At the UN, from Casamance to Transdniestria, Kosovans to Lezgines, Micro-States as Powerful's Playthings

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 25 -- Because they are so often forgotten, today's report is micro-states. The thread ran through UN Headquarters on Friday, from noon briefing to stakeout to UNCA Club upstairs. Kofi Annan's spokesman on his way to the podium stopped to tell Inner City Press not to ask certain questions. Some involved the housing subsidy story below, one involved the Casamance region of Senegal, where fighting is raging and refugees flee. 

   Thursday Inner City Press had asked who in the UN, other than the refugee agency UNHCR, was addressing Casamance. Friday the spokesman whispered, "On Casamance I don't have anything more than when UNHCR has said." So instead Inner City Press asked about a seminal micro-state, Kosovo. At a press conference hours earlier in Pristina, the UN's mediator Martii Ahtisaari had announced that no package will be put before the Security Council in September. Inner City Press asked, but what of the postponed municipal elections? Video here, at Minute 29.

            The spokesman's office arranged a conference call to UNMIK in Pristina, where the acting press chief said no elections can be held in the winter anyway. The OSCE, he said, estimates that to schedule elections takes at least six months. So much for local democracy, even in areas run by the UN.  Kofi Annan's incoming envoy to Kosovo should have a better answer. We'll see. Other data the spokesman belated provided on Friday is being analyzed.

            The micro-states theory is that if Kosovo becomes fully independent, the same will happen -- or be called for by Russia -- in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in Transdniestria and even Ajara in Georgia. From this list we can drill down even keeper. Inner City Press asked Kazakh Ambassador Yerzhan Kazykhanov about a civil disturbance earlier in the week in Aktau on the Caspian coast, involving attacks on immigrants from the striving micro-state of Chechnya, on Azeris and the little-known Lezgines, who come from Dagestan.

   "There are many groups," the Kazakh Ambassador said, adding that his recent flight from Almaty to Aqtobe took nearly four hours. On the map he pointed at Oral and noted that World War II passed through. In his prepared remarks, Kazakhstan's Ambassador stressed, not without reason, that the "closure of the Semipalatinsk testing site was one of the most significant events in the field of nuclear disarmament." Asked about Kazakhstan's joint anti-terror operations with China in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, like Chechnya another potential micro-state blocked by one of the Permanent Five on the UN Security Council, the Kazakh Ambassador assured that the fighting of terror has nothing to do with refugees. We'll see.

Slovakian limbo per UNHCR

            But back to the micro-state of Casamance, which was part of what's now Guinea-Bissau until France took it. The civil strife dates back at least to 1982, and yet the UN and Security Council do nothing about it. At a stakeout interview on Friday afternoon, Inner City Press asked the Council's president Nana Effah-Apenteng if Casamance is on his radar.  No, the Ghanaian Ambassador replied. "Maybe you are more up-to-date on this issue than I am." Video here, at Minute 8:47.  A well placed source upstairs at the UN noted that Senegal keeps it quiet. As Chechnya is to Russia, in a sense, Casamance is to Senegal. Ah, the micro-states...

At deadline in Conference Room 3 in the basement, the disability rights convention was being endlessly discussed. Ten days ago the chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Convention, Don MacKay, said that if current efforts to block the creation of a treaty monitoring body are successful, the Convention may well not be enacted. "And that would be shabby treatment," Mr. MacKay said, citing a long history of societies' discrimination against the disabled.

 Click here for video and here for the text of the draft Convention.

            Inner City Press asked if the United States is among the countries opposing any monitoring of countries' performance under the Convention, similar to the approach the U.S. took in derailing the Small Arms meeting at the UN earlier this year. Mr. MacKay acknowledged that the U.S. is among six or seven countries raising such concerns, but stated that the U.S. position does not seem "doctrinal" or doctrinaire.

    The afternoon the conference would wrap up, the UN briefer Thomas Schindlmayr resisted naming the countries opposed for example to the reference to countries' occupation. One journalist loudly left the room. Later this list became clear, including the U.S., Australia, Israel. And at 7:52 p.m., amid applause, the report was adopted.

