On Yemen, ICP
Asked UK Allen If
Saudi Should Be on
CAAC List, UN of
Gamba - DSG
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
August 15 – When the UN
Security Council belatedly met
about Yemen on July
12, only three of the
Council members spoke in the
open meeting: Uruguay, Bolivia
and Sweden. The UK, the
Council's "penholder" on
Yemen, did not speak in
public. On August 14, Inner
City Press asked new UK Deputy
Permanent Representative
Jonathan Allen if the UK
thinks the Saudi-led coalition
which it arms should be put
back on the UN's Children and
Armed Conflict list of shame.
From the UK transcript: Inner
City Press: On Yemen, there is
a petition to the Security
General about the death of
children, largely by the
Saudi-led coalition. So I
wondered what’s the UK
position on the children in
the armed conflicts list,
should the Saudi-led coalition
be listed again? Should the
list be frozen? What’s your
view?
Deputy PR Allen: So, on Yemen,
of course we are going to be
discussing that issue later
this week. We’ve got an
opportunity to talk to the
SRSG there, we are going to be
focussing very much I think,
on Friday, on the humanitarian
side and of course we would
also always say that all sides
should avoid any attacks on
civilians, any causalities,
any children being involved.
We will be making that clear.
So Special
Envoy IOCA will participate.
Inner City Press asked audibly
asked Ambassador Allen about
Cyprus, to the failed talks on
which he led the UK
delegation, but the question
was not answered. Later on
August 15, Inner City Press
asked UN Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: on Yemen,
yesterday I'd asked Farhan
[Haq], groups have said that
they delivered 37,000
signatures to the
Secretary-General's Office
yesterday. I guess he
wasn't back yet, but they say
that it was delivered,
concerning the killing of
children in Yemen. IHe
said he would check, but has
he?
Spokesman: I haven't
seen it, but I'll… we can
check.
Inner
City
Press: And…
and… and perhaps relatedly, I
see, on Amina Mohammed's
schedule for today, a meeting
— it's already taken place —
with Virginia Gamba.
When is that report going to
come out? Can you now,
as it gets closer, hopefully,
respond to the idea that it
will be frozen, that no new
parties will be listed or…
Spokesman: No, I'm not
going to… I think… I fully
understand the high level of
interest in this report.
I think everybody will have to
judge the report and its
annexes once it comes
out. My understanding is
that it will be on the
Council's schedule for either
late September or early
October. But I think
that's… it's up… we're waiting
to hear from the Council when
they actually want the report.
Inner City Press: Also on her
schedule, I see a visit by
Merck, the company
Merck. Given
developments here in the
United States, I just wonder,
can we get a readout, the
Deputy Secretary-General
meeting with Merck? When was
the meeting scheduled and what
does…
Spokesman: I'll see what
I can get you. But,
obviously, the private sector,
including pharmaceutical
companies, play a big role in
our efforts to meet the
Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs).
On July 12
Uruguay cited an airstrike on
a market and noted that the
rebels don't have air support.
Children are being killed, but
still no report of or (re)
listing of the Saudi led
coalition by the UN's Children
and Armed Conflict
representative Virginia Gamba.
On August 14, Inner City Press
asked the UN's Deputy
Spokesman Farhan Haq, video here, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: on Yemen, I
understand that some a
37,000-signature petition
regarding the… the… the
country was somehow delivered
to the Secretary-General's
Office. And I wanted to
know… one, if you can just,
maybe now or after the
briefing, confirm it was
received, and also, just, in
connection with that, I did
want to ask where the
Secretary-General is. It
was said he'd be back on, I
guess, the 11th. Now it's the
14th.
Deputy Spokesman:
No. He'll be back
tomorrow. He's
travelling back today to New
York, and he'll be back in the
offices tomorrow.
Inner City Press: What about
this Yemen petition? Are
you aware?
Deputy Spokesman: And
I'll check and see whether
we've received that.
Seven hour
later, nothing. Inner City
Press also on August 14 asked
Haq, on the UK's Tony Blair:
does the UN get
conflict-of-interest
disclosure forms from its
envoys, including the Quartet
envoy?
