Inner City Press -- Investigative Journalism from the United Nations

At the UN, It's Groundhog's Day on Western Sahara, Despite Fishing Deals and Flaunting of the Law

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, October 31 -- Western Sahara has swallowed UN peace plans, Secretaries-General's envoys, migrants aiming north to Europe or west to the Canary Islands, resolutions of both the General Assembly and Security Council and, to those watching, a not-small part of the UN's credibility.

This was on display in the Security Council's nine-minute meeting on Tuesday extending for six more months the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, MINURSO, and in the run-up in the report of Kofi Annan's envoy, Peter van Walsum.

Thirty-one years ago, the UN's International Court of Justice issued a ruling on Western Sahara that has yet to be implemented. There was a General Assembly resolution, recently hearkened back to in impassioned speeches in Conference Room 4 in the basement of UN Headquarters.

Morocco, which claims historical ties to and sovereignty over the region, most recently signed a fisheries agreement with the European Union which includes the area off Western Sahara's coast.

After Tuesday's Security Council meeting, Inner City Press asked the president of the Council, Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, if for example the matter of Morocco's fishing agreement with the EU had come up, as it impacts the natural resources of Western Sahara. Video on UNTV.

"Yes, that was an issue that came up," Amb. Oshima replied.

Inner City Press asked: "Was there a sense that it is helpful, to bringing the parties together?"

"I do not want as President to go too much into that specifics," said Ambassador Oshima.

The Western Sahara circle

The Frente Polisario, formally the Frente Popular para la Liberacion de Saguia el-Hambra y del Rio de Oro, now declines negotiations with Morocco, unless guaranteed a referendum with independence as an option. The UN's envoy, Mr. van Walsum, included in his report the suggestion, like that of James A. Baker III before him, for "negotiations without preconditions."

The report notes that while the ceasefire was entered into in 1991, "15 years later, the military parties remain without direct contact with one another. This continues to have a negative effect on mutual confidence." You might say so.

The Frente Polisario, like Eritrea on the other side of North Africa, questions why the UN doesn't enforce its court decisions, and then asks the there-prevailing but still-unserved party to re-enter negotiations without preconditions. To go back to Square One, in other words.

Observers of the UN's 30-year circle on Western Sahara cite to the Bill Murray movie Groundhog's Day, in which the protagonist faces the same exact day, again and again. The same talk of self-determination, the same lack of will. The same map on the UN Headquarters' third floor, showing Western Sahara as the largest remaining colony in the world. The map has inspired some correspondents to doggedly pursue the issue, despite apathy and eye-rolling. Now their ranks are added to, with the reading of reports.

On October 27, Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman about Morocco barring reporters from the region. From the UN's transcript:

Inner City Press question: Morocco has blocked journalists from Norway from visiting Western Sahara. Norway has raised it and said this is a bad thing. I wonder whether UNESCO or the United Nations has any comments.

Spokesman: We can check with UNESCO. I am not aware of these reports. We can look into them.

No response has yet been provided. The most recent UN report also mentions immigrants lost in the "no-man's land" on the border with Mauritania, one of whom, from Mali, died. There was a report by the UN High Commission on Human Rights, intended to be confidential, which appeared worldwide on websites on October 6. Nevertheless, the report says, "OHCHR remains committed to treating the report as confidential and regrets its publication." As in so much about Western Sahara, the UN is in denial...

During Tuesday's Security Council meeting, William Brencick of the U.S. mission delivered an explanation of vote, "urg[ing] Morocco to move quickly to fulfill its many promises to table a comprehensive and credible autonomy proposal for the Western Sahara." Mr. Brencick said, "we cannot impose a solution."

That is not necessarily true. The Security Council has chosen to proceed on Western Sahara only under the UN Charter's Chapter Six, and not its Chapter Seven. While the latter is often associated with the use of force, it can also, as in North Korea, mean the imposition of sanctions, travel bans and the like. It is not that the Security Council, or the U.S., could not bring about a solution. They have chosen not to.

