Ban
Ignores UN
Afghan
Corruption
& Congo,
Fudges on
Syria,
Met DPRK
Experts?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 8 --
While Ban
Ki-moon was in
Tokyo for the
Afghanistan
conference, he
apparently did
not even
mention the UN
corruption
scandal there
which has
spread from
the UN
Development
Program's Law
& Order
Trust Fund for
Afghanistan to
the budget of
the UN
mission
itself.
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for Inner City
Press' most
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8th in series.
Ban
did,
however, hold
a series of
meetings and
Q&As and
issue a
flurry of
read-outs,
which raise as
many questions
as they
answer.
On
Syria,
Ban said that
"the General
Mood" on June
15 decided
to limit the
activities of
the UNSMIS
mission. But
Ban's
associate
spokesman
Farhan Haq
insisted to
Inner City
Press that the
official
stop was on
June 16.
Inner
City
Press sources
staying that
at the Hotel
Dama Rose at
the time
say that Mood
on the evening
of June 15
didn't mention
the
limitation,
even as Herve
Ladsous' DPKO
turned in a
memo to
Security
Council
members that
Mood had
stopped at 6
pm local in
Damascus.
And
they
saw UNSMIS go
on out patrol
on the morning
of June 16,
and UN
vehicles
return with
broken windows.
So which is
it?
Asked
about
sanctions on
the Democratic
People's
Republic of
Korea, Ban
said that
"I
met
recently the
Panel of
Experts on
this issue.
But at this
time I
do not have
clear
information on
this
particular
issue. I will
look
into this
matter when I
return."
Who
knew
that Ban meets
with sanctions
panels. What
evidence does
he
have? Has he
met with the
Somalia /
Eritrea
sanctions
group, given
that his
Secretariat
censored its
own Eritrea
report to the
extent of
taking it
offline after
Taye-Brooke
Zerihoun said
he "consulted
with Security
Council
members" -- or
at least some
of them.
On
Myanmar,
Ban praised
Japanese
companies for
their
gold-rush into
the
country --
without even
mentioning the
UN and NGO
staff who have
been
detained, or
the plight of
the Rohingyas.
With
Germany's
foreign
minister Guido
Westerwelle he
says he
discussed
Mali; with
Pakistan's
foreign
minister Hina
Rabbani Khar
Ban
discussed
Rio+20.
Pakistan is a
major troop
contributor to
the UN in
Eastern Congo,
where now the
UN
peacekeepers
are on the run
and not
protecting
civilians from
the M23
mutineers. But
Ban did not
mention
that.
How
the
UN itself
could and
should do
better is not
on the agenda.
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this site.
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