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

Ban Names Fishy Envoy Rejected in Yemen, No Financial Disclosure

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 25 -- In a UN announcement about Yemen on Saturday morning the other shoe dropped and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed to replace Jamal Benomar as envoy.

  Three times Inner City Press asked the Office of the UN Spokesperson why Ould Cheikh Ahmed is not listed on Ban's webpage of public financial discloure and to say, yes or no, if he has an interest in a business which received funding from the Gulf. Three times the Office of Spokesperson promised to look into and give an answer, but never did. This is Ban's UN.

 On April 24, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

Question:  Okay.  I'm also informed of a letter from political parties in Yemen, including those representing Houthis and others, directed at the Secretary-General making two requests.  One, that Mr. Ould Cheikh Ahmed not be named as a replacement to Mr. [Jamal] Benomar and that someone be appointed or retained who actually they will speak with.  And I wanted to know… you may not know of this letter yet, but I'm reliably informed it is either there or on its way…

Spokesman:  All right.  I will look for the letter.

Question:  And I guess my question would be, do you… has the Secretary-General… since we've already… we've heard from some of the ambassadors from the Security Council that he's put forward a name.  Did he put any effort to speak to the parties on the ground in Yemen, the actual Yemenis?

Spokesman:  I think the… when we're ready to announce the person, we will.  Obviously, for a… an appointment as delicate as this… as this ongoing… to represent the Secretary-General in this ongoing crisis, it is normal to have as broad of a consultation as possible, and what is obviously extremely important is that once that envoy is named, that adviser is named, that all the parties give him access and engage with him.

Question:  If you get the letter, will you squawk it?  Does it mean that these parties that wrote…

Spokesman:  I think…

Question: …once consulted…

Spokesman:  It's an ongoing humanitarian crisis.  It's an ongoing conflict.  And we are trying to get the political process back on track.  So we'd like to have a special envoy as soon as… a Special Adviser as soon as possible, and again hope that all the parties engage with him.

Question:  Didn't you have one? That's my question.  Didn't you actually have a Special Adviser?

Spokesman:  Yes, we have Mr. Benomar…

Question:  Is it your understanding that he's entirely unwilling to continue in the post?

Spokesman:  Well, I think he's… he's… he's expressed his desire to move on and, as we said, we are… we're in the process of naming somebody shortly.

   No response about the letter, either. This does not bode well.

  After Saudi Arabia was allowed to oust UN mediator Jamal Benomar for being insufficiently supportive of its airstrikes, the UN is being promoted, again, as an honest broker.  How so, when the UN is UNtransparently naming as a replacement mediator an individual who previously failed in Yemen, refusing to make public financial disclosure?   How weak and untransparent is today's UN?  It it apparently considering appointing as replacement envoy to Yemen a partial individual whom one side has indicated it would not speak with.

 Follow @innercitypress Follow @FUNCA_info