UN
Mulls Sending Melkert to Iraq, Local Staff in Pakistan Shortchanged,
Owondo's Service
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Muse
UNITED
NATIONS, June 11 -- Inside the UN system, staff were angry Thursday
night. First came indications that beyond the international staff
killed in the bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan, at least three national
staff were killed as well. Not only where they barely spoken of, but
the benefits package for them is slated to be a fraction of that
offered to the internationals. Also barely mentioned was the UN's
evacuation of some but not all staff from Peshawar to Islamabad.
The
UN Mission in Iraq, the staffers said, is slated to receive a new
manager from New York. Ad Melkert, the Associate Administrator of
UNDP who twice lost out in races for the top job, is reportedly being
sent to Baghdad. As such, he would be rewarded for publicly
disagreeing with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's call for public
financial disclosure, and for breaking away from the UN Secretariat's
Ethics Office and what whistleblower protections exist.
UN staffer Solecki returns home, local staff
and red flag not shown
UNDP's
staff union head Dmitry Samaras was present Thursday in the Church
Center across from the UN, at the funeral for former staff member
Joseph Owondo, who died in the crash of the Air France flight from
Brazil to Paris. Owondo's death is a loss: if the UN had more
whistleblowers like him, it would be a better place. Click here for
Inner City Press' previously story on Owondo.
Speaking at his funeral
were Emmanuel Goued, Regis Onanga Ndiaye and Raphael Mbadinga. Samaras
knows where many UNDP skeletons are buried, but what is the
interest in exposing them? From now on, do it for Owondo. The UN is
full of conflicts.
* * *
At
UN, Ban Bones Up on Safety and Swing Space, Sri Lanka Pushed
into Past
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Muse
UNITED
NATIONS, June 11, updated --
In the lead up to today's Ban Ki-moon press
conference, Mr. Ban's staff prepared him on the non foreign policy
topics of the UN's Capital Master Plan, safety and the so-called
swing space which will be used for the four years Headquarters is
under repair. While many UN staff members are unhappy with where they
are being moved and what they'll come back to, if they come back, the
press corps has become increasingly vocal.
Ban's
spokesperson Michele Montas was given advance notice that Ban will be
asked about the attempt by his officials, led by Under Secretary
General for Management Angela Kane and CMP chief Michael Adlerstein,
to charge media organizations $23,000 for office space similar to
that they now have for free. Inner City
Press reported exclusively on
these attempted charges, linking it with the exodus of
several media
organizations including the Washington Post from the UN.
Subsequently,
the money demand was dropped, and only "open office"
cubicles offered. [But see below - on
June 10, the UN renewed its proposal to charge the press money for
space to report on the UN, which no previous Secretary General has
done.] The
UN press corps remains strongly opposed and urges ratcheting things up,
as is done here.
The UN's rationale is that the UN is moving to a culture
of transparency. We've yet to see it. At a supposed Town Hall meeting
led by Angela Kane on June 5 about UN justice, security officers
checked all attendees' identification cards at the entrance doors.
Can't have any reporting on justice at the UN, apparently.
More
substantively, Ban or his Spokesperson's Office seem to have decided
to try to cut off questions about the year's bloodiest conflict, Sri
Lanka. On May 23, the UN's Ban Ki-moon signed a Joint Statement with
Sri Lanka's Mahinda Rajapaksa. Ban has since said that he is closely
monitoring compliance.
But only this week, his Spokespeople
have
refused to comment on the deporting of Canadian MP Bob Rae, the
extension of state of emergency anti-terror laws, and the country's
outgoing chief justice's statement that those in
the UN-funded
internment camps have no protection from Sri Lanka's courts. That's a
national issue, was the answer of Ban's spokespeople.
What
does Mr. Ban
himself think? One hopes to get an answer.
UN's Mr. Ban and Ms. Kane in basement, many
things not shown
Back
in Headquarters, an incoming USG who is seeking answers is Gregory
Starr, the replacement of David Veness. He is slated, sources say, to
meet later this week with DSG Asha Rose Migiro. The delayed Security
Risk Assessments are said to finally be completed, but their
recommendations are not known, particularly with regard to safeguards
needed at the Madison Avenue and 47th Street swing space.
In
the run up to his June 11 "monthly" press conference, Ban
was said to be angry at the mounting concerns about the safety of the
way the CMP is being implemented. Asbestos removal has been
performed, for example, right next to the UN library, still in use.
