At UN,
Jobs for Sale
in Haiti &
DRC, Of
Myanmar &
Nambiar,
Accountability
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 13 --
When UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon signed
29 “compacts”
with senior UN
officials in
his 38th floor
conference
room on
February 13,
there was an elephant
in the room.
Herve Ladsous,
in charge of
UN
Peacekeeping,
has overseen
and seemingly
covered up a
scandal in
which position
in the
missions in
Haiti and the
Democratic
Republic of
Congo were
sold for
money. See
Inner City
Press exclusive
report here.
Ladsous has
refused, since
Inner City
Press asked
about
corruption, to
answer any
Press
questions. Video compilation here, most
recent here.
But on
February 13,
as Inner City
Press rode a
UN elevator up
to the 38th
floor chatting
with another
Under
Secretary
General,
Ladsous got on
the elevator.
Silence
descended.
In the
conference
room, as Ban's
officials
assembled,
outgoing
Emergency
Relief
Coordinator
Valerie Amos
said, “Where
are all the
women?”
(Later the
envoys on
Children and
Armed Conflict
and on Sexual
Violence in
Conflict
arrived, group
photo here.)
Amos is
leaving in
March, and the
UK proposed as
her
replacement --
thinking it
owned the
position in
the same way
France owns UN
Peacekeeping
-- Andrew
Lansley, now
opposed by
more than
70,000 people,
see
Inner City
Press story here.
During the
signings, Yuri
Fedotov by
video made the
first or best
joke - he
signed two
contracts but
“only one
salary,” he
quipped. Joan
Clos of
HABITAT from
Nairobi, too,
made a joke,
saying “Okay”
then being
told his
Compact hadn't
yet been
signed.
At the UN noon
briefing two
hours later,
Inner City
Press asked
why Vijay
Nambiar, Ban's
Special
Adviser on
Myanmar and
presumably
still an Under
Secretary
General, had
not signed a
compact. Ban's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric said
Nambiar might
be on travel.
But in the
side room
Inner City
Press was led
through, a
table was set
with Nambiar's
name on it.
We'll have
more on this -
and on
Nambiar's
praise of the
Burmese
government but
silence
so far on its
revocation of
voting rights
for the
Rohingya
Muslim
minority.
On Ban's side
of the table
was his senior
adviser Kim
Won-soo, whom
Inner City
Press has
reported is in
the running,
alongside
Dmitry Titov,
for the
Department of
Political
Affairs
position
vacated by Oscar
Fernandez
Taranco (who
after meetings
in DC about
Bangladesh
was present
Friday and
signed his
compact).
Ban in his
speech
emphasized
that
journalists
can see these
Compact and
will hold the
UN
accountable.
That is in
part the
reason this
report is
being written
this way.
Inner City
Press notes
that in Ban's
“public
financial
disclosures,”
Ladsous' name
goes to an
error message:
no file.
Accountability,
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
posits,
inevitably
must involve
answering
questions.
Watch this
site.
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