UN's
Ban
Slammed in Staff Union Resolution, for Lack of Action & Staff
Death
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 5 -- Open discontent
with the UN's Ban Ki-moon has
spread, reflected in a resolution
passed on August 5 by the UN Staff
Union deploring “the systemic lack of personal accountability and
transparency [which] has become more serious since the current
Secretary General took office.”
The
resolution
expresses deep concern about Ban's “apparent lack of interest in
seeking a determination of accountability for the numerous deadly
incidents involving staff members, including those who died in the
terrorist attack on the UN premises in Algiers in 2007 up to the
killing of [UN Security officer] Louis Maxwell in Afghanistan in
2009.”
As
Inner City
Press has exclusively reported, despite the finding in a still
withheld UN report that Louis Maxwell was murdered by Afghan National
Forces, Ban's top Security official Gregory Starr has said it is hard
to push the Afghans to investigate this one death, due to “cultural
sensitivity.”
The
resolution
notes the End of Assignment Report of the former head of the Office
of Internal Oversight Services Inga Britt Ahlenius, which among other
things criticized Ban's lack
of accomplishments in Myanmar and Sudan,
and Ban's losses in and lack of cooperation with the UN Dispute
Tribunal, where for example his Under Secretary General Shabaan
Shabaan has be ordered to pay a $25,000 fine for misconduct.
Unless
Ban takes
“immediate steps towards real reform,” the Staff Union will
consider a “vote of no confidence in the management of the UN and
its leadership” in the Fall, the season of the UN General Debate.
Click here
to see the penultimate draft of the resolution, which was
adopted in substantially the same form in a meeting Thursday
afternoon. Inner City Press exclusively obtained and is publishing
the resolution, here.
UN's Ban and ball, vote of no confidence not shown
This
comes as
countries in the General Assembly move to require Ban to appear
before them to seek a second term as Secretary General. In the past
weeks, Ban has deployed his Under Secretary General for Management
Angela Kane and his chief of staff Vijay Nambiar to defend his
performance.
In
light of the expanded and expanding critique, one
expects Ban to personally make his case. He is expected back in New
York, and to hold a press conference, on Monday, August 9. Watch
this site.
* * *
For
UN,
Is
Merely Being There Enough, with Ban Under Fire for a 2d Term?
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July
26 -- What has Ban Ki-moon accomplished as UN Secretary
General in Myanmar and Sudan, Inner City Press asked his spokesman
Monday, for the fourth day in a week.
“His record is
clear,” Spokesman Martin Nesirky replied. “From standing in front
of a still burning warehouse in Gaza, to visiting Haiti five days
after the earthquake, to visiting Darfur refugee camps... he has
achieved a huge amount.” Video here,
from
Minute 26:55.
But
the three
achievements listed were only “being there” -- celebrities have
traveled to Haiti, and to refugee camps in Darfur and elsewhere.
Meanwhile
reports on the UN's performance in Sudan are largely negative. Rubble
still fills Haiti's streets. And even the Goldstone response is late,
due to failure to translate. Myanmar, telling, was not even mentioned.
Is being there enough?
Seeking
the
Ban
Administration's -- if not yet Ban Ki-moon's -- response to the
criticism being heaped upon his tenure, Inner City Press asked
Nesirky when he made a piece by a heretofore big UN supporter, “Good
Night, Ban Ki-moon.”
“We don't need
to comment on every piece,” Nesirky said, calling that piece a
“rehash.. a lot of what is in the piece has been seen before.” A
lot by not all: the piece mentions inaction on Sri Lanka:
“A
peacekeeping official pointed out that Ban had insisted on
behind-the-scenes diplomacy in Sri Lanka even as the government was
killing thousands of civilians in its campaign to erase the brutal
insurgency of the Tamil Tigers: "We're doing everything we can
to avoid saying anything at all about it. That's been our line on
practically everything. The SG is clear that his final consideration
is going to be the political costs of whether he should or shouldn't
speak." That's a very real calculation every secretary-general
must make. But, he added, "There's no sense that the
deliberations include, 'What should we do?'"”
Only
this
year, Ban
after saying he would name a panel of experts on war crimes in Sri
Lanka, then delaying 90 days, has gone out of his way to limit the
scope of the panel to providing advice on “models of
accountability” to himself and the Rajapaksa government, if they
want it. The Rajapaksas have said they will deny visas to the group;
Ban through Nesirky has repeated declined to comment on the refusal
to cooperate.
UN's Ban on plane: he was there, cracked
windshield and direct responses not shown
Now
a brewing
fight is Ban's decision to bypass South African and other developing
world candidates to nominate a Canadian, Carman Lapoint-Young, as the
new head of the Office of Internal Oversight Services. Inner City
Press, which reported
exclusively on the move on the night of July
23, asked Nesirky for Ban's response to developing world countries
who say the post was meant for their regions.
Nesirky
once
again
declined comment, except to say there is “very strong, overwhelming
support” for the nominee. Sort of like the overwhelming support for
a second term?
It
is time for Ban
Ki-moon to speak for himself on this controversy -- time for him to
“be there,” as it were. He will appear before the press Monday at
5:30. Before his appearance Friday at a reception for the press,
Inner City Press was repeatedly told not to ask about the
controversy, not to “hijack” the event. That cannot similarly be
asked on Monday evening. Watch this site.
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