Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

In Cote d'Ivoire, UN Copters Absent After 2 Weeks, UN Passes Buck to Licorne

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 2 -- Two weeks after the UN Security Council with fanfare passed a resolution to send three attack helicopters and troops to Cote d'Ivoire, the UN on Wednesday confirmed to Inner City Press that the helicopters had not yet arrived.

The UN said “discussions” were ongoing, without saying with thom these discusses were. With defiant leader Laurent Gbagbo? With Alassane Ouattara holed up in the Golf Hotel?

Others have questioned, if the UN Mission in Liberia could so easily give these helicopters up, what was the US-supported Mission doing with them anyway?

India's Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, on his way out of the Security Council on Wednesday morning, told the Press that the issue of the helicopters would be addressed with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when he returns from his long trip to Switzerland, Addis Ababa and London.

Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesman Farhan Haq to confirm the helicopters had not arrived, and why, asking the UN in writing:

“Can you state the status of getting the three helicopters (and peacekeepers and other equipment) called for in the most recent Cote d'Ivoire resolution of the Security Council into Abidjan? If they are not in, what are the obstacles? What is the time frame? What assistance is the UN requesting?”

While awaiting response, Inner City Press asked this month's Security Council president Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti to confirm that the helicopters had not yet arrived, and how the Council follows up. She said she was not aware but would look into it.

Later on Wednesday, the UN sent this answer:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 1:24 PM
Subject: Your question on UNOCI
To: Inner City Press

Regarding a question on whether helicopters from UNMIL have been transferred to UNOCI: Discussions are continuing on the issue of helicopters and they have yet to arrive in Cote d'Ivoire.

Where are these discussions? With whom?

UN & Licorne, which UN says "supports ONUCI" then won't answer

The UN has rebuffed other Cote d'Ivoire questions. Day after day since January 22, Inner City Press asked:

“In Abidjan, much is being made of the stated discovery of assault helicopter parts in a shipment supposedly of food for the Force Licorne peacekeepers. This is a request that the UN and its mission in Abidjan, which is sure to have seen the now day-old story, state its understanding of what was in the shipment, respond to criticism”

After ignoring the question for more than a week, the UN finally dodged it, telling Inner City Press “On Cote d'Ivoire, your question should be addressed to Force Licorne.”

But France's Licorne is there under a UN mandate, and the scandal surrounding it impacts the UN presence. Watch this site.

* * *

At UN, Deal with Russia on Cote d'Ivoire Resolution Has Bamba Staying Silent, Speaks Afterwards to Inner City Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, January 19 -- As the UN Security Council on Wednesday morning belatedly adopted a resolution increasing UN forces and focus in Cote d'Ivoire, the new Alassane Ouattara appointed Ambassador Yousoufou Bamba sat at the Council table but did not speak.

On Tuesday, when the UN troops four week period ran out and the resolution was supposed to be adopted, arguments in the Council's closed door consultations focused on the procedural question of whether Ouattara's Ambassador Bamba could sit at the Council's horseshoe table, and if he could speak.

Russia opposed this, as well as demanding that the phrase “without prejudice to the freedom of expression” be added before a call to halt Radiodiffusion Television Ivoirienne (RFI) from “incit[ing] hatred and violence, including against the UN and particularly UNOCI.”

After Bamba sat in the meeting for the vote approving the amended resolution but did not speak, Inner City Press sent Bamba a text message asking for his reasons. He emerged from the Council and told Inner City Press, “I voluntarily chose not to speak, with the support of the African members, not to create a breach in the unity of the Council.”

Later it was explained to Inner City Press by the Permanent Representative of an African country not currently on the Council that it was mostly South Africa which implored Bamba not to speak, in order they said that the world not see that the Council is not, in fact, united.

UN's Ban and Bamba at swear-in, (c) MRLee

Inner City Press asked Bamba about Russia's demand that “without prejudice to the freedom of expression” be added to the resolution. Bamba said that's “not to silence their side” -- seeming to say that the Gbagbo “side” is Russia's side.

