Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

At UNDP, Carlos Slim Praises Competition After $1B Antitrust Fine, As With Bill Gates, UN Likes Monopolists

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 6 -- Fresh off a $1 billion fine for monopolization in Mexico, Carlos Slim Helu appeared Friday with the UN Development Program talking about economic development in Latin America.

Inner City Press asked Slim about the case, and the place of antitrust law and competition in economic development. Slim cut the question off and launched into an underdog story, of having taken on AT&T, MCI / Worldcom, Verizon.

Yes, he acknowledged, there are places where his company comtrols 100% of the market. He said this could be attributed to who had the better and more extensive network.

Many who attended his press conference at UNDP wondered why Carlos Slim would come to the UN at this time. But this is not his first or only connection. Already, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named him to a climate change advisory panel.

Mexico and climate change seem to together in the eyes of the UN system. As Inner City Press exclusively reported, the Latin American head of state left unnamed by UN Environment Program in the run up to its “Champions of the Environmental” award ceremony on May 10 is president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa.

After Inner City Press fruitlessly asked Slim about the case and $1 billion antitrust fine, a UNDP staff came over and pointed out that Bill Gates was charged with similar monopolization. It occurs that the UN has a thing for monopolists. Inner City Press raised the same questions about Gates, for example when an Under Secretary General's brother held an event at the UN as “Microsoft's Ambassador to Africa.”

Friday's press conference, held in connection with the Fourth Ministerial Forum on Development in Latin America, was supposed to include Viviana Caro, Minister of Development Planning of Bolivia -- but did not.

Alongside Carlos Slim was Angelino Garzón, Vice President of Colombia, who jumped in to say that monopolies must be opposed by governments. One wanted to ask, by $1 billion fines? But the press conference was over.

Serving as moderator was UNDP's chief for Latin America Heraldo Munoz. Before going to UNDP he as Chile's Permanent Representative to the UN, and chaired a UN inquiry into the murder of Benazir Bhutto. When the report was released, he held a press conference, something that has not been done by the more recent UN panels on Sri Lanka war crimes and then cholera in Haiti. And so it goes at the UN.

* * *

UNDP Now Defers Programs in Yemen & Bahrain, Won't Provide Copies

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 2 -- On Saturday April 30, the UN Development Program announced it was postponing the presentation of its program for Syria to its Executive Board's June meeting, due to the crisis there.

Inner City Press immediately on April 30 asked UNDP, and published a piece questioning, why UNDP was not similarly postponing programs still on the June agenda for Yemen and Bahrain.

Two days later, UNDP has responded to Inner City Press that the programs in Yemen and Bahrain are also being deferred:

From: Sausan Ghosheh [at] undp.org
Date: Mon, May 2, 2011 at 11:50 AM
Subject: RE: Press Qs on deadline re Bahrain, Yemen, etc
To: Matthew Lee [at] InnerCityPress.com

Hi Matthew, As per your questions below:

UNDP reviews content and submission schedules of country programme documents in the context of development priorities in each country. UNDP has taken the decision to defer the submission of its upcoming five year programme documents for Yemen and Bahrain to the Executive Board pending further review. This is to ensure that the new programmes address the evolving development needs of the people of both countries.

Inner City Press had asked for copy of the program documents, which unlike for other countries were not put on the UNDP website. This and other questions remain pending.

UN's Ban and Yemen's Saleh, UNDP's Amat Al Alim Alsoswa not shown

But one Inner City Press question, about seeming conflict of interest, was answered. Inner City Press asked:

On Yemen, please state whether former Saleh minister Ms. Amat Al Alim Alsoswa has recused herself from consideration of Yemen programs Please also state, on deadline, whether Ms. Amat Al Alim Alsoswa or any family member would be covered by the immunity deal negotiated between Saleh and the Gulf Cooperation Council Please provide copies of the program documents for Yemen, Bahrain and the Syria documents, on deadline.

And UNDP answered:

UN staff are all international civil servants who act in accordance with the United Nations’ standards and norms. Ms. Amat Al Alim Alsoswa assumed her post as Assistant Secretary General and Director of the Regional Bureau of Arab State in 2006 after leaving her official functions with the Government of Yemen. Ms. Alsoswa is not part of any political discussion or agreement taking place in or on Yemen.

But how does one head up Arab States for UNDP without taking part in discussions on Yemen? Watch this site.

* * *

Under Gadhafi, UNDP has Praised Libya on MDGs & UN Women, Contra Ban

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 22 -- As questions mount about the UN's coddling of dictators in the Middle East and North Africa, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his spokesman have claimed that the UN, through the UN Development Program and its Human Development Report, have been criticizing the region's lack of democracy for years. Click here for UN's February 17 answer to Inner City Press.

But the UN system's coordinator for Libya, UNDP official Costanza Farina, has in fact been praising Gadhafi's regime. She has said, “''Libya has made immense progress and is well positioned among the countries that will be able to say that they have reached 8 of the Millennium Objectives in 2015.” And click here, 2010 "UNIC Tripoli organizes Reception at UN House in celebration of UN Day."

She has also praised Gadhafi on women's rights, as Libya is on the board of UN Women:

“the UN chief for Libya, Costanza Farina, said that the fight against violence against women was one of the priorities of the agencies operating in the country and announced that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), thanks to a contribution from the Dutch embassy in Tripoli, would be able to support the programme financially. Farina added that Libya is one of the 41 members elected to the executive committee of the new UN Women agency, which was created on July 2 to show the desire of governments to respect women. Farina also said that "Libya confirmed the equality in rights between men and women in 1969.”

Maybe she is unaware, as “local UN officials said, the new coordinator of the UN in Libya, Costanza Farina, credited only last June 1, is located in Geneva.”

As of February 22, UNDP Libya had a blank press release page.

On February 17, Inner City Press had asked Nesirky

Inner City Press: Is there any thought of using the existing UN programs on the ground, whether it is UNDP or otherwise? There was some criticism of this training of police in Egypt prior to the — there was criticism by NGOs that it didn’t bring in human rights activists but rather Government people. Is there some thinking of how — the UNDP website about Libya hasn’t been updated now in several months, I guess — it seems to some, due to the turmoil. What about these UN…?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Who might that be? Who is it, these people who think it might be?

Inner City Press: People that look at it and have seen that it was updated all the way, until suddenly there was turmoil in the country and then it is not updated any more. What’s the role, according to the Secretary-General, of the existing UN programmes in countries like Libya and Yemen, where Helen Clark visited and didn’t say anything about democracy?

UN's Ban & Gadhafi, MDG and woman's right praise not shown- erased?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, there are lots of, as you know, across the region, there is a UN presence in different constellations; country teams with different components, whether it is UNDP or other UN agencies, funds and programmes. Of course, given that they are already on the ground, given that they have been working there in different capacities on different projects, they are well placed to be further involved. But this is part of a bigger picture, and it is being very carefully coordinated.

Inner City Press: Is there any change of policy? I guess I am saying, given that the announcement today that the UN is sort of taking cognizance of all this, is there, is that…?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, Matthew, it’s hardly an announcement today. This is something that has been said consistently for a number of weeks now. And indeed, further back, as you know, the Human Development Reports on the Arab world have been saying this for the best part of a decade. So, okay, thank you very much.

What have the UN and UNDP been saying about Gadhafi, other than praising MDG achievements and women's rights in Libya? Watch this site.

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.

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