Inner City Press -- Investigative Journalism from the United Nations

At the UN, Darfur Discussed, Annan Eulogized and Oil For Food Confined to a Documentary Footnote

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

UNITED NATIONS, October 18 -- "On Darfur... it's absolutely no good to say, it's horrible, I can't bear to let this happen. That doesn't get you anywhere." So at the UN Wednesday night said Sir Brian Urquhart, who has known and served all seven of the UN's Secretaries-General.

He continued, speaking on a panel in the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium, that, "I rather wish that those extremely well-intentioned people who take out full page advertisements in the New York Times and demonstrate in front of the White House and, I expect, in front of here would engage in a discussion of what the point of entry might in actuality be. This is a very hard and difficult problem. As far as I can make out, there is very little leverage over the government of Sudan. And if you don't have permission from the government of Sudan, you won't get the nations who take part in peacekeeping to contribute troops."

Andre Lewin, long-time French diplomat who served as UN spokesman from 1972 to 1976, pointed out that the UN has used the concept of national sovereignty to help "more or less" stop wars between countries. (The less would include the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and other clouds on the Security Council's horizon and those ignored, like Somalia and Ethiopia - Eritrea.) But it is the very concept of sovereignty, Amb. Lewin pointed out, that makes stopping the carnage in Darfur difficult for the UN.

S-G in Darfur

A third panelist recounted that "Kofi Annan in 1996 finally convinced the French to stop vetoing him by promising the French the position he had held, head of Peacekeeping. There are reports that the British got similar commitments from the South Korean--"

The moderator Shashi Tharoor quickly said, "I disassociate myself from those remarks," to laugher from the audience. The discussion followed the screening of half-hour documentaries about the tenures of Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan, part of "At the Glass Building: the History of the UN told by its Secretaries-General." Both were laudatory. For example, the Oil for Food scandal was mentioned immediately after Kofi Annan's opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq, implying that the entirety of the scandal was a U.S. retaliation. Thus is the U.N. organization not reformed.

The incoming and eighth Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was mentioned only oblique in panel discussion. Earlier on Wednesday, rocker Sir Bob Geldof came into Inner City Press' office. Inner City Press asked, "Did you meet with Kofi Annan already?"

"Yes."

How did it go?
Fine, preparations for G-8."

"Is Ban Ki-moon on your radar?"

"I'll wait until he gets the job. I'm sure he has connections to make," he said. "I want to show Kofi the respect of dealing (mostly) with him, until his last day."

It's nice to be nice, but whether the UN organization is served by such deference is unclear. Among South Korean reporters, who have been in closer touch with Mr. Ban, discussion turned to the identity of the next Deputy Secretary-General. Mr. Ban has reported said it will be a woman from a developing country. One intriguing candidate is Anna Tibaijuka, the head of UN Habitat and of the UN System in Nairobi. Other candidates, some feel, should be named and their merits discussed.

During Wednesday's panel discussion, Inner City Press asked whether the Secretary-General selection process would not have been better served by a debate, or at least question-and-answer in an open (and televised) Security Council meeting. Sir Brian Urquhart said that the work habits of diplomats militates against this. Shashi Tharoor quipped that the Security Council might oppose this because then the presumption would be that they'd select the person who'd answered best.

Inner City Press also asked each panelist about the need for a Freedom of Information Act at the UN. Perhaps under Mr. Ban...

As Turkmenistan Cracks Down on Journalists, Hospitals and Romance, UNDP Works With the Niyazov Regime

UNITED NATIONS, October 18 -- The European Union reacted to the torture murder of Turkmen journalist Ogulsapar Muradova while in state custody, and other excesses by Turkmenistan�s Saparmurat Niyazov, by declining the invitation to enter a trade agreement with the Central Asian coungtry. The UN Development Program has taken a different approach, and recently offered praise of Niyazov's government.

Today's Turkish Daily News quotes Niyazov that "for some years the state structures and public organizations of Turkmenistan have successfully realized joint programs and projects in collaboration with such organizations as the UNDP, UNICEF, UNESCO and many others."

UNESCO, it should be noted, recently "voiced grave concern at the death of Ogulsapar Muradova in jail in Ashgabat," the capital of Turkmenistan. The UN agency's press release, No. 2006-116, cited Reporters Without Borders that "Ms Muradova's children identified Ms Muradova's body in the morgue of Ashgabat on 14 September. Witnesses are reported to have seen a head wound and many other marks on the rest of her body."

A month after Ms. Muradova's body was identified in the morgue, UNDP's resident coordinator in Turkmenistan Mr. Richard Young told two hundred people at a conference on UN - Government of Turkmenistan cooperation that "as a member of the United Nations, Turkmenistan recognizes the importance of working together to meet concrete targets for advancing development. National ownership is a key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals and adhering to global human rights values." The quote is from a write-up provided by the UN System in Turkmenistan. The write-up contained no criticism of Niyazov or his regime.

