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At
UN, Downer Says Has No Conflict
in Cyprus, What Of Turkey, KKR?
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, May 4 --
How does the UN police for conflicts of interest in
its ranks? The answer appears to be, it doesn't. Last week the UN's
envoy for
Cyprus, Alexander Downer, took questions from the Press. Inner City
Press
asked, as it had in 2008,
what safeguards are in place to ensure that Downer's
job with business consultancy Bespoke Approach doesn't conflict with
his
activities in and around Cyprus.
Downer assured that he wouldn't allow conflicts,
adding that Cyprus
doesn't have that much business. Neither is a satisfactory response at
the
organization like the UN. Only a few month ago, the UN's stealth envoy
to Niger,
former Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler, was kidnapped in Niger while on
his way
to visit
a Canadian-owned gold mine, apparently not on UN business. The UN
has
still
refused to answer questions, even after Fowler had been released,
reportedly in exchange for the freeing of terrorism suspects.
Downer's answer as to Cyprus is particularly
insufficient because
Bespoke Approach work with Turkey (or Greece) would also be a conflict.
The
investment
firm KKR lists an affiliation with Bespoke Approach. Who is
policing
these conflicts? Not the UN.
Downer at UN, questions being raised, answers awaited
The
Cyprus foreign service has made this
transcript of Inner City Press' Q&A with Downer:
Inner City
Press: there’s been some controversy or questioning about if you can be
the
envoy and also have side job as a businessman?
Downer:
Well, I
was employed part-time not full-time so I have to keep body and soul
together.
I’ve got a wife, I’ve got children. My daughter got married last week,
I just
have to pay for the wedding and thank you for congratulating me. It’s
only a
part-time job. Of course I have absolutely no business with Cyprus at
all. I
have absolutely no business involvement there. To have business
involvement
there would be a conflict of interest. Cyprus would be the greatest of
perspective, I love Cyprus, is not a very big place, it’s not like the
United
States. So business doesn’t arise day-by-day between Australia and
Cyprus.
Inner City
Press: I found on the UN website of bespoke approach, it says you are a
good
person to hire in part, because you work for the UN. So some people
wonder
whether it’s appropriate to …..
Downer:
Let's
just say I’m a good person to hire because if you read it carefully,
because I
work for the UN, it just explains my CV. You are working in the media
and so I
think you would appreciate this point in the way that I do. I think
transparency is incredibly important. Therefore, it wouldn’t be honest
to hide
from anybody who may use bespoke approach. But it’s a fair question to
ask
because obviously I have to be careful there is no conflict of
interest. Also I
work as a professor at Adelaide University. In that capacity I do talk
to
people about Cyprus from time to time. In Australia there’s quite a lot
of
interest on Cyprus. There are nearly 100,000 Australian Cypriots. They
split
about 60 – 40 Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots. So they keep me busy as
well as
some of them are on campus of the university. One of them was at my
daughter’s
wedding actually last week and started lobbying me furiously about some
issue
to what I’m going to do.
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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