On
Yemen, Guterres's Spox Hasn't
Even Confirmed Receipt of
Letter Vs IOCA, No Disclosure
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
April 26 – At the Yemen
conference in Switzerland, UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres said, again, that
only a political solution will
put an end to the crisis in
the country. But why then,
some says, did Guterres
reflexively extend the mandate
of Ban Ki-moon's (and Saudi
Arabia's) envoy Ismail Ould
Cheikh Ahmed, who doesn't
even purport to comply with
the UN's rudimentary public
financial disclosure law,
despite his lack of not only
accomplishment but visibility?
On April 26 Inner City Press
asked Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: one
follow-up on Yemen. I
know I’d asked you in the past
about a letter that was
received from, I guess you
would call them, the de facto
authorities in the capital,
Sana’a, concerning Ismail Ould
Cheikh Ahmed. You
didn’t… you never kind of
confirmed receipt of that
letter? You did say
that, of course, there’s full
confidence in the envoy.
Is there some way you can go
back and just similarly
confirm receipt of a letter,
as you just did now?
Spokesman: We can
check. And we continue
to have full confidence in the
envoy… [inaudible]
Inner
City Press:
Is there a different policy
for…
Spokesman: For what?
Inner City Press: In a
situation where you have a
mediator trying to talk
between two sides, do you
confirm one side’s letter and
not the other side’s letter…?
[inaudible]
Spokesman: No, we con… I
mean, you know, if I’m aware
the letters are received, I
will… I confirm it.
Six hours
later, nothing. Inner City
Press has been informed, by
the protagonists, that several
respected international NGOs,
all of them "pro-UN," have
mulled publicly urging the
removal of Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed. But they are still
worried about their continued
access to the UN: what if
Guterres simply ignores their
call, as he ignores others?
Where has IOCA, as some call
him, been during all this
time? He took one vacation,
then another, in the middle of
the conflict. How many days
has he been in Sana'a since
Ban Ki-moon named him the
envoy? There are Press
questions that three-SG
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
also unwisely kept on by
Antonio "No Change" Guterres,
has refused to answer. (By
contrast to Dujarric, who
moved to throw Inner City
Press out of the UN Press
Briefing Room (Para
9-10) and has it still restricted
after 14 months, the IMF for
example answers Inner City
Press' questions, for example
last week here.)
Bigger picture, what is the
role of Hadi and why should
his insistence that thousands
die so he can return to a
position he was never elected
to be given so much deference?
We'll have more on this.
In advance of Guterres' first
Children and Armed Conflict
report, at the UN on April 20
a detailed
call to re-include the
Saudi-led Coalition for its
killings in Yemen was made by
the non-governmental
organizations Watchlist
and Save the Children.
Tellingly, the UN did not list
the press conference in its
Media Alert nor begin
webcasting it - so Inner City
Press live-streamed this Periscope,
here. Inner City Press
asked the panelists (Christine
Monaghan, Sarah Ashraf and
Laura Silvia Battaglia) and
moderator Eva Smets if they
had spoken with Guterres'
selection as Special
Representative, Virginia
Gamba. Not yet, was the
answer; Watchlist had not been
familiar with Gamba as a child
rights advocate. (She has been
working on Syria chemical
weapons, in which capacity
Inner City Press has covered
and questioned her). Watchlist
did, however, praise Guterres
for the speed with which he
replaced Leila Zerrougui, not
leaving the position unfilled.
Gamba is set to begin on May
1. Inner City Press also asked
about Guterres' holdover envoy
on Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed, his perceived pro-Saudi
bias and if he has been open
to NGOs on humanitarian
issues. It seems not. As Inner
City Press has reported and
questioned Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
about, Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed has refused to make even
the most basic public
financial disclosure in the UN
program. He is otherwise
invisible too. So on April 18,
Inner City Press asked the
UN's holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, UN
transcript here:
Inner City
Press: I wanted to ask
you on Yemen, James Mattis is
in Riyadh, and he said, this
is a quote, “Our aim for this
crisis”, meaning Yemen, “is to
be handled by a team of
negotiators under the aegis of
the United Nations.” So
I'm wondering, is there any
communications between the
administration…? There is, not
a team, but there's Ismail
Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
What's he been doing?
And is this call by Mattis
understood by the UN to be for
something different than what
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has
been doing?
Spokesman Dujarric: No,
I don't understand it as
something being different.
