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At UN, Complaint to EU After Man Bites Man, Biter Seeks Meeting and Consular Protection

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 29 -- In the wake of the UN macing and calling the NY Police Department to arrest a UN Development Program staffer who complained and bit a UN Security Officer, the UNDP staffer has complained to the European Commission. Click here for Inner City Press' first exclusive report.

 Mr. Nicola Baroncini has written to the Legal Counsellor to EC Delegation to the UN, asking for assistance in obtaining a meeting with the head of the UN Department of Safety and Security, Gregory Staff.

   The EC's Roland Tricot, calling it a "consular protection" matter, has urged Baroncini to write to his Italian mission. Mr. Baroncini, citing another report by Inner City Press, which beyond reporting exclusively on the biting incident last week continued reporting this week, says he see no reason to meet with Starr's subordinate Bruno Henn, to whom UNDP referred him. Baroncini writes that "Mr. Henn is under investigation and is about to leave is position with UN DSS."

  Below is the pertinent portion of a message Mr. Baroncini has sent today to numerous officials in the EC and Italian government, as well as to Inner City Press.


UN's Ban and DSS' Starr, biting incident and consular protection not shown

Subj: Re: Asking for EU assistance
From: Nicola Baroncini
To: Roland.TRICOT [at] ec.europa.eu
cc's
Sent: 7/29/2009 9:26:16 A.M. Eastern Standard Time

Dear Mr. Tricot,

Thank you very much for your concise and very clear message. Also thank you for confirming my position. European institutions are run and shape their culture upon Treaty not common sense even when the two do not get along. I also acknowledge that none of European Institutions is willing to use their "moral suasion" for my case, i.e. asking for a meeting with UN DSS USG or somebody senior and get down to what really happened. UNDP told my lawyer to contact Mr. Bruno Henn. I do not know who he is. I know however from the media that Mr. Henn is under investigation and is about to leave is position with UN DSS therefore I do not think he will ever reply and if he will I doubt it has any leverage.

Still looking forward to receive a copy of your organization policy and procedure about how staff has to handle relation with the public.

   On July 27, after publishing the first exclusive story about the  biting incident, Inner City Press asked UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you if you can either provide information on or comment on an incident that took place last week in which a UN security officer was apparently bitten by a staff member who had a contract terminated in DC-1. What was the cause of that?

Associate Spokesperson: That wasn’t last week. That was actually several weeks ago, unless there’s a more recent biting incident. But I assume what you’re referring to took place about a month ago, roughly. The basic point is, yes, I can confirm that that did happen. It had to do with a frustrated jobseeker. The only thing I can say is the information I got from UNDP [United Nations Development Programme] on this is that the hiring process regarding that particular vacancy at UNDP was filled in accordance with their rules. And beyond that, I’d refer you to UNDP.

Inner City Press: Just to make sure we’re talking about the same biting, was the biter maced and taken to the Seventeenth Precinct?

Associate Spokesperson: I know that UN security, and then outside security, handled the situation. I am not aware of any sort of use of mace. I can’t imagine that we’re talking about more than one biting incident. This doesn’t happen all the time!

Inner City Press: When you say outside security, you mean like the New York City Police Department? What do you mean?

Associate Spokesperson: I think outside security was brought in eventually after the initial response by UN security.

  Inner City Press then asked UNDP in writing:

Please provide all available UNDP information on the biting incident I asked about at noon: Farhan says UNDP tells him the biter was a job SEEKER, and that the recruitment was transparent. Please name the underlying job, the job seeker, and what happened.

Six hours later, UNDP's Christina LoNigro replied:

There was an unfortunate and isolated incident involving an employee of UNDP on 23rd June 2009. UN Security and the New York Police Department responded, and it is now being handled by the authorities of the host government.

  Inner City Press, now naming the bitee, asked for confirmation and explaination:

"On the biting incident, while UNDP did not provide the name as requested, now I'll ask you to confirm or deny that the the biter (and macee) was Nicola Baroncini, and to provide the requested description of the recruitment process, the name of the post and th person awarded, and whether they have any family or personal relationship with the supervisor or selector."

  UNDP responded, "unfortunately we cannot comment further on this case at this time as the legal process is ongoing." UNDP suggested to Mr. Baroncini that he speak with Bruno Henn, of whom Mr. Baroncini writes, he "is under investigation and is about to leave is position with UN DSS."

  Henn, after the UN's rejection of his request to become security chief for the Capital Master Plan renovations of the UN, is said to be seeking outside employment, on information and belief with an energy company in New Jersey. The UN has repeatedly be requested to produce Mr. Henn for a press conference or other Q & A, but has not. Watch this site.

* * *

At UN, Man Bites Man as Contracts Cut, Snafus of Relocation, Flushing Out the Press

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 24, updated July 27 -- A UN security officer was bitten earlier this month, not by a dog but by a just-terminated staff member. Special Operations officer Peter Kolonias, responding to a disturbance in the UN's building on the west side of First Avenue and 44th Street, was confronted by an individual distraught by his contract's termination.*

  The UN sources who told Inner City Press about the biting, which has not been reported by the UN at its noon briefing nor in any other media, said that further adverse reactions by staff are to be expected, with the UN having eliminated the so-called permanent contract as of July 1, and now moving remaining staff members out of its headquarters to locations as far west as Madison Avenue and as far east as Long Island City.

