Ban
Ki-moon's
UNtransparency
Ended With No
Net Worth
Statements
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Twenty Second
in a Series
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 3 --
At the end of
Ban Ki-moon's
decade as UN
Secretary
General,
covering up
genocides in Sri
Lanka, Burundi
and Yemen
and evicting
the Press
which asked
about (t)his
corruption,
Inner City
Press is
reviewing
Ban's tenure,
year by year.
See also this
Twitter
Moment.
And
now Ban aver
evicting the
Press in New
York threatens
to sue, for
ambition.
While
Ban threatens
further
necessary
measures
according to
one Korean
media -- Ban
refused to
release the
threat letter;
Inner City
Press appeared
on JTBC
television
news in Korea,
here --
others are given
statistics
about how much
Ban traveled
during his UN
decade.
This
special
service to
some Korean
media, while
evicting the
investigative
Press, was a
hallmark of
the Ban era,
which early on
featured false
Ban claims of
transparency,
which would
culminate in
2017 with
Ban unwilling
to state his
net worth in
2007 and now.
From Inner
City Press'
2011 story:
"UNITED
NATIONS,
January 28 --
Rather than
admit that UN
Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon
misspoke when
he claimed two
weeks ago that
99% of his
officials have
made public
financial
disclosure,
Ban's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
told Inner
City Press on
Friday, “I
wouldn't get
hung up on the
ninety nine
percent figure
as a
mathematical
absolute,
because it is
also a
metaphorical
expression,
that nearly
everyone”
disclosed. Video here,
transcript
below.
But
this claim of
99%
transparency
has been Ban's
response to
questions
about the UN's
lack of
accountability
under his
watch. On January
14, Ban told
the press that
“now ninety
nine percent
of senior
advisers of
the United
Nations have
declared their
financial
assets
publicly on
the website.”
Inner
City Press
reviewed the
UN's web site
and found that
this was not
the case. On
the eve of
hearing before
the US House
of
Representatives
Foreign
Affairs
Committee
about the UN,
Inner City
Press published a list of the many
Ban officials
who instead of
making even
basic
disclosure
state that “I
have chosen to
maintain the
confidentiality
of the
information
disclosed by
me in order to
comply with
the Financial
Disclosure
Program.”
The
officials not
making public
disclosure
range from
Ban' two Sudan
envoys Ibrahim
Gambari and Haile
Menkeriosthrough
Rule of Law
chief Dmitry
Titov to Ban's close ally and envoy
to Cote
d'Ivoire Choi
Young-jin.
The
lack of public
disclosure
came up at the
House of
Representatives
hearing on
January 25,
and Inner City
Press that day
and each day
since has
e-mailed Ban's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
with this
request:
“Please
explain Ban
Ki-moon
statement that
99% of his
officials have
made public
financial
disclose in
light of the
actual, much
lower figure
on [the UN
website], with
non public
disclosure by
inter alia
Gambari, Choi
Young-jin, Jan
Mattsson, Greg
Starr, Iqbal
Riza, Terje
Roed-Larsen,
Said Djinnit,
Mr. Diarra,
Ajay Chhibber,
Haile
Menkerios, Ray
Chambers,
Peter
Sutherland,
dead links
Nicolas Michel
and Achim
Steiner, only
"outside
activity" and
no finance or
clients for
Alexander
Downer, Douste
Blazy, etc.”
Nesirky,
who on January
21 after Inner
City Press
asked about
the UN's
seeming
failure to
comply with
its own
Regulation 1.2 said
he wouldn't
answer any
more questions
until Inner
City Press
somehow acted
“appropriately,”
never answered
this e-mail
question."
After Ban
Ki-moon
evicted in
2016 one of
the most
active media
at the UN,
this cannot be
repeated or
continued in
2017. Watch
this site.
In
2006 after Ban
was given the
job since he
was NOT “God's
gift to
humanity,”
even then he
was criticized
for close
business links
with Myanmar,
by Djoko
Susilo
among others.
As it
turned out,
Ban Ki-moon's
brother Ban
Ki-ho would do
mining and
other business
in Myanmar,
after being on
a “UN
delegation.”
Ban Ki-moon's
nephew Dennis
Bahn is said
to have used
his uncle's
name and
position while
trying to sell
real estate in
Vietnam.
The Bans have
yet to answer
these
questions. Here's
the
December 26 round-up
story by Inner
City Press.
Now the South
Korean media
have picked up
on Ban
Ki-moon's
nepotism as
well,
reporting
that just
after Ban
Ki-moon
"visited Korea
at the
invitation of
the United
Nations Global
Compact Korea
Association...
his son Ban
Woo-hyun was
recruited by
SK Telecom's
New York
office."
Inner
City Press has
been asking
and reporting
since 2009
about SK's
Chey Tae-won
being in the
UN Global
Compact, for
example here.
It was
in 2009 that
mass killing
by the Sri
Lankan army
against Tamils
in the North
was occurring.
