In
Corrupt UN of Guterres UN
Volunteer Caught Stealing
Wallet in Kosovo With Impunity
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusives
I
II
III
UNITED NATIONS
GATE, March 2 – The corruption
in UN peacekeeper missions
under Antonio Guterres and his
team extends beyond impunity
for rapes and taking bribes as
in Cyprus and New York. Now
from Kosovo, this: "a UNV
UNMIK Staff was caught
stealing a wallet, with a
complicity of her husband in
Benetton shop in Pristina. The
theft was documented by the
camera installed inside the
shop and released to the press
and therefore available on
line - with an echo of similar
theft by UN personnel in
Cyprus. The perpetrator has
been charged by the Mission to
be the focal point for Youth,
regularly seated at Senior
Management Meetings every week
with Senior UN Staff members,
totally unusual for any UNV,
and attributed by
whistleblowing staff to
Guterres' self-seving bean
counting in an attempt for
himself to get a second term
at SG. The Mission is
run and totally manipulated by
a CMS, Ms. Sandi Arnold - and
now a woman caught on video
stealing and no actions
taken?" A fish rots from the
head. After Cyprus President Nicos
Anastasiades met with UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres on 22 March 2017
Inner City Press about one of
its Cyprus exclusives
(I
II
and III)
asked
UN spokesman Farhan Haq a
question at that day's UN noon
briefing (from which for its
questions it has now been
banned for 189 days). From the
22 March 2017 UN
transcript:
Inner City Press:
On UNFICYP [United Nations
Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus],
I wanted to ask… it's been
said from here that there… I
guess UNFICYP or people here
at Headquarters are looking at
two issues: one, the
Chief Financial Officer
becoming a Cypriot citizen,
seemingly in violation of the
status of for… status of
mission agreement; and also
the… the… the filmed stealing
of watches by UNFICYP
personnel. Particularly,
on the latter, where it seems
like it's on video, what's
actually been done since this
video emerged?
Deputy Spokesman: You've
heard what we've had to say
about both of those
questions. I don't have
anything further to say at
this point. Once there's
an update, we'll provide it.
Question: Is there a
timeline?
Deputy Spokesman: Once
we're done with the process,
we'll let you know. And
if that's it...
Haq never
sent any update to Inner City
Press - and in mid 2018 the
Office of the Spokesperson
Stephane Dujarric and Alison
Smale for Antonio Guterres had
Inner City Press roughed
up and banned
from the UN. But the
information continues to come
in, even if Dujarric refuses
to answer written questions
despite the promise
of Smale to UNSR David Kaye.
On 9 January 2019 Inner City
Press asked
Guterres, Smale, Haq and
Dujarric in writing: "January
9-2: On Cyprus, please
immediately state the status
of the complaints and cases,
which Inner City Press has
previous asked about including
before being roughed up and
banned from the UN 189 days
ago, against Chief Finance
Officer of UNFICYP Husein
Moussa who was reported to the
OIOS for illegally obtaining
the citizenship of the host
country (Cyprus) in violation
of the Status of Force
Agreement and was reported for
accepting a free VIP ticket to
a champions league football
match. On information and
belief a case with
number 661/16 was opened by
OIOS and it was redirected to
the Under-Secretary-General
for Field Support, Mr. Atul
Khare, to follow up and
investigate the allegations.
What has happened?
Please respond to criticism
that current UNFICYP’s SRSG
Ms. Spehar knows but looks the
other
way.
OIOS knows and twice (Case No
661/16 & Case No 395/17)
have initiated an
investigation process but then
somehow the cases came to a
standstill. What is the
status? What is the SG's
comment and action?"
Still now on 18
February 2019, no answers at
all, and this in the mail: "I
would like to thank you for
publishing last month the case
of the abuse of authority and
corruption by UNFICYP’s Chief
Finance Officer Mr. Mr. Husein
Moussa. I am guessing
based on your following
statement “Hours later, no
answers at all. So we publish
this, with more to follow:”
(http://www.innercitypress.com/cyprus62icpscoop011319.html)
that you will follow up your
publication by exposing the
full extent of the abuse of
authority and corruption that
took place in UNFICYP by Mr.
