At
UN, Somalia's
Lost Voting
Rights, But
IMF Offers
Praise
After Visit to
Nairobi
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive on
Mission
UNITED NATIONS,
September 26 – While the UN
system purports to care about
Somalia, the country's voting
rights in the General Assembly
have been suspended. Inner City
Press first reported this (and
tweeted the photo, here),
then asked the spokesmen for the
UN Secretary General and for the
President of the General
Assembly, who confirmed the
suspension of voting rights.
(More on this below). Now the UN
system's International Monetary
Fund has issued an end of visit
report, not mentioning the
country's disenfranchisement and
financial questions about it
mission to the UN. From the September
26 IMF statement: "IMF staff
welcome the authorities’
continued commitments to policy
and reform implementation
despite daunting challenges.
Stronger efforts are recommended
to improve fiscal discipline,
raise domestic revenue, and
avoid new domestic arrears in
order to keep the
Staff-Monitored program on
track. The Central Bank of
Somalia is encouraged to keep up
the momentum of reform
implementation in order to
ensure credible currency reform.
An IMF team led by Mohamad H.
Elhage visited Nairobi from
September 18–22 for a staff
visit to discuss recent
developments, progress under the
Staff-Monitored Program (SMP),
and the economic outlook with
the Somali authorities.... The
team met with the Central Bank
Governor Mr. Bashir Issa Ali;
the Permanent Secretary at the
Minister of Planning, Investment
and Economic Development Mr.
Abdi Dirshe; Finance Minister
Mr. Abdirahman Beileh; and other
officials. The team also met
with representatives of
bilateral and multilateral
donors. The team would like to
thank the Somali authorities for
their cooperation and the open,
productive discussions."
In New York, Inner City Press
has obtained documents showing
Somalia's debt to landlord(s) in
New York, and inquiries about
their account at the National
Bank of Pakistan. Now we have
tweeted a photo of one of the
National Bank of Pakistan
documents, when the Permanent
Representative and his Deputy
opened the account, here.
At the noon briefing, Inner City
Press asked UN Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, UN transcript
here:
Inner City Press: On Somalia,
they’ve lost their voting rights
in the General Assembly.
But beyond that, they seem to
have sent documents showing,
like, they’re behind on their
rent of the Mission, just
basically kind of total chaos
and disarray. And given
that the Secretary-General
hasn’t had a meeting about
Somalia, and there’s all this
expressed support for Somalia,
does the Secretary-General think
that, number one, they should be
given an extension and allowed
to… to vote in the General
Assembly? And… and… and isn’t
that the simplest form of… of…
Spokesman: Obviously,
Somalia is a country that is in
need of international support…
continuing need of international
support as it rebuilds.
The issue of voting rights and
the waivers given to some
countries who are not able to
pay is obviously one for the
General Assembly and the Member
States to decide. Inner City
Press: I’ll ask Brenden
about that." Inner City Press
did, and Brenda Varma wrote to
it: "Your question today
on Somalia: One of the first
issues that the 5th Committee
considers during its main
session is to permit countries
falling under Article 19
(arrears in assessments)
to vote if it's deemed that
inability to pay is due to
conditions beyond the control of
the Member State. The Committee
on Contributions in its most
recent report (A/72/11)
recommends that Somalia (as well
as Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Sao
Tome and Principe) be permitted
to vote despite its arrears. The
Fifth Committee is likely to
follow this recommendation and
as soon as that decision is
adopted in General Assembly
plenary, Somalia can vote
again." Sources exclusively tell
Inner City Press that “because
of tribal linkages, they don't
want us event to talk to the
Prime Minister to bring him up
to speed about the recent record
of the Mission” to the UN - and
that the former Permanent
Representative of Somalia SUED
the government seeking to keep
getting paid. We hear that the
Mission former First Secretary
Omar Jamal is also preparing to
sue. We'll have more on this.
When a Yemen meeting during the
UN General Assembly week was
held at 8 am on September 22,
new UN Relief Chief Mark Lowcock
introduced as speakers the
foreign ministers of Sweden and
the Netherlands, representatives
of Japan and the UAE, and the
UN's dubious envoy Ismael Ould
Cheikh Ahmed. While billed as a
humanitarian meeting, the UAE
spoke without irony about
outside interference. (Yemen's
representative spoke in Arabic;
Inner City Press streamed
Periscope video).
To get to the meeting, held in
UN Conference Room 5, Inner City
Press unlike other no-show
reporters like Egypt's Akhbar al
Yom was required to get a UN
escort or minder, who told Inner
City Press it could not ask
questions or speak with anyone.
This despite UN OCHA telling
Inner City Press it could wait
outside and speak to people as
they left. So the UN's
retaliatory eviction of Inner
City Press for covering UN
corruption now results in it,
unlike the Saudi and pro-Saudi
media in the meeting, being
unable to speak to the
participants. This is today's
UN. While Canada joins The
Netherlands at the UN in Geneva
in calling for an investigation
of possible war crimes in Yemen
including the Saudi-led
coalition's killing of
civilians, Canada has continued
a $15 billion arms deal with
Saudi Arabia. When Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
held a press conference at the
UN on September 21, Inner City
Press went early, intending to
ask him to explain this
incongruity or seeming
hypocrisy. Trudeau's spokesman
announced that the questioners
had been “pre-determined,” but
did not explain how. So in a
lull after what the spokesman
called the last question - would
Trudeau be a mediator on
Venezuela - Inner City Press
asked about Canadian arms sales
to Saudi while calling for a
probe. At first Trudeau said he
was happy to answer the
question. Then he said no, he
would not reward “bad behavior,”
and instead reached out for
question in French about day
care. (Inner City Press notes
that pre-determining questioners
is bad behavior. Apparently the
CBC journalist who was given the
first question agreed to it; the
organization only the day before
sent an Egyptian state media
correspondent as the lone “pooler”
in Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' meeting with General
Sisi.) Eearlier on September 21
when UK minister Alistair Burt
came in front of the UN Security
Council to speak about
accountability for Daesh in
Iraq, Inner City Press deferred
to a timely question about the
referendum in Kurdistan. Then
during lull - identical to
that in which it put its
question to Trudeau - Inner City
Press asked Burt about his
quote, about accountability for
the bombing of civilians in
Yemen by the Saudi-led Coalition
with UK bombs, that "Our view is
that it is for the Coalition
itself, in the first instance,
to conduct such investigations.
They have the best insight into
their own military procedures
and will be able to conduct the
most thorough and conclusive
investigations.” Inner City
Press asked how he can say this,
given that the Saudis have
investigated less than five
percent of the killings. Video here.
Burt's answer focused on the
peace process - what peace
process? At least Burt answered,
and did not like Trudeau try to
call merely asking the question
in a lull "bad behavior" - we'll
have more on this.
***
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