Adlerstein insists that the work is being done on weekends, by "men
in spacesuits... using negative pressure." But the Staff Union
has questioned the process, and has also now in writing, they say,
questioned what they call Angela Kane's grab of space on the library
building's third floor, causing a unit of the Department of Public
Information to move twice.
At
a recent meeting, Adlerstein insisted that such double moves are
common, and blamed Inner City Press making it an issue. If he only
knew -- the issue was raised first by the Staff Union. Inner City
Press spoke briefly with Adlerstein on June 10, asking the status of
the white PVC piping, otherwise illegal in New York, and the septic
tank installed in the third sub-basement next to the garage for Mr.
Ban's car.
After
first declining to answer -- Adlerstein, as well as Ms. Montas, say
they are opposed to "getting quotes in the hallway," which
is routinely done by the UN press corps, particularly on the Security
Council beat -- Adlerstein said that the PVC is legal, and the septic
tanks will stay. Staff Union sources wonder if Ban has smelled his
car. "That's not a new car wax," one joked on Thursday
morning. He added that such close Press coverage of the UN is a
mark of respect, not disrespect, for "the Organization."
These
sources insist that the USG for Management post is "in play,"
as they put it. The initial impetus, they say, came from the United
States, but others have now joined in. Inner City Press asked, but
where does one shift a USG? The sources pointed to the lateral move
of Ms. Kane's predecessor Alicia Barcena to ECLAC in Santiago, and
joked that the UN now like "giving Germans high UN posts in
Africa," referring to Ban's (or Kane's) replacement of
Anna
Tibaijuka as head of the UN office in Nairobi by UNEP's Aichim
Steiner.
As we've noted before, most recently in connection with
what is described as Ms. Kane's
memo to Ban about a May 8 meeting
with other USGs about legal action against three media organizations,
one of which interviewed Ban on June 10, and proposal to
complain to Google News about Inner City Press, click here
for that
-- we'd like to get direct responses on these issues from Ms. Angela
Kane, but she has indicated in writing and never changed a statement
that she has not time to answer questions, to just ask in the
briefing room. Watch this space.
Update
of 10:59 a.m. -- Ban's press conference, scheduled for 11 a.m.,
has
been pushed back to 1 p.m.. It is the only thing on this public
schedule for the day (he flies to St. Louis later in the day).
Reportedly, the UN is again proposing to charge the press money for
space to report on the UN, which no previous Secretary General has
done.
With Angela Kane not in the meetings -- reportedly out of town
-- Ban's deputy chief of staff has taken the lead. Some say his focus
is on newly arriving South Korean media, if they must work in the
non-enclosed bullpen, then everyone should. Ostensibly to allay
concerns about journalists' expensive equipment being stolen from
open office space, the UN has offered to install additional, multiple
angle security cameras. There's talk, satirical or absurd, about a
designated "UN Whistleblower Zone," perhaps like the
so-called "No Fire" Zone in Sri Lanka. To be continued.
Update
of 12:56 p.m. -- the press corps is settling in for Ban's presser,
putting their names on the list maintained by his Spokesperon's Office.
Inner City Press was here early, after the stakeout of top humanitarian
John Holmes, immediately entered into the list and took a spot in the
front row, so we'll see.
Update
of 1:01 p.m. -- Ban has begun, stating that he waited until 1 p.m. in
light of WHO raising its Swine Flu / H1N1 level to six. There is
whispering about how or even if the swing space issue will be raised.
Update
of 2:12 p.m. -- while Ban's Spokesperson did not call on Inner City
Press, despite the right to ask follow ups to a question if Ban thinks
he will be a two term Secretary General, when she called on CNN, their
long time correspondent with characteristic class said he would give
the question right to Inner City Press. It was the last question of the
press conference; Inner City Press asked for Ban's response to the
Economist rating him 3 / 10 on Speaking Truth to Power, and even lower,
2 / 10, on Management Skills.
Ban gave a long and unscripted answer, which we will
analyze and report on later today. For now, various observers called it
his only passionate answer, or to be more charitable as he requested,
the most passionate of his answers.
As Ban left for St. Louis, his deputy chief of staff approached the
first questioner, about the swing space, and audibly said, let's
continue the dialogue, but you broke our agreement. Another journalist
replied, We are not sorry, Mr. Kim. It all took place in the briefing
room, with recorders running. Only at the UN... Watch this site.
, 