After a pause, Bamba came back to tell Inner City Press that “on behalf of the Ouattara administration,” he appreciates the increase in UNOCI's “defensive force” - he pointed at the phrase about “three armed helicopters with crews from UNMIL” as he said this -- and the RTI paragraph and “especially,” he said “the lifting of the blockage of the Golf Hotel without delay.” We'll see.

* * *

Amid Discussion of Cutting Cocoa Customs & Paying Gbagbo Army, UN Is Listening

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 7 -- In and around the UN in New York there is open talk about trying to cut off Laurent Gbagbo's access to cocoa customs in Cote d'Ivoire, or to paying bribes to his military to defect. But is UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon part of these discussions?

Among Security Council members the date of January 16 is named for when payment is due to Gbagbo's military. One Ambassador told some of the press that Gbagbo's military is being told that “the ICC is watching,” and that ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told the Council that not only Ouattara but also Gbagbo recently called him. France is described as trying to blockade cocoa custom funds to Gbagbo.

Inner City Press on January 7 asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky if, during Ban's video conferences with his envoy in Abidjan Choi Young-jin the two speak on these topics. “The Mission monitors such developments with a close eye,” Nesirky replied. He added that “the Mission keep Headquarters informed... They assess every aspect across the spectrum.” Audio here, from Minute 18:40.

To some, this was a surprising answer.

UN's Ban & Choi, talk of cocoa customs & payments not shown

When Ouattara called for a Special Forces action against Gbagbo and Inner City Press asked Nesirky about it, he replied that the UN favors a diplomatic solution. Watch this site.

Inner City Press asked Nesirky how the UN could conclude that the deadly fighting in Douekou was not related to the Gbagbo - Ouattara standoff. Rather than explain, Nesirky read out a note that a seven person team from Abidjan will go to Douekou with aid and to assess. Then what?

* * *

As UN Misses Gbagbo Forces' Deadly Raid on Opposition Office, Ban's Spokesman Passes Buck to DPKO Missions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 4 -- What is the UN doing in Cote d'Ivoire and whom is it protecting? After forces of Laurent Gbagbo raided the offices of the opposition Democratic Party of Ivory Coast, Inner City Press asked the UN to confirm whether one or four people had been killed, and to state where other that the Golf Hotel is it protecting, even just in Abidjan.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky, who earlier spoke about the ONUCI Mission's “patrols,” replied that UN peacekeepers had “sought to gain access but it was not yet possible.”

Inner City Press asked whether the UN was purporting to protect offices of opposition political parties, or by implication their officials.

“The focus is the Golf Hotel,” Nesirky said. As the UN says when civilians are slaughtered or raped in Eastern Congo, he said UN peacekeepers “can't be everywhere all the time.” Here we're talking about a foreseeable attack on an opposition politicial party's office right in Abidjan. The UN couldn't be there?

Outside the UN Security Council, Inner City Press learned that the Council will in all probability have consultations on Cote d'Ivoire on January 5. “We're still consulting” a source told Inner City Press, “but it looks like it will be tomorrow.

At the noon briefing, Nesirky added that he would “defer to [his] colleagues in the Mission” to provide further answers. Video here, from Minute 22:22.

UN's Le Roy meets Ouattara, answers on protection of offices not shown

Nesirky, who is the spokesman not only for Ban Ki-moon but for the UN Secretariat, which includes UN peacekeeping missions, increasingly engages in this passing of the buck. In just the past ten days, he has told Inner City Press to go ask the UN Mission in Kosovo about a UN judge who let an organ theft defendant go free.

He has allowed the UN - African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur to go 11 days without answering a question about rape by Sudan government officials right next to UN peacekeepers.

Most recently Nesirky has told to go ask MINUSTAH in Haiti how much the UN pays an official. We'll have more on that one, and the others. 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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