Inner City Press





In Other Media-eg New Statesman, AJE, FP, Georgia, NYTAzerbaijan, CSM Click here to contact us     .



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



Share |   

Follow on TWITTER

More: InnerCityPro

Home -

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

CONTRIBUTE

(FP Twitterati 100, 2013)

ICP on YouTube

BloggingHeads.tv
Sept 24, 2013

UN: Sri Lanka

VoA: NYCLU

FOIA Finds  

Google, Asked at UN About Censorship, Moved to Censor the Questioner, Sources Say, Blaming UN - Update - Editorial

Support this work by buying this book

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



As 2 S Sudanese Disappear in Kenya, ICP Asks Why UN & RC, Ban's Son in Law, Silent

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 17 – As the UN discussed enforced disappearances with restricting the Press' ability to cover them, Inner City Press on February 17 asked UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq why the UN's Resident Coordinator in Kenya, Ban Ki-moon's son in law promoted by him without recusal, was silent on at least two cases. From the UN Transcript:

Inner City Press: it's the tenth anniversary of this Convention on enforced disappearances.  So, I'd asked you, I think, on Monday about this… these case of two South Sudanese who have disappeared in Kenya.  You said you're aware of the reports so, two things.  One, I'm wondering, who in the UN system is engaging with the Kenyan Government or the South Sudan Government about that?  Why hasn't the Resident Coordinator in Kenya? I mean the Nigeria one is speaking about when Boko Haram will be done.  Has anything been said by the UN in-country about these people that have been disappeared presumably by the Government and returned to South Sudan?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, first of all, I believe that there are Special Rapporteurs dealing with this particular situation.  There's… one of our human rights instruments deals with the question of disappearances.  And so they're looking into this matter, and we'll try to get information from them first and foremost.  And then other parts of the system can work on that as needed.

Inner City Press:  Sure.  And then can I, there's  a high-profile case in France of a 22-year-old person that was arrested on video and has said to have been raped or sodomized during the arrest.  His name is Theo.  And there have been riots in France for several days on it.  I've checked at least everything that's been sent out by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.  I haven't seen anything.  Is the UN aware of this case?  And what do they think of… of both police treatment of people in France and of how the protests are being dealt with?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, regarding protests, of course, we want to make sure that the freedom of expression and the freedom of peaceful assembly are upheld.  Beyond that, this is a case that, ultimately, the judicial system would need to look into, and we'll have to see where they go with that.

  Back on January 25 with at least these two South Sudanese threatened with deportation by Kenya, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric for the UN's response. From the UN transcript:

Inner City Press: extradition questions, not South Korea extradition but are you aware of the impending extradition of South Sudanese human rights lawyer Samuel Luak, who defended Pagan Amum?  Basically, a number of highly respected groups are saying that, if he’s deported, he will face unjust treatment.  So I’m wondering, has the UN…

Spokesman Dujarric:  I, I have, don’t have an update here, but, again, you can check locally with the mission.

Inner City Press:  So that would be the resident coordinator?  I’m talking about in Kenya.

Spokesman:  In Kenya, you can check with the UN Information Centre in Nairobi.

  Dujarric was until December 31 the spokesman for Ban Ki-moon, who before he left the UN promoted his own son in law Siddharth Chatterjee to the top UN post in Kenya, as Resident Coordinator.

 In December as Kenya detained journalist Jerome Starkey, Ban Ki-moon's son in law Chatterjee was entirely silent. Like his father in law has proved to be with the Press in New York, he is at heart a censor. But it makes a mockery of Ban Ki-moon's post Sri Lanka claims of "Rights Up Front," even as Ban angles to run for President on South Korea.

 In fact, in Sri Lanka Ban's son in law is implicated in presumptive war crimes, the Jaffna Hospital massacre and the crushing of civilians with tanks. And it's from him that Ban took his advice on Sri Lanka, where Ban oversaw the killing of more than 40,000 civilians.

 Ban is allowing those scribes who ignore this and praise him to sell access to him on December 16 for $1200 on Wall Street. We'll have more on this.

Tellingly, as the UN's Resident Coordinator in Kenya, Ban's son in law Chatterjee has remained silent not only on the targeting of South Sudanese, but on the protests profiled in a study released by Article 19, here.

Ban's son in law ignores Ban's supposed “Rights Up Front,” given his action in Sri Lanka (see below) and because he is entirely unaccountable: he could only be fired by Ban Ki-moon, his father in law. Nepotism is harmful.

On December 3 Inner City Press reported the ever-increasingly likelihood that Ban Ki-moon's son in law Chatterjee was involved in crimes of war in Sri Lanka, which neither Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric nor Chatterjee himself when asked in the UN lobby was willing to answer.

   For some time Inner City Press has heard that Chatterjee, as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka, was a war criminal. Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Dujarric if Chatterjee was involved in the Jaffna University raid, or the Jaffna hospital massacre, without answer.

   In the UN lobby, Chatterjee said he would answer at an “opportune time.” He has not answered. Chatterjee had his commander, Dalvir Singh, write a defense on Huffington Post and elsewhere, identifying himself as the commander of Chatterjee and of the 10th Para commandos.

And that's the problem. More here and here.

***

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA

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 2006-2015 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com for