Overview of IO Watch Archive Quotes XIV,

May-June 2008

696.      “Reforming UN recruitment is a slow process … [Many] lament the slow pace of change.  [General Assembly President]  Srgjan Kerim says that ‘this organization … needs profound reform to make it more efficient and coherent.’

            The most vociferous critics … [cite much] time-serving … work  at HQ, where thousands of employees produce mountains of paper on long forgotten mandates. …  For every perceived pen-pusher, … however, there is a dedicated staffer working in often perilous conditions to bring succor to the world’s needy. …

            Morale among staff, many of whom … [are on] short-term contracts … has not been helped by high-profile cases of corruption. …

            A report last year … spearheaded by Chile, South Africa, Sweden, and Thailand … expressed concern about the lack of transparency surrounding appointments to the most senior … [and less senior] UN posts.  [It stated that] ‘Member states, staff and management all express disappointment with the current system of recruitment. …

`           [The report added] ‘At present, the UN does not have sufficient mechanisms to reward good performance by staff – nor to sanction substandard performance.  In order to hold staff and managers accountable, the objectives and expected outcomes … must be clear and transparent.”    

Harvey Morris, “Creaky edifice in need of repair”, Financial Times (UK), May 1, 2008.   [Note: This bleak assessment of the UN appears in a four-page special section on “International Public Sector Recruitment.”  The other articles – on NGO work with the private sector, UNICEF setting up schools in emergency areas, the expanding work of the 53-nation Commonwealth on democracy and development issues, NGO managers in South-East Asia, realigned and localized programmes in  Latin America, and executives leaving business for public-sector jobs -- are much more up-beat and positive.]

697a.    “The UN’s culture of secrecy and impunity has been punctured this week by a one-two punch … reporting on UN peacekeepers’ involvement in the trading of gold and guns in Eastern Congo … [and] two reviews of the Office of Internal Oversight Services. …  The reports are damning.  The first, by Erling Grimstad, states [inter alia] that

‘OIOS suffers from an ineffective and unclear structure, lack of independent budget and … administrative support, … poor management, conflicts at the senior management level, lack of communication … [at the Investigation Division of] OIOS, lack of standard operating procedures and constant disagreements … [on] the scope of some … investigative procedures.  … This has obviously resulted in instability, high turnover rates and non-optimal working conditions for investigators.’

            The second report, on the ‘culture’ of OIOS and compiled by Michel Girodo, states for example that, ‘secrecy and central control of information facilitated independence but also insulated managers from external review.’

            The fact that [OIOS chief Inga-Britt] Ahlenius refused to release these on her own is, if anything, more troubling. … She told Inner City Press, ‘It is my document.’”

Matthew Russell Lee, “At UN, reports withheld by Ahlenius of OIOS are put online, Congo cover-up alleged”, Inner City Press, at www.innercitypress.com, May 1, 2008.    [Note: the two 2007 reports, must reading for those concerned with UN oversight problems, are available in full (147 pages for the first, 45 for the second) at the website under  the article title and date.]

697b.    “A scandal stretching from the Eastern Congo to UN headquarters gathered force last Friday. … Internal reports were released by whistleblowers … about Indian peacekeepers trading gold, guns and ivory with rebels [that] were abruptly dismissed in less than two weeks by OIOS in February. … [and two reports describing]  a ‘lack of trust in investigative outputs,’ politicization, nepotism and a need for a ‘break from the past’ at OIOS.

            Inner City Press … asked Secretary-General Ban what he intends to do about the Congo, OIOS, and the lack ot transparency and any freedom of information law at the UN.  … Ban said … he hopes [the OIOS] ‘will look at this issue carefully.’  [But further asked,] ‘how does one hold OIOS accountable,’ Ban said that he cannot, that it is up to the UN General Assembly. …

            Sources from both the UN … budget committee and its Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions … [described] OIOS proposals to withdraw investigators from peacekeeping missions … to so-called regional hubs … as ‘unclear’ and not well-argued.  ‘I would not give a good rating on management,’ a well-placed source responded when asked about [OIOS head Inga-Britt] Ahlenius’ tenure.”

Matthew Russell Lee, “On UN’s Congo  scandal, Ban defers to OIOS, which itself stands accused”, Inner City Press, May 5, 2008.    [Mr. Lee submitted (and presents in detail) some very precise follow-up questions on the Congo case to Ms. Ahlenius, and Mr. Vlasislav Guerassev, director of the OIOS Investigation Division, which were not immediately answered.]

