Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

UN's Ban Met Otunbayeva Twice Before Bakiyev Was Toppled, Johnny Appleseed

UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- Days after the UN refused to answer if Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Rosa Otunbayeva before she replaced President Bakiyev as ruler of Kyrgyzstan, then referred only to a meeting by Ban's political advisor Lynn Pascoe, Inner City Press learned that Ban attended two meeting with Ms. Otunbayeva, before Bakiyev's overthrow.

  Sources told Inner City Press that Ban attended two meetings, one closed and an open one with parliamentarians, at which Otunbayeva spoke to him. While Ban did not do a projected media availability on April 15 after he briefed the Security Council on his Central Asia trip, Inner City Press caught up with Lynn Pascoe in his wake.

  Inner City Press asked Pascoe to confirm or deny that Ban met twice with Otunbayeva. To his credit, Pascoe confirmed it. There were three things, he said. The first, the S-G with parties, opposition parties, Rosa Otunbayeva spoke. And then with the parliament. In the first, she raised the question of opposition folks who were demonstrating. The S-G said, I'm going to be taking meetings, I have Pascoe. So I did it.

  Ban's associate spokesperson Farhan Haq, when Inner City Press asked in writing if Ban had met Otunbeyeva, said he would not comment on the new leader. Then when Inner City Press asked Martin Nesirky, Ban's spokesman, Nesirky mentioned only the Pascoe meeting. He used the word "singular," which no longer makes sense: there was more than one opposition leader met with, and more than one meeting, even with Ban.

UN's Ban and Bakiyev, just before his overthrow, Otunbayeva meetings not disclosed

On April 12, Inner City Press asked for a "readout on what opposition leaders did the UN delegation meet with while in Kyrgyzstan?"

Spokesperson Nesirky: I think it is singular rather than plural, and it was Ms. Otunbayeva. This was a meeting with about half a dozen representatives, mostly journalists and including Ms. Otunbayeva. This took place during the Secretary-General’s visit. The Secretary-General was in other meetings, and he asked Mr. Pascoe and a number of other advisers who were travelling in that delegation to Central Asia to meet with them and they were then able to report to the Secretary-General on the conversation.

Inner City Press: Did they make any predictions? Or is it possible to get kind of a readout of what was discussed at the meeting?

Spokesperson: No, I do not think it is possible to have a readout of that meeting in itself, because that goes beyond normal diplomatic practice.

  Inner City Press asked Pascoe about this on April 15, that his meeting was with "mostly journalists." Pascoe said, "I saw that and I cringed a little bit, there were several opposition figures."

  To some it appears that the UN is playing down -- to put it diplomatically -- Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's pre-overthrow meetings with opposition leader Rosa Otunbayeva.

But why? Some point to the obvious double standards of having denounced the ouster of President Zelaya from Honduras and the leader of Niger, but not this. On that, we will continue to report. Watch this site.

Footnote: the split between Pascoe and the UN spokespeople is highlighted, not to discourage Pascoe from saying what happened, but to encourage the spokespeople to.