Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

On Myanmar, UK Urges UN To Replace Nambiar With Full Time Envoy

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 6, updated -- UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told the Press on Monday that the UK has raised that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon should consider moving to name a new, full time envoy to Myanmar, rather than having his chief of staff Vijay Nambiar continue part time in the position.

When Lyall Grant emerged from the second of Monday's two UN meetings on Myanmar, he told the media that the UK found the elections flawed, and that all political prisoners should be released. Inner City Press asked, does the UK think Ban should name a new, full time envoy?

Lyall Grant said the UK raised that in both the morning meeting of the Group of Friends of the S-G on Myanmar and in the Security Council's informal consultations. He said that Nambiar said “that is being considered.”

Nambiar was criticized even by some of the parties he met with in Myanmar.

Nambiar briefing PR of Brazil, Lyall Grant not shown

As Inner City Press reported last week, Nambiar's internal reporting to UN officials was critical of Aung San Suu Kyi, characterizing her as out of touch and somehow too hard line, UN sources say. Nambiar prefers those more amenable to authoritarian government.

On December 3, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky to confirm or deny that Myanmar had given Nambiar a visa for a mere two days. On camera, Nesirky said he'd look into it, but that the Secretariat might to decide not to say one way or the other. That now appears to be the case -- from a UN Administration which says it is transparent.

Inner City Press asked if Nambiar would talk to the media. Nesirky said that Nambiar would be asked. We are waiting.

Update of 4:44 pm -- as the Council members came out, Inner City Press asked Mexican Ambassador Claude Heller if Mexico believes Ban Ki-moon should name a full time envoy. "Yes," he said. Other Council sources confirmed that the UK's call for a full time envoy -- that is, not Nambiar -- was "widely echoed."

While Inner City Press had asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky to have Nambiar do a stakeout after he briefed the Council, as nearly all envoys do, when he emerged Nambiar and his staff walked quickly to the door to the General Assembly and North Lawn, not speaking to the media. Way to raise the issue.

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After 2 Day Myanmar Trip, Nambiar “Trashed” Aung San Suu Kyi to UN Officials

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 3 -- When UN envoy Vijay Nambiar went to Myanmar over the US Thanksgiving weekend, he was given only a two day visa, sources tell Inner City Press, to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Upon his return he has told UN officials that Aung San Suu Kyi is out of touch, too hardline, a relic.

Nambiar is seen as accommodative to the military government of Than Shwe, and favors Burmese counter parties of a similar bent. Than Shwe, on the other hand, likes to have a mere part time and interim UN envoy, in this case mostly occupied as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff.

On December 2, Inner City Press asked Ban's acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq to confirm that Nambiar will briefing the Security Council on December 6, and to respond to criticism of Nambiar's whirlwind visit to Myanmar, including by some of those he met with.

Haq refused to confirm the briefing -- it was later nevertheless confirmed -- and said that some liked Nambiar's visit. Certainly, Myanmar's military government.

One question is why Aung San Suu Kyi offer such public praise of Nambiar's visit, while Nambiar “trashed her,” as one official put it to Inner City Press, immediately upon his return. Watch this site.

ASSK & UN's Nambiar, subsequent "trashing" no shown

From the UN's December 2 transcript:

Inner City Press: Just factually, can you confirm that the Chef de Cabinet, Vijay Nambiar, will be briefing the [Security] Council on 6 December on his visit to Myanmar? And also, if he’s seen the criticisms made by a number of the people that he met with, saying that this was essentially just a kind of a note-taking visit. What’s his response to those now public criticisms in Irrawaddy and elsewhere of the visit by people that he engaged with? What’s his take on the visit?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Well, first of all, I don’t share your assessment of the trip. There were a number of viewpoints, including people who were quite pleased with that visit. Secondly, as for the schedule of the Security Council, I will leave it to the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Rice, to brief you at 1 p.m. about what their schedule will be, and she can announce for you what their upcoming programme is.

Inner City Press: Will Mr. Nambiar, either here or at the stakeout or in some other forum, speak to the press about his publicized and long-awaited visit to Myanmar?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson: Well, if he does brief the Security Council, we will see at that point whether he intends to brief the press at that point.

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.

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