Deputy Spokesman: The
Quartet envoy, as you know,
had a special status where he
represented the US, the UN,
the European Union, and the
Russian Federation. He
was not under the purview of
any one of those four groups,
and so we didn't have the same
level of information about
those arrangements for him as
we would for envoys who are
under the employment of the
Secretary-General.
Question: But what level
did you have? Was there
any form filed with the UN
about his outside finances?
Deputy Spokesman: He did
not file financial disclosure
forms...
Inner City
Press: Bernardino León,
when he was the envoy on
Libya, he was a full-time UN
employee. What's the
UN's final conclusion on
whether it was appropriate for
him to negotiate a job with
the UAE Diplomatic Academy
while he was the UN's envoy on
Libya? And if anything's
learned from that, would it be
appropriate for a current
envoy, for example, the one on
Yemen… are there any limits
on… on… on seeking outside
employment, particularly
either in countries or funded
by countries that are party to
the conflict that he's
mediating?
Deputy Spokesman: There
are limits, and certainly we
want our envoys to avoid
conflicts in terms of dealings
with the parties with whom
they are negotiating.
Regarding Mr. León, we made
our concerns known at the
time. I don't have
anything to add to what we
said then.
On August
11 the UN's often invisible
envoy on Yemen Ismail Ould
Cheikh Ahmed went gone public
on Twitter with his love of
churros, tweeting an article
in Cosmopolitan magazine
urging readers to book a trip
to California immediately.
Inner City Press preserved the
ice cream shot in a
photograph, here,
in part because IOCA has a
pattern of blocking
journalists on Twitter, which
the Free
UN Coalition for Access
has questioned along with
other UN censorship. On August
8, Inner City Press asked
about the bombings, and the
UN's envoy, to the UN
Spokesman. From the UN transcript:
Inner City Press: You
may have seen the
International Committee of the
Red Cross has issued deep
concern about airstrikes on
Sa’ada and Taizz in great
detail. They issued this
today. And so,
inevitably people wonder,
given that the UN has a
Special Envoy on Yemen, is he
equally as concerned, either
well documented…?
Spokesman: I think we
have… The UN system, through
its Resident Coordinator,
expressed its concern at the
airstrikes and the death of
children and civilians over
the weekend. Anyone who
works for the UN is obviously
troubled and concerned about
the continuing suffering of
the civilians, and that's why
the Special Envoy is
continuing his work and
trying… and keep… and not
giving up on trying to get the
parties around a political
settlement. And I think,
if you… as I'm sure you do pay
attention to the various
Security Council briefings, I
think our outrage at the
continuing deaths and
suffering of civilians is
clear.
And then: Inner
City Press: this came up on a
few other officials, but I've
been informed or… that the UN
envoy on Yemen, Mr. Ismail
Ould Cheikh Ahmed, blocks
journalists, including a guy,
Mr. Shwaib al Musawa [sic],
who's like a… the stringer for
The New York Times who covers
Yemen. So, I'm just
wondering, is there some
policy from the top? I
haven't seen Mr. Shwaib [sic]
really, you know, be as
critical as some others are of
Mr. Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed,
but is there some guidance
from the Secretary-General
that people that are envoys on
a country shouldn't block
journalists that are covering
that country?
Spokesman: No, I'm not
aware of any particular
guidance. I don't
monitor people's Twitter
accounts, who they block, who
they don't block. So,
no.
The ICRC
has issued this: "The
International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) is extremely
alarmed at a pattern of recent
airstrikes that have killed
and injured dozens of
civilians in the Sa’ada and
Taiz governorates in Yemen. In
the latest such incident, nine
members of one family were
killed and three critically
injured. The casualties were
between 3 and 80 years old.