   In the course of Inner City Press' reporting on July 24 to confirm the man bites man story, a range of staff members complained about their moves, in connection with the UN's Capital Master Plan renovation. Members of the Office of Human Resources Management, after being told there would be no more changes to the relocation plan, were recent told they will move across the East River into Queens.

   Longtime Conference Management staffers have been told they will relocate to "above the liquor store" on Second Avenue. "Whiskey for breakfast," one staffer said, questioning moving his unit four blocks away from the meeting rooms they service.


UN Security with dogs, human bites not shown

   The UN's Under Secretary General for Management Angela Kane told the Press earlier this week that the temporary General Assembly building rising on the UN's North Lawn will not have a bar, as the current building does in its second floor Delegates' Lounge. Ms. Kane spoke rosily of the contract changes that resulted in the elimination of permanent contracts -- and, the Staff Union says, in the death of the independent international civil service -- and of progress with the Capital Master Plan.

   CMP chief Michael Adlerstein, who along with Ms. Kane changed previous plans for enclosed media work space to an "open office" system in which whistleblowers could not approach the Press, is said to be angered concerned about a Dear Colleague letter circulated in the U.S. House of Representatives about this aspect of the CMP, and a Kane-led meeting to target the Press. But this reporting on events at the UN will continue -- particularly when man bites man. Watch this site.

Update of July 27 -- Three days after Inner City Press published the above, UN Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq confirmed the a biting incident took place in the DC-1 building, and stated that the biter was, according to the UN Development Program, a job seeker, and argued that the underlying recruitment process was transparent. Haq referred all other questions - including whether the individual was maced and taken to the local police precinct - to UNDP. Inner City Press has asked UNDP, which has declined in the past to answer basic questions, and any update will appear on this site.

Update of July 27, 6:35 p.m. -- Inner City Press asked UNDP in writing:

Please provide all available UNDP information on the biting incident I asked about at noon: Farhan says UNDP tells him the biter was a job SEEKER, and that the recruitment was transparent. Please name the underlying job, the job seeker, and what happened.

Six hours later, UNDP's Christina LoNigro replied:

There was an unfortunate and isolated incident involving an employee of UNDP on 23rd June 2009. UN Security and the New York Police Department responded, and it is now being handled by the authorities of the host government.

  But what of the biter's name, the specifics of the post and recruitment, and what happened at and after the 17th police precinct? Watch this site.

* * *

UN Moves Staff Out and In, Ripert and Henn to Leave, On Adada and Verbecke No Comment

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 15, updated July 16 -- At the UN these days, everything must go. Hundreds of staff were moved out of Headquarters to the top floors of a rented building on 46th Street. But with only two elevators, the staff now waste time waiting to get up to their offices, where they say the furniture is cheap, the desks too high, not ergonomic.

  Meanwhile Department of Political Affairs staff are leaving rented space in Uganda House -- and returning to just vacated space on the 14th floor of Headquarters. It is an expensive game of musical chairs.

  This coming weekend, "the Chinese" in the Department of General Services and Conference Management are slated to move out. There is grumbling that the small refrigerators that some staff members used -- particularly in these text preparation units with their minimum numbers of words that must be typed -- will not be used by the UN to the new work space. Some have suggested that a small business spring up to offer just this service.

   And some people will be left out. From the Security Council, French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert is being pushed out by Sarkozy's political advisor, in favor of Gerard Araud.

   From UN Security, Bruno Henn is said to be losing out on the Capital Master Plan job, and now looking for employment outside of the UN. His right hand man Albert Lyttle, exposed some say by Inner City Press in the DSS pre-decided promotion scandal, is said to be under investigation.


At Council on Georgia, speech by Ripert, one of many leaving the UN

    From the Media Liaison Unit, Gary Fowlie has finally confirmed that he is leaving, over to the ITU, where he used to work, for a promotion. Whether the UN press corps will be given any input into the identity or at least qualifications of the person who will replace him is not yet known.

  CMP chief Michael Adlerstein wrote last week to the UN press corps that there will be no walls or doors for any print reporter in the swing space he's preparing. The UN as a no whistleblower zone, some are calling it. Ironically, broadcasters will get private, soundproofed offices. But investigative reporters need to talk on the phone, meet whistleblowers, even tape online debates about the UN.

   There are other envoys on the way out. On July 14 Inner City Press asked Ban's Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe about reports that UN - AU envoy to Darfur Rodolphe Adada's job is being shopped, to a range of other African UN envoys. Okabe declined to comment.

   On July 15, Inner City Press asked Ban's chief Spokesperson Michele Montas -- herself said to be leaving in or before November -- if the UN would replace Johan Verbecke as envoy to the talks on Georgia if, as Inner City Press is told, Verbecke returns to the Belgian foreign service, specifically as Ambassador to the UK. Montas said it was too early to say. But at the UN, it's getting late. Watch this site.

* * *

 Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate

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

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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