697c.    “Before the UN’s budget committee, [OIOS head Inga-Britt] Ahlenius contested ‘accusations that OIOS ignored, minimized or shelved allegations of serious misconduct pertaining to weapons trading in MONUC,’ the UN’s Mission in the Congo. …  ‘These accusations against OIOS and the Organization are completely unfounded,’ she said. …

            But many on the Committee were dubious, about this denial and about Ahlenius’ various plans to pull investigators out of peacekeeping missions – even more so, after the audits Ahlenius withheld … were put on line. … A task that the Committee assigned to Ahlenius in December 2007, to conduct an inquiry into the no-bid $250 million contract ... [with] Lockheed Martin …. in Darfur [is not yet complete, but ] the Secretary-General states ,,, [that he] did not approve any exceptions to the application of the [UN financial rules.] …

            Footnote: Not only did Ms. Ahlenius refer to management chief Alicia Barcena someone she met in Kosovo, Ms. Danielle Coolen, … for the UN’s top procurement job – now Ms. Barcena is pushing another candidate, Paul Baudes.  Procurement is full of exceptions, and the Oversight Office is no longer credible.  What will it take to clean it up?  To be continued.”

Matthew Russell Lee, “At UN, Ahlenius is in denial on Congo, goes slow on Lockheed Martin in Darfur inquiry”, Inner City Press, May 8, 2008.            [Note: Here too Mr. Lee submitted (and presents) quite specific follow-up questions, which were not immediately answered.  These three articles show a twisted and struggling investigative process, but at least one person, Mr. Lee -- if not yet anyone else at the UN is pushing ahead with determination for answers.  (For more details on the maneuvering to fill the top UN procurement post, a very sensitive and demanding job, see the IO Watch Dark Side feature, UN, jobsfortheboys/girls, 2007.)]

698.      “With more than 500 million people infected and 1m dying every year from malaria, … pressure is growing to subsidise manufacturers’ production costs of anti-malarial drugs, bringing down their retail price.

            This week the United Nations-backed Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria – which is channeling more than $11b in donors’ funds … agreed in principle to … [manage] the subsidy, called the affordable medicines facility.  …       [But critics] are concerned that the facility may distort the malaria medicines market, [and] prove costly and ineffective. …

            The treatment of malaria was stalled by growing resistance of the parasite to older, cheaper and widely used drugs. … Then in 2002 Novartis … launched Coartem … [and Global Fund grants have] allowed many governments to buy Coartem and make it available … for free.  But because many African countries’ public health systems are weak, … malaria medicines are instead [usually] brought privately, most without prescriptions. …

            Many development workers … [worry that the subsidy approach] will end up in intermediaries’ pockets … or will simply lower prices to richer urban patients. …  But initial results from … [a pilot program in Tanzania suggest stable retail prices and significantly increased use.]”

Andrew Jack, “A drive to cut drug costs for malaria meets resistance”, Financial Times (UK), May 1, 2008.

699.      “Everything in the Democratic Republic of Congo … is on a scarcely imaginable scale – including the violence.  All sides, … says the United Nations, … continue to use rape as a weapon of war on a barbarous scale. … [Witnesses] tell of gang rapes, leaving victims with appalling physical and psychological injuries. …

            Congo has long had a culture of violence and an almost non-existent judicial system. … [But the rapes, says the UN] are a ‘deliberate attempt to dehumanize and destroy entire communities.’  That process is proceeding apace. … And the Goma ceasefire?  Pressure to observe it would be a start. …

            On April 23d, 63 international and Congolese NGOs signed an appeal urging the UN to appoint a high-level special adviser on human rights for eastern Congo.  The idea is to help draw world attention to the plight of civilians, whose suffering is at least as extreme as anything witnessed … [in] Darfur.

            Since all UN members have promised to observe a fundamental ‘responsibility to protect’ their citizens from war crimes and crimes against humanity, focusing world attention on such crimes in eastern Congo is perhaps the least outsiders can do.”

“Congo: Atrocities beyond words”, The Economist, May 3d, 2008.    [Note:  Whether the UN will take decisive action on this appeal is unknown.  For more on the UN’s pronounced but faltering “responsibility to protect”, see the articles on the Myanmar cyclone response in item 703a-f.]

700.      “In 2006 [a British defence ministry research effort] triggered headlines such as ‘Water wars loom’ … over life’s most basic necessity. … [US] researchers … [cite] evidence showing that the world’s 263 trans-boundary rivers … generate more co-operation than conflict. …  [But] drought, desertification and food shortage are among the factors that foment conflict within states by tipping some areas, as least, into social collapse. …

            … Recently, there has been progress towards durable water treaties for several big African river systems.  … The Nile [river] basin has some of Africa’s most militaristic countries, … [and yet] water boffins, led by the influential and sober Stockholm International Water Institute, say the Nile is more likely to see huge inward investment than cataclysm. …

            Away from the rivers, the lack of water could produce plenty of cataclysms for dry Africa.  … Low-level, drought-related skirmishing is especially likely in areas of small-arms proliferation, such as the Horn of Africa … The annual death toll from battles over water and grazing in the badlands of [Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya may rise in the future] into the tens of thousands.  …

            A thirsty planet is unlikely to be a stable and peaceful one.”