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Inquiry Into Housing Subsidies Contrary to UN Charter Goes Ignored for 8 Weeks, As Head UN Peacekeeper Does Not Respond

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 24 (updated Aug. 25, 5 pm) -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has let eight weeks pass without responding to a request for information about senior UN officials receiving housing subsidies from their country of nationality, it emerged on Thursday.  Former Deputy Secretary Louise Frechette was asked if she received such subsidies and said no, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Despite a specific request from Inner City Press at 5 p.m. Thursday for a similar response from Jean-Marie Guehenno, the head of UN peacekeeping, five hours later by 10 p.m. deadline no response was received. Deputy UN peacekeeping spokesman Hernan Vales said that since Mr. Guehenno is out of the country, no response will be possible until next week.

            High-placed sources within UN Headquarters showed Inner City Press a copy of a letter from U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton, dated June 27, 2006, to Secretary-General. Kofi Annan. The letter asked Mr. Annan for information about UN officials who receive housing subsidies from their countries of nationality in contravention of their duties, under Article 100.1 of the UN Charter, to "refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization" of the UN.

            One week ago, Inner City Press asked the deputy spokesman of the U.S. Mission, Benjamin Chang, if any response to the letter, whose existence had yet to be publicly disclosed, had been received. Inner City Press also asked if the U.S. Mission was aware if the Secretary-General has filed his required financial disclosure.  While the latter question has yet to be answered, Mr. Chang stated that while he was unaware of Ambassador Bolton's letter he would check.

            Late on the afternoon of August 24, the lead spokesman of the U.S. Mission Richard A. Grenell called Inner City Press offering to fax a copy of John Bolton's letter. His office told Inner City Press that no response has been received, eight weeks after the letter was sent to Kofi Annan.

            Inner City Press then immediately provided a copy of the letter to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, and asked if and why not response had been provided, and for responses specifically on Louise Frechette and Jean-Marie Guehenno. These two individuals were named to Inner City Press by the sources who first showed glimpses of the letter.

            Mr. Dujarric responded, as to Canadian Ms. Frechette, that "I asked her and she said no."  As to Jean-Marie Guehenno, Annan's spokesman's office did not provide a denial, nor any other response for the following five hours.

Guehenno, back in Haiti

            On August 22, at the UN's formal noon press conference, Inner City Press had inquired into the location and activities of Mr. Guehenno, whose deputy Hedi Annabi had been conducting the UN peacekeeping work of meeting with potential troop contributors to the UN's Lebanon force. The spokesman said that Mr. "Guehenno is in France on personal business." Video here, from Minute 42:23.

            In the spirit of disclosure, Inner City Press has previously interviewed Jean-Marie Guehenno concerning this year's loss of focus, at least in Africa,on peacekeeping and concerning the offer of a colonel's position in the Congolese Army to Peter Karim, whose militia took hostage seven UN peacekeepers earlier until early last month. Mr. Guehenno, who had previously told Inner City Press that Peter Karim "is on drugs," more recently explained the negotiations as solved because the hostage takers "just wanted jobs." Mr. Guehenno also responded to questions about the UN's Congo Mission's self-exoneration regarding reported abuse at Kazana in Eastern Congo by saying the report was still being considered, a statement yet to be followed up. Video here, Minutes 23:50 to 30:30.

            Thursday afternoon, less than an hour after the U.S. Mission provided a copy of John Bolton's letter, Inner City Press sought out lead UN Peacekeeping spokesman Nick Birnback but was told that he is out until August 29. Deputy spokesman for peacekeeping Hernan Vales said that "all of these issues are personal and confidential" and are "not really work related."

            As Inner City Press, and the letter, pointed out to Mr. Vales, the UN's bulletin on financial disclosure and declaration of interest statements, Document ST/SGB/2006/6, requires the disclosure of "any form of supplement, direct or indirect, to the United Nations emoluments, including provisions of housing or subsidized housing or any... benefit, remuneration or in kind contribution from any government, governmental agency or other non United Nations source aggregating $250 or more...".  Article 100.1 of the UN Charter requires that Secretariat staff "refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization" of the UN.

