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At
UN,
Budget Fight for Bahrain and Bahamas to Pay Less, Death of Paper UN
Journal?
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, December 23 -- In nighttime UN
budget talks on Tuesday,
Western countries faced off with the Group of 77 and China as to
whether Bahrain and Bahamas should pay a lesser assessment for UN
peacekeeping missions.
Meanwhile,
despite
talk of "zero growth" budgeting at the UN, sources tell
Inner City Press that the regular budget will rise, it is only a
question of how much. The much hyped scale of assessments appears set
to remain the same.
The
reformers, as they call themselves, who want
to shift assessment to reflect the rising power of China and India
and others, now only want to change the review process. But the G-77
wants that to remain the same.
Special
Political
Missions, including the ever more controversial UN Mission in
Afghanistan, are another bone of contention. An attempt is being made
to forestall any targeted cuts. Click here for draft
SPMs draft, exclusive to Inner City Press.
At
7 p.m. on
Tuesday, Inner City Press greeted the UN's head of Management as she
left the building, with shiny Christmas gift bags. While she said she
is "on call," delegates of member states remained milling
around by the Vienna cafe. That will shut down 2 p.m. on Thursday.
"We'll finish by then," a delegate told Inner City Press.
UN's Ban and prime minister of
Bahrain, budget growth and attempt to pay less not shown
Click here for draft scale of
assessements for the apportionment of expenses of the UN peacekeeping
operations. Bahrain and Bermuda want to drop from B to C, but C is
strictly defined.
Footnote:
Up in the Delegates' Lounge, slated to close "for two years"
at 7 p.m. on Thursday, there was grumbling about pretextual cost
cutting by the UN, particularly in Publishing. As Inner City Press
asked at Tuesday's noon briefing, ASG Franz Baumann has declared an
end to paper copies of the UN Journal, which lists daily events.
Many
representatives of member states like the paper Journal, to tell them
where to go. In meetings with staff, Baumann has claimed that 3.5
tons of paper is wasted each day. But workers say he's included
cafeteria waste in the figure. The cafeteria will close, also with
layoffs, on Thursday. There is advocacy for Bahrain and Bermuda, but
little for those who do manual labor in the UN. And so it goes.
* * *
As
UN Council Delays Eritrea Sanctions and Guinea, Buries W. Sahara,
France in Mix
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, December 21 -- With Christmas four days away, the UN
Security Council has scheduled a December 23 vote on sanctions on
Eritrea, delayed at the request of France, while putting off
consideration of the UN's report on war crimes in Guinea, because it
is only in French. Meanwhile the promised briefing on Western Sahara,
Moroccan sources gleefully tell Inner City Press, may not take place
at all. Is this any way to run a Council and world?
Inner
City Press
asked this month's Council president Michel Kafando of Burkina Faso
what has happened to the briefing on Western Sahara, which several
Council members affirm was agreed to be consensus last week. "We
are still in consultations," Kafando answered. Video here,
from
Minute 6:07.
Asked
when the
Council will meet on the already leaked report on war crimes in
Guinea, Kafando claimed that the Council does not yet have the
report. Later at the stakeout it was clarified that until the report
is translated from French into English, the Council will not meet on
it. Whether the translation can be done and distributed by Wednesday
is not clear.
Murkiest
of all is
the resolution imposing sanctions on Eritrea. Last week it was said
it would be put to a vote on Monday, with Libya abstaining or voting
"no."
UN's Ban with Council members, Sahara briefing not shown
But on Monday
a Permanent Five member of the Council
told Inner City Press that "France asked Uganda for a delay."
Uganda, an IGAD member, is the ostensible sponsor of the resolution,
and has confirmed France's request.
Inner
City Press
has asked why France moved for the delay on the Horn of Africa
sanctions resolution without receiving any on the record answer.
Later, sources alluded to some unresolved French hostage issues.
Watch this site.
As
UN
Official Is Accused of Hiring Relatives in African Mission, DPA
Mute
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, December 21 -- A complaint of systemic nepotism in a UN
mission, in the Central African Republic, has been raised and
rebuffed by the UN Department of Political Affairs. The head of DPA's
Africa II Division, according to whistleblowers, has placed relatives
and friends throughout the United Nations
Peace-building Office in the Central African Republic. Inner
City Press,
which has reported about the Central African Republic for three
years, has received detailed reports,
summarized below.
