No
UN Answers on
Haiti, Korea
Arrests Query
Taken, Ban on
Whistleblowers
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 9 --
The UN
declining to
answer
questions has
become more
and more
routine. But
now the UN, or
at least
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin
Nesirky,
declines to
even be
asked
questions.
On
November 9,
the
day after
Nesirky took
three
questions from
Inner City
Press and
answered none
directly and
one only
by including
an answer in
the UN's
transcript of
its briefing,
barely 15
minutes into
the noon
briefing
Nesirky told
Inner City
Press, "Only
one more
question."
Inner
City Press
proposed at
least two
questions, on
arrests at a
UN disarmament
locale in
South Korea
and on
whistleblower
protections,
noting that
both are in
the wheelhouse
of the UN.
"Choose
one,"
Nesirky
insisted.
Inner City
Press asked
the arrests on
JeJu Island,
where a naval
base in
planned. The
arrestees
include
Youngsil Kang,
resistence
leader Brother
Song, Sung-hee
Choi
andDunguree
(Park
Sung-soo).
Nesirky didn't
answer about
the arrests
and crackdown,
saying
only that he
would look
into it -- as
he said of UN
treatment of
claims on
Haiti after it
seemingly
introduced
cholera, and
of failure
to file public
financial
disclosure by
numerous Ban
administration
officials,
including his
adviser on
"global
goods."
And
so there was
no
chance to get
Ban's response
to the complaints
against him
and his
report by the
President of
the UN Dispute
Tribunal,
Judge Memooda
Ebrahim-Carstens. In essence, UNDT judges
oppose a
number of Ban
proposals
including
precluding
whistleblowers
from getting
review in the
UNDT of
adverse
actions by the
UN Ethics
Office.
(c) UN Photo
Ban
& Nesirky,
views on Jeju
crackdown not
yet heard, Q
on retaliation
not taken
GAP
is on record
to
"urge the
Secretary-General
to withdraw
the proposed
change to
article 2.1(a)
of UNDT's
statutes. We
also encourage
him to hold
accountable
the person who
wrote language
that
mischaracterized
the
Tribunal's
case law,
apparently to
mislead the
General
Assembly."
Inner
City Press
in the course
of its
reporting is
often
approached by
UN personnel,
including
senior
officials, who
say they are
concerned
about
retaliation.
And so to
remove any
review of the
rejection of
their
claims would
only compound
this problem.
What is Ban's
answer? His
spokesman
Nesirky,
without
explanation,
would not take
the question
on November 9.
Perhaps
as with
whether if not
why Ban is
meeting with
Egyptian
presidential
candidate Amre
Moussa, the UN
will unilaterally
answer the
question,
as if to bury
the answer.
Perhaps it
will do the
same on the
situation on
JeJu Island,
South Korea.
Watch this
site.
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