            Asked to respond to this logic, that senior UN official need to have their allegiance be, and to seen to be, only to the UN, and not their country of nationality, Mr. Vales asked Inner City Press to hold off publishing this story. When Mr. Vales then said that no response would be possible until next week, Inner City Press decided to wait four more hours for any written responses, and then publish.

Update of August 25, 5 p.m. -- Just prior to the UN noon press briefing on Friday, Kofi Annan's spokesman called Inner City Press aside and said, "I have answers for you, if you'll wait until after the briefing."

 "What are the answers?"

  "We're aware of the letter and we're responding to it. These are obviously issues we are looking at through the financial disclosures."

  The spokesman issued an off-the-record, then subsequently on-the-record, denial as to Jean-Marie Guehenno. On other issues he has promised to response, or revert as is often said in UN-land. Developing.

 For or with more information: editorial [at] innercitypress.com

Text of letter

June 27, 2006

Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

         A recent review of your bulletin on financial disclosure and declaration of interest statements (ST/SGB/2006/6) raised a few questions about acceptance of benefits by UN staff members, their spouses and dependent children. The financial disclosure regulations refer, for example, to "Any form of supplement, direct or indirect, to the United Nations emoluments, including provisions of housing or subsidized housing or any... benefit, remuneration or in kind contribution from any government, governmental agency or other non United Nations source aggregating $250 of more..."

        Any acceptance of benefits should, of course, not contravene the Charter requirements that Secretariat staff "refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization (Art 100.1). It is therefore important that there be complete transparency with regard to such benefits. We think that it is essential that even the appearance of action inconsistent with article 100 of the Charter be avoided.

       To this end, please make available to member states the following information: the number of staff members of the United Nations required to file disclosures who have received such housing or subsidized housing or other benefits,; the source of such benefits; and the value of such housing or housing subsidies or other benefits. We recognize that there may be a need to maintain confidentiality in regard to certain information required in connection with the financial disclosure regulations. However, any such requirement need not and should not restrict the disclosure of the type of information that we are requesting.

Sincerely,

John R. Bolton

   This letter was shown to Inner City Press by UN Headquarters sources and subsequently confirmed and provided by the U.S. Mission on August 24, 2006

Congo Shootout Triggers Kofi Annan Call, While Agent Orange Protest Yields Email from Old London

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, August 22 -- Kofi Annan placed telephone calls to the Congo as his envoy William Lacy Swing was pinned down by the DCR presidential guards' artillery fire while in the home of second-place finisher Jean-Pierre Bemba. These details emerged Tuesday at UN headquarters, from which Mr. Annan has been placing a much higher volume of calls about the Middle East.

   In an impromptu interview with Inner City Press in the hallway outside the Security Council, the UN's deputy chief of peacekeeping Hedi Annabi said Mr. Swing is safe and sound, and that the Secretary-General's calls to both Joseph Kabila and Bemba "seemed to have some effect." Another UN staffer soon thereafter made an off-color and -the-cuff joke about invitations to have lunch with Bemba, whose campaigning includes denying a cannibal past.

   The Security Council after a hastily-called meeting on Tuesday afternoon issued a press statement calling among other things on Messrs. Kabila and Bemba to keep their gunmen off the streets, for the electoral process and calendar to be respected. Inner City Press asked the Council's president Nana Effah-Apenteng if any appeals or challenges to the election have yet been filed, and if the Kabila forces, which fired even on William Lacy Swing, had committed to the Secretary-General to henceforth cease and desist. "Don't know" was the answer to the former, and to the latter too, in essence. Video at http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/sc/so060822pm1.rm

            While the shooting at his envoy got Kofi on the phone to Kinshasa, the same can't be said of Somalia, as it veers toward Horn-wide war. For weeks Inner City Press has asked what the UN is doing, including specifically for it to confirm or deny the widely-reported presence of Ethiopian troops in Baidoa and elsewhere. Monday Kofi Annan's spokesman said the "Somalia file is with the Department of Political Affairs," whom he would ask to respond. Tuesday at noon, Inner City Press repeated its request. At an early afternoon stakeout, UN Under Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari was asked by Inner City Press what he and his office are going on Somalia, specifically the Ethiopian troops.

