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In North Korea, UN Is Asked To
Evacuate Its Staff But Declines, Sources Say, "Human Shields"
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
WASHINGTON,
March 13 -- As
tensions and dangers rise in North Korea, some international UN system
staff
have asked for the UN threat level to be raised and to leave the
country. Their
request, sources tell Inner City Press, has been delayed and denied by
the UN
in New York, for reasons they think are political. Just as the UN did
not raise
its threat level in Algiers
as tensions led toward the deadly December 2007
bombing of UN premises there, now the UN in an effort to placate
Kim Jong-il and
retain access to the country is refusing to "embarrass" his military
government by evacuating international staff. These staff are, the
sources say,
being used as human shields.
For weeks Inner City Press has asked the
spokespeople for UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his views on North Korea's threat to
test a
missile or satellite and to shoot down South Korean airplanes. Twice,
the
spokespeople said Ban has no
comment, and that the "UN
Command" with
which the North Koreans met is not, in fact, under any UN control.
Finally on March 12, Ban Ki-moon said that the
planned launch, which
North Korea has told the UN-affiliated International Civil Aviation
Agency and
International Maritime Organization is slated for between April 4 and
8, "will
threaten the peace and stability in the region."
If it is such a threat, why has the UN not raised
its threat level?
Given the weeks of no-comments and no assistance from Ban's
Spokesperson's
office, Inner City Press is putting the question to the UN's Security
Officer
for North Korea, and to the country desk officer within the UN
Department of
Safety and Security and UN Development Program. Watch this site.
UN's Ban in South Korea, with astronaut, N. Korea
threat level not shown
UNDP left North Korea after being exposed as
providing funding without
any oversight to the Kim Jong-il military government. Now UNDP is back
in the
country, keeping its mouth shut and downplaying the risks. Ban Ki-moon
is in
the midst, along with his Senior Advisor, of choosing a new (or old)
Administrator
for UNDP, and ultimately in having responsibility for the credibility
of the UN
Security Phase in North Korea.
Two reports commissioned after the deaths of UN
staff in Algiers in
December 2007 concluded that the UN erred in not having raised the
security
phase and precautions. Accountability was promised, but none has been
in
evidence. The one official who announced his resignation after the
bombing, DSS
chief David Veness, is still in his post months later. Others named in
the
Accountability Report -- the UN tried to withhold their identities but
due to
whistleblowers they were leaked -- remain in their jobs, even in line
for
promotions. And now another
politicization of UN Security is taking place in North Korea, sources
say. Watch
this site.
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
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
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