Moussa. The
abuse of authority and
corruption case of Mr. Moussa
is remarkable enough but what
is more astonishing is the
fact that after a number of
allegations to the OIOS,
providing indisputable
hardcopy evidence, with the
primary directly involved
witness confessing the wheels
and deals of Mr. Moussa, the
organization is choosing to
play dumb and freezes this
investigation. I can
only guess that the
organization is hoping that
Mr. Moussa will most likely
choose to retire this April at
the age of 62 (his normal
retirement age) and maybe it
is financially more beneficial
for the Organization to let
him get away with murder
rather than having to spend
thousands of dollars pursuing
this investigation in order to
discipline him by discharging
him for his acts of abuse of
authority and
corruption. But what if
Mr. Moussa chooses to continue
until he is 65 now that this
new retirement age has become
an option for him? (The
Organization has now changed
the mandatory retirement age
to 65) The question is
what is the level of
abuse/corruption one must
commit in order for the
Organization to finally take
action? What is this
Organizations’ tolerance level
for abuse of authority and
corruption?" The tolerance
level of Guterres for
corruption is high - he leads
the charge, with his cover up
for CEFC China Energy. We
published this, with more to
follow: "Hello Mr. Lee,
I would like to reveal and
share with you incidents that
prove the hypocritical
attitude of the UN when it
comes to taking action against
corruption and abuse in the UN
system. Back in December
of 2016, the Chief Finance
Officer of UNFICYP Mr. Husein
Moussa was reported to the
OIOS for illegally obtaining
the citizenship of the host
country (the Republic of
Cyprus) in direct violation of
the Status of Force Agreement
(SOFA) between the UN and the
Republic of Cyprus. In
addition, Mr. Moussa was
reported for accepting a free
VIP ticket to a champions
league football match. A case
with number 661/16 was opened
by OIOS and it was redirected
to the Under-Secretary-General
for Field Support, Mr. Atul
Khare, to follow up and
investigate the
allegations. More
specifically, the allegations
stated that: (see text in
red) Cypriot
Citizenship Mr. Moussa
has illegally obtained Cypriot
citizenship based on the years
of assignment in the United
Nations Peacekeeping Mission
in Cyprus (UNFICYP). Mr.
Moussa has been working in
UNFICYP since August of 2002.
On October 2012, Mr. Moussa
applied for naturalization to
the Cyprus Republic based on
the number of years he was
stationed in
Cyprus.
For a non-Cypriot
in order to be eligible to
apply for Cyprus Citizenship,
one of the methods is to
reside in Cyprus for over
seven years. Please note that
this is the method Mr. Moussa
used in order to apply for a
Cyprus
citizenship.
In this
connection, the SOFA
stipulates
that:
“ENTRY AND EXIT:
IDENTIFICATION 7.
Members of the Force shall be
exempt from passport and visa
regulations and immigration
inspection and restrictions on
entering or departing from
Cyprus. They shall also be
exempt from any regulations
governing the residence of
aliens in Cyprus, including
registration, but shall not be
considered as acquiring any
right to permanent residence
or domicile in Cyprus. For the
purpose of such entry or
departure members of the Force
will be required to have only
(a) an individual or
collective movement order
issued by the Commander or an
appropriate authority of the
Participating State; and (b) a
personal identity card issued
by the Commander under the
authority of the
Secretary-General, except in
the case of first entry, when
the personal military identity
card issued by the appropriate
authorities of the
Participating State will be
accepted in lieu of the said
Force identity
card.”
Mr. Moussa has used the time
(seven years) he acquired as a
member of the (peace-keeping)
force in order to apply for
the naturalization process.
This is a clear violation of
the force agreement signed by
the President of Republic of
Cyprus and the United
Nations.
Nevertheless, Mr.
Moussa succeeded in acquiring
the Cyprus citizenship on the
8th of December 2016 with the
following Cypriot
Identification number 1320612
and he has also acquired a
Cypriot
passport.
Accepting
gifts
In relation to
the VIP ticket, the United
Nations Ethics office webpage
says “Honours, Favours, Gifts
and
Remuneration
Accepting an honour,
decoration, favour, gift or
remuneration in connection
with official duties may give
rise to a real or potential
conflict of interest, as it
may be seen to create an
obligation. As a rule,
we cannot accept any honours,
favours or gifts from any
governmental sources. However,
when the rejection of a gift
would be seen as embarrassing
to the Organization, we may
accept it, but then hand the
item or award over to the
Secretary-General. Likewise,
we cannot receive honours,
gifts or benefits from
non-governmental sources
without prior approval.