UN's Air Africa -- coming or going? per Ian Steele

  Mr. Gambari responded that "DPA is the lead department on Somalia... We support Francois Fall" who is "promoting dialogue" between the "fragile and weak" Transitional Federal Government and the Islamic Courts. Without specifying whether Ethiopian troops are in Somalia or not, Mr. Gambari inveighed against the introduction of elements into "fragile" Somalia. Video at http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/sc/so060822pm.rm

            But it precisely because the Transitional Federal Government installed in Baidoa is so fragile, and losing support, that Ethiopia's intervening, and the UN looking the other way...

  Near deadline, from the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General came this:

"Like you, we have read reports in the press of the presence of Ethiopian troops on Somali soil but have no independent confirmation of it. The UN Political Office for Somalia (DPA's primary source of information on Somalia), which is based in Nairobi, has neither the mandate nor the field monitoring capacity to assess the veracity of such reports."

  So -- the UN's lead division on Somalia has as its primary (and apparently only) sources of information an office that says it has no mandate to see or report on the invasion of one country by another? The questions will continue because they must.

On the UN - Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee at the UN

Other Inner City Press reports are archived on www.InnerCityPress.org - 

Congo Shootout Triggers Kofi Annan Call, While Agent Orange Protest Yields Email from Old London

On the UN - Corporate Beat, Dow Chemical Luncheon Chickens Come Home to Roost

UN Bets the House on Lebanon, While Willfully Blind in Somalia and Pinned Down in Kinshasa

Stop Bank Branch Closings and Monopolies in the Katrina Zone, Group Says, Challenging Regions- AmSouth Merger

Ship-Breakers Missed by UN's Budget for Travel and Consultants in Bangladesh, Largest UNIFIL Troop Donor

Sudan Cites Hezbollah, While UN Dances Around Issues of Consent and Sex Abuse in the Congo, Passing the UNIFIL Hat

With Somalia on the Brink of Horn-Wide War, UN Avoids Question of Ethiopian Invasion

In UN's Lebanon Frenzy, Darfur Is Ignored As Are the Disabled, "If You Crave UNIFIL, Can't You Make Do With MONUC?"

UN Decries Uzbekistan's Use of Torture, While Helping It To Tax and Rule; Updates on UNIFIL and UNMIS Off-Message

At the UN, Lebanon Resolution Passes with Loophole, Amb. Gillerman Says It Has All Been Defensive

On Lebanon, Russian Gambit Focuses Franco-American Minds, Short Term Resolution Goes Blue Amid Flashes of Lightening

Africa Can Solve Its Own Problems, Ghanaian Minister Tells Inner City Press, On LRA Peace Talks and Kofi Annan's Views

At the UN, Jay-Z Floats Past Questions on Water Privatization and Sweatshops, Q'Orianka Kilcher in the Basement

In the UN Security Council, Speeches and Stasis as Haiti is Forgotten, for a Shebaa Farms Solution?

UN Silence on Congo Election and Uranium, Until It's To Iran or After a Ceasefire, and Council Rift on Kony

At the UN Some Middle Eastern Answers, Updates on Congo and Nepal While Silence on Somalia

On Lebanon, Franco-American Resolution Reviewed at UN in Weekend Security Council Meeting

UN Knew of Child Soldier Use by Two Warlords Whose Entry into Congo Army the UN Facilitated

Impunity's in the Air, at the UN in Kinshasa and NY, for Kony and Karim and MONUC for Kazana

UN Still Silent on Somalia, Despite Reported Invasion, In Lead-Up to More Congo Spin

UN's Guehenno Says Congo Warlord Just Needs Training, and Kazana Probe Continues

With Congo Elections Approaching, UN Issues Hasty Self-Exoneration as Annan Is Distracted