Then
Dujarric, as he increasingly
does on Inner City Press and
its Yemen and other questions,
quickly turned to another
correspondent. Related in a
way, is the recent BBC The
Inquiry show
into "Why Is No-one Trying to
Stop the War in Yemen?" - it
mentions the ineffectiveness
(but not the corruption)
of the UN, but does not
mention Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed. He is trying to
air-brush himself out amid the
double standards and
suffering. We'll have more on
this.
With the UN's
involvement in the slaughter
in Yemen more and more openly
twisted by obsequiousness to
the Saudi-led Coalition, from
the firing of Leila Zerroughui
who put the Coalition on the
UN's Children and Armed
Conflict annex only to have
Ban Ki-moon remove it (she's
been replaced by Ms Gamba) to
the more recent ignoring of
communication from those in
control on Sana'a, now there's
more. Fishy UN envoy Ismael
Ould Cheikh Ahmed, sources
exclusively inform Inner City
Press, has only bee extended
for six months and not a year.
"He's on a shorter leash," one
said. But why was he extended
at all?
Inner City Press has
exclusively been told by a
number of trusted sources that
Saudi Arabia has pushed the UN
to "dump" the current head of
the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs Stephen O'Brien, who
was already soft on the Saudi,
in exchange for an "even more
pro-Saudi Brit." And, we
reporte here, the name is Mark
Lowcock. Watch this platform.
As one source put
it to Inner City Press, "It's
a new low." And that's saying
something. Another UN source
opined, "That's what makes the
Security Council such a
side-show on Yemen, the power
has been delegated out to
non-Council member Saudi
Arabia." And yet, after the
Security Council's closed door
meeting on March 29, hours
later, this is what the UN's
envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed
put out: "
The United Nations Special
Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould
Cheikh Ahmed briefed the
Security Council members today
on the situation in Yemen and
the efforts to continue
negotiations on the peace
process at a closed-door
meeting. The Special
Envoy expressed his deep
concern about the rapidly
deteriorating humanitarian and
economic situation amidst a
worrying escalation of
military operations. "The only
real way to prevent a
worsening of the situation is
to reach a peaceful resolution
to this tragic conflict which
has been going on for too
long. It is my firm belief
that further military
escalation and humanitarian
suffering will not bring the
parties closer together.” The
Special Envoy had presented to
the parties a framework that
included a set of sequenced
political and security
measures which were designed
to ensure a rapid end to the
war, withdrawals of military
formations and disarmament in
key areas, and the creation of
an inclusive transitional
government. He urged the
Security Council members to
put pressure on the parties to
engage constructively in
discussing the framework. He
said "the Government of Yemen
should agree to engage in
talks based on the framework,
and Ansar Allah and the
General People's Congress must
end their long-standing
refusal to undertake serious
discussions on security
arrangements." The Special
Envoy presented a bleak
picture of the current
situation. He warned that the
impact of the conflict on the
economy and food security will
be felt long into the
futureand jeopardise attempts
to restore stability.
The Special Envoy reiterated
his call to the International
Community to speak with a
unified, consistent and bold
voice to the parties, now more
than ever. He concluded by
urging the Council to “use all
of its diplomatic weight to
push for the relevant parties
to make the concessions
required to reach a final
agreement before more lives
are lost. We must give peace
another chance.” Shades of
John Lennon. Watch this site.
After the killing
of at least 43 Somali refugees
off the coast of Yemen,
Somalia's Foreign Minister
Abdusalam Omer has said "we
call on our partners in the
Saudi-led coalition to
investigate the raid. It is
very sad, targeting a boat
carrying Somali migrants near
the coast of Hodeida in
Yemen." So will Somalia, on
the agenda of the UN Security
Council, formally act the
Council to ensure that an
investigation takes place, and
that those responsible are
punished? Inner City Press on
March 17 asked the Council's
president for the month,
Matthew Rycroft of the UK, who
will investigate it, and it
remains UNclear, see below.
Also on
March 17, Inner City Press
asked UN spokesman Stephane
Dujarric about it, UN transcript
here:
Inner City Press:
On Yemen, this attack on what
are thought, people say they
had UN travel documents, that
these were certified UN
refugees being moved from
Yemen to Sudan, given that the
attack was by Apache
helicopters and there's only a
certain number of parties
using them, is the UN calling
for an investigation to find
out who did it? And do
you consider it a war crime to
sink a boat of refugees?
