Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

In Pakistan, UN Plays Politics with Children and Armed Conflict, Soft on Human Rights

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 8 -- In Pakistan, where the UN has positioned itself as a friend of government, careful not to comment on human rights but rather build government's capacity, the UN is also underplaying the problem of children and armed conflict.

That the Taliban recruit, and in cases abduct or buy, children as fighters or even suicide bombers or assassins is well known. But Pakistan is not on the UN's list of countries with children in armed conflict. Why not?

The UN has played along with Pakistan's fiction that there is no armed conflict inside its borders, despite massive army sweeps through the tribal areas, displacing millions. Whereas elsewhere it is called a Post Conflict Needs Assessment, in Pakistan the UN helpfully calls it a Post Crisis Needs Assessment.

Linguistic gymnastics are one thing. But to fail to act on children and armed conflict to placate a government is something else, particularly when there are double standards. As Inner City Press has previously reported, Colombia disputes being listed in Annex II of the UN's Report on Children and Armed Conflict.

Inner City Press has sought an explanation about Colombia, and now about Pakistan, from the head of that office, without receiving a substantive response.

At the UN noon briefing on July 8, Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: many people are saying that in Pakistan there are many children either adopted or used by the Taliban and even some local pro-Government militias. But it’s not on Annex II of the Secretary-General’s report on children and armed conflict. I’m wondering, does putting a country on that agenda, on that annex — Colombia is on it, the Philippines is on it, Sri Lanka is on it — does it require the consent of the Government or does the Secretary-General and Ms. [Radhika] Coomaraswamy determine that children are being recruited and put them on?

Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq: I believe that’s a determination that’s made by Radhika Coomaraswamy in her role as the Special Representative dealing with that topic.

Inner City Press: And she is free to put a country on without its consent?

Associate Spokesperson: I believe it’s her determination how to do it.

Inner City Press: Does the Secretary-General think that Pakistan should be on the list given the UN’s own knowledge of children and armed conflict?

Associate Spokesperson: The views of the Special Representative, Radhika Coomaraswamy, are the ones that count for this.

And so later on Thursday, Inner City Press sent Ms. Coomaraswamy written questions, as it has done in the past. But this time, her answers were curt and non-substantive. Why?

UN's Ban and Zardari, protection of children in armed conflict not shown

The questions:

...there are definite children and armed conflict issues in Pakistan, among the Taliban and also some local, quasi-governmental militias... I ask you for comment:

do you agree these issues exist in Pakistan?

why didn't Pakistan on Annex 2?

are you thinking of putting Pakistan on Annex 2?

Separately, what do you make of Colombia's opposition to your Office seeking an action plan with the FARC [and to] a statement you made in Mexico recently, about Colombia-- What's your response?

...your thoughts on the events at UN House in Colombo, led by government minister Wimal Weerawansa and supported from higher up.

There were no substantive answers, except a notation that Colombia's complaint involves a question raised in Geneva. But what of Pakistan? If we ever get answers to these questions we will report them. Watch this site.

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On Child Soldiers Supported by UN in Somalia, UNSC Will Respond After 3 Years

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 16, updated -- Days after the UN-supported Somali Transitional Federal Government's use of child soldiers was widely exposed, the UN Security Council's lack of seriousness on the issue was on display on Wednesday. Mexican foreign minister Patricia Espinosa presided over a day-long series of speeches about children and armed conflict. At noon, Inner City Press asked her what she and the Council would do about their support of the TFG, which uses children as young as nine and 12 to wield AK-47s in Mogadishu.

This has not been raised to the Security Council, Secretary Espinosa replied, not even to the Working Group. Video here.

But minutes later, when Inner City Press asked the UN's envoy on the issue Radhika Coomaraswamy how the TFG's use of child soldiers could have been missed, she protected that the Council had in fact been told of the TFG's recruitment in three straight years' reports.

Later, at the end of the Council's debate after 7 p.m., a Mexican mission official confirmed that yes, the Somali TFG has been formally listed for the past three years. The most senior Mexican mission official shrugged* that the minister had been mis-informed. [See update below, on both the shrug and the information.]

The expose of the TFG's use of child soldiers was on the front page of the New York Times days before the UN's day long "debate." The representative of a Permanent Five member of the Council told Inner City Press that the NYT story had triggered inquiries to the capital(s), and statements ready for the press. How could the month's Council presidency, with children and armed conflict as their chosen thematic issue, be so unprepared?

Update: It has been explained to Inner City Press that what Secretary Espinosa was referring to was an upcoming Working Group session in September. Our point remains the same: something is wrong with the Security Council when pressing issues, involving as this one does the Council's own integrity, get confined to slow bureaucratic processes.

But that is hardly this month's Presidency's fault. And the senior -- senor -- diplomat, it's worth nothing, undertook a thankless trip to Eritrea and other hotspots, in the name of Somali sanctions. The shrug* was not disinterest but fatigue after a full day of speeches. We will continue to follow this issue.

UNICEF's Johnson, Ms. Coomaraswamy, UN action on TFG not shown

Inner City Press asked Secretary Espinosa if this didn't show that the Council is too bound in bureaucracy to deal with egregious behavior in the peacekeeping or political missions it creates, from Somalia to the Congo to Haiti. These are the mechanisms, she replied. Indeed.