Rather
than simply
write the story, six days ago on December 15 Inner City Press
formally asked the director of DPA's Africa II Division Sammy Kum Buo
the following questions:
Mr.
Buo -- I am writing a story about this morning's Security Council
session on BONUCA / Central African Republic. I am also covering
management issues in BONUCA and DPA and am writing for you to confirm
or deny on deadline each of the following [about BONUCA staffers]
Is
Gabriel Buh Kang a
relative of yours? A cousin?
Is
BONUCA staffer Ekei a relative of yours? Your niece?
What
is the status of Brindou Germain Kabran ?
When
in CAR, have you stayed with Brindou Germain Kabran?
Did
you still collect DSA? Please provide records.
What
can you say about the case of Gozo
Tshamala?
On
deadline, Matthew
Mr.
Buo is also
accused of hiring a former mercenary from Executive Outcomes, in
violation of UN rules. While Mr. Buo has refused to respond, Inner
City Press has discussed the matter with other Mission officials and
finally, on December 21, with Mr. Buo's boss in DPA, Haile Menkerios.
Mr. Menkerios confirmed he is aware of the issue. Inner City Press
asked Mr. Menkerios what DPA's response would be. It is a management
issue, Mr. Menkerios replied, that will be responded to in a
management way.
Previously,
Mr.
Menkerios' boss, and Ban Ki-moon's chief political official Lynn
Pascoe has refused on camera to comment on a rift
between himself and
the two top staffers in DPA's Security Council Affairs branch,
calling it an internal matter.
But
the abuse of
UN funds for hiring relatives in a DPA administered mission is not an
internal matter.
UN Day in Bangui, UN nepotism not shown or addressed
There are other brewing DPA scandals, on hiring on
other issues, on which Inner City Press is still waiting for
substantive answers. But the matter of Central African Republic,
which is on the Security Council's agenda for December 21, must now
be moved forward on, given Buo's and now Mr. Menkerios' non answers.
Watch this site.
Summary:
Subject:
BINUCA
From:
Name withheld due to retaliation concerns
To:
matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Dear
Matthew Please innercity should absolutely look into this matter which
is
serious WHAT IS GOING ON IN BONUCA/BINUCA?
DPA
has created a new mission called BINUCA to replace BONUCA starting
January 2010 in Central Africa Republic. For more than 9 years,
BONUCA a DPA led mission was plagued with nepotism and favoritism...
Of particular importance is the role played by Mr Sammy Kum Buo, the
Director of Africa II, very famous with his absence of political
judgment (remember Rwanda where he was advising the SRSG Booh Booh) who
had succeeded in appointing a niece called Ekei as Administrative
Assistant, a cousin called Gabriel Buh Kang in the finance section...
the recruitment of the security Officer, Antonio de Jesus a former
memeber of Executive Outcome was done in violation of all the
recruitment rule procedures. Buo is trying to maintain in the mission
his friend Brindou Germain Kabran where he lives when he is mission
in CAR despite he, receiving the DSA.. His fellow Cameroonian...
Marie Claire Bikia, recruited as administrative Assistant, is trying
to be promoted Gender assistant. She went several times in Turin for
gender training.
In
order to cover this integrity issues, Sammy Kum Buo with the support
of or not of Lynn Pascoe is currently deciding on the future of the
staffs by trying to impress upon the new SRSG, the Ethiopian
diplomat, Ms Zewde who is in her first experience in the UN and
doesn't know the administrative procedure. Sammy Kum Buo would like
to keep his cousin, niece and friends and sacrifying the other
staffs. This is UNACCEPTABLE Inner city press should try to raised
this issue
Consider
it done,
or started. Watch this site.
* * *
As
Galbraith Claims He Challenged UN Before Nambiar's Quote to NYT, UN Mute
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, December 21, updated
-- After the UN's chief
of staff Vijay Nambiar
was quoted on December 17 that the UN knew its Afghanistan deputy
Peter Galbraith was pitching the overthrow of Hamid Karzai to Joe
Biden and this was "one of
several factors" why he was fired, the UN
refused to elaborate. This continued on December 21, when UN Spokesman
Martin Nesirky declined to comment
on Inner City Press' questions about Mr. Nambiar.
Mr.
