President
of GA Admits
Qatar Role in
His &
Ban's Travel,
Ban Is Asked
to Disclose
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 22 --
For weeks the
Office of the
President of
the
General
Assembly has
refused to
answer
questions from
Inner City
Press
concerning who
paid for the
travels of the
PGA and UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon.
As
the last
question
permitted on
December 22 to
PGA Nassir
Abdulaziz
Al-Nasser,
Inner City
Press asked
this question,
and asked for
a response to
Libyan
diplomat
Shalgam's
critique of
"interference"
in
Libya by
Qatar, for
which Nassir
Abdulaziz
Al-Nasser
served as
Permanent
Representative
until earlier
this year.
Nassir
Abdulaziz
Al-Nasser
declined to
respond to
Shalgam,
suggesting
that Inner
City
Press ask his
successor at
the Qatari
mission, but
acknowledged
that
Qatar has paid
for some of
his recent
travel with
Ban Ki-moon.
He
cited a Qatar
provided
flight from
Nairobi to
Doha.
Whether
Qatar
providing such
assistance may
present a
conflict of
interest, or
at
least should
be fully
disclosed by
the PGA, is a
topic for
another
day. More
immediately,
Inner City
Press moments
later asked
Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
to disclose
material
support Ban
receives from
particular
member states.
(c) UN Photo
Ban and PGA on
the road
together,
Qatar plane
not shown
Nesirky
described
a number of
legs of travel
not paid for
by Qatar --
his office has
previously
told Inner
City Press Ban
traveled to
Libya on a
"charter"
flight -- and
acknowledged
the Nairobi to
Doha flight by
Qatar.
Inner
City Press
asked if the
UN Secretariat
will disclose,
at least going
forward in
2012, material
support to Ban
Ki-moon and
his travel
from
particular
member states.
Nesirky said
he would look
into it. Watch
this site.
, 