It is not clear what "national ownership" the UN's Richard Young was referring to. In recent years, Niyazov has closed all hospitals outside of the capital, telling the BBC, "Why do we need such hospitals? If people are ill, they can come to Ashgabat."

Niyazov, who has called himself Turkmenbashi, Father of All Turkmen, has also closed all libraries, including those in the capital, on the grounds that "nobody reads books or go to libraries".

In fact, the main book taught in schools in Turkmenistan is one written by Niyazov himself, called Ruhknama. Niyavoz has said Ruhknama, sometimes spelled Ruhnama, "was issued to eliminate all shortcomings." It is available in 22 languages on the Turkmenistan government website, here. A UN staffer who has worked for the UN system in Turkmenistan (and who has read Rukhnama) tells Inner City Press that many of the UN offices in Ashkabat use the government's web servers, which block content objectionable to Niyazov and presumably record and register the communications traveling through them. (The UN staff asked not to be named, as for now still a UN employee.)

Like the Karimov government in Uzbekistan, which UNDP also assists in a range of ways from tax collection to help with open source software, Niyazov is cracking down on and thinning the ranks of non-governmental organizations. Reportedly the human rights group Arkadag "has files full of the most diverse explanations they have received about why they are being turned down � a misplaced comma here, a wrongly ordered paragraph there, or a demand for details of all rank-and-file members even though the law stipulates that only the board members need to be named...Re-registration is also a problem for existing NGOs, in the wake of the Law on Public Associations passed in 2003." A more recent law restricts the ability of citizens of Turkmenistan to marry foreigners.

At UN headquarters on Wednesday, Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about these laws, and to explain the contradiction between UNESCO's and even the Secretary-General's own denunciations of the Turkmenistan government's human rights record and UNDP's statement, on its dedicated Turkmenistan website, www.undptkm.org, that "UNDP provides advisory services to selected government agencies in improvement of institutional and legal frameworks for economic and financial management and social protection, statistical capacity development." Video here.

The spokesman has indicated that while this is a good question, it should be answered by UNDP, rather than the Secretariat. The question was asked at noon, but as of six p.m. no response of any kind had been received. We note that UNDP has now delayed two weeks in providing an update on its previously announced de-funding of violent disarmament in the Karamoja region of Eastern Uganda, and has also delayed in responding to Inner City Press' written request for comment on recent testimony to the Fifth Committee on A/61/5 Add.1, on "UNDP's failure to complete monthly bank account reconciliations," "internal control weaknesses present in the implementation process of UNDP's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system" and "the adverse and qualified opinions on project auditors on the implementation of UNDP program expenditures executed by governments."

To be fair to UNDP, here is another UN agency providing unexplained funding to Turkmenistan's government -- UN/DESA Division for Social Policy and Development providing technical cooperation funds to the Niyazov regime. Other supporters include Deutsche Bank, Turkmenbashi's private banker, and the French construction firm Bouygues, to build another palace. Thus is Turkmenbashi provided UN technical assistance to further the Millennium Development Goals. Developing...

With All Eyes on Council Seat, UN is Distracted from Myanmar Absolution and Congo Conflagration

UNITED NATIONS, October 17 -- After twenty two rounds of voting, the race between Guatemala and Venezuela for a UN Security Council seat has still not yielded a winner. After six p.m. on Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton came out last to the stakeout in front of the General Assembly. "Venezuela has lost 21 of 22 votes," he said. "In normal circumstances, they would honorably drop out."

These are not, however, normal circumstances. Earlier on Tuesday, Venezuelan Ambassador Francisco Javier Arias Cardenas brandished a copy of the El Pais newspaper, with its front page picture of Amb. Bolton whispering into the ear of the Guatemalan foreign minister. The Venezuelan translator Melina Garcia -- who twice pointed out that she is not a spokesperson -- spoke darkly about extortion and intimidation carried out by the United States. A copy of a crumpled October 4, 2006 letter was flashed, addressed to the Foreign Minister of Antigua and Barbuda from U.S. Ambassador Mary Ellen T. Gilroy, urging a vote for Guatemala in light of Hugo Chavez's speech to the General Assembly, and Chavez' characterization of terrorist Carlos the Jackal as "a friend." The web site of Harper's Magazine has the underlying quote, click here to view.

The Venezuelan ambassador announced that if John Bolton or George Bush would come to the microphone and announce that countries are free to vote their conscience, Venezuela might be willing to accept "a consensus." This statement appeared to assume that Venezuela would in that case be the consensus candidate.

Inner City Press asked the Guatemalan representative Gert Rosenthal what he thought the vote tally would be, if the U.S. announced that all could vote their conscience. He responded that he didn't think countries were pawns of the United States.

