With
UN
Peacekeepers
Charged With
Sexual Abuse
in Haiti, Ban
Ki-moon
Silent,
Watching
Whistleblower
Movie of Past
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 17 --
In Haiti, UN
peacekeepers
from Uruguay
are
accused of
having sex
with children
in their base,
and taking
nude
photos of the
children to
show other
soldiers,
according to
the
Comité
de recherches
pour le
développement
et
l’organisation
de
Port-salut.
These
allegations
were published
in the Haitian
press six days
ago --
ironically the
day that
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon sent a
letter
to the
director
of The
Whistleblower,
about sex
trafficking by
UN
peacekeepers
in
Bosnia.
This
was described
as Ban
confronting a
sordid chapter
of the UN's
history, but
Ban has
apparently not
confronted
alleged
misdeed under
his watch and
responsibility.
The UN in New
York, in the
six days after
the
allegations
were made in
Haiti, said
nothing about
them.
Inner
City Press
on August 17,
the day after
the UN had
canceled its
normal noon
briefing,
asked Ban's
acting deputy
spokesman
about the
allegations
against the
Uruguayan UN
peacekeepers
in Port-Salut.
Haq
said,
"MINUSTAH is
in fact
looking into
this
allegation, to
see if
there is any
credibility to
it. If there
are any
facts... we
will
share them."
While
some doubt
that the UN
would "share
facts" about
wrongdoing by
its
peacekeepers,
given for
example that
the UN just
airbrushed out
from
its final
report
allegations of
inaction by
Egyptian
peacekeepers
in
Southern
Kordofan. But
even if the UN
did report
back on the
allegations in
Haiti, the UN
does not state
what happens
to
individual
peacekeepers,
by name or
even
nationality.
The statement
"any facts...
we will share
them" must be
seen in that
light.
Footnote:
Speaking
of seeing,
Ban's August
11 letter says
he watched The
Whistleblower
with his
senior
advisers.
Meanwhile, he has
received
but not
watched the
film Killing
Fields of Sri
Lanka, which
along
with
addressing
rape as a tool
of war
critiques
Ban's UN's
performance.
It's
worth
nothing that
dozens of Sri
Lankan
soldiers were
repatriated
from the UN
mission in
Haiti charged
with sexual
abuse, but the
UN
has never
reported any
accountability
in Sri Lanka.
Ban, Haq said,
is "working
from his home"
this week;
this was
offered as a
reason to
cancel regular
noon
briefings, on
August 16 and
prospectively
August 18 and
beyond. And so
it goes at
(Ban's) UN.
* * *
At
UN,
Ban Prefers
Attack on Kofi
Annan in The
Whistleblower
to Critique of
His UN's Sri
Lanka Act in
Killing Fields
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 16 --
Two months
after the
premiere of
the film
"Killing
Fields" about
Sri Lanka
including a
critique of
the UN's weak
performance
under
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, Inner
City Press
asked Ban's
acting deputy
spokesman "Yes
or no: has Ban
Ki-moon
watched
'Killing
Fields of Sri
Lanka'?"
Weeks
ago, the UN
told Inner
City Press
that a DVD of
the film had
been given to
Ban Ki-moon
and that he
would watch it
when he had
time. When Ban
returned from
his native
South Korea,
he went on
vacation (or,
"intends to
have some time
off this
week," as Haq
described it).
On
August 16, Haq
having
canceled the
day's UN noon
briefing told
Inner City
Press by
e-mail: "He
has received a
copy of the
film from
Channel 4."
Given
the way the
question was
asked, we read
this answer as
"No," Ban has
not watched
it.
This
stands in
clear contrast
to Ban's
August 11
letter to the
director of
the film "The
Whistleblower," also criticizing the UN but for a time period before
Ban Ki-moon
took over, as
noted under
the heading "Ban
confronts a
sordid chapter
in UN's
history"
in Foreign
Policy which
received the
letter.
Why
has Ban
watched The
Whistleblower
-- with his
senior
advisers, no
less -- and
not "Killing
Fields of Sri
Lanka"? The
latter's
critique of
the UN, in
2009, Ban is
in fact
responsible
for. The other
he can lay off
to another
time, and
claim he is
fixing the
problem.
Ban & his
Special
Adviser
Nambiar,
Killing Fields
not seen
Ban's
letter doesn't
say if his
chief of staff
Vijay Nambiar
was one of the
senior
advisers with
whom Ban
watched The
Whistleblower.
More than one
source has
suggested that
Nambiar might
be behind Ban
not commenting
on, or even
apparently
watching,
Killing Fields
of Sri Lanka,
given among
other things Nambiar's
involvement in
the so-called
white flag
killings
depicted in
the movie.
While
Ban on August
11 wrote
that he is
asking the
President of
the General
Assembly to
sponsor a
screening in
the UN of The
Whistleblower,
he has
not even
transmitted
the Panel of
Experts'
report on Sri
Lanka to the
UN Human
Rights
Council.
Haq
on August 15
said that
still might
happen in the
future.
Maybe after
Ban finds the
time, with or
without
Nambiar, to
watch a movie
that critiques
his UN's
performance?
We'll see.
to
a lack of
commitment?
One Ban
administration
representative
told Inner
City Press, on
condition of
anonymity due
to fear of
retaliation
and firing,
that if Ban
has any
leverage, he
would use it
for "more
pressing"
topics than
Sri Lanka.
, 