Nesirky, previously answering Inner City Press' question, said
that because Galbraith was challenging his termination, it would not
be appropriate to comment. This was not said at the noon briefing when
the question was asked. Rather, it was inserted later into the
transcript.
The
next day, Inner City Press asked if Galbraith had
launched his challenge before or after Vijay Nambair's quote. Nesirky
said he'd check.
Now
Galbraith tells
Inner City Press that this challenge was filed on December 10, well before Nambiar's
comment. If true, the UN's stated reason for now
refusing to comment appears in a different light.
Being
"tired"
of l'affaire Galbraith is one
thing. But the issue of fraud in the
Afghan election, and the UN's role in it, should not be allowed to be
buried on now specious legal grounds.
In
his e-mail to
Inner City Press, below, Galbraith raises an issue of media ethics.
Knowing both sides of this dynamic, Inner City Press for now simply
presents Galbraith's submission, on which we will follow up.
UN's Nambair, back at right, with Gambari's
who he's replacing in Myanmar, Galbraith's action not shown
For now
we say: whether one sides with the UN or Galbraith in this conflict,
the issue of fraud in Karzai's election is larger. Watch this site.
From:
Peter Galbraith
To:
Matthew.Lee at InnerCityPress.com
Sent:
12/20/2009 1:37:35 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj:
Re: Press Q from UN: did you disclose oil interest, if so did UN leak
it?
I
filed my action on December 10, before Nambiar's quote. Having failed
to come up with a plausible explanation for my dismissal, the UN now
seeks to use the legal action as a pretext to stop discussing the
matter, and the underlying issue of how it handled fraud in the
Afghanistan elections. The fact that Vijay Nambiar chose to speak out
on my case after I commenced legal action places his quote--and the
whole new York Times story--in a rather different context. At the
time he wrote his story about my supposed plot to oust Karzai, New
York Times reporter James Glanz knew I had started legal action but
chose not to share it with the New York Times readers until a
separate story the the next day which carefully did not say when the
legal action began. For the record, there was no plan to oust Karzai
and the story is a complete phony.
Like
you, New York Times readers are smart enough to smell a rat in a
story about an event that supposedly occurred two months earlier but
is only "leaked" after legal action begins. It is too bad,
Glanz did not think it important for them to know that.
I
am more optimistic than you that the UN legal system will produce the
accountability that is so important in this matter.
Watch
this site.
As
UN's
Ban "Divides and Rules" G-77, Pachauri's Bank Links
Unexamined
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, December 21 -- While most observers and even participants
describe the Copenhagen global warming talks as a disappointment, UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday told the Press that they
"sealed the deal" and were a success.
Inner
City Press
asked Mr. Ban about the scandal erupting around the undisclosed
business interests of the chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change Rajendra Pachauri, from the Tata Group
through Deutsche Bank to Credit Suisse, and about the criticism by
the chairman of the Group of 77 and its now 130 member states.
Mr.
Ban entirely
dodged the first question, paradoxically using it as an opportunity
to praise business. On the second, he asserted that the chairman of
the Group of 77 was not, in fact, speaking for the Group, since
others' of its members spoke more positively.
Moments
later,
Inner City Press asked Sudan's Ambassador to the UN about Mr. Ban's
comments. "Divide and rule," he answered, calling the
Copenhagen process "climate apartheid." This phrase steps
back from his counterpart in Copenhagen who analogized it to the
Holocaust.
Pachauri's
conflicts of interest are extensive and emblematic of the UN's lack
of transparency and safeguards.
UN's Ban and Pachauri, financial disclosure not shown
As detailed
in the Telegraph
In
2008 he was made an adviser on renewable and sustainable energy to
the Credit Suisse bank and the Rockefeller Foundation. He joined the
board of the Nordic Glitnir Bank... This year Dr Pachauri joined the
New York investment fund Pegasus as a ‘strategic adviser’... He
is on the climate change advisory board of Deutsche Bank... One
subject the talkative Dr Pachauri remains silent on, however, is how
much money he is paid for all these important posts, which must run
into millions of dollars.
So,
notwithstanding
the non-responsive answer Monday morning, does Mr. Ban believe that
Pachauri should make public financial disclosure of these interests?
Watch this site.