France's explanation of vote did not refer to self-determination, but rather praised the stated intention of the Kingdom of Morocco to come forward with a plan at some future date. Council insiders say that it is France, one of the five holders of Council veto power, which most strongly defends the position of Morocco...

"Official" U.S. Candidate to Head WFP Circulates Brochure With Pulitzer Claim, UN Staff Rules Ignored

UNITED NATIONS, October 30 -- "We support the official American candidate, Josette Sheeran," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Monday, responding to Inner City Press' question about another U.S. citizen in the final four to head the UN World Food Program, current head of WFP in Asia, Tony Banbury.

Inner City Press asked, "How is the previously-announced U.S. candidate, Josette Sheeran Shiner, more qualified than Mr. Banbury?"

"She has enormous qualifications," said Amb. Bolton, citing international agricultural affairs and that she has the "full confidence" of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.Video on UNTV, Minute 7.

A four-page campaign brochure bearing Ms. Sheeran Shiner's photo on the cover states, "As executive director of WFP, I would ensure that this life-saving program has the resources, capabilities and global support to enhances its ability to respond with lightening speed to hunger and family."

Somalia refugees. Who should head WFP? Does experience, and UN Staff Rules, matter?

The brochure lists, often repetitively, Ms. Sheeran Shiner's previous jobs, by far the longest of which was for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon-owned Washington Times. During that time, Ms. Sheeran Shiner was a member of Moon's Unification Church, which has since been renamed. Ms. Sheeran Shiner has stated she is no longer a member of the Unification Church.

The campaign brochure also states that Ms. Sheeran Shiner is a "Pulitzer Prize nominee." Doubts have emerged about this. The Pulitzer web site states that

"Nominated Finalists are selected by the Nominating Juries for each category as finalists in the competition. The Pulitzer Prize Board generally selects the Pulitzer Prize Winners from the three nominated finalists in each category. The names of nominated finalists have been announced only since 1980. Work that has been submitted for Prize consideration but not chosen as either a nominated finalist or a winner is termed an entry or submission. No information on entrants is provided."

The brochure lists Ms. Sheeran Shiner's work for William Bennett's "Empower America," stating that she "raised more than hundreds of thousands of dollars as CEO of Empower America." But sources tell Inner City Press that her departure from Empower America was due to not raising enough money.

Given concerns raised about Ms. Sheeran Shiner's qualifications to become the executive director of the World Food Program, legal inquiry has been made into relevant provisions of the UN Charter, of UN staff regulations and rules and of the FAO Constitution. All speak to the need to select the most competent candidate; Staff Regulation 4.4 and Staff Rule 104.14 provide that "if qualifications are equal, staff members already in the Secretariat or in other international organizations are given preference over others in filling vacancies."

WFP's Jim Morris has announced he is leaving, creating a vacancy. It is nearly a fait accompli that the post will again go to an American. Tony Banbury, a U.S. citizen who is current the head of WFP in Asia, has worked for the UN all the way back to 1988 in Thailand, 1995 in Cambodia, and from there to Bosnia and Croatia. He has actually run programs to deliver food for the WFP.

Monday at the UN, after the Security Council meeting on Lebanon and Resolution 1559, Inner City Press asked Amb. Bolton to articulate how Josette Sheeran Shiner is more qualified than Tony Banbury. Amb. Bolton replied that Ms. Sheeran Shiner is the "official candidate." But that does not answer, why? Nor does it answer the previous question, of why Kofi Annan in a lame duck period is being asked, by the U.S., to make a five year appointment. Is this any way to choose the head of the UN World Food Program?

Regarding Lebanon, Inner City Press asked UN Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen about press reports, confirmed by Russia's Defense Minister, that Russian road-repair teams in Lebanon have brought soldiers with them, from the Vostok brigade from Chechnya. Beyond the human rights issues raised, there is a question of whether such troops in Lebanon violates Resolution 1701. Video on UNTV. Mr. Roed-Larsen committed in an interview to look into the matter and get back to Inner City Press, and took a business card to do so. We'll see.

