By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 12,
updated with video -- The UN's lack of
transparency
hits new lows
daily.
On December 10
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
acting deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
told Inner
City Press
that the
amount the UN
it paying to
France for
airfield
services in
Mali is "not
public," nor
are any of UN
Peacekeeping's
Letters of
Assist through
which they pay
out public
money.
Inner
City Press
went to the
Security
Council
stakeout and
asked France's
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
how much
France was
getting paid
for Mali
services by UN
Peacekeeping
-- run for the
fourth time in
a row by a
Frenchman,
this time
Herve Ladsous
the country's
former deputy
ambassador in
the Security
Council during
the Rwanda
genocide in
1994.
Araud's
first
reply was that
Russia gets
paid more. But
this is
through
competitive,
public bids,
not secret
letters of
assist like
France's.
Araud
then told
Inner City
Press, on
camera and as
transcribed
by the French
Mission to the
UN, "I am
sure you are
going to rush
to the
spokesperson
of the UN to
ask why French
corporations
actually don’t
get their fair
share of the
tenders of the
UN and why
Russia is
getting much
more of the
tenders of the
UN."
Inner
City Press
went to the
December 12
noon briefing
wanting to ask
at least two
questions,
both Mali
related. The
first because
the UN would
be expected to
at least
publicly
oppose
censorship
involved
threats from
Mali's
government to
the Maliactu
website, to
take down an
article
linking the
Malian Army to
killings and
body-dumping
near Timbuktu.
Ban
Ki-moon's main
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
had already
taken three
questions in a
row from
another
journalist
long
associated
with the
United Nations
Correspondents
Association a/k/a
Ban's UN
Censorship
Alliance (it
has sought to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN
and has not
reformed since
but continues
in
essence spying
for the
Secretariat
and hosting
Ban, at least
twice this
month).
But
when Inner
City Press
moved to ask
the second
Mali question,
about
procurement
and the Letter
of Assist to
France,
including any
involvement by
Peacekeeping
chief Ladsous,
Nesirky
refused to
take the
question,
instead
awarding the
UNCA officer a
fourth
question.
Inner
City Press
repeated its
request to be
permitted this
second
question and
was told,
"No." While no
reason was
given, it came
in a noon
briefing the
first part of
which was a
presentation
on malaria in
which Nesirky
automatically
gave the first
question to
UNCA's "Holy
Seat," as he
always does.
If
time is so
limited -- and
to be fair to
the
spokesperson
that might
have been the
concern --
then the first
question
should not
automatically
be given to
any
organization.
Particularly
not one which
has engaged
in
censorship
(about Sri
Lanka, here)
and which is,
yes,
in the midst
of accepting a
donated
Samsung
television
passed or
laundered
through the
South Korean
mission and
then the UN,
all the while
claiming that
there is no
mission
involved in
the donation
of the
television
equipment.
It
seems fair to
expect to be
able to ask
two questions
at the UN's
noon briefing
- particularly
if other
correspondents
are being
given four. It
seems fair
that a
question to
the UN, which
repeatedly
claims to be
transparent,
about
non-public
payments to
France by a
department
headed four
times in a row
by a French
national
should be
answered.
Tomorrow
Herve
Ladsous is the
guest at the
UN's noon
briefing. He
has been
allowed to
refuse to
answer Press
questions, for
example about
mass rape by
the UN's
partners in
the Congolese
Army. Video
here, UK
coverage
here. One
might have
expected the
UN to at least
take two
peacekeeping
mission
related
questions
about Mali
before
Ladsous'
appearance the
next. But that
expectation is
not how the UN
is operating.
Watch this
site.
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