|
UN Lawyer O'Brien Refuses
Questions on Cambodia Tribunal, Ignores Logo Misuse
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, March 3 -- The
UN's new top lawyer, asking Tuesday about the funding and corruption
crisis at
the UN-affiliated genocide tribunal in Cambodia, refused to answer any
questions about it.
At
a press conference at UN headquarters in New York,
Patricia O'Brien purported to respond to twenty minutes of questions
about the
so-called Hariri Tribunal, concerning the deaths of some two dozen
people in
Lebanon. The Cambodia tribunal, already plagued by allegations that
local
Cambodian staff paid bribes to get their jobs, is threatened
with closure
according to its top judge due to a lack of funds.
As
Inner City Press asked
what the UN is going to do, Ms. O'Brien said she would not answer any
questions
on that or any other non-Hariri Tribunal topic.
Inner City Press followed up, will there be another
opportunity to ask
these questions? I am not undertaking any further commitment of
availability,
Ms. O'Brien said.
Several comparisons came to mind. The Cambodia
tribunal deals with more
than a million deaths, while the Hariri Tribunal deals with two dozen.
On the
latter, however, the UN has good news, or thinks it does. Its
corruption-plagued tribunal, the UN would apparently prefer just went
away.
UN's Patricia O'Brien make pledge to UN's
Ban, transparency and accountability not shown
Of this UN-assisted
tribunal, "a report
surfaced last week on the German legislature's Web site alleging
that a top
U.N. tribunal official had acknowledged the kickbacks and accused a
senior
Cambodian administrator of corruption. The head of public affairs for
the
tribunal refused to comment on the report."
Ms.
O'Brien's predecessor Nicolas Michel, while more focused on Lebanon
than Cambodia, nevertheless answered questions about Cambodia. Ms.
O'Brien,
since being awarded the UN's top legal job, has rarely if ever been
available
to the media. She came to one press conference and left before taking
any
questions.
Two weeks ago, Inner City Press approached Ms.
O'Brien in the hallway of
the UN, after a ceremony in which she and two dozen other Under
Secretaries-General signed "accountability" compacts with Ban
Ki-moon. Inner City Press told Ms. O'Brien of recent instances of
corporations
publicly using and misusing the UN logo and name to promote their
business.
Previously, when Inner City Press had raised such cases to the UN
Office of
Legal Affairs, which Ms. O'Brien now heads, some actions had been
taken. Ms.
O'Brien instructed Inner City Press to proceed as it had in the past.
Inner City Press e-mailed to Ms. O'Brien, at her
UN-listed address, a
half-dozen examples of corporate use of the UN logo. Having no
response, Inner
City Press sent the examples again, on the eve of Tuesday's press
conference.
Still no response, until the terse statement that only Hariri Tribunal
questions
about be entertained, and no other Q&A opportunity was envisioned.
The UN is ostensibly a public
organization; in any event, Ms. O'Brien's salary is paid by taxpayers
all over
the world. While Ban's UN talks about accountability and transparency,
even its
top lawyer appears to resist or oppose both.
We will have more on this.
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
|
