At
UN, Pulled ESCWA Report
Triggers 2 Guterres Meetings
on March 22, OIC at 5
PM
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
March 21 - UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres,
whose spokesman Stephane Dujarric
played up his laying down the
law to UN regional commission
director Rima Khalaj, will on
March 22 hold two meetings
with the bureaux on the UN
Committee on the Exercise of
the Inalienable Rights of the
Palestinian People at 3 pm,
then with that of the
Organization of Islamic
Cooperation at 5 pm. If the
recent past is any guide, he
will not issue any read-out.
When Inner City Press asked UN
deputy spokesman Farhan Haq on
March 21 to confirm the
meetings, he refused. So much
for transparency. The UN's
longtime Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric told Inner City Press
at noon on March 17 that it
would no longer find online
the report "Israeli Practices
towards the Palestinian People
and the Question of
Apartheid: Palestine and
the Israeli Occupation, Issue
no.1 | ESCWA (2017)." This
remained false, even as of 9
pm that day. While the
Internet link sent out by the
UN's Department of Public
Information on March 16 for
the report no longer led
there, nine hours after
Dujarric's briefing, Inner
City Press still
found the report on ESCWA's
website. In the
briefing, Inner City Press
asked Dujarric to confirm that
before the controversy about
the report, Khalaf like all
other Regional Economic
Commissioner heads except
Alicia Barcena was set to
leave by March 31. UN
Transcript here:
Inner City Press:
Earlier, there had been a job
notice published for all of
the heads of the regional
commissions, except Ms.
[Alicia] Bárcena in Latin
America. So, I wanted to
know, what's the status of
that? Has… has… what
would have been Rima Khalaf's
final day…?
Spokesman: 31 March.
Inner
City Press:Okay.
Number two, I notice it's no
longer on the website.
Does this mean that, in fact,
the applications are
closed? What's the
process? Do you think
you'll have a new head of
ESCWA before 31 March?
Spokesman: I don't know
if we'll have one before 31
March. There's a Deputy
Executive Director who is
currently in charge.
Inner
City Press:
Are the issues being discussed
here, do you think they'll be
a part of the selection
process or just process?
Spokesman: Do I what?
Inner
City Press:
Do you think the issues that
the… the substance of the
report, the issues reflected
in the substance of the
report, are they going to be
part of the selection process
or just a pledge of allegiance
to…?
Spokesman: It's not
about a pledge of
allegiance. It's about
people working in an
organization. It's about
people following a process of
coordination and
consultation. That's
what it is. It is not,
don't… you know, frame… I
mean… It's not about a
pledge of allegiance.
The job interview will be a
competency-based interview,
and we will get a great
candidate.
Inner
City Press:
So two things. On this
report, was it shown to DPA
[Department of Political
Affairs]?
Spokesman: No, it was
not. It was not… no one
at Headquarters was consulted
or coordinated.
Inner City Press: And
does Headquarters have a veto
right over reports of the
regional commissions? If
it had been shown, what would
happen…?
Spokesman: It's not
about veto. It's about
coordination and
consultation.
Then
this: "Ambassador Nikki Haley
on the Resignation of UN
Under-Secretary-General Rima
Khalaf: 'When someone issues a
false and defamatory report in
the name of the UN, it is
appropriate that the person
resign. UN agencies must do a
better job of eliminating
false and biased work, and I
applaud the
Secretary-General’s decision
to distance his good office
from it.'” We'll have more on
this.
When the
UN Security Council debated
"Trafficking in persons in
conflict situations, forced
labor, slavery and other
similar practices" on March
15, US Ambassador Nikki Haley
cited people forced to make
bricks in Peru, to fix fishing
nets in Ghana, on fishing
boats off Thailand and as
domestic workers in the
Persian Gulf. Inner City Press
previously asked the UN about
the flow of such workers,
underage, from
Burundi - still without
answer. This should change.
Haley also cited a proposal by
US Senator Bob Corker,
including to raise private
funds to combat trafficking.
Corker has called
for reforms at the UN,
few of which are yet to be
implemented. This too should
change.
On US
inauguration day on January 20
at the US Mission to the UN
the photos of Obama, Biden,
Kerry and Samantha Power came
down. As of February 17 they
have not been replaced.
But as elsewhere an
"Alt USUN" Twitter account
continues in a parallel online
universe the views of Power, recently
calling out Nikki Haley for
only attending three of 13 UN
Security Council meetings, on
Ukraine, ISIS and Israel -
Palestine.
Fair
enough. But how many meetings
did Samantha Power attend? And
after the Israel - Palestine
meeting Nikki Haley took questions
at the Security Council
stakeout, not pre-screened by
Power's spokesman Kurtis
Cooper.
Now the
account is opposing any US
budget cuts to the UN, and
retweeting critiques of Rex
Tillerson hand picking media
to accompany his trip to Asia.
Did they say anything when UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
took no press, or when Antonio
Guterres handpicked Al Jazeera
to accompany him to Somalia?
In fact,
Isobel Coleman who did nothing
when the DC-based
whistleblower protection group
Government Accountability
Project wrote to her about the
UN's eviction of the
investigative Press, here,
still as of February 17 lists
herself as the US
representative on UN reform.
Is it true?
In
the UN itself, Obama and
Hillary Clinton nominee
Jeffrey Feltman has gotten his
UN contract extended. Inner
City Press first
reported, from multiple
sources, that Feltman sought
this so that his UN pension
would hit the five year
vesting dateline. The UN's
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric called Inner City
Press' question, and by
implication Inner City Press,
"despicable."
Or is that, deplorable?
Meanwhile
Voice of America, which was
shown under the US Freedom of
Information Act to have asked
the UN to throw out the
investigative Press, has now
asked about Jared Kushner
(video via
here) and asked the UK
about Nikki Haley's
inexperience. Like we said, an
alternative universe.
Other
former State Department
officials like Bathsheba
Crocker wring their hands
about changes in foreign
policy. But what did they do,
when the UN killed 10,000 plus
people in Haiti with cholera?
They had their time to try to
improve the UN, and largely
failed. It's time to #MoveOn.
***
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