In DR Congo, UN Applauds Entry into Army of Child-Soldier Commander Along with Kidnapper

Spinning the Congo, UN Admits Hostage Deal with Warlord That Put Him in Congolese Army

At the UN, Dow Chemical's Invited In, While Teaming Up With Microsoft is Defended

Kofi Annan Questioned about Congolese Colonel Who Kidnapped Seven UN Soldiers

At the UN, Speeches While Gaza Stays Lightless and Insurance Not Yet Paid

At the UN Poorest Nations Discussed, Disgust at DRC Short Shrift, Future UN Justice?

At the UN Wordsmiths Are At Work on Zimbabwe, Kony,  Ivory Coast and Iran

UN Silent As Congolese Kidnapper of UN Peacekeepers Is Made An Army Colonel: News Analysis

At the UN, New Phrase Passes Resolution called Gangster-Like by North Korea; UK Deputy on the Law(less)

UN's Guehenno Speaks of "Political Overstretch" Undermining Peacekeeping in Lower Profile Zones

In Gaza Power Station, the Role of Enron and the U.S. Government's OPIC Revealed by UN Sources

At UN, North Korean Knot Attacked With Fifty Year Old Precedent, Game Continues Into Weekend

UN's Corporate Partnerships Will Be Reviewed, While New Teaming Up with Microsoft, and UNDP Continues

Gaza Resolution Vetoed by U.S., While North Korea Faces Veto and Chechnya Unread

BTC Briefing, Like Pipeline, Skirts Troublespots, Azeri Revelations

Conflicts of Interest in UNHCR Program with SocGen and Pictet Reveal Reform Rifts

At the UN, A Day of Resolutions on Gaza, North Korea and Iran, Georgia as Side Dish

UN Grapples with Somalia, While UNDP Funds Mugabe's Human Rights Unit, Without Explanation

In North Korean War of Words, Abuses in Uganda and Impunity Go Largely Ignored

On North Korea, Blue Words Move to a Saturday Showdown, UNDP Uzbek Stonewall

As the World Turns in Uganda and Korea, the UN Speaks only on Gaza, from Geneva

North Korea in the UN: Large Arms Supplant the Small, and Confusion on Uganda

UN Gives Mugabe Time with His Friendly Mediator, Refugees Abandoned

At the UN, Friday Night's Alright for Fighting; Annan Meets Mugabe

UN Acknowledges Abuse in Uganda, But What Did Donors Know and When? Kazakh Questions

In Uganda, UNDP to Make Belated Announcement of Program Halt, But Questions Remain (and see The New Vision, offsite).

Disarmament Abuse in Uganda Leads UN Agency to Suspend Its Work and Spending

Disarmament Abuse in Uganda Blamed on UNDP, Still Silent on Finance

Alleged Abuse in Disarmament in Uganda Known by UNDP, But Dollar Figures Still Not Given: What Did UN Know and When?

Strong Arm on Small Arms: Rift Within UN About Uganda's Involuntary Disarmament of Karamojong Villages

UN in Denial on Sudan, While Boldly Predicting the Future of Kosovo/a

UN's Selective Vision on Somalia and Wishful Thinking on Uighurs

UN Habitat Predicts The World Is a Ghetto, But Will Finance Be Addressed at Vancouver World Urban Forum?

At the UN, a Commando Unit to Quickly Stop Genocide is Proposed, by Diplomatic Sir Brian Urquhart

UN's Annan Concerned About Use of Terror's T-Word to Repress, Wants Freedom of Information

UN  Waffles on Human Rights in Central Asia and China; ICC on Kony and a Hero from Algiers

At the UN, Internal Justice Needs Reform, While in Timor Leste, Has Evidence Gone Missing?