Small gifts of a social or
customary nature from
non-governmental sources are
normally acceptable but must
be reported to the head of the
Office or Department. Even
after receiving approval, we
should be mindful not to
create an impression that a
personal benefit could
improperly influence our
professional decisions.”
Inner City Press has photos -
removed from Facebook after
Moussa was informed about the
allegations. The rules are
clear about receiving gifts
and what should a staff member
of the organization do in a
case like this. Mr. Moussa
proudly advertised that he
received a free gift, whose
actual value is more than
$120, for a Champion’s League
game in Nicosia between a
Cypriot team and a Danish team
in August 2016. His United
Nations ID number “ICV 1028”
is depicted on the ticket with
his name. There are
several questions to be asked
in regards to this gift
bearing in mind that that Mr.
Moussa is the Finance Section
Chief - handling a budget of
over $50,000,000. Who gave him
this gift and why? And the
main question is why he did
not report/return this gift to
the UNFICYP
Administration. It is
unclear what actions the
organization took in order to
discipline Mr. Moussa but it
would appear that he was not
found guilty of any violations
of the code of conduct for UN
employees.
In a 17 Jan 2018 NYHQ press
availability given by Mrs.
Elizabeth Spehar, SRSG and
Head of Mission of UNFICYP,
Inner City Press asked Ms.
Spehar about the status of the
investigation in regards to
the allegations against Mr.
Moussa and she replied that it
was still ongoing. To this day
it is unknown if this initial
investigation is still
ongoing. Video here
- Inner City Press has since
been roughed up and banned
from entering the UN by
Guterres, himself linked to
Gulbenkian Foundation's
attempted sale of its oil
company Partex Oil and Gas to
China Energy Fund Committee,
proved to have bribed in the
UN.
Inner City
Press follows up and will
follow up, even as Guterres to
try to cover up his own links
to China Energy Fund Committee
through Gulbenkian Foundation
bans it from entering the UN.
Inner City Press on 21
February 2017 asked
about the delay and the case
of the "Chief Financial
Officer of UNFICYP [United
Nations Peacekeeping Force in
Cyprus who] has been recently
granted citizenship of
Cyprus.... is there any policy
on host countries of
peacekeeping missions giving
citizenship to internationals
that are based there?"
UN Deputy
Spokesman Farhan Haq replied,
"I'm not aware of someone from
UNFICYP taking Cypriot
nationality, but I'll check on
that." Inner City Press
asked again. From the UN's
March 7 transcript:
Inner City Press;
on Cyprus, you’ve said that
there are two things… you or
Stéphane [Dujarric] had said
there are two things being
investigated by the UN system,
one being the chief financial
officer having become a
citizen of Cyprus in
contravention, some say, of
the Status of Forces Agreement
and also the stealing of
watches, the films… apparent
stealing of watches by UNFICYP
(United Nations Peacekeeping
Force in Cyprus)
peacekeepers. So I
wanted to know, since it…
apparently, the only way to
get it is to ask again, what
is the status of those two
investigations, particularly
the filming of peacekeepers
taking watches out of a watch
store? Has anything
actually occurred since then?
Deputy Spokesman:
No. I mean, the
mission’s investigating the
veracity of the allegations,
and it will take prompt and
appropriate action if UNFICYP
personnel have been found to
have committed any
wrongdoing. But that is…
that investigation is
proceeding. Regarding
the other case, the competent
UN offices are reviewing it to
confirm its compatibility with
applicable UN rules.
Inner City Press:
another question on
Cyprus. I know that
you'd said that the [Husein
Moussa] thing is somehow being
reviewed. There's now a
story and a video of UNFICYP
[United Nations Peacekeeping
Force in Cyprus] peacekeepers
stealing a watch on the
Turkish Cypriot side.
And they named the individuals
and that the article says that
there is a legal proceeding,
which I assume has to be a UN…
since they are UN
peacekeepers. Are you
aware of this incident?
Spokesman: Yeah, no, the
Mission is very much aware of
the report. They've
launched an investigation to
look at the veracity of the
allegations. And,
obviously, should this be
found to be true, they will
take prompt action against any
personnel to have found [to
have committed]
wrongdoing. We would
expect UN personnel, whether
it's Headquarters or in the
field, to act with the highest
level of standards and
conduct.
Inner City Press. There seems
to be a spate of allegations
currently about the
Mission. Do you think
the Mission is either worse
run than other missions or…
Why is this all happening now?
Spokesman: No. We have
no… I have no doubt about the
excellent administration of
the mission. As to
whether or not it's an
orchestrated campaign or why
it's happening now, that's
really not for me to
analyze.
