As Ban
Signs
Compacts,
Ladsous Won't
Disclose,
Others Open on
FSA & CAR
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 13 --
When UN
Secretary
General
performed the
annual
ritual signing
of the
Compacts
with his Under
Secretaries
General on
February 13
amid the snow,
three USGs
were not
present
either in
person or on
video:
Angela Kane,
Joan Clos of
HABITAT, and
Jeffrey
Feltman.
Given the
recently leaked
audio of US
official
Victoria
Nuland
recounting how
Feltman "got"
Ban to sent
Robert Serry
to Ukraine,
it seems worth
asking with
all due
respect:
where is he?
Those
present posed
for a group
photograph,
tweeted here
by Inner City
Press, and
then came up
one by one to
sign their
Compacts and
shake hands
with Ban and
his deputy,
Jan
Eliasson. For
the first
signer, former
Egyptian
Permanent
Representative
and now
Special
Adviser on
Africa Maged
Abdelaziz, Ban
didn't stand
up, so the
handshake was
repeated at
the end.
Ban,
introduced by
his chief of
staff Susana
Malcorra, made
much of
transparency,
of making all
this available
through the
press to the
public. But a
quick review
of Ban's
"financial
disclosure"
web site
finds, for
example, that
Under
Secretary
General for
Peacekeeping
Operations Herve
Ladsous has
refused to
make any
public
financial
disclosure,
stating
that "in
accordance
with General
Assembly
Resolution
A/RES/60/238,
I have chosen
to maintain
the
confidentiality
of the
information
disclosed in
my financial
disclosure
statement."
Ladsous
also
refuses to
answer Press
questions,
most recently
on what the UN
position is on
Ugandan troops
remaining in
South Sudan,
and before
that about the
mass rapes in
Minova by the
UN's partners
in the
Congolese
Army. Video
compilation
here; UK
coverage here.
Ban's
Children and
Armed Conflict
envoy Leila
Zerrougui was
there; by
contrast, her
Office made
the inconvenient
report that
the Free
Syrian Army
recruits and
uses child
soldiers,
and she has
offered the
Press an
interview
about it. Also
there, on
screen from
Geneva, was
Navi "Half
Term" Pillay
who had the
honesty to
report on
January 20
that the
French
decision to
first disarm
the ex Seleka
in
Central
African
Republic put
Muslim
communities at
risk.
The
UN should be
open, and
questions as
with Feltman
about a former
diplomat's
connection
with his or
her country
cannot be off
limits or
considered
"insinuation."
Amazingly,
though,
when Ban this
week did a
question and
answer session
with 15
mostly Gulf
and Western
correspondents,
afterward
no tape or
transcript was
provided,
despite a formal
request
from the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
which is
focused on
opening up the
UN to the
press and
public. And it
was confirmed
that none of
the 15 even
asked
about Feltman,
Ukraine and
the Nuland
leak. How
not?
Carman
Lapointe of
the Office of
Oversight
Services was
there, even
though
the
Secretariat
says it can't
speak for her
of OIOIS, even
refusing
yet to say if
OIOS is
appealing the
UN Dispute
Tribunal
decision
which recounts
that Michael
Dudley of OIOS
investigations
acknowledged
altering
evidence
after Inner
City Press uncovered the
distribution
of Valium by
UN Medical
Service
personnel with
no New
York State
licensed.
Is there
immunity for
that?
Has
the UN
received
and accepted
process of the
legal papers
for bringing
cholera to
Haiti? This
was asked at
the February
13 noon
briefing. It
will be a
litmus test
for
accountability,
and for
transparency.
Watch this
site.
, 
