On
Haitian
Rubble,
UN Ban's Estimate Is Amended Overnight, Downplaying
Cholera
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March
17, updated -- Bragging to Central American leaders about the
UN's performance in post-earthquake Haiti on March 16, Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon said that “by the end of this year we expect
roughly half the rubble is being reused, recycled or disposed of an
an increasing rate.”
At
least this is
what Ban's spokesperson's office e-mailed out to the Press at 6:56 pm
on March 16.
Eight
hours
later
at 3:10 am on March 17, Ban's office sent a new version of his
Guatemala City remarks, this time portraying Ban has having said only
that “The rubble is being reused, recycled or disposed of at an
increasing rate.”
Did
Ban's
expectation for “roughly half the rubble” change overnight? The
new version was labeled “amended,” as if Ban and his remarks were
a Constitution or draft resolution such as the one on Libya
Ban was
missing during his Central American foray.
Ban & his Libya envoy
al-Khatib in 2007: who's underestimating?
Earlier
on
March
16, Inner City Press had asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky for the
UN's response to criticism published that day in The Lancet, saying
that the UN had under-estimated Haitian cases of cholera by nearly
100%.
Both
are
just
estimates, Nesirky replied reading from notes. So what was wrong
about the estimate about “roughly half the rubble” that Ban
reportedly said in Guatemala City? Watch this site.
Update: on the UN's
panel on cholera in Haiti, and its causes, Inner City Press on March 16
asked Nesirky when the report will finally be ready, and if it will be
public. Late March or early April, he said, and yes. We'll see.
Ban in
another foray this year, to Los Angeles, did a "Facebook townhall
meeting" about Haiti with the band Linkin Park in which cholera in
Haiti and its causes were barely discussed.
In a recent
interview, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park explained the session: "we got
an email from the UN. They were asking if we wanted to do a meeting
wiht the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon."
With
Libya on fire, and Haiti under-estimated, who is Ban e-mailing now?
Update of March 18: When Inner City
Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky to explain the amended
transcript and, separately, the state the UN's expectation of when 50%
of the rubble would be addressed, Nesirky said he would deal with this
outside of the briefing room. After that, and not receiving an answer
from Nesirky by email or otherwise for 24 hours, Inner City Press asked
again at the March 18 noon briefing.
Nesirky said
it was an error by his office. When Inner City Press asked, without
regard to the unamended or pre-amendment Ban statement, when the UN
expects half the rubble to be addressed, Nesirky repeated that the
first statement was an error by his office. But what is the UN's expectation? Watch this
site.
* * *
UN
New
Libya
Envoy
Al Khatib Torn Between Politics & Aid, Too Big For
Photos, Wants Via Rome Not
Malta
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
March
11
-- As he prepares to go to Tripoli in the name of
the UN, Jordan's
former
foreign
minister, Senator and businessman
Abdul Alah Al Khatib is having his wings clipped and is rebelling
“like a prima donna,” a well placed source has told Inner City
Press.
Is
Al Khatib's
mandate political or humanitarian? Several UN Security
Council
members have stressed it should only be humanitarian.
But the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to want to
distance itself from Al Khatib's openly (if ill-thought out)
political mission, in an attempt to keep humanitarian and political
separate in a way they are being criticized for failing to do in, for
example, Somalia.
Secretary
General
Ban
Ki-moon,
who offered Al Khatib the post after it was rejected by
Lakhdar Brahimi and Kemal Dervis, and apparently without vetting Al
Khatib's outside business interests, has assigned staff of his
Department of Political Affairs to accompany Al Khatib on his trip to
Tripoli.
Perhaps
in
keeping
with
perks he gets as a board member of Jordan Cement and Jordan Ahli
Bank, Al Khatib in his brief visit to New York was “very demanding,
very high maintenance,” well placed UN sources tell Inner City
Press.
Two
examples
among many: to prepare for his trip, Al Khatib was supposed to go and
fill out paperwork and have his photograph taken for his UN Laissez
Passez passport. But Al Khatib thought he shouldn't have to go
through this menial process, and shouted at UN staff. There were
tears.