Spokesman: Clearly, we
stand firmly against the
sinking of… the hitting of
civilians. I mean, my
understanding is that these
were Somalis who had been…
sought refuge in Yemen.
Yemen has been… the people of
Yemen have been extremely
generous to Somali
refugees. They receive,
mostly on prima facie
evidence, refugee
papers. I don't think
they were travel papers per
se, but they were papers
certifying that they are
refugees, and there needs to
be accountability for this
crime.
Also on
March 17, Inner City Press
asked UK Ambassador Matthew
Rycroft about the
bombing, UK transcript here:
Inner City Press:
In the Yemen consultations,
did this bombing of a ship
full of refugees come up? And
is there a desire among
Council members to find out
whose Apache helicopter may
have been behind it? Including
if UK armaments were used, if
in fact it was a Saudi attack,
if not a US attack?
Amb Rycroft: Yes, it came it.
I raised it first for all at
outset of this part of the
meeting, Jeff Feltman as part
of his briefing, he was the
briefer on it, and at least
one or two other Council
members raised it as well. I
think it’s too early to be
reaching any definitive
conclusions on it, but rest
assured, that in my national
capacity, the UK is following
up in detail and with urgency
to get to the bottom of it.
Inner City Press: Who will do
the investigation?
Amb Rycroft: We’ll follow up
on that.
Back on
March 10, Inner City Press
asked Rycroft about the
bombing of Khokha, and if the
Saudi-led Coalition shouldn't
at least stop banning
journalists from the UNHAS
flights into Sana'a. Video
here, UK transcript
here:
Inner City Press:
Since you met about Yemen as
well, I wanted to ask you –
while you were meeting, or
maybe slightly before – there
was an airstrike in a place
called Khoka. Some people say
22 civilians dead. In any
case, there are some very
graphic photographs. I wanted
to know, what’s the Council,
in terms of a political
process, or trying to get
these airstrikes to stop,
what’s it doing? And also, is
there any interest in getting
journalists there? There are
these humanitarian flights
that go to Sana’a but I think
that even when Mr. O’Brien
visited there were no
journalists on his trip. Do
you think that the Saudi-led
coalition should, at minimum,
allow witnesses into the
country to report on what’s
taking place there? Thanks.
Amb Rycroft: The first issue
the Security Council, from
what I heard in our open
session today, is united in
the view that it’s only
through a political solution
that the conflict in Yemen
will end. And that is why we
all support the UN
Secretary-General’s Special
Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed
in his attempts to bring the
parties into a meaningful
political process which will
end the war. That’s the UK
view as well and we stand
ready to do whatever we can to
help Ismail in that process.
It terms of journalists, I
think that’s really a question
for the UN or for the
Saudi-led coalition, which the
UK supports, but it’s a
question that should be
answered by them.
Back on March 6, Inner City
Press asked UN Department of
Political Affairs chief
Jeffrey Feltman: does Feltman
concede that Ban Ki-moon's
envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed
has failed, as it's said the
UN's resigning Western Sahara
envoy has, and why was the
issue of putting the Saudi-led
Coalition back on the UN
Children and Armed Conflict
not raised during Feltman's
trip with new Secretary
General Antonio Guterres
through the Gulf Region?
Feltman said that human rights
were "raised on their own
merits" during the trip; he
did not answer on the envoy
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, even
while provided further detail
about the letter of the
Western Sahara envoy to
Guterres. Video here; we'll
have more on this.
Back on
February 22, days after Saudi
Arabia received yet more
praise from the UN for its
role in Yemen comes reports to
Inner City Press of a
double-tap airstrike by Saudi
jets in Sana'a: "two
airstrikes targeting a
gathering funeral for women in
Arhab district / Sanaa, then
targeted first responders with
another airstrike... People
there are still trying to take
out dead bodies from the
location."
The
airstrikes have been on ports
as well. On February 22, Inner
City Press asked UK Ambassador
to the UN Matthew Rycroft of
the role of these airstrikes
in the humanitarian crisis in
Yemen on which still
relatively new Secretary
General Antonio Guterres was
set to speak at 2 pm. Video
here. From the UK
transcript:
Inner City Press:
Do you think in Yemen the air
strike campaign contributes to
the humanitarian crisis? The
bombing of ports, etc...?
