UN's
D'Escoto Pins Honduras Coup on Obama, UN Money Questions Cut Off
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 29 -- With a range of world leaders, including U.S.
President Barack Obama, condemning the Honduran army's ouster on June
28 of President Zelaya, the UN General Assembly hastily took up the
issue on June 29 at noon. GA President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann's
spokesman on June 28 issued a press release that
"D’Escoto
is making a special appeal to the President of the United States,
Barack Obama, who recently at the summit in Port of Spain, Trinidad
and Tobago, announced a new policy towards Latin America. 'Many are
now asking if this coup is part of this new policy as it is well
known that the army in Honduras has a history of total collaboration
with the United States. In order to eliminate any doubt, it is
absolutely necessary that President Obama immediately condemns the
coups against President Zelaya.'"
To
use d'Escoto's phrase, many at the UN,
including Latin diplomats, are now asking if d'Escoto has gone off the
deep end. On June 26, d'Escoto gave a
rambling speech about the era of the dinosaurs. Then, one diplomat
snarked to Inner City Press, d'Escoto again acted like a dinosaur on
June 28.
Chile's
Ambassador Heraldo Munoz was asked about d'Escoto Brockmann's
statement. He pointed out wryly that the Organization of America
States, with the U.S. as a member, had unanimously condemned the
coup. He said d'Escoto Brockmann's statement, then, doesn't merit
comment. Video here,
from Minute 18:48.
In
a radio
interview on June 28, d'Escoto Brockmann railed that Honduras' is one
of the most corrupt armies in Latin America. While there is a lot of
competition for that title, the statement became ironic on June 29,
when d'Escoto Brockmann's spokesman Enrique Yeves outright refused to
answer, or even listen to, a Press question regarding how much of the
$280,000 allocated to his Office by the UN's member states -- and
their taxpayers -- has already been spent.
"I
stop you
there," Yeves said. "I am not going to make... I have
already told you clearly... I am not going to reply to you on that
issue." Video here,
from Minute 33:31.
Inner
City Press
pointed out that Yeves hadn't even allowed the question to be asked.
Yeves insisted that he knew what the question was going to be.
Yeves
was referring
to a question that Inner City Press asked d'Escoto last week, to
provide his rationale for using UN funds to hire two relatives. At
the time, d'Escoto
said he encouraged Inner City Press to continue
with the "speculation," that he found it entertaining.
First,
that two
d'Escoto relatives, Michael Clark and Sophia Clark, are being paid
with UN funds is not speculation: Yeves
himself on June 9 confirmed
it to Inner City Press. After Inner City Press' exclusive report,
it
appeared in the Times of London and elsewhere, and numerous
journalists who cover the UN said they would have liked to have known
it when they quoted Michael Clark, who was brought out for multiple
press conferences on behalf of d'Escoto.
Second,
if as
d'Escoto said speculative and not factual, then it can only be
clarified by the asking and answering of questions. But Yeves
insisted that he will not add to what d'Escoto said. Which was, it is
speculative and entertaining.
D'Escoto
claimed
that the UN General Assembly and by implication his Office are more
transparent than the G-20. Then he and his spokesman have refused to
answer or even take questions about how much of the UN budget
allocated to them has been spent.
D'Escoto, with Yeves over right shoulder,
budget question not allowed
D'Escoto made statement, largely
well placed, about the Honduran Army's corruption. But when will
his
Office and spokesman provide basic information about how much UN and
taxpayers' money they have spent? Watch this site.
Footnote:
While D'Escoto Brockmann's Spokesman Yeves refused to even listen to
the question about how the UN's and taxpayers' funds are spent by his
office, he did answer two Press questions before shutting down. He
said that d'Escoto is now "really glad" about Obama's
statement.
When Inner City Press asked if D'Escoto had any response
to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez putting his military on alert and
threatening military action, Yeves said he had no comment on that.
Then, about the use of UN and taxpayer funds, he said "I am not
going to reply to you on that issue." Inner City Press
encouraged Yeves to simply post the basic financial information on
the President of the General Assembly's web site. We'll see.
* * *
Even
Evo Morales Skips UN Summit, Citing Broken Plane, "Disrespect"
Endangers Outcome
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 25 -- The declining comedy of the UN General Assembly
President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann's summit on the global financial
crisis resumed Thursday with word that even Bolivian president Evo
Morales was not coming. He had been meeting in Venezuela with Hugo
Chavez and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, neither of whom came.
Ostensibly, the plane Morales was going to use to come to New York
broke down and could not be fixed. For some, it was a symbol of
d'Escoto's conference as a whole.
The
regional grouping most present at the summit are the Caribbean
states. Inner City Press asked a panel representing Belize, St.
Kitts, St. Lucia and Grenada how they felt being rebuffed not only by
Western industrialized countries but even Chavez, Ortega and Morales.