'Our colleagues have been to
the village of Mahda, on the
outskirts of Sa’ada city,
where they saw a house
literally flattened by the
explosion, while a crater
showed where the impact had
occurred,' said the head of
the ICRC delegation in Yemen,
Alexandre Faite. 'According to
two eyewitnesses, a single
strike hit the house in the
early morning of 4 August,”
continued Mr Faite. “We
strongly deplore the trend
whereby public places, such as
markets, as well as private
houses, have been targeted by
the belligerents.'" Back on
July 21 after the airstrike on
civilians near Taiz, the UN's
own human rights office has
said there was no military
target nearby, and the strike
was by the Arab Coalition
Forces and killed ten
children. Still it seems that
the UN Children and Armed
Conflict report, pushed back
under Antonio Guterres and
Virginia Gamba to September,
will continue another
of Ban Ki-moon's shameful
moves and leave the Saudi
Coalition out of the list of
child killers. At the UN, more
are saying, reforms have been
canceled or at least
"postponed." From OHCHR: "Our
office in Yemen has gathered
more information about a
deadly airstrike that took
place in a small village in
Taizz Governorate in Yemen on
Tuesday, 18 July. The Arab
Coalition Forces airstrike
took place in Al Asheerah
village, which is near the
town of Mawza, and is
currently controlled by the
Houthis, at around 8:30 a.m.
on Tuesday. According to
witnesses who fled the area
and were interviewed by one of
our monitors, the airstrike
destroyed a makeshift house
made of straw, killing all
three families who were inside
it at the time. At least 18
civilians in all, including
ten children and two women,
are believed to have died in
the incident.
The three families had been
recorded by our office in
Yemen as displaced, along with
three others, from their homes
in a different village nearby
three months ago as a result
of other airstrikes, and had
set up four rough shelters in
an open area in Al Asheerah.
The village is located
approximately eight kilometres
away from Khalid Bin Al Walid
Military Camp, where clashes
between pro-Hadi forces,
backed by the Coalition
Forces, and the Houthis are
taking place, and, according
to available information,
there do not appear to have
been any military objectives
anywhere in the immediate
vicinity of the destroyed
house. Attacks targeting
civilians or civilian objects
or indiscriminate or
disproportionate attacks are
prohibited under international
humanitarian law, and we also
remind all parties to the
conflict, including the
Coalition, of their duty to
ensure full respect for
international humanitarian law
and to respect their
obligations under
international human rights
law. We call on the relevant
authorities to carry out a
comprehensive and impartial
investigation into this
incident." We'll see. After
the July 12 meeting Inner City
Press asked the representative
of the Hadi government about
what Uruguay said. Video here.
Rather than comment on air
strikes, he called Uruguay a
"revolutionary" countries
that, essentially, should mind
its own business. Perhaps he
confused it for another Latin
American country? He
emphasized he's said it in
quotation marks. On July 19,
Inner City Press asked UN
Spokesman Farhan Haq, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press: the
Saudi-led Coalition, the
blocking of the plane with the
journalists on it.
There's a quote in one of the
stories quoting a Coalition
source saying that “the UN
must ensure the journalists'
safety and make sure they do
not carry out any other
activity”. What is the
UN's role? Does the UN
believe there should be
increased international
coverage of situations like
that in Yemen? What does
it do to bring that
about? What is it trying
to do to get journalists into
Sana'a? And what does it
think of this position that
it's the UN's job to make sure
what journalists do once they
arrive?
Deputy Spokesman: Well,
we do try to get access for
journalists whenever we can do
so, including into
Yemen. It's not
specifically the duty of our
humanitarian flights to carry
journalists, but there have
been times when we've been
willing to do that in order to
increase access to this
area. Regarding this
specific situation, our
humanitarian colleagues have
informed us that the UN
Humanitarian Air Service
flight, which was cancelled by
the Coalition yesterday due to
three BBC journalists carrying
Government visas being on
board, was rescheduled for
today. The flight took
off from Djibouti and landed
in Sana'a with 26 humanitarian
workers on board, but not the
three BBC journalists.
As our colleagues have said,
this partially explains why
Yemen, which is one of the
world's largest humanitarian
crises, is not getting enough
attention in international
media. The lack of
coverage is hindering
humanitarian workers' effort
to draw the attention of the
international community and
donors to the man-made
catastrophe that the country
is experiencing.