The upshot is that the Latin American and Caribbean group, known by its comical acronym GRULAC, will hold an informal meeting late Wednesday morning. The Guatemalan representative will attend; in response to Inner City Press' question, he stated that Guatemala had initially refused to attend a meeting which would have been conditioned on Guatemala dropping out of the race. Video here. As to when and if Guatemala might drop out, he would not specify the point at which Guatemala would be willing to withdraw, adding that Guatemala is concerned with the integrity of GRULAC. So are we, so are we, muttered one wag at the stakeout.

Inner City Press used Amb. Bolton's moment at the mike to ask him about Myanmar, called Burma by the Ambassador. On October 13, the Group of 8's Financial Action Task Force removed Myanmar from its money laundering blacklist. Click here for Reuters, here for Associated Press. Money laundering, along with drug exports and refugee flows, were reasons given that Myanmar poses a threat to international peace and security and should be on the Security Council's agenda. Inner City Press asked if the U.S. thinks this FATF decision is legitimate. Amb. Bolton said he was not yet aware of the FATF decision. Video here. Now the news has been provided to his staff; developing.

Meanwhile, the Security Council held, or purported to hold, consultations on the Democratic Republic of Congo. Neither U.S. Ambassador Bolton nor most other ambassadors attended. Deputy Head of UN Peacekeeping Hedi Annabi declined to take questions on camera. Inner City Press spoke with Mr. Annabi by the elevator and asked him about the requests that the UN actively defend broadcasting antennae and facilities which have been under attack. Mr. Annabi expressed concern for such attacks, but opined that the most recent one was the result of a short circuit, not arson.

Inner City Press asked about the replacement of presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba's helicopter, a matter previously raised to the UN spokesman, who replied that it was not a UN, but rather a Congolese, decision. The forces of current president Joseph Kabila destroyed Mr. Bemba's helicopter, and Mr. Kabila had said it would be replaced. But as the election entered its final two week stretch, the helicopter had not been replaced. Sources indicate that then an attempt was made by the UN to get a third country to lend Mr. Bemba a helicopter to campaign. Other sources argue that even before it was destroyed, Mr. Bemba's helicopter was hardly in shape for campaigning in a country that is, as the UN often says, a large as Western Europe except -- still! -- with the roads.

Mr. Annabi on Wednesday told Inner City Press that the UN has now provided two helicopters, one each for candidates Bemba and Kabila, through the independent electoral commission. Why this was not announced at a noon briefing, or at least in a stakeout interview, is not clear. As was heard at its headquarters on Wednesday, the UN has a story to tell, but needs to tell it better. Or to tell it at all. Tuesday after 12 days of delay from the UN Development Program in providing an update on a program defunded by UNDP, the UN spokesman was informed of the delay. We'll see.

There was a briefing in honor of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Inner City Press asked French Ambassador de la Sabliere to explain the discrepancy between Monday's UN briefing on the booming of foreign direct investment in the developing world, and UNDP's statement that fully 38% of sub-Saharan Africa will not attain the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty rates by 2015. Amb. de la Sabliere answered that fighting poverty is not the Security Council's work, except in post-war zones. Video here. But why not then the Congo, which is subject to Security Council resolutions? How long will it be, that the old saw of "no roads" will remain?

Under-Secretary General Shashi Tharoor referred to Europe's subsidies for cows, and acknowledged the need for a new fair trade regime. The chef de cabinet of the General Assembly president said that both NGOs and charities are important. The GA president's spokeswoman, to her credit, answered a previous Inner City Press question about Venezuela's JFK airport complaint by providing a press release summary of the Host Country Committee meeting.

At the UN spokesman's noon briefing, two more questions went unanswered. The prime minister of the UN-supported Transitional Federal Government in Somalia has reportedly written to the UN complaining about the objectivity of the mediators in Khartoum. Has the UN or its Department of Political Affairs (DPA) received the letter? Don't know, the spokesman said. Video here. What about the critique of the DPA in the just-released audit by the Office of Internal Oversight Services, which recommends that "the Secretary-General should amend the official mandates of the Departments of Political Affairs and Peacekeeping Operations to include reference to the lead department policy in order to enhance its visibility and transparency"?

The Secretariat will respond at some point, the spokesman said, but had no comment at the time. When might OIOS speak to reporters about this and other audits? Never, apparently. The spokesman continues to say he has asked. OIOS during a recent visit told Inner City Press that he hasn't. While we know whom we believe, between the two, the solution here would be for the spokesman's office to call, say, the Under Secretary General for Management and remind him, with his glossy UN Annual Report co-signed by the head of OIOS, that transparency starts at home. Or is the current administration just giving up?

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