* * *
IMF
Silent on Climate Change Proposal to Use Its Gold and SDR Interest
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, December 18 -- While world media reports that the
International Monetary Fund might play a role in climate change
adaptation funding, as proposed by among others George Soros, IMF
spokesperson Caroline Atkinson told the Press on Thursday that how
SDRs (special drawing rights) are used is "up to individual
countries." Video here.
But the proposal involves the IMF using the gold it holds, already
ostensibly directed to less developed countries, for the purpose of
adaptation. So shouldn't the IMF have a response?
Sitting
"idle"
in the IMF's coffers are $150 billion for just 15 countries. But the
IMF apparently doesn't have the funding or staff or commitment to
prepare a transcript of its mere biweekly press briefing the same day
it is held.
Below
are portions
of the proposal.
Bella Center, venue of climate change talks, IMF not shown
Developed
countries' governments are laboring under the misapprehension that
funding has to come from their national budgets but that is not the
case. They have it already. It is lying idle in their reserves
accounts and in the vaults of the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
available without adding to the national deficits of any one country.
All they need to do is to tap into it.
In
September 2009, the IMF distributed to its members $283 billion worth
of SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights. SDRs are an arcane financial
instrument but essentially they constitute additional foreign
exchange. They can be used only by converting them into one of four
currencies, at which point they begin to carry interest at the
combined treasury bill rate of those currencies. At present the
interest rate is less than one half of one percent. Of the $283
billion, more than $150 billion went to the 15 largest developed
economies. These SDRs will sit largely untouched in the reserve
accounts of these countries, which don't really need any additional
reserves... The United Kingdom and France each recently lent $2
billion worth of SDRs to a special fund at the IMF to support
concessionary lending to the poorest countries. At that point the
IMF assumed responsibility for the principal and interest on the
SDRs. The same could be done in this case.
The IMF
owns a lot
of gold, more than a hundred million ounces, and it is on the books
at historical cost. At current market prices it is worth more than
$100 billion over its book value. It has already been designated to
be used for the benefit of the least developed countries. The
proposed green fund would meet this requirement...it could make the
difference between success and failure in Copenhagen.
So
shouldn't the
IMF have had something to say about the proposals? Watch this site.
* * *
On
Food Speculation, UN's Expert Says Nothing's Being Done, S. Korean Land
Grabs from Madagascar to Sudan, Brazil on Ethanol
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, October 21 -- After many speeches at the UN about the need
to crack down on financial speculation in food, nothing has been
done, the UN's expert on the right to food told Inner City Press on
Wednesday.
Olivier de Schutter, a Belgian law professor just back
from a visit to Brazil about, among other things, the loss of land
for food to ethanol, replied that "nothing is moving at the
inter-governmental level." This despite a statement by the G-20
in April favoring the regulation of hedge funds which present
systemic risk. The argument is that commodities index funds which
speculate in food present systemic risk to net food importing
countries. But nothing has been done.
De
Schutter spoke
about the monopolization of the seed industry, and made a slew of
recommendations for governments. The three top monopolizers --
Monsanto, Dupont and the Swiss-based Syngenta -- are all members of
the UN Global Compact, and claim to comply with human rights. De
Schutter pointed out the antitrust law is directed as national and
not global or subnational markets. It is all very heady but one
wonders what effect it has.
Brazil
might be
one of de Schutter's claims to impact. He spoke glowingly of
President Lula, saying that Brazil has said that only 19% of land can
be used for sugar cane for ethanol, and has committed to monitor
labor rights. But what about, for example, Indonesia and Malaysia?
De Schutter, action on food speculation not shown
After
De
Schutter's briefing, Inner City Press asked his staffer for an update
on the proposed land grab in Madagascar by South Korea based Daewoo,
which was reputed after the coup in that country. De Schutter had
been scheduled to visit, but it was put off by the coup. The same
thing happened in Honduras. So perhaps De Schutter does have an
effect after all, mused one wag.
Footnote:
immediately after De Schutter's briefing, the UN's Haile Menkerios
was scheduled to speak to the Press about Madagascar. While the UN
usually compartmentalizes its work such that a rapporteur looks at
land grabs, while the Secretariat remains on "political affairs"
narrowly defined, this land grab played a role in the change of
government. Now it's said the South Korean deal is being pursued from
India, while South Korea appears to have moved on to 690,000 hectares
in Sudan. Watch this site.
Click
here
for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters
footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN
Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's
mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
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