UN & US, Transparency for Finance But Not Foreign Affairs: Somalia, Sovereignty and Senator Tom Coburn

In Bolton's Wake, Silence and Speech at the UN, Congo and Kony, Let the Games Begin

Pro-Poor Talk and a Critique of the World Trade Organization from a WTO Founder: In UN Lull, Ugandan Fog and Montenegrin Mufti

Human Rights Forgotten in UN's War of Words, Bolton versus Mark Malloch Brown: News Analysis

In Praise of Migration, UN Misses the Net and Bangalore While Going Soft on Financial Exclusion

UN Sees Somalia Through a Glass, Darkly, While Chomsky Speaks on Corporations and Everything But Congo

AIDS Ends at the UN? Side Deals on Patents, Side Notes on Japanese Corporations, Salvadoran and Violence in Burundi

On AIDS at the UN, Who Speaks and Who Remains Unseen

Corporate Spin on AIDS, Holbrooke's Kudos to Montenegro and its Independence (May 31, 2006)

Kinshasa Election Nightmares, from Ituri to Kasai. Au Revoir Allan Rock; the UN's Belly-Dancing

Working with Warlords, Insulated by Latrines: Somalia and Pakistan Addressed at the UN

The Silence of the Congo and Naomi Watts; Between Bolivia and the World Bank

Human Rights Council Has Its Own Hanging Chads; Cocky U.S. State Department Spins from SUVs

Child Labor and Cargill and Nestle; Iran, Darfur and WHO's on First with Bird Flu

Press Freedom? Editor Arrested by Congo-Brazzaville, As It Presides Over Security Council

The Place of the Cost-Cut UN in Europe's Torn-Up Heart;
Deafness to Consumers, Even by the Greens

Background Checks at the UN, But Not the Global Compact; Teaching Statistics from Turkmenbashi's Single Book

Ripped Off Worse in the Big Apple, by Citigroup and Chase: High Cost Mortgages Spread in Outer Boroughs in 2005, Study Finds

Burundi: Chaos at Camp for Congolese Refugees, Silence from UNHCR, While Reform's Debated by Forty Until 4 AM

In Liberia, From Nightmare to Challenge; Lack of Generosity to Egeland's CERF, Which China's Asked About

The Chadian Mirage: Beyond French Bombs, Is Exxon In the Cast? Asylum and the Uzbeks, Shadows of Stories to Come

Through the UN's One-Way Mirror, Sustainable Development To Be Discussed by Corporations, Even Nuclear Areva

Racial Disparities Grew Worse in 2005 at Citigroup, HSBC and Other Large Banks

Mine Your Own Business: Explosive Remnants of War and the Great Powers, Amid the Paparazzi

Human Rights Are Lost in the Mail: DR Congo Got the Letter, But the Process is Still Murky

Iraq's Oil to be Metered by Shell, While Basrah Project Remains Less than Clear

At the UN, Dues Threats and Presidents-Elect, Unanswered Greek Mission Questions

Kofi, Kony, Kagame and Coltan: This Moment in the Congo and Kampala

As Operation Swarmer Begins, UN's Qazi Denies It's Civil War and Has No Answers if Iraq's Oil is Being Metered

Cash Crop: In Nepal, Bhutanese Refugees Prohibited from Income Generation Even in their Camps

The Shorted and Shorting in Humanitarian Aid: From Davos to Darfur, the Numbers Don't Add Up

UN Reform: Transparency Later, Not Now -- At Least Not for AXA - WFP Insurance Contract

In Congolese Chaos, Shots Fired at U.N. Helicopter Gunship

In the Sudanese Crisis, Oil Revenue Goes Missing, UN Says

Empty Words on Money Laundering and Narcotics, from the UN and Georgia

What is the Sound of Eleven Uzbeks Disappearing? A Lack of Seats in Tashkent, a Turf War at UN

Kosovo: Of Collective Punishment and Electricity; Lights Out on Privatization of Ferronikeli Mines

Abkhazia: Cleansing and (Money) Laundering, Says Georgia

Post-Tsunami Human Rights Abuses, including by UNDP in the Maldives

Who Pays for the Global Bird Flu Fight? Not the Corporations, So Far - UN

Citigroup Dissembles at United Nations Environmental Conference

Other Inner City Press reports are archived on www.InnerCityPress.org - 

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