Amb Rycroft: In all four of
these cases, there is a
mixture of factors. Clearly in
Yemen, there can be no
military solution. There must
be a political settlement, and
we strongly support the UN in
seeking to achieve that, and
we support the UN in ensuring
humanitarian access to the
people who need it in Yemen.
The
sudden focus on hunger in
Yemen, without mentioning that
the UN under Ban Ki-moon took
the Saudi-led coalition off
its own Children and Armed
Conflict annex, is
problematic. We will have more
on this.
On February
13, Inner City Press asked the
UN's deputy spokesman Farhan
Haq about it. Video
here, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press:
I wanted to ask you about
Yemen. There are reports
in Yemen of what's… what's
being described as a
double-tap airstrike by Saudi
jets in the Arhab district of
Sana'a, in which one airstrike
was dropped and then another
one on top of first
responders. One, I
wanted to know, what is the
ability of the UN system in
the country to verify or not
this attack? And also,
an you say a little bit more
about what the
Secretary-General said when he
was in Saudi Arabia? I
read what was e-mailed out,
and it seemed to be mostly
praising Saudi Arabia's role
in the region. Did he
express some concern about
these continued airstrikes?
Deputy Spokesman: He has
conveyed his concerns about
the violence in Yemen, and he
has been discussing this
broadly throughout his trip to
the region with a variety of
interlocutors.
Question: Right, but if
this just happened after his
trip to Oman and after he said
he's fully supporting the
envoy despite this letter from
the people that are in control
of Sana’a, do you have any
response? Were any commitments
made to him to not do
double-tap airstrikes on the
capital of Yemen?
Deputy Spokesman: I
wouldn't characterize any
commitments made during the
talks that we've had. We
certainly have made our
concerns known, and along
those lines, what we are
trying to do is focus, with
the parties in the region and
outside of it, to make sure
that there can be a return to
a cessation of hostilities and
a return to talks among the
Yemeni parties. This is
what Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed
is continuing to work on with
the support of the
Secretary-General, and we hope
that the talks that he's had
in recent days can help
further that cause.
Back on
February 10 Inner City Press
asked Guterres' deputy
spokesman about the letter, video
here, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press:
there's a letter from those in
control in Sana'a and in the
north to António Guterres
saying that Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed should not be extended
and should be relieved of his
duties. And I wanted to
know, this issue and the
issues that are being raised
of a sense of bias and of kind
of Saudi control over the
mediation, is it something
he's going to bring up on his
trip to Saudi Arabia, and is
he going to meet with those
actually in control on the
ground in Yemen or not?
Deputy Spokesman: Well,
first of all, we… as I
mentioned, he will meet with
the King, the Crown Prince,
and Deputy Crown Prince of
Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Regarding the criticisms,
we're, of course, aware of…
the different envoys at
different peace processes from
time to time get
criticized. And one of
the most common bits of
criticism is the one side or
another accusing them of being
biased towards the other
side. We stress the
impartiality of the work of
all of our envoys, and the
Secretary-General does support
the work of Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed.
Inner City Press: Has he
gotten this letter? I
mean, are you aware of this
letter?
Deputy Spokesman: We're
aware of the letter.
The letter
among other things says envoy
IOCA "ignored the illegality
of the decision of the
outgoing central bank to
transfer from Sanaa to Aden
and change the board. What is
the reason for the
interruption salaries of about
1,000,300 thousand employees
for more than six months and
no salary, interruption
continues even now."
(On
February 9, Inner City Press
asked the International
Monetary Fund about the issue
and got this
response.)
Has
Guterres read the letter? Will
he, before his visit to Saudi
Arabia? Watch this site.
After
another Saudi-led Coalition
bombing of a school in Yemen,
Inner City Press on January 12
asked Ambassador Matthew
Rycroft of the UK, the
penholder on Yemen in the UN
Security Council, what the
Council intends to do. Video
here; transcript below.
On
February 8 Inner City Press
asked French Ambassador
Francois Delattre about the
removal of the Saudi-led
coalition from the UN's Yemen
Children and Armed Conflict
annex, for money. Video
here.
Delattre said to
ask Leila Zerrougui - but she
is leaving the CAAC mandate by
March 31, as Inner City Press
first reported. So where does
the issue stand.
At least
Delattre answered. On February
7, Inner City Press asked the
UK about the case against it
for its Saudi Arms sales, video here. We will keep
following that case, and the
UN's wayward envoy.