Ms. Johnson said that UN Envoy to Somalia Ould Abdallah had been told, UNDP had been told. Why did Ould Abdallah say or do nothing? Why did UNDP keep training? Watch this site.

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Child Soldiers in Somalia Unaddressed in Security Council Speeches, Conflict of Interest

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 16 -- As the UN Security Council debates one of its favorite topics, Children and Armed Conflict, it has a conflict of interest. Since 2006 it has supported, some say propped up, the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia. Now what was long known has been more publicly exposed, that at least 20% of the TFG's soldiers are underage, some below ten years old.

On June 15 Inner City Press asked Council President for June Claude Heller of Mexico what the Council would do about the report. There is a debate tomorrow, Heller said on camera. Later, emerging from consultations in the Council chamber with, among others, delegates of Ivory Coast and Georgia, Heller said that something would be said on the topic on Wednesday.

Mexico's foreign minister Patricia Espinosa Cantellano is in New York for the debate, slated to speak to the Press at 11:30. But not on this topic, Inner City Press is told. What then could she be asked? If the underaged members of drug gangs like La Familia in Michoacan should be considered children in armed conflict?

UN's Ban and Sec't Espinosa, 2009, support for TFG and its child soldiers not shown

But here's from Secretary Espinosa's statement:

"Mexico call upon the Security Council, within the limits of its mandate, to continue being vigilant of the repercussions that armed conflicts have on children, and to promote concrete actions to fulfill the recommendations emanating from the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. We defend the interests of children and consider that, as a community, we must enhance our efforts to give a wide and effective protection to children. Crimes against children cannot be stopped if perpetrators remain unpunished."

What about enablers in the recruitment of child soldiers, like the UN Political Office on Somalia, UNDP and... the UN Security Council? We will be asking. Sixty countries are coming to speechify. Watch this site.

Update of 10:38 a.m. -- After Susan Rice strode in at 10:11, the meeting and speeches started. Another P5 member's spokesperson said they're aware of the TFG Somalia expose, but "it hasn't come up, there's been no reason for it to come up." And in today's debate on children and armed conflict? "Let's see," the spokesperson says. Yeah, let's.

Update of 10:41 a.m. -- it emerges in the Security Council "quiet room" people, including Ambassadors, are watching the Spain - Switzerland game instead of listening to the speeches on children and armed conflict.

Update of 11:37 a.m. -- US Amb. Susan Rice briefly mentions Somalia, calling on "all parties" to stop recruiting child soldiers. What about the "party" the US is funding, the TFG? Not enough specifics. She also mentions DRCongo, the Lord's Resistance Army and the Central African Republic. Answers on Somalia, and on US safeguards, are needed. But here comes Sec't Espinosa.

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While US Denies Paying Child Soldiers of Somali TFG, Safeguards and UN Role Not Clear

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 15 -- Since the Transitional Federal Government was installed in Somalia, it has been known that it controlled its small turf by using child soldiers. The US provided salaries, the UN system provided training.

But as Mexico's Ambassador to the UN Claude Heller told Inner City Press on June 15, when a 12 year old with an enormous AK 47 is on the front page of the New York Times, what had been accepted changes. See video here.

Heller is the president of UN Security Council for June, and will chair a meeting on June 16 on children and armed conflict. After Inner City Press asked him about the TFG, Heller replied off camera that the issue will be raised on June 16.

In the interim, Inner City Press asked but the UN and US diplomats about the issues. Carolyn Vadino, a spokesperson at the US Mission to the UN, told Inner City Press that

"The United States is firmly against the use of child soldiers by all sides in any conflict. U.S. assistance provides salary support to TFG security forces. Prior to making payments to any individual member of these forces we take appropriate steps to verify the ages of such individuals to ensure that we are not funding salaries of anyone under the age of 18."

How in a war-torn environmental like Mogadishu the US claims full control over the payments to individual soldiers is not known. Another US official, speaking only on background, referred to safeguards in "the Leahy amendment." Clearly, there are more questions to be asked and answered.

Lovefest with TFG, May 2010, UN's Ban, Kouchner, Turks, child soldiers not shown

At the June 15 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq:

Inner City Press: on Somalia, there is this report of the use by the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of child soldiers, and this includes quotes from the UN saying that they’re aware of it. Since the UN provides training and some funding for the TFG forces, the UN system does, I’m wondering what safeguards are in place that the UN itself has not been either training or funding or otherwise involved in the use of child soldiers by the TFG?

Associate Spokesperson Haq: Certainly the United Nations does not approve of the use of child soldiers anywhere, and we would not encourage any of that in its operations. If I have any further information on the specifics of that, I’ll let you know. But certainly, among other things, tomorrow, we will have as one of the guests at the noon briefing, Radhika Coomaraswamy, who deals with this issue and you can certainly ask that of her as well.

We'll be there: watch this site.

Footnote: In the UN's North Lawn building on June 14, Inner City Press was approached by two Somali woman, in from Minneapolis for a conference on the Millennium Development Goals. The women asked how to arrange a meeting with new envoy Augustine Mahiga, to tell him of Somalia's plight before he takes up his post in Nairobi. They spoke of the lack of opportunity for children in Mogadishu. But these are not voices that will be heard in Wednesday's Security Council session. But afterward and on the sidelines, there will be questions - perhaps even answers.

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

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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