Inner City Press: Can you give
a status of what the children
and armed conflict report that
normally may come out by this
time… when's it going to come
out?
Deputy Spokesman: It's
being worked on. I
believe it is expected to go
to the Member States sometime
in… probably in early
September. We'll give
you advanced notice before
that happens.
Sure. On
July 17, after the Houthi said
said that UN enovy Ismail Ould
Cheikh Ahmed will be replaced,
Inner City Press asked deputy
UN spokesman Farhan Haq, who
replied "At this point, Ismael
Ould Cheikh Ahmed remains in
the job. You're aware he
briefed the Security Council
recently on his work."
Back on May 30 when IOCA took questions, Inner City Press
asked him about the call to
re-open the Sanaa airport to
commercial traffic. He replied
with a proposal to open it one
day a week, video
here, and said he
hadn't been able to talk about
it with the Houthis (with whom
the UN and UK said that he had
spoken). Now after swirling
rumors IOCA would be removed
from Yemen and shifted to
Libya to replace Martin
Kobler, Lebanon's former
Culture Minister Ghassan
Salame has been tapped by
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres for the Libya post.
Inner City Press story here.
So whither IOCA? How long must
things continue as they are in
Yemen? On June 15, hours
before the UN Security Council
was to formally adopt a
Presidential Statement on
Yemen, Inner City Press asked
the Council's penholder on
Yemen, the UK's Matthew
Rycroft, if the Statement puts
the UN in Hodeida port. Video
here.
From the UK transcript: Inner
City Press: Is the UN going to
be in Hodeidah port?
Amb Rycroft: Well, I think
there’s a continued discussion
about that. There are some
operational complications
about a UN role there. But
talks continue.
So, no. And on
IOCA, Rycroft said he'd leave
it to the UN to make personnel
announcements. On June 6,
after the Supreme Political
Council in Sanaa said no more
IOCA, Inner City Press asked
UN spokesman Dujarric, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press: the Supreme
Political Council in Sana'a
has now said formally that the
envoy is no… is… they're not
going to deal with him and
he's not welcome to go to
Sana'a anymore because they
find him biased. And I
know you always say you stand
behind him; he's not
biased. But if one party
is literally basically PNGing
[persona non grata] him,
although they're not the
Government, if he can't go
there, what's his role?
Spokesman: We've seen
the statements. I think his…
his work continues. His
dialogue with all the parties
continues. I think we've
seen these statements from one
side or… in any sort of
mediation effort the UN is
involved in, it's part of the
work, and he continues his
work.
How?
Back on May 30, Inner City
Press asked the Security
Council's president for May if
the Council would be calling
for the re-opening the airport
in Sanaa. That's up to the
negotiations of the envoy on
the ground, was the answer.
This is dysfunction. When the
Council's penholder on Yemen,
Ambassador Matthew Rycroft,
spoke before the monthly
meeting about the country on
May 30, he again expressed
full support for the UN's
holdover Yemen envoy Ismail
Ould Cheikh Ahmad despite the
lack of any progress. Inner
City Press asked, loudly, for
the UK's view of the
non-governmental
organization's letter
including that the UK and
Council should "demand the
re-opening of Sana’a airport
for commercial flights so that
additional humanitarian
supplies can enter the country
and people in need of medical
treatment can leave and call
on the parties to the conflict
to cooperate with the Special
Envoy to work expeditiously on
a plan to resume the effective
functioning of the Central
Bank, thereby enabling the
payment of public sector
salaries as well as the
disbursement of social-welfare
cash transfers." Rycroft, who
has answered three pre-picked
questions from Reuters, CBS
and US state media, did not
answer. Video
here. IOCA is viewed as
so one-sided that he was
protested in Sanaa on May 22,
and the Houthis refused to
meet with him , according to
their spokesperson. But the UN
claimed IOCA met the Houthis.
So on May 26, Inner City Press
asked the UN, transcript here:
Inner City Press: Yesterday,
Stéphane said that the envoy,
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, had
met with a representative of
Ansar’Allah or the Houthis,
and there's a statement by the
Ansar’Allah spokesman,
Mohammed Adbul-Salam, that no
such meeting occurred, that
they refused to meet with them
in part because of the
non-payment of civil servants
throughout the country and in
part because they just think
that he's on, one-sided.
