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At UN, Re-Sale of AIDS Drugs and Zimbabwe
Diversions Downplayed, As Ban Met Mugabe
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner
City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 1 -- On World AIDS Day,
the UN downplayed both the resale for profit of AIDS and malaria drugs
supposed
to be free in Africa and reductions in the budget of its Global Fund to
Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
declined
to disclose the substance of his private
meeting with Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe,
recently exposed as taking Global AIDS Fund money and UN finances in currency
exchange
through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Ban's spokesperson's office
has been
asked by Inner City Press about these topics but has declined comment.
On
December 1, Inner City Press asked Jimmy Kolker, Chief of the HIV and
AIDS
section at UNICEF, about the videotaped evidence of UNICEF malaria and
AIDS
drugs, including cotrimoxazole, being re-sold for profit in Sierra
Leone. Kolker replied that given the low
cost of cotrimoxazole,
even when resold, there might be more serious problem. Yes, how about
the
re-sale of bed net and other medicine such that families go hungry to
pay for
medicine that is supposed to be free? Click here for video
from Sierra Leone,
contrast to UNICEF's written
and on-camera
answers.
Kolker to
his credit admitted that the resale of cotrimoxazole is just "the tip
of
the iceberg," and that falsification and diversion of anti-retroviral
drugs is prevalent. But what is being done about it? Last week, Inner
City
Press asked Ban's spokesperson for a response to the Sierra Leone
expose from
either Ban or his envoy on malaria, Ray Chambers. But none has been
provided.
Inner City
Press asked the December 1 AIDS panel about budget
cuts of ten to twenty five percent
reported at the UN's Global Fund. UNICEF's Kolker began by denying
any cuts in
pledges, then ackowledging that the Fund is cutting 10%, hopefully
through
lowered commodities and other prices. On the horizon is the possibility
of a
25% cut, which Kolker called unlikely. Video here,
from Minute 23:04. Perhaps the UN system has a different
economic outlook than most countries' central banks.
On November
26, Inner City Press asked the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian
Affairs deputy Catherine Braggs, how the UN converts currency in
Zimbabwe.
Braggs bragged that "two weeks ago," Zimbabwe began allowing use of
the U.S. dollar. Inner City Press asked about losses the UN had
accepted up
until two weeks ago. Braggs, and Ban's spokesperson and deputy
spokesperson,
have refused to estimate or comment on these, in an echo of the UN's
cover-up
of 25% losses to the Than Shwe military government in Myanmar, click here
for that.
On December
1, Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe a
follow-up
question to the OCHA press
conference by Catherine Bragg, which Ms. Okabe had
moderated. Had the decision two weeks
ago to forego currency exchange profits by the Mugabe regime been
triggered, in
fact, from the exposure of $7 million of theft by Mugabe's government
from the
UN Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria? "I have not
heard
anything about that," Okabe said, adding that if OCHA wouldn't answer,
either would her office.
UN's Ban and Mugabe on Nov. 30, 2008, stolen
millions and lives not shown
content of meeting undisclosed, photo op for the record and for use
An hour
after that answer, Ban's spokesperson office provide a Global Fund press
release, and urged that any further questions be directed to the
Fund. But the
question here is one of coordination -- did the belated change bragged
about by
Ms. Bragg spring from the discovery of Mugabe's rip-off of the UN's
Global
Fund?
Footnote: While
Okabe read-out a list of African
leaders whom Ban met in Doha, including the presidents of Chad and
Central African
Republic, she did not mention until Inner City Press asked Ban's
meeting with
Mugabe. Video here,
from Minute 16:38. Were the diversions of funds, AIDS, cholera and
restrictions on NGOs
discussed? Ban promised Mugabe not to say.
Inner City
Press asked if the
meeting between Ban and Mugabe had been planned in advance of his
arrival in
Doha. "I can find out," Okabe said.Video
here,
from Minute 19:32. She said she didn't
know if
Sudan's Omar Al-Bashir had asked to meet with Ban, or why Ban didn't
meet with
them. He had previously been quoted that he would distance himself from
Bashir.
But not Mugabe? At what cost this face-time? We'll see.
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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