As
Feltman Jogs
Into US
Mission, Need
for UN FOIA,
&
Schedules
Online
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
View
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 5 --
The UN claims
to be
transparent,
but it has
no Freedom of
Information
law. So its
steps toward
transparency
are
small and
random.
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon
has a "public"
schedule, but
for
example his
recent
encounter with
Sudan's Omar
al Bashir,
indicted by
the
International
Criminal Court
for genocide,
was not
disclosed.
When
Inner City
Press asked
about it, it
was called a
mere
handshake.
But Sudan
issued a
read-out of
four issues
covered.
Ban's
new Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson also
has a public
online
schedule. But
recently Inner
City Press was
told that a
visiting
foreign
minister had
met with
Eliasson --
and it never
appeared on
his schedule.
Wednesday
morning
Inner City
Press happened
to see Ban's
new chief of
the
Department of
Political
Affairs,
Jeffrey
Feltman,
jogging into
the US
Mission to the
UN on 45th
Street. It
seemed
noteworthy,
since most
missions come
to meet
Feltman in his
UN office.
When
Inner City
Press asked,
it was
informally
told that
Feltman goes
out to meet
with other
missions
beyond the US,
his native
country whose
State
Department he
served until
earlier this
year. Inner
City Press
asked, which
ones? But
that,
seemingly as a
matter of
policy, is not
public.
Under
Eliasson,
the UN DSG
position has a
political
component,
which Inner
City Press compared to
that of
Feltman.
Why does one
make his
schedule
public, and
the other not?
Why isn't the
schedule of
top UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous,
resistant to
Press
questions, put
online?
Both
Under
Secretaries
General, we
have noted,
made
themselves
present at
a sculpture
exhibition
opening
Tuesday night
at the UN,
along with
Ban Ki-moon
and
ambassadors
including that
of North
Korea.
Ban, Feltman,
Ladsous and
other USGs
will retreat
to Torino this
weekend.
Increased
transparency
should be in
their agenda.
Inner
City Press
asked on
Wednesday, why
doesn't
Feltman put
his schedule
online, at
least as DSG
Eliasson does?
We need to
keep some
secrets
was the
affable but
unsatisfactory
answer.
Secrets on
behalf of
whom?
It
is time for a
UN Freedom of
Information
Act, which
Inner City
Press
has long asked
for. In the
interim,
Feltman should
consider
putting
his schedule
online. Watch
this site.
, 