But, can you confirm, I mean,
did the envoy say to the
Secretariat that he'd met with
the Houthis? And if so,
at what level? Who did
he meet? Because the
spokesman for that party says
that there was no meeting.
Deputy Spokesman: I will
just reiterate what we put out
in our note to correspondents
that there was such a
meeting. We can check
with his team who that
entailed.
Four hours
later this spokesman Farhan
Haq closed the office without
having provided any more on
this or other Inner City
Press' questions. Back on May
23 Inner City Press asked the
UN who these guards were -
"local" - and with what the
envoy was attacks: only
plastic bottles and eggs? UN transcript here
and below. On May 24, the UN
issued this: "The United
Nations Special Envoy to
Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed, concluded today a
three-day visit to Sana’a
where he met with political
leaders from Ansar’Allah and
the General People’s Congress
and Representatives of other
political parties. The talks
focused on possible agreements
which would to prevent the
spread of military activities
to Hudeidah and practical ways
to ensure the resumption of
salaries to all Yemeni civil
servants nation-wide.
During his visit, the Special
Envoy met as well with members
of the Yemeni Women’s Pact for
Peace and Security and
representatives of civil
society organizations to
discuss current political
challenges and security
concerns in addition to the
economic crisis and recent
outbreak of cholera. In a
meeting with Yemeni youth, the
Special Envoy discussed
mechanisms for greater youth
contribution to international
efforts to reach a peaceful
resolution to the conflict in
addition to possible solutions
to reopen Sana’a International
Airport and prevent further
deterioration of the economic
and humanitarian situation.
At the end of his visit, the
Special Envoy expressed his
deep concern regarding the
grave attack on his convoy
while traveling from the
airport to the UN compound on
22 May. The Special Envoy
reminded the parties that it
is the responsibility of the
local authorities to ensure
the safety of all UN personnel
in the country and urged them
to investigate the incident,
hold those responsible to
account, and prevent any such
incidents in the future.
The Special Envoy indicated
that the incident increased
his determination to continue
with his efforts to find a
negotiated political
settlement that serves the
best interests of the Yemeni
people.
The Special Envoy’s visit to
Sana’a, follows visits to
Saudi Arabia and Qatar where
he met with government
officials as part of his
efforts to find a political
solution to the conflict in
Yemen. He also met with senior
World Bank officials in order
to support the World Bank – UN
collaboration to address the
growing food insecurity and
economic crisis in Yemen. "
From the May 23
transcript: Inner City Press:
there are these reports of the
guards of envoy Ismail Ould
Cheikh Ahmed opening fire in
the air. It's unclear if
they're… who the guards were,
whether they're UN DSS
[Department of Safety and
Security] or not, and whether
he was attacked by bottles and
eggs, as one account puts it,
or a more serious attack on
his convoy. What are the
facts…?
Spokesman: Yesterday, he
was attacked by a… by
demonstrators. My
understanding is that there
were eggs and other things
thrown at him, and a number of
shots were also fired at the
vehicle. He is
continuing his engagements
with the General People's
Congress in Sana’a, as earlier
planned, as well as
Ansarallah. Obviously,
the security and safety of UN
personnel is the
responsibility of the local
authorities, and it's their
responsibility to investigate
it. And we reiterate our
call on all the parties to
engage constructively in the
negotiations over cessation of
hostilities and resumption of
the peace talks.
Inner
City
Press: But
did those protecting him also
fire? And, if so, who
were they? Were they UN
personnel or were they [Abd
Rabbuh Mansur] Hadi personnel?
Spokesman: My
understanding is that they
were local security personnel.
Inner City Press: A private
company?
Spokesman: They were
local security personnel
working for the authorities
Inner City Press is informed
that UN DSS, now in a scandal
involving its chief Peter
Drennan "burying" reports
about Irina Bokova of UNESCO
in Paris, previously employed
in Yemen an individual who
passed information to Sauid
intelligence. This is today's
UN, entirely UNreformed. When
the UN's holdover Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric was asked on
May 8 about the UN bringing
expired medicine and medical
supplies into Yemen, he didn't
deny it. Video
here.