Edwin Carrington of St. Kitts said
their failures to appear
"endangers any outcome" or makes it "ring hollow." Video here.
The Caricom four, moderated by PGA's Office, talks
"disrespect"
The panel mentioned that the
larger developing countries, seeing the West's boycott, were
skeptical and did not come. Belize's Dean Barrow called it all "a form
of disrespect."
The
highest profile attendee so far, Ecuador's president Correa, came out
for 21st century socialism and threatened to sue the Wall Street
Journal during his entertaining press conference. Inner City Press
asked him for the significance of the conference. At least we are
talking, he said. He confirmed that Evo Morales was not coming; his
answer was translated into English as concerning an "illness" that
couldn't be "cured." Inner City Press also asked Correa about banks and
Joseph Stiglitz about US President Obama's regulatory proposal; their
answer will be reported elsewhere on this site.
* * *
Even
Chavez and Ortega Send Underlings to UN Summit, Sources Say, D'Escoto
Wastes Moment on Nepotism
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 24 -- Even two of Latin America's leaders furthest to
the left have decided not to attend UN General Assembly President
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann's summit on the global financial crisis.
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has decided to send only his finance
minister, Ali Rodriguez Araque. D'Escoto's own president, Daniel
Ortega, has
sent his finance minister, Alberto Jose Guevara Obregon.
The
subprime meltdown hurt people worldwide, but presented an opportunity
for the UN General Assembly and its one-year president d'Escoto
Brockmann to be relevant. This chance was quickly squandered.
D'Escoto issued his own "outcome"
document that set forth a
UN taxation authority to impose fees on cyberspace. More quietly, he
decided to use his UN budget of at least $280,000 to hire two of his
own relatives, as his deputy chief of staff and economic adviser,
Michael Clark.
When
asked about it by Inner City Press, d'Escoto
encouraged further "speculation"
and said he found it entertaining. Hence this: uncontested nepotism
undermines
credibility, particularly when one is pontificating about the lack of
transparency of the Group of 20.
D'Escoto with Zimbabwe VP Mujuru, Chavez and Ortega
not shown
While
d'Escoto and his team complained about press coverage of their
increasing erratic tenure, they made covering the first day of the
summit needlessly difficult. At first metal detectors were installed,
but since so few heads of state came, they were not used on June 24.
Still, the press was barred from entering the UN's second floor
unescorted, and barred from the UN bar even as it sat empty. A
reception for the summit was closed to the press.
D'Escoto
showed his hand early in his presidency, when in a press conference
he explicitly refused to answer a question from a reporter he didn't
like. There was no push back, and soon he took to making light of
questions about his own use of UN funds. Then he discouraged the
press from covering his summit. Somewhere the banks were laughing, at
a potential overseer laid low by arrogance. This will be continued:
watch this site.
* * *
Nepotism
May Threaten UN Economic Crisis Summit, Role of Nephew of GA President
d'Escoto Questioned
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 9 -- As industrialized countries' public skepticism has
grown at the UN General Assembly's summit on the global economic
crisis, postponed until later this month, analysts have focused on
General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann's refusal to
simply accept the proposed outcome document drafted by member states.
Inner City Press
is told by well-placed sources that a major reason
for the so-called
Draft-Gate which threatens to undermine the crisis
summit is the presence among the PGA's paid staff of at least two
d'Escoto relatives, and the freedom that he gives them.
Michael
Clark is an American staff member who has given numerous lengthly
press conferences about the summit, most recently speaking so
extensively about his views of a world without money that Inner City
Press was not permitted a single question, about some countries'
critique of the draft. At the
time, Inner City Press reported that
Michael Clark previously served with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
and trying to open India to U.S. commercial firms.
Now
it can be told, confirmed by d'Escoto Brockmann's spokesman to
his
credit on June 9: Michael Clark is d'Escoto Brockmann's nephew.
Another niece, Sophia Clark, is d'Escoto Brockmann's Deputy Chief of
Staff.
These two family
connections were confirmed by spokesman
Enrique Yeves on Tuesday. He noted that out of twenty cabinet
members, only two are relatives of the President, and that these are
"freely designated posts" not subject to competition or
qualifications. They are, however, paid from the UN budget.
Chilean
president Michele Bachelet, previously scheduled to attend the
summit, has as Inner City Press heard recently canceled, Yeves
confirmed on Tuesday. Few high level officials from industrialized
countries are slated to come.
It is
becoming, as one well placed
source put it, a wasted opportunity. When the UN General Assembly had
a chance to come out with innovative ideas to regulate the global
financial system, he asked, "who did they turn to? Father
Miguel's nephew."
Michael Clark, with UNPGA one of two Clarks -- or three?
Within
those parts of the General Assembly not related to Escoto Brockmann
by blood or marriage, one can find dissatisfaction with Michael Clark
and the way d'Escoto has "let him run wild," as one source
put it. This source states that Clark has been trying to find this
next job after d'Escoto Brockmann's year as PGA expires, and that
this has included trying to find some European jobs.
