Inner City Press

Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis

Google
  Search innercitypress.com Search WWW (censored?)

In Other Media-eg Nigeria, Zim, Georgia, Nepal, Somalia, Azerbaijan, Gambia Click here to contact us     .

,



Home -

These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis

Follow us on TWITTER

CONTRIBUTE

Subscribe to RSS feed

BloggingHeads.tv

March 1, 2011: Libya

Video (new)

Reuters AlertNet 8/17/07

Reuters AlertNet 7/14/07

Support this work by buying this book

in

Click on cover for secure site orders

also includes "Toxic Credit in the Global Inner City"
 

 

 


Community
Reinvestment

Bank Beat

Freedom of Information
 

How to Contact Us



After Ban Ki-moon Dined With Coup Leader Rajoeline in May, Now UN Won't Confirm Meeting Madagascar PM

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 2 -- Despite speeches about democracy, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon dined in May next to Madagascar coup leader Andry Rajoelina.

 His then deputy spokesman Farhan Haq proceeded to deny to Inner City Press that Ban had "met with" Rajoelina, despite photos of the dinner.

Rajoelina recently sent his de facto prime minister Camille Vital to New York, and it was reported in the Malagasy press that Vital met with Ban Ki-moon "to ask for the taking of concrete measures given the inefficiency of SADC," the Southern African Development Community.

As SADC still views Rajoelina as a coup leader, the implication was that Vitale was asking the Ban administration to facilitate his appearance and legitimization at the upcoming UN General Debate this month.

On August 29, Inner City Press in writing asked Ban's lead and deputy spokesmen

"on Madascagar, has the Secretariat received any request to meet with de facto prime minister Camille Vital or foreign Minister Yvette Sylla or any other Malagasy officials in the run up to the General Debate?"

  Neither lead spokesman Martin Nesirky -- away from the office since early August -- or Farhan Haq, who gave the UN's briefing the next day on August 30 at which he introduced his successor as deputy Eduardo del Buey, answered or even acknowledged the question.

  And so on September 2, Inner City Press asked del Buey the question asked in writing at the beginning of the week, about any meeting with de facto prime minister Vital:

Deputy Spokesperson del Buey: I’ll have to check and get back to you on that.

  It would be easy to confirm or deny this meeting, but six hours later, no answer was given.

  Inner City Press' own reporting finds that Vitale has confirmed that he met with Ban's "Under Secretary General" -- presumably, UN Department of Political Affairs chief Lynn Pascoe -- about finding a way to appear at this month's General Assembly.


Ban and coup leader, UN claims Ban never met him

  Earlier in the month onAugust 17, the UN refused to answer Inner City Press' question about DPA's involvement in Madagascar, including through Joaquim Chissano.

   So Ban Ki-moon's UN, while speechifying about democracy, is meeting secretly with coup leaders and refusing to answer questions about it.

Footnote: a Wikileaked cable shows that at the time of the 2009 coup, only Ban's envoy Tiebile Drame "expressed a strong position in support of consequences, and accompanying statements and talking points, for the extra-constitutional solution now in progress." So Ban and his UN and "extra-constitutional solution[s]" -- while they purport to be the central adviser to Libya on democracy. Watch this site.

Click for July 7, 11 BloggingHeads.tv re Sudan, Libya, Syria, flotilla

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption


* * *

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

Google
  Search innercitypress.com  Search WWW (censored?)

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

            Copyright 2006-2011 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com -