Now on May 15, still
without an explanation of the
expired UN medicine, Inner
City Press asked Dujarric
about the day's Saudi-led
Coalition bombing. From the UN
transcript:
Inner City Press: I wanted to
ask you about Yemen... a
Saudi-led coalition air strike
near Taiz killed 23
people. And its
so-called loyalist, meaning
[Amb Rabbuh Mansur] Hadi-side
people, said the number is
20. Does the UN have
any… is there any comment on
this?
Spokesman: I'll
check. I'll check and
see what we can get.
Hours
later, nothing. See also letter,
here. UN Spokesman
Dujarric is aware there's an
issue, but reflexively blamed
it on delays in getting
supplies in. It's been eight
days and counting. On May 15,
Inner city Press asked
Dujarric, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: in Yemen,
now that the Government or the
authorities in charge of
Sana'a have declared an
emergency. They say
there's 115 deaths by
cholera. What is… what
is the UN's role in helping to
respond to it? And have
you yet gotten anything back
on the reports of expired
medicines delivered by WHO…?
Spokesman: No, not on
the medicines. I mean,
as I think I said just a few
minutes ago, the UN's role is…
through WHO, is to support the
Government of… support the
Government of Yemen through
the establishment of
rehydration centres, diarrhoea
centres, helping with
medicines in every way and
every way we… we can.
Inner City Press: That's one
of the reasons I'm
asking. It's been almost
10 days. Do they have no
response?
Spokesman: I'm sorry. I
was answering you on the
outbreak of cholera… I'll
check… no, no, I'll check…
Inner City Press: If
you're saying count on
W.H.O.…?
Spokesman: No, I think…
that was an isolated
incident. I don't think
it impacts WHO's work.
Back on
May 11, Inner City Press asked
Dujarric, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: on Yemen,
did you ever end up getting an
answer from OCHA or WHO on the
expired medicines that I asked
about?
Spokesman: No, not
specifically. I'm still
waiting for something.
Back on
May 9 Inner City Press asked
him again, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: yesterday, I
had asked you about the issue
of this expired medicine moved
from warehouses in Ibb to
Taizz. Do you have any
response on that?
Spokesman: No, not at
this point. We've asked
our colleagues at OCHA [Office
for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs] to look
into it, and I'm trying to get
something.
On May 8 Inner
City Press asked Dujarric for
more information, citing (but
mis-pronouncing) the work
of intrepid journalist
Shuaib M. Almosawa, who also
facilitated / translated this
[annotated] WHO spin: Of the 8
trucks sent to Taiz, four
trucks are still being held by
health authorities. [the ones
carrying the expired medicines
but UN won't (yet) admit where
they're being held--in Taiz--
and why they're being held?]
The World Health
Organization expresses
its appreciation for the
quality assurance mechanism
followed by the Ministry of
Health which has helped remove
expired medicines." So despite
the obfuscations, the expired
medicines were removed, by
non-WHO parties. Inner City
Press asked UN Spokesman
Dujarric but is still waiting.
Watch this site.
. 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?
Now as we enter May, with
Uruguay taking over the
presidency of the UN Security
Council for the month, Inner
City Press on May 1 asked the
Council's penholder on Yemen,
UK Ambassador Matthew Rycroft,
what will be done. From the UK
transcript: Inner City Press:
On Yemen, what does the UK
want to have this month in the
Council. Are you expecting an
open meeting, something to
follow up on Geneva, or about
the port of Hodeidah? What’s
your thinking?
Amb Rycroft: I think it will
depend a lot on the progress
in the talks led by the UN in
the form of the Special Envoy
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed. If
there is progress to report
then we will want to get
behind that. If there
continues to be a lack of
progress then we will need to
really press the parties to
adhere to a political process
to give up any attempt at a
military solution, and to get
back on track with the
political talks.
We'll see. 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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