UN
In
Denial Over Sha's Award to Chinese General for Foundation UN
Took Money From
By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 1 -- When UN Under Secretary General Sha Zukang
handed a “World Harmony Foundation” award to former Chinese
military leader during Tiananmen Square Chi Haotian, for
many the UN
had hit
a new low.
Perhaps
for that
reason, or in retaliation for USG Sha's drunken
insults to UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, when Inner City Press asked Ban's
spokesman Martin Nesirky on November 1 if Sha gave the award in his
personal or official capacity, Nesirky replied that when the reports of
the event "surfaced late last week online, that was the first we had
heard about it... no further comment for now." Video here,
from Minute 13:01.
“Is Sha on
leave?” Inner City Press asked. Nesirky said he didn't think Sha is
on leave. Of course not - Sha is quoted
alongside Ban Ki-moon at the closing of the Shanghai Expo on October 31.
But
the UN also knows
more about the World Harmony Foundation than it is letting on. As
Inner City Press exclusively
reported a year ago in October 2009, the
UN took $110,000 from the WHF and its chief Frank Liu for a UN Day
Peacekeeping concert in connection with which Lui told Inner City
Press he was supposed to get a photo with Ban Ki-moon.
When
Inner City
Press questioned the “pay to play” aspect of the funding and
photo-op, the Ban face time was canceled, and instead Liu and
associates were given photos with Under Secretary General Ibrahim
Gambari.
UN's Sha Zukang, the General and, at left, Frank
Liu, UN reform not shown
It was never confirmed if this was in Gambari's personal or
official capacity, but it seems clear that the Executive Office of
the Secretary General knew about it.
So
questions exist
as to what the UN knew, and when, about Sha's role in handing Liu's
WHF prize to Chi Haotian. Watch this site.
* * *
UN
Sings
For Its Supper as Sponsors Strut in Green Room, Pay for Play on
UN Day
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 24 -- As the UN celebrated itself with a concert in
the General Assembly Friday night, the sponsor
it
took $110,000 from
lurked around trying to get pay-back.
On
stage, UN peacekeepers were
praised, even for their work in Rwanda. Across First Avenue, after an
open photo op with the sponsors by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had
become untenable, or at least unsavory, Under Secretary General
Ibrahim Gambari
arrived in at the UN Millennium Hotel to take photos
with the Chinese businessmen who paid money for access to the UN.
Still,
this
wasn't
enough. Ban's pre-concert photo op, it emerged, had initially had
three phases: artists, member states then sponsor. The last was
officially cut out. But witnesses at the photo op, with the exception
of the UN's organizer, tell Inner City Press that sponsor Frank Liu
of the World Harmony Foundation and six of his associates still
managed to get access.
In
the green room
behind the General Assembly rostrum, Inner City Press spoke with
Frank Liu. He complained about being excluded. They come and ask you
for money, he said, and then this. Without apparent irony, he said
that he perhaps shared Inner City Press' desire to "reform the
UN."
Head
UN
peacekeeper
Alain Le Roy strode into the green room. He spoke with
the director of the Culture Project, and with Mr. Frank Liu, to whom
he had written in
July offering a full tour of DPKO's 24 hour
Situation Center, in exchange for sponsorship of the concert.
The
UN, at
the
pre
concert press conference, claimed that despite the wording of Le
Roy's letter, there was no quid pro quo. The UN admitted that these
same sponsors, the World Harmony Foundation, took photos with Ban
Ki-moon after an event they paid for in March, but called the photos
"ad hoc." These arguments wouldn't stand up in a New York
City vice raid, or subsequent court appearance.
UN Day concert press conference, $ponsors' access not shown
Rather
than
reflect
on how bad the March pay to play incident in the General Assembly
lobby made the UN look, the UN decided to try to take Frank Liu's
money without openly being dominated. So, for example, it told Liu he
couldn't bring onto the stage or even in the building the harmony
bell he stores, during the year, in a garage in Queens.
Lui,
who
complained
to Inner City Press about this, had the bell brought to the Isaiah
Wall across the street, and rang it along with personalities from
South Korea. Take that, thirty eighth floor, was the message. Then USG
Gambari made his appearance, ostensibly in a personal capacity,
on the 29th floor of the UN Millennium Hotel. In the group's program,
Gambari was listed as Deputy Secretary General, but Gambari later
told Inner City Press this was "their fault," and Liu
ascribed it to translation.
So
the UN tried to
be able to say they had taken Frank Liu's money without taking
anything from him. But he and his associates were given passes into
the UN, used the Delegates Dining Room, got access to the Green Room
and the top UN officials. The staged denial or withholding of certain
accesses and acts took on the flavor of the client or "date"
negotiations often broken up on shows such as Police Women of Broward
County. But who will go undercover and expose some current UN
officials? Watch this site.
, 
