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UN Terror Confab Has Only 3
Funders, Spain Wants Security Job Beyond UNIFEM and Base
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, August 18, updated August 19
-- That
the UN wants to give voice to the victims of terrorism is surely a good
thing.
But why limit the funders of such an initiative to only three of 192
countries?
At Monday's UN noon briefing, Inner
City Press asked
Inner
City Press: there is this upcoming symposium on supporting victims of
terrorism
in September. And it seems like it says
that there are three Member States who contributed money to it -- the
UK, Spain
and Colombia. There have been some
questions about if it's the UN Secretariat that solicited the funds for
the
event, were all Member States solicited? How
was it chosen who, which countries to approach
for funds for this UN
event?
Associate
Spokesperson Haq: I don't have any
information on that. As far as I am
aware, the arrangements for this, including the financing of this event
are
still being determined. So, some of this
still is in process.
Inner
City Press: On 7 August there were
invitations that went out to Member States to attend the thing and it
lists
those three countries as the ones providing. So,
some countries said why they were never asked
for funds. So, can you find out whether
all countries
were asked for funds and, if not, why not?
Associate
Spokesperson Haq: Yes, I'll check up on
that.
[The
Associate Spokesperson later added that the Government of Colombia,
Spain and
the United Kingdom had provided voluntary contributions to bring 25 to
30
victims of terrorism, experts and civil society representatives to the
symposium.]
All the Spokesperson's Office did was forward
to
Inner City Press, and
then put into the transcript, the lines from their August 7 memo about
the
terror meeting. But in neither forward did they answer the question
asked: were
countries other than Spain, the UK and Colombia asked for funding, and
if not,
why not? Inner City Press sent this question to the event's closing
speaking,
American Robert Orr, but did not receive any response. If and when one
is
received it will be reported on this site. In following-up our last
Valencia
base story, Spain's Ambassador to the UN Juan Antonio
Yanez-Barnuevo told Inner City Press outside the
Security Council that from his point of view, all the base is lacking
is the
"blessing" of the UN General Assembly. Here, we call it
"approval," the thing that was lacking at the time of the ill-fated
photo-op in Valencia...
Ban Ki-moon with Spain's Vice President,
Foreign Minister and Perm Rep, job offers not shown
The public record reflects Spain's
increasing funding to, and demands on, the UN, under President
Zapatero. Spain
acknowledged seeing a connection between its $700 million payment to
the UN
system and a proposed peacekeeping logistics base slated for Valencia,
along with being awarded the
top job at UNIFEM, the UN agency for women. This
anti-terror funding, sources say, is part
of Spain's campaign to try to gain an ever higher UN job, the post of
Under
Secretary General for Safety and Security. When Ban Ki-moon was
recently in
Mexico City for the UN conference on AIDS, he was quoted in the Spanish
press
as encouraging the Zapatero administration to submit a nomination,
since Spain
had been a victim of terrorism. Now comes this funding -- can the job
be far
behind?
Update of August 19: the next day, the following was received:
Subj: Re:
question at noon: symposium of victims of terrorism - thnks, but were
other
member states asked to contribute? etc
Date:
8/19/2008
6:33:50 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
From: [Office of] Robert Orr @un.org
To: Inner City
Press
CC: [Office of the Spokesperson] @un.org
Dear Mr.
Lee,
Mr.
Robert Orr
is currently out of the office. After
verifying in this office, I see that your email contained no question
to Mr.
Orr but rather a transcript of your query to the Spokesperson's office.
I
therefore do not think it is correct to state that Inner City Press did
not
receive a response from Mr. Orr, since no query was directed at him.
To
respond to
your question to the Spokesperson, this is to confirm that all 192
Member
States have been repeatedly briefed on the activities of the
Counter-Terrorism
Implementation Task Force and its working groups, including on the
voluntary
funding needed to support the activities of the Task Force and the
working
groups. All activities of the Task Force and its working groups,
including the
working group on Supporting and Highlighting Victims of Terrorism, are
posted
online.
As of
this
time, three countries have come forward to support the Symposium on
Supporting
Victims of Terrorism. Contributions from other Member States to support
this
and other UN efforts in the fight against terrorism are most welcome.
Regards,
Silva
Bonacito
Special
Assistant to Mr. Orr
Since the
second request to the Spokesperson's office was separately sent to Mr.
Orr, that a second opportunity to state whether other countries had
been asked to contribute to the victims of terrorism event seemed
clear. But the question has still not been directly answered: was for
example the United States asked to fund this event, but said no? Unless
countries were asked to fund the event, how did the three countries --
Spain, Colombia and the UK (read ETA and Al Qaeda, FARC and
paramilitaries, and Al Qaeda, IRA and now even the Taliban) -- know to
give money? To be continued.
Watch
this
site. And this (on
South Ossetia), and
this --
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