
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 9, updated -- “I always do the right thing,” UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon said Monday, faced with long pending questions
about mis-management and undermining the independence of the UN
Office of Internal Oversight Services.
But
Ban appeared
to admit violating a founding principle of OIOS, that the Secretary
General not intrude and give out top OIOS jobs on a political basis.
He was asked
repeatedly to confirm or deny that he promised the
second level OIOS post to a South African, to gain support for his
appointment of a Canadian, Ms. Lapointe Young, to replace outgoing
Inga Britt Ahlenius. (Inner City Press was the first to report this
deal, here.)
At
first Ban
suggested these questions be dealt with in a separate session. Then
he portrayed them as “small” questions. Many reporters were
unclear if they were being directed to not get into “personal” or
“personnel” questions.
The
latter seems
difficult, since Ban ultimately said he had personally taken the
personnel decision to give the second OIOS post, even before the
ostensibly independent new director comes in, to a South African
candidate.
Many
correspondents
were frustrated at how the press
conference was run,
with no questions taken on Sudan -- which is threatening to throw the
UN out, while starving the residents of the Kalma Camp -- or the
Rwanda election or the Ban administrations flip-flip on Kashmir.
But
even those
most focused on UN management and Ms. Ahlenius' damning End of
Assignment Report were dissatisfied by Ban's answer that any
questioning of his administration's ethics is unfair. There are a range
of questions, including about Ban's most senior advisers. These, they
say, will be coming out as a second term for Ban is considered.
UN's Ban pre melt down, post deals not shown
Ban
was asked
about his Gaza flotilla panel -- he said no side agreement was made
with Israel not to interview its soldiers -- but not about his
stalled and even most constrained panel on Sri Lanka war crimes.
He
was asked about
appointing Alvaro Uribe to the Gaza panel, despite Venezuela's recent
complaints. Ban said he has known Uribe as Secretary General for a
long time, and that Uribe has his “full confidence.” What will
Venezuela, the next head of the Group of 77 and China, say?
As
one snarky
correspondent said after what he called Ban's “melt down,” this
politically is the time when alternate candidates to become Secretary
General in 2012 will begin to appear, even before the upcoming
General Debate in mid September. Watch this site.
Footnote:
even
on the ostensible
topic of Ban's first press conference since
the Ahlenius memo, the High Level Panel on Global Sustainability,
lack of candor became apparent. When, after his loss of power in
Australia, Kevin Rudd flew to New York and met with Ban, Inner City
Press attended the photo op, and noted that Ban's climate advisor
Janos Pasztor was in attendance, and that the meeting lasted a full
50 minutes.
Inner
City Press
asked Ban's spokesperson if the meeting involved the offering of a UN
position of any kind. It was just a courtesy call, Inner City Press
was repeatedly told -- even after Rudd, back in Australia, bragged
through his spokesman about the offer of a post.
At
the end of
Ban's press conference, Inner City Press asked Pasztor if in the
meeting with Rudd, the supposed courtesy call, this post was
discussed. Yes, Pasztor said. Some courtesy call. The same snarky
reporter laughed at the inclusion of US Ambassador Susan Rice on the
panel, calling it a craven attempt to nail down US support for a
second term as Secretary General. We'll see.
Update
of 12:41 pm:
after publication of the above, UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply sent
this:
Subject:
UN
Spokesperson's clarification regarding the Office of Internal
Oversight Services
Date: Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 12:34 PM
The
Secretary-General
wants to make it absolutely clear that the
recruitment process for the Director of the Investigations Division
will start only after the new Under-Secretary-General of the Office
of Internal Oversight Services has taken up her post. This selection
will be conducted strictly in accordance with the established rules
and procedures. The assertion that a South African was offered the
job is completely unfounded.
“If
you say
so.” Compare to video, here.
And, there are two D-2 posts in
OIOS...
, 
