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

UN's Envoy al-Khatib Has Attacked the Press, Commitment to Democracy Questioned

UNITED NATIONS, March 7 -- Faced with armed and unarmed struggles for democracy in North Africa and the Middle East, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week decided to name a UN envoy to the region.

 But sources close to Ban tell Inner City Press, shaking their heads, that democracy seemed the last thing in Ban's mind when he assembled his short list.

  Ban offered the post to Lakhdar Brahimi of Algeria, where the election of an Islamic party was simply annulled.

  Ban offered the post to Kemal Dervis, which the Ban administration sources say was ridiculous, given that Dervis is mostly an economist and academic, and given his record at the UN Development Program, reviewed below.

  Finally, as what the sources called a “fall back,” Ban gave the post to a former foreign minister of Jordan. According to Human Rights Watch's World Report 2008, this Jordanian

"Foreign Minister Abd al-Ilah al-Khatib in January initiated a criminal defamation suit against weekly newspaper al-Hilal's editor-in-chief Nasir Qamash and journalist Ahmad Salama. He [al-Khatib] objected to the content of a January article, and said his tribe had threatened to beat up Salama if he failed to take action. The case remains in the courts at this writing."

  Great...

  Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky, who did not allow a question at Monday's noon briefing about Libya from Inner City Press, instead telling another reported that "this will be the last question," said that al-Khatib will not be based in Libya. If he will not speak with the rebels, will Gaddafi speak with him, given Gaddafi's characterization of Jordan as a stooge of the US and Israel? So how was he selected?

  At Friday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked if Ban has had any contact with Libya's Ali Treki, now nominated by Gaddafi to be his new ambassador to the UN, since Treki left his post as President of the UN General Assembly. From the March 4 UN transcript:

Inner City Press: can you describe what, since Dr. Treki was the President of the General Assembly, since that time, the Secretary-General’s contacts, if any, with Mr. Treki?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I am not aware of anything particular. Obviously, within the context of Dr. Treki being the President of the General Assembly for the sixty-fourth session, they obviously interacted with him, he with him in that capacity. I am not aware of any specific interaction since then.

Inner City Press: Did he have any other UN system role since he left being the President of the General Assembly?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Not to my knowledge, but if colleagues have details, I am sure that they will correct me, but not to my knowledge. I think it is important to point out that this was a letter from the Libyan authorities, and naming Dr. Treki as the person they wish to have as the Permanent Representative.

Inner City Press: And what does this mean, what’s the next step in terms of the Secretariat? Does this go to the General Assembly or do you just automatically process and begin, and give Mr. Treki a pass?

Spokesperson: It doesn’t go to the General Assembly. As I think you know, recognition of countries is a matter for Member States. Libya is a recognized member of the United Nations, and it is in that context that, when any country sends a letter naming the Permanent Representative, that person is the person who will be recognized as the Permanent Representative. But that is a question of presenting credentials; the person comes to present credentials.

Inner City Press: One last thing on this, because I remember in the case of Côte d'Ivoire, the Secretary-General went and gave a speech; he said the General Assembly should take up the matter and take on the [Alassane] Ouattara people as opposed to the [Laurent] Gbagbo people.

Spokesperson Nesirky: That’s a very different matter; this is entirely different. This was, as you know very well, this was a question of new Government being recognized by Member States, by the Credentials Committee; it is entirely different. You can’t compare the two.

     Treki has yet to arrive in New York, and in fact may not any time soon to replace current Ambassadors Shalgam and Dabbashi, sources tell Inner City Press. We'll have more on this.

  Regarding Kemal Dervis, when he left the UN system in early 2009 Inner City Press wrote that his

"tenure was marked by a series of scandals in UNDP, from funding violent disarmament in Uganda anddiamond mining in Zimbabwe to procurement fraud cover-ups and financial irregularities in its North Korea program. Through it all, Dervis largely avoided the media, repeatedly telling Inner City Press that he refused to answer questions in the hallway of the UN, as even the Secretary General and his top officials do. He presided over retaliation, and then fought to keep UNDP exempt from the UN system's Ethics Office."

   So why did Ban offer Dervis the job, then turn as a fall back to a Jordanian minister who has threatened the press?

Footnote: on Dervis, all that said, Inner City Press has a semi-positive memory. On his way into the Secretariat building one blue-skied day, Dervis stopped and mused that, you only have so many mornings like this in your life, you have to enjoy them. We hope he does -- and that the next UNDP Administrator does a better job. At the UN noon briefing then, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson if he will at least commit to what his predecessor did, releasing a short list of candidates for the post. I don't know yet, the Spokesperson said then.
  
 And now, this secret fall-back process and this result.