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At UN, Nigeria Gives Myanmar
$500,000, Bypassing UN Programs, Also UN-Transparent
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS,
December 25 -- Two days before
Christmas, Myanmar's mission to the UN got a gift with no strings
attached. In
the dimly-lit Indonesia Lounge next to the General Assembly chamber,
Nigeria's
Permanent Representative Joy Ogwu handed
her counterpart from Myanmar Kyaw Tint
Swe a check for $500,000. This was Nigeria's response to the UN's
plea for
funds to continue to respond to Cyclone Nargis, which hit in May.
The UN has
been exposed,
first by Inner City Press, for allowing the military government
of Myanmar to take 25% of aid funds through currency exchange.
Nigeria gave its
money directly, in U.S. dollars, and apparently with no requirement to
report
back on how the funds are used. This is the type of hard currency for
which
Senior General Than Shwe is desperate.
Later on
December 23, Inner City Press asked a South Asian diplomat active on
the UN
budget why he thought Nigeria gave direct. "You make more friends that
way," he said. "If you give through the UN, you don't know how your
money's used. If you give it direct, you can ask for reports if you
want. And
if you don't want, that's fine to. You just have a new friend."
There are at
least two possible explanations of Nigeria's direct "south to south"
contribution. One is that there's a lack of confidence in the UN system
as a transmitter
of funds. For example, the UN has not
even committed to disclosing, in the
Consolidated Appeals that it issues, how much it loses in
government-required
currency exchange. The second is that Nigeria wants a friend in
Myanmar,
perhaps even a piece of the resources for which China and India, along firms
such as Total and even Lloyds, and South
Korea's Daewoo, are competing.
Ambassador
Ogwu's statement, a copy of which Inner City Press obtained and puts
online here,
professes Nigeria's "unflinching support for the government" of Myanmar.
Kyaw Tint
Swe and Joy Ogwu, check in foreground, oversight not shown (c) M.Lee
In the
half-light on December 23, there were only two reporters present. Inner
City
Press asked Ambassador Ogwu if the UN's envoy to Myanmar, fellow
Nigerian
Ibrahim Gambari, had played any role in this donation. No, she
insisted. She
had previous
told Inner City Press that her government had invited Gambari to
try to mediate the Niger Delta conflict not as a UN official -- that
would
"internationalize"
the conflict, she said -- but rather as a Nigerian
personality.
The
Myanmar government, too, opposes internationalization, not
only in the form of UN peacekeepers, but even election monitors. Ban
Ki-moon
was told to leave the country when voting in the run-up to the
controversial
elections, which exclude Aung San Suu Kyi, was held.
The
other reporter
asked a aide to Kyaw Tint Swe how much the check was
for.
"None of your business," he replied. Hardly an auspicious beginning
to transparency in aid use.
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
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
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