With UN
holding an event about CAAC on
February 8 in the Trusteeship
Council Chamber, Inner City
Press was banned from staking
it out by the ongoing censorship
order of the UN's Cristina
Gallach, unable to
simply walk down the hallway
like others. Gallach's "UN
News Center" published a long
story
about CAAC without once
mentioning Saudi. This is
today's UN: corruption and
censorship.
After the
Security Council met about
Yemen for the first time in
three months on January 26,
Inner City Press asked Council
President Skoog if in the
closed door consultation human
rights violations in the
Saudi-led Coalition's bombing
had been discussed. Not
really, it seems. How is that
possible? Tweeted
video here.
Here's the
top of the bland "Elements to
the Press" which Skoog read
out for the Security Council
before Inner City Press asked
about the bombing:
"Members of the
Council were updated on the
critical humanitarian
situation in Yemen, including
widespread and acute
malnutrition on the verge of
famine.
The members called on all
parties to allow safe, rapid,
and unhindered access for
humanitarian supplies, and to
facilitate access for
essential imports of food,
fuel, and medical supplies
into the country and
throughout. Members also
called for allowing access for
journalists to report on the
situation.
Members expressed serious
concern at the devastating
humanitarian impact of the
conflict on the Yemeni people
and the risk that it will
continue to deteriorate in the
absence of a peace agreement."
Or in the face of
continued airstrikes? In the
Council's open meeting, the
Hadi government's
representative Khaled Hussein
Mohamed Alyemany said again
and again that Hadi must be
returned to power in Sana'a.
At what cost? And for what
purpose?
At the
January 26 UN noon briefing,
Inner City Press asked former
Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric what Ban had
done, after he took the
Saudi-led Coalition off the
UN's Children and Armed
Conflict annex for Yemen. UN transcript
here:
Inner City Press:
on Yemen, a freedom of
information request has found
that the UK Ministry of
Defense is tracking over 250
allegations of humanitarian
law violations by the
Saudi-led coalition.
Since Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon, when he took them off
the list, said that this
process would continue in
communications with the
Saudis, number one, has this
process involved getting
information from other Member
States that are themselves,
because they sell arms to
Saudi Arabia, tracking
them? And, two, what…
what did the Secretary-General
do between when he said that
he was going to continue to
look at this and the day that
he left? Was…
Spokesman: I think when…
I said as soon as I have more
to add on this process, I will
do so.
Inner City Press: But
does the process involve
specifically asking the UK for
this…?
Spokesman: I can't
answer to the details of that.
From the
January 12 UK transcript:
Inner City Press:
On Yemen, the president just
said that they are looking for
a date, and you know this
school was bombed, what’s the
plan of the Council this month
as pen holder to actually have
a meeting or have the envoy
come. What’s happening?
Amb Rycroft:
Well, we are very keen to hear
back from Ismail Ould Ahmed.
He has our full support. As
you know, there is a draft
Security Council Resolution,
which we have drafted which is
sort of out there hovering
over the process and we are
very much in Ismail’s hands in
terms of whether and when it
would be useful to progress
that further here.
Because
essentially what that does is
to get the whole of the
Security Council behind his
roadmap and to push the
parties into a meaningful,
political process.
We haven’t got
that at the moment. There’s a
lot of diplomacy going on
behind the scenes, but what we
don’t have is a really
positive political process
leading towards a political
settlement. And I think all of
us around the Security Council
table, whatever our views on
the ins and outs of the
conflict, we are at least
united on that issue that
there must be a political
settlement.
Meanwhile it seems the UN
envoy Ismael Ould Cheikh
Ahmed, trying to stay in the
job, may brief the Security
Council on January 25.
New UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres has taken over from Ban
Ki-moon, who left amid
indictment of his brother and
nephew for UN-related
corruption, and failures in
Yemen including selling out to
the Saudis.
Inner
City Press asked Guterres about
Yemen at his first stakeout; he
said he'd be an honest broker.
Will he be, more
than in the UN press corps
today?
Ali
Saleh has written to Guterres, see
here, citing previous
meeting and asking to stop the
war and the killing. We'll have
more on this.
On
December 20 Inner City Press
asked UK Ambassador Matthew
Rycroft about Saudi Arabia's use
of UK cluster bombs. Tweeted
video here and hindered
production note.
Inner
City Press first
published the UK
draft resolution,
as credited by
Associated
Press, via Salon, Daily
Mail (UK), Fox
News
***
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