Also,
the
UN
by
default is supposed to chose the cheapest flights. To Tripoli, this
led to a booking through Malta. Al Khatib said this was unacceptable,
he wanted to go through Rome. And so it was undone and rebooked, at
extra expense.
At
the beginning
of the week, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman Martin Nesirky if Al Khatib would suspend his business
interests, including service as a director of Jordan Ahli Bank which,
along with Gaddafi's Libyan Central Bank, is a top 20 owner of Union
de Banques Arabes et Francaises.
Nesirky
said
that
“those
involved” would discussing that, presumably before al
Khatib was unveiled and confirmed on March 11.
Ban & Khatib on March 11, disclosures not shown (c) MRLee
But
at the UN noon
briefing on March 11, after a press
stakeout at which Nesirky's
deputy Farhan Haq did not allow this outstanding question to be put
to Al Khatib or Ban, Inner City Press asked Haq how and if Al
Khatib's outside business interests had been vetted before he was
given the post and sent to Tripoli.
Haq
insisted that
Al Khatib, like other UN envoys, will file a financial disclosure
with the UN -- one that the Ban administration allowed to remain
confidential, not available to the public.
Inner
City
Press
asked
if Al Khatib had at least filed this disclosure prior to being
given the post, so that the UN could assess if conflicts of interest
exist.
He
just got the
post, Haq answered, insisting again that Al Khatib will file in the
future.
Another
journalists
followed
up,
saying that conflicts of interest are serious.
Haq
said
dismissively that it was only something “he” -- presumably
meaning Inner City Press -- was raising. But the need to vet outside
hires' business interests is no small matter, as the Obama
Administration found out when it sent Frank Wisner, from a law firm
with interests in Egypt, as an envoy to Mubarak. (Weisner showed up
since that at the UN at the Richard Holbrooke memorial, as
exclusively reported on Twitter by Inner City Press.)
Haq
did not say
whether anyone at the UN had considered Al Khatib's possible
conflicts of interest before he was given the job. As Inner City
Press has reported, Ban first offered the post to Lakhdar Brahimi and
Kemal Dervis before settling on Al Khatib. Being the fall-back, are
conflicts of interest allowed? Watch this site.
From
the
UN's
transcription
of
its March 11 noon briefing:
Inner
City
Press:
On
Mr. Al-Khatib, earlier this week I had asked whether
his outside business interests in a Jordanian cement company, and in
the bank, that actually he is co-owner of another bank with the
Libyan Central Bank controlled by [Muammar al-] Qadhafi, whether
these will be suspended during his service for the UN as an envoy to
Libya. Is there an answer to that, given that he is [inaudible]…?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson
Haq:
No, not specifically to that. Just that he
is a senior official, and just as with other officials of that rank,
he would be required to fill out the standard financial disclosure. So,
he will go through the same financial disclosure process as
everyone else.
Inner
City
Press:
On
what time frame? Has he filled it out yet? Has OIOS
[Office of Internal Oversight Services]…?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson
Haq:
He was only just appointed, Matthew!
Inner
City
Press:
I
understand, but it seems to raise possible conflicts
of interest even as his service begins.
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson:
You
don’t file a financial disclosure the
minute you get appointed.
Inner
City
Press:
That’s
only the UN, that’s an official has to file a
form after the person is already named?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson:
If
there is any particular conflict regarding
Mr. Khatib, it would be incumbent on him to remove any particular
conflicts before he begins work. However, in any case, any conflicts
would be determined once he goes through the financial disclosure
process, which he has to do, just as with any other senior
appointment.
Question:
A
follow-up
on that, follow up? There will be conflict of interest
here. Someone going to Libya to mediate or work on the human rights
issues and then he has interests in the regime, within the regime, if
he is…
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson
Haq:
That’s not proven; that’s just based on
something that, a report that he is saying. No, no, like I said, if
there is anything that poses a conflict of interest, it would be
incumbent on him to remove that before he begins his work. He is
going through the same sort of vetting process as anyone else, which
includes of course, the financial disclosures. Yes?
No.
Watch
this
site.
, 