Really. On
Febuary 26, five days after UN
lead spokesman Stephane
Dujarric on February 24 ran
out of the UN Press Briefing
Room as Inner City Press asked
about UN Peacekeeping (and the
lack
of UN due process for
journalists) and declined
written questions after
that, we have this exclusive
report.
The CFO of
UNFICYP is named Husein
Moussa. Complaints about his
have been lodged against him
since at latest May 2016 in
e-mails and attachments UN
Under Secretary Generals Atul
Khare, Jeffrey Feltman and
Herve Ladsous, among others.
Inner City Press is
exclusively publishing the
contents of a May 6, 2016
email leaked to it, here,
and a series of attachments
about Husein's Moussa's lack
of academic verification, here,
including in Annex 3 a 2014
"follow on the academic
verification for Mr. Moussa...
not yet cleared."
Beyond
violating the Status of Forces
Agreement between the UN and
Cyprus by obtaining Cypriot
citizenship, Moussa is charged
in the May 2016 email with
using UN vehicles after-hours
and a variety of other
irregularities: "Husein
Moussa, the Chief Finance and
Budget Officer, continuously
and freely used the UN owned
vehicle throughout his
assignment to UNFICYP, i.e.,
since 2002." (So much for Ban
Ki-moon's supposed mobility
policy.)
Also that
"Husein Moussa had mentioned
to a friend of his that the
information about his
university degree he had
provided in his PHP was not
true... If the brushing of
this case under the carpets
continues, I will refer the
details to the international
media for another UN scandal
they will publish with great
pleasure."
Now that
this has happened, and the
UN's two holdover spokesmen
have refused to provide basic
answers and even run out of
the briefing room and ignore
written questions, it has
become an issue in the Cyprus
talks, one of the few possibly
fruitful UN diplomatic efforts
in the past decade. Corruption
and scapegoating makes today's
UN even less able to be fit
for purpose.
On February 27,
Inner City Press again asked
the UN, video
here, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press:
on 21 February, I asked your
deputy about this case that's
reported in both Turkish
Cypriot and Cypriot side of
the Chief Financial Officer of
UNFICYP (United Nations
Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus)
becoming a Cypriot
citizen. So I wanted to
know, since I've heard nothing
back, do you have an
answer? And, two,
I've obtained or been… a
memorandum that, in fact,
these issues around Mr.
Hussein Mousa were raised to
Mr. [Atul] Khare and a variety
of Under-Secretaries-General
as far back as May 2016,
including an educational
problem. And so I'm
wondering, since this is now
supposedly a problem in the
talks, the Turkish Cypriot
side has raised it, what is
the answer on it?
Spokesman: I don't know
the individual involved, but I
know that UNFICYP is aware of
the case and the competent UN
offices are reviewing it, also
to confirm its compatibility
with applicable UN
rules. Once the review
is taken, then we'll take a
look at the situation.
From the UN's February 21,
2017 transcript:
Inner
City Press: I wanted to ask you
on Cyprus a general question and
then something very
specific. One is, where
does it stand on the
talks? As of at least the
last reporting, it may not
restart because of the request
by the Turkish Cypriots that the
Cyprus President denounce this
new law or get it
repealed. So, want just an
update on that. And the
other one has to do with it's a
very specific story in the press
there that the Chief Financial
Officer of UNFICYP [United
Nations Peacekeeping Force in
Cyprus] has been recently
granted citizenship of
Cyprus. And so the Turkish
Cypriot side finds that strange
and says, I guess he's an
international civil servant but
what explains, is there any
policy on… on host countries of
peacekeeping missions giving
citizenship to internationals
that are based there?
Thanks.
Deputy Spokesman: Well,
I'd have to check about
that. I'm not aware of
someone taking… from UNFICYP
taking Cypriot nationality, but
I'll check on that.
Regarding your initial question,
our envoy, Espen Barth Eide, did
meet with the parties late last
week to continue discussions in
terms of finding a way to bring
them back together for
talks. We don't have any
new date for talks between the
leaders to announce at this
point.
Then no answers, UN spokesman
Stephane Dujarric running out of
the briefing room amid Inner
City Press questions and refusing
its written questions
since, while first continuing
the restrictions
on Inner City Press'
journalistic access at the UN
imposed in early 2016 then
having Inner City Press roughed
up and banned. Today's UN is
corrupt.
***
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