Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

At UN, Glitzy DVF Awards Have Kelly Partying In Space He Called Unsafe

UNITED NATIONS, March 12 -- The UN cafeteria, suspended over Manhattan's FDR Drive, Friday night hosted Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, Diane Sawyer, Diane von Furstenberg and New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, as DVF awards were given to Elizabeth Smart, the American Widows Project and programs in Kenya and India.

While there was heightened security with Secretary of State Clinton in attendance, one irony went unaddressed. In a controversy earlier this year, citing security, the UN kept $100 million owed to the US Treasury in Tax Equalization Funds.

  When Inner City Press asked on what basis the $100 million had been retained, the UN responded that Kelly's NYPD had advised it, and Hillary Clinton's Department of State had given the OK.

   The UN has yet to name which US official approved the “keep the ($100 million) change,” and the change in scope and duration of the Capital Master Plan renovation was criticized on March 7 by Argentina on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. (The UN has yet to respond.)

   Inner City Press on Friday night asked Commissioner Kelly how he could be partying directly over the FDR Drive, when he was quoted by the UN has saying this location was so unsafe it must be fortified and restructured on an emergency basis with $100 million otherwise due to US taxpayers.

Kelly didn't try to present it as an emergency, instead saying “What they're trying to do is always improve.” Then he said, “the money has been handed back.”

  Inner City Press asked if he meant handed back to the US Treasury.

  Kelly shook his head and said, of the House Republicans, that “what they tried to do is get the money back from the UN. That wasn't allowed... Peter King got it back” for the UN.

  This is ironic, Peter King as the protector of the UN, in that he is currently criticized for sponsoring Congressional hearings focused on “Muslim extremism.”

Kelly at DVF Awards at UN March 11, $100 M not shown (c) MRLee

  There were other ironies on Friday night. Taryn Davis of the American Widow Project spoke of US soldiers killed in Iraq with no mention that barely 100 feet above the UN cafeteria, the UN Security Council refused to authorize US action in Iraq.

Hillary Clinton, who was initially not listed on the program, arrived with high security. Clinton was in the UN building for the first time, one wag snarked, while the US Permanent Representative to the UN Susan Rice is not here much either.

Somali model Iman made one of the few references to the UN, if only in passing, saying it was an honor “to be in this building.” Not a word, however, about the criticism by Doctors Without Borders and others of the UN “taking sides” in Somalia, in a way that harms humanitarian work.

At the UN's noon briefing on March 10, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky about both of these: the $100 million held back from the US Treasury for the NYPD / Kelly “demanded” security renovation, and the UN in Somalia:

Inner City Press: Médecins Sans Frontières has put out a statement today, it’s largely criticizing the DFID [Department for International Development], the UK, cutting back on funding to some countries and saying it should be security-related. But their position is that they have put out is that the UN is not neutral in Somalia. They say that because the Resident Coordinator wears both political and humanitarian hats, it shows that the humanitarian side is in the service of the, quote, “the UN’s political aims” and that it has compromised the UN’s ability to safeguard independent humanitarian assistance. And I just wonder, this critique has been made before, of the UN decision there, but is it, is it a conscious decision by the UN to blur, to merge these two things? Is there a place for humanitarians that is not totally aligned with the UN and the Security Council support of the [Transitional Federal Government? What do you make of the Médecins Sans Frontières saying that their work is actually impaired by the UN’s process in Somalia?

Spokesperson Nesirky : I’ll ask my colleagues who deal with this specifically. But as I recall, Mr. [Mark] Bowden, sitting right here, has spoken quite clearly on that topic already. But if there is anything further, then we’ll let you know.

Inner City Press: The other thing is, earlier this week in the Fifth, in the resumed Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), this $100 million tax equalization fund came up. And the head of the G-77, María Luz Melon [of Argentina], said that the scope was supposed to have been presented… any change of scope like this was supposed to have been presented to the Budget Committee in advance, raised a number of questions about it. I am wondering, what is… there didn’t seem to be a response at that time; what is the Secretariat’s response to G-77 saying that the $100 million was done improperly?

Spokesperson: As I have mentioned numerous times, this is US money and this work that needs to be carried out is something that US authorities have agreed to and have agreed to fund from the fund that you mentioned. If I have anything further specifically responding to the point you have mentioned, then I will be happy to let you know. But at the moment I do not.

Inner City Press: Okay. Because they… When you look into it, you will see, they cite a specific resolution, 62/87, said that any change of scope or this is also going to delay the Capital Master Plan, that this was supposed to come back to the GA. I am just sort of…

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, I think it would be for the Capital Master Plan people, the people in charge of the renovation of the building, to say whether that would constitute a delay or not. That is not our understanding. Let’s hear from the Capital Master Plan, all right?

  But when Inner City Press then asked the head of the CMP, Michael Adlerstein, all he said was “You should asked them,” Argentina. And so it goes at the UN.

* * *