Inner City
Press exposed
how Ban's
Secretariat
was hiding the
death figures;
then amid
pressure for
him to visit
Sri Lanka, Ban
declined in
order to
attend the
wedding of his
son Ban
Woo-hyun. See,
Inner
City Press of
May 11, 2009.
On the
morning of
December 28,
2016, Inner
City Press
asked Ban
Ki-moon's top
three
spokespeople
questions
including
"Please
state the date
and separately
content of the
Secretary
General's last
three
communications
with Chey
Tae-won or any
other official
or employee of
SK Telecom, SK
or any of
their
affiliates.
Please confirm
or deny that
the Secretary
General's son
Ban Woo-hyun
was hired at
SK Telecom."
Five hours
later, the
fully paid
spokespeople
closed their
office without
answering a
single
question, and
while trying
to keep
"closed press"
Ban's meeting
with New York
and US
officials.
This
is entirely
consistent
with what
Inner City
Press has
witnessed and
reported on,
leading to and
after Ban
Ki-moon's
ouster and
eviction of
Inner City
Press and
restrictions
since:
nepotism. Like
getting his
son in law
Siddharth
Chatterjee
hired in
Copenhagen
then giving
him the top UN
job in Kenya.
Add to it -
not (yet)
noticed by the
South Korean
media, that SK
Telecom's Chey
Tae-won, who
invited Ban,
was previously
convicted of
fraud, NY
Times here.
Another
NY Times, on
Ban's UN
censorship.
Here's
Chey Tae-won,
whose SKT
hired Ban
Ki-moon's son,
on UN TV,
here.
Ban
Ki-moon's son
Ban Woo-hyun
has worked for
"a Middle East
branch of a
New York-based
financial
company."
We'll have
more on this.
On
December 26 it
was reported
in South Korea
that even
while Ban
Ki-moon was UN
Secretary
General, he
received
$30,000 from a
businessman,
in a
restaurant. See here,
including Park
Yeon-cha (as
well as
Vietnamese
minister
Nguyen Dy
Nien) with
this quote:
""It
would have
been early
2007, shortly
after Ban took
office as
Secretary
General of the
United
Nations. New
York has a
restaurant
owner who
knows him
well. Park
called the
owner of the
restaurant and
said, "If Ban
comes to eat,
give me $
30,000 as a
gift to
celebrate the
inauguration
of the
secretary
general." In
fact, we know
that money was
handed to Ban.
""
Did
the UN's
Office of
Internal
Oversight
Services ever
look into
this? We're
still waiting
to hear from
them. As to
Ban Ki-moon's
spokespeople,
they have
refused to
answer Inner
City Press'
written
questions back
to November 25
about Ban
Ki-ho, etc.
Ban
Ki-moon has
largely been
immune from
accountability
for ten years,
due to a
mixture of
sycophantry
and, when seen
as necessary
in 2016,
censorship,
eviction and
restriction of
the
investigative
Press.
But in
2017...
It is
reported that
Ban Ki-moon
will push the
button to drop
the Times
Square ball on
New Years Eve,
seemingly
arranged by
NYC Mayor Bill
de Blasio's
relentlessly
pro UN Office
of
International
Affairs (which
never
answered
Inner City
Press about
any de Blasio
position on
Ban Ki-moon
having shirked
accountability
for his UN
bringing
deadly cholera
to Haiti.)
But the moment
that ball
drops, Ban
Ki-moon's
legal immunity
is over. We'll
have more on
this.
In
his first
year, 2007,
Ban Ki-moon bought in
numerous South
Korean
staffers.
Inner City
Press asked
and was told
there was only
one, then that
there were
five,
including
Kweon Ki-hwan.
Then
Ban's
spokespeople
including Choi
Soung-ha
chastised
Inner City
Press for
asking, and
demanded that
the names of
51 South Korea
staffers of
the
Secretariat be
removed from
Inner City
Press'
reporting.
Ban's
early
censorship,
which
culminated in
2016 with Ban
evicting Inner
City Press
through
Cristina
Gallach, audio
here, and
Inner
City Press'
camera being
smashed.
Inner City
Press even
before Ban's
Day 1 asked
about
financial
transparency.
It would end,
a decade
later, with
Ban refusing
to say who
paid for his
travel, even
what “carbon
offsets” he
supposed
bought.
On Ban's first
day at work,
after walking
in with Vijay
Nambiar who
would go on to
cover up
genocide in
Myanmar after
participating
in it in Sri
Lanka in the
White Flag
Killings, Ban
was asked
about the
death penalty
(for Saddam
Hussein) and
replied that
it is “up to
member
states.” His
first
spokesperson
Michele Montas
tried to
repair the
damage.
In
late 2016
Inner City
Press saw
Montas in the
UN, from the
“focus booth”
where it does
what work it
can after Ban
and his Under
Secretary
General for
Public
Information
Cristina
Gallach evicted
it from its
long time UN
office.
Meanwhile
Kofi Annan's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric, who
played
a role in the
eviction,
is bragging
that he will
remain.
We'll have
more on this.