The source
traces changes that Clark made to what was ostensibly d'Escoto
Brockmann's personal draft to subsequent criticism of the draft.
"Father Miguel is taking heat for a problem Michael created,"
the source says, calling it misplaced loyalty.
Yeves
said for the record that Michael Clark is by no means the only
adviser on the summit, and argued that Clark's appearance at three
press conferences in a row about the summit was not, as one source
put it, a "try out," but simply a product of the travel
schedule of d'Escoto Brockmann and his other advisers. Inner City
Press asked to interview Michael Clark for this story.
Yeves said
all
such requests to the PGA's advisers go through him, and that answer
would be given by Tuesday at 5 p.m.. Inner City Press hours before
that time also made the request directly to Mr. Clark. After that
deadline, this story is being published, and will be updated. Watch
this site.
UN's $8.2 Billion
Peace Budget Faces 2.5% Cut, S. Korea Puts Congo
Drones on Block?
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 8 -- Anyone can call for peace, but who will pay for
it? That question was being debate, or at least discussed, in the
basement of the UN past 10 p.m. on Monday night. The UN's Fifth
(Budget) Committee had passed its end of May deadline and still the
$8.2 billion peacekeeeping budget was in dispute.
The U.S, Japan,
European Union and surprise Westerner South Korea are proposing a 2.5
percent across the board reduction in all peacekeeping missions'
budgets. The phrase, taken from the Western Sahara draft of June 6, was
a decision "to reduce the Mission's overall operational costs by a
further 2.5 per cent to be accommodated through efficiency savings."
The Group of 77 and China are resisting.
Take
for example
the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known by its
French acronym MONUC. The Advisory Committee on Administrative and
Budgetary Questions' "recommendations on the financing of MONUC
would entail an overall reduction of $66,818,200 or some 4.7 percent
of the Mission's overall budget," mostly due to the local
elections MONUC will support being put back into 2010.
The
African Group,
on the other hand, "is concerned that the cuts proposed by the
ACABQ could negatively impact on the effective functioning of the
Mission."
These
quotes are
from public speeches. Consider, however, the confidential
presentation of the Secretariat to ACABQ, the slide script of which
Inner City Press has been given by a well-placed source. The
Secretariat argued that "the budget before you is not a
maintenance budget based on routine operations." Instead the
Secretariat proposed "an increase of $235 million compare to
2008/09... 168 new posts and positions directly related to the surge
in troops."
This
"surge"
is the 3,000 additional personnel called for the Security Council
during the CNDP fighting in the Kivus, before the house arrest and
Nkunda and incorporation
of indicted war criminal Jean-Bosco
Ntanganda into the Congolese Army, where he has worked in connection
with UN-supported operations according to Congolese records. While
troubling, this should at least save money, no? No. The Secretariat
still proposed ever-increased spending.
The
surge will
come, the document says, from "troops from Bangladesh, Egypt and
Jordan... The new Egyptian battalion will be deployed to South Kivu
and the Bangladeshi will be deployed to Ituri... while the Jordan
Special Forces company will be positioned in North Kivu."
Interestingly, the budget includes "$18 million additional
requirements for 2 UAVs" -- unmanned aerial vehicles, the drones
MONUC chief Alan Doss requested at the turn of the year.
UN's Ban and Doss (not
Mountain) in DRC, budget cuts not shown
Several
Fifth
Committee sources emphasized to Inner City Press the news value of
South Korea's position. Here you have Ban Ki-moon, one source spun,
putting his name on proposals to increase peacekeeping budgets by
almost five percent, while his home country South Korea has joined
the push to instead cut the budgets by 2.5 percent.
The
source asked,
"who's kidding who?" All we could say is "whom."
(On this front it must be said that the Secretariat's presentation to
ACABQ has some laughable typos. It refers for example to "the
Pakistanese battalion." But we digress.)
Upstairs
in the
Delegates' Lounge, a proponent of the Haiti mission's budget told
Inner City Press that MINUSTAH, as it's known, spends 100% or more of
its budget. Mission head Hedi Annabi is called Napoleonic. Other
missions, in their start up phase or even earlier, like Somalia,
might face even steeper cuts.
During
all of this,
the chief of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le
Roy
is slated to travel from June 9 to 23 to West Africa. He will stop
first in Nigeria, where 27 peacekeepers have been sentence to jail
for life for protesting not being paid after a UN mission. Another
peacekeeper, female, says she was pressured for sex while on mission.
As a now-dead rapper sang, More money, more problems.
Le
Roy will head
to Cote d'Ivoire, where Laurent Gbagbo keeps putting off the promised
election. When will the mission draw down? The force in Liberia,
too, is called larger than needs be. In the basement, however, it is
a question of whose ox is gored. Watch this site.
Channel
4 in the UK with allegations of rape and
disappearance
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
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