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Discrimination and Corruption in UN Alleged to Ban
by Whistleblower's Letter
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
August 4 -- Another UN whistleblower
has emerged, alleging system-wide discrimination against Africans and
non-English
speakers, naming names to show employment and sexual favoritism and
advancing
the theory that under-representation of Francophone applicants falls on
racial
lines.
In a
seven-page, single-spaced letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon,
which a half-dozen recipients showed to Inner City Press, a 16-year
employee of
the UN Peacekeeping denounces what she calls the "Koreanization" of
the UN's senior management, and makes 12 recommendation. The first
question on
many people's mind is what retaliation she may face.
The
letter's first page recounts
"I have worked for some
sixteen years with DPKO and its new Department [of Field Support]
DFS... I have
received instructions... to establish the list of pre-selected
candidates
favoring the candidacy of whites from countries that are
contributors...
Several applications are blocked by DPKO / DFS / PMSS very simply
because they
are candidates who are Latino or African, most of whom are Francophone.
The
interviews of these candidates are done in English with the simple
objective of
blocking French-speaking potential candidates. There are many posts
that have
been vacant for up to two years. These posts require the recruitment of
qualified candidates who speak French to serve in Cote d'Ivoire, in
Chad and
the Central African Republic, in Burundi, in Haiti, etc....
[There is for
example the case of a Canadian] truck driver, retired from the Canadian
army,
recruited by the UN as Chief of Administration to serve in Peacekeeping
missions. All the missions where he has worked, he has recruited not
only
compatriots but also acquaintances, even friends, who had no experience
to
serve in the missions and who spent their time on the Internet watching
pornographic films. This happened in the UN Mission in the DRC and in
the
International Criminal Court for Rwanda."
From there
she goes on to name a specific official of the UN Mission in Cote
d'Ivoire, the
chief of personnel, who does not speak French, despite getting the job
on that
basis. All of the work, she says, is done by the official's
administrative
assistant. She tips her hat to Lusophones -- speakers of Portuguese --
whom she
says also face discrimination. She identifies Office of Legal Affairs
recruitment of, she says, a lesser-qualified Indian candidate over an
African,
Cyrille Momo.
She describes how the
staff balance in the UN Mission to Chad [and the Central African
Republic]
is being, in her words, infiltrated by extremists. Her strongest
critiques are
directed against longtime top officials at DPKO and DFS, whose previous
chief Jane Holl Lute is said to be in contention to head either the
Peacebuilding Support Office or even the Department of Safety and
Security (although Ban on August 4 asked Spain to submit a candidate,
watch this space).
a
The letter
was copied
to the new head of DFS,
Susana Malcorra, as well as to French Ambassador
Jean-Maurice Ripert and Ban's senior advisor Kim Won-soo. She says, "I
am
not an enemy of the system but a friend. A friend is the one who tells
you
truths."
But how
will the system respond?
Watch this site.
And
this --
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