Americans for
UNFPA's President Calls Ban's N. Korea Audit "Political," Katrina "Too Local"
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, June 27 -- The
UN Population Fund held a press conference Wednesday about "Unleashing the
potential of urban growth." Also unleashed were the views of Americans for UNFPA,
represented at the press conference by its president, Anika Rahman.
Inner City Press
asked UNFPA speechwriter Ann Erb Leoncavallo if the Population Fund is going to
submit a management response to recently-released audit of UN four UN agencies'
operations in North Korea, and asked Ms. Rahman if Americans for UNFPA think
that such a management response should be submitted. Ms. Leoncavallo said she
didn't know if a written response will be submitted. (UNFPA executive director
Thoraya Obaid said the same thing when asked more
than a week ago. Ms. Leoncavallo
said "I'll have to get back to you," but in the 12 hours afterwards, did not.)
Ms. Rahman said
that the audit was "a political issue," and that Americans for UNFPA is "not
interesting in finding additional excuse for our government to defund this
agency."
While de-funding
was tied to abortion issues, it was Ban Ki-moon who called for the North Korea
audit. Inner City Press pointed out to Ms. Rahman that it was a UN audit, not a
U.S. audit. "The U.S. has been one of the primary movers behind the desire for
that audit." Video
here, from
Minute 49:05 to 53. Click
here for UN's
own press release, which mistakenly states that the audit was by the Office of
Internal Oversight Services, when it was by the UN Board of Auditors.
In a second round
of questions, Inner City Press asked Ms. Rahman if she was saying that Ban Ki-moon
had given in to the U.S. in even ordering the North Korea audit. Ms. Rahman
replied that "as Americans for UNFPA, we believe that the U.S. call for the
audit was a simply a political move to further find grounds for its de-funding,
which has existed for the past five years, of UNFPA." Video
here, from
Minute 1:02:12.
Inner City Press
pointed out that Ban Ki-moon called for an audit of "all UN funds and programs"
on January 19; Ms. Rahman said that the Secretary-General would be the one to
answer such questions. Ban's spokesperson was on the rostrum during the press
conference, but did not speak to the question. On this issue, watch this space.
Americans for UNFPA's Rahman
Inner City Press
also asked about the UNFPA report's praise of planning in New York City, which
did not include any mention of housing affordability. Ms. Rahman called that
issue too local, and also declined to provide any more detail than the report
did, about Hurricane Katrina and planning. Ms. Leoncavallo did answer Inner City
Press' question about birth rate disparities against girls, saying that UNFPA
tries to counter this. The issue does not, however, appear to have been raised
in the 100 page report. Too local? To be continued.
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