Outgoing Security Council president Kenzo Oshima told reporters that the Ivory Coast resolution, which must be passed by October 31, is still being negotiated. Apparently, the Council will seek to satisfy the provision that resolutions should be finalized and their texts "put in blue" 24 hours before a vote by putting this unfinished text in blue on Monday night. Then the (light) blue text is slated to be nailed down and voted on during Tuesday's Council session.

In a similar legal fiction, the North Korea sanctions committee's failure to meet the 14-day deadline in the resolution's Paragraph 8 is being ignored. The list, Amb. Oshima told Inner City Press, will be ready on Tuesday midday. "Don't try reading it," he advised. Video on UNTV. The Council voted on the resolution without having the list, and now the deadline in the resolution is being ignored. Is this any way to make international law?

Senegal's President Claims Peace in Casamance and Habre Trial to Come, A Tale of Two Lamines

UNITED NATIONS, October 30 -- "That is not an African question." WIth that, Senegal's president Abdoulaye Wade answered a question about his age, at a press conference about the UN Global Youth Leadership Summit. Wade challenged the reporter to race him down the hallway. While tennis player Serena Williams was also taking questions, most were directed to Wade.

Inner City Press asked President Wade whether he would follow through on his pledge to put Chad's ex-dictator Hissene Habre on trial, after refusing requests to extradite Habre to Belgium to face war crimes charges. Wade responded that "texts are being prepared," but that the trial is conditional on receiving financial contributions, since the jury may have to travel to Chad.

President Wade spoke of his effort combating female genital mutilation and under-aged marriages, and of the daaras, or Koranic schools, he has set up. Through a hipster translator, he bragged of boosting corn production by 600 percent. He said he would offer the reporter whose question he'd called un-African a scholarship to get some education. He talked up his formula to require sharing of oil "super-profits," which he promotes on a streaming video web site.

On the age question it's worth noting that the Casamance rebel leader Augustin Diamacoune Senghor, 78, was evacuated on October 20 to France due to poor health. Mr. Wade is 80 years old.

Inner City Press about the status of the conflict in the Casamance region. The trigger for the question was rebels' attack on a bus earlier in the day, click here for one report. "We have peace there," President Wade claimed. "There are no more attacks." Video on UNTV.

The briefing room was full, so there was no time to follow-up, or to ask whether Wade has acted on his commitment to remove "press offenses" from the Criminal Code, in Article 80 and elsewhere.

Shortly after Senegalese President Wade's didactic press conference, Senegalese General Lamine Cisse briefed reporters, briefly, at the stakeout outside the Security Council. He called for more focus on the war in Chad and more assistance for the Central African Republic, the C.A.R., to which he is Kofi Annan's envoy. One reporter asked him repeatedly about Paul Volcker's UN (mis-) management report, and why he wrote a letter for Kojo Annan.

Gen. Lamine Cisse answered, "What letter?" and even, "What Volcker report?" Video on UNTV, at Minute 3:09 to 4:20. Some at the stakeout initially called this a stonewall. some felt, dodged the question. But perhaps the wall really was made of stone: the individual who appears in the Volcker report is Lamine Sise, a Gambian who works upstairs in the UN Headquarters building. The Gambia separates Casamance from the rest of Senegal. The agenda was C.A.R., but the question was again about the car. It was a tale of two Lamines, a tale for tout le monde.

[Later Cisse / Sise update: the hard-charging and Sun-ny correspondent, to his credit, subsequently sent an apologetic email to the Lamine Cisse-with-a-C, which had reportedly not been responded to by press time. Was it cc-ed to Lamine Sise-with-an-S? Apparently not.]

At Kofi Annan's spokesman's office's regular noon briefing, Inner City Press asked about the drunk soldier who shot two election officials in eastern Congo, where there was also the burning of ballots, and about why the UN is saying so little about protests against it in Haiti. Video here. As of this mid-afternoon report, we continue to await answers.

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