“Rivers and conflict: Streams of blood, or streams of peace”, The Economist, May 3d, 2008.              [Note: The Stockholm Institute is found at www.siwi.org.]

701a.    “The revelation that Pakistani and Indian … [UN peacekeepers in Congo sold weapons for] minerals once again puts the UN under the spotlight. … The sale … should be thoroughly investigated and the culprits brought to book. …  According to Rwanda’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, … the world body must promptly investigate the charges of misconduct by the peacekeepers.

            The catalogue of … [UN personnel scandals in] … peacekeeping is long.  But what is unfortunate is the lack of will by the UN and indeed the international community to find durable solutions to these scandals.

            It is time for the UN to wake up to reality: The UN scandals should not be looked at as unfortunate accidents.  Neither are they casual blots on the [UN’s] reputation. … These … scandals remain inherent in the structure of the United Nations. …

            Revelations such as the recent BBC investigative report are routinely dismissed as an isolated case of a few individuals. … The idea that the UN Secretary General can act as global representative or …  the UN staff … as an honest and effective international civil service, will cease to be taken seriously with scandals such as that in Congo.”

Oscar Kimanuka, “UN has lost face in Congo”, Nation Media.com, The East African, May 5, 2008.

701b.    “The UN [Office of Internal Oversight Services] is investigating allegations that its peacekeepers sexually abused children in the Democratic Republic of Congo, its mission … [spokesman told reporters in Kinshasa.] …

            UN and local sources told AFP the investigation focused on an alleged child prostitution ring in Masisi, [Goma province.]  The sources said Indian MONUC peacekeepers … were accused of paying for sex with young Congolese girls near the force’s camp between mid-2007 and early 2008. …

            The United Nations in 2005 started a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to its troops having sex with the Congolese. … In May 2008 Human Rights Watch accused the UN of covering up allegations of embezzlement against Pakistani and Indian troops in alleged arms and gold smuggling in the country.  The UN denied the charge.”

            ‘The acts of a few troops tarnish the work of the whole mission,’     a MONUC official … told AFP.”

“UN troops in DR Congo accused of sexual abuse”, Agence-France Press, May 14, 2008.

702.      ‘[In establishing global bribery and corruption standards,] more progress has probably  been made in the last 18 months than in the previous two decades’, said Richard Cellini, of Integrity Interactive, a Monaco-based consultancy that specializes in mitigating ethics and compliance risk. …

            ‘What you are seeing now is an increased sensibility among global companies that the reputational damage of bribery allegations has become much more significant than any actual legal consequences. … In the age of the Internet, the brand damage from these allegations is sustained overnight, even if the actual legal facts are established months or even years later,’ he said. Cases like Alstom [France], BAE Systems [Britain], and Siemens [Germany] ‘are a wake-up call.’ …

            ‘We would like to see more investigations and prosecutions of bribery,’ said [an OECD official concerning the 1997 anti-bribery convention of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.] …

            [A recent Integrity Interactive survey] … found that bribery risk had risen to become the issue of greatest concern among compliance officers and head of legal departments at Europe’s 100 largest companies.  Forty-eight percent cited bribery and corruption as the risk area where they were devoting the bulk of their time and resources.”   

Nicola Clark, “Companies weigh hidden costs of bribery cases”, International Herald Tribune,  May 7, 2008.    [Note:   Mitigating ethics and compliance risk?  Increased sensibility?  Reputational damage,  internet-wide? Wake-up call?  More investigations?  The issue of greatest concern?  Devoting the bulk of compliance and legal resources?             Well, as major corporations are pressured to mobilize aggressively on these issues, the UN, which has suffered a veritable flood of recent reputation-damaging scandals (see for immediate confirmation items 696, 697, and 701a-b  above, and 705a, 706, 708a-b, and 709 following) has been cited for by its auditors and the Volcker Inquiry for its feeble anti-corruption efforts ever since 2004.  However, it settles for blissfully lecturing others:  see the IO Watch archives subsections on Global Compact hypocrisy and the UN Convention Against Corruption.  Meanwhile, some UN Member States are  now seeking to throw out the baby -- its OIOS investigators – along with the bath water. 

                How low can the UN go?  See the IO Watch Dark Sides feature UN, curbing investigations?, 2006ff. and The Six “Black Holes” of UN Non-accountability (plus, actually, most of this entire website.)   A related article is Michael Peel, “Bribery: The net tightens but too many holes remain”, Financial Times (UK), May 10/May 11, 2008. In addition, the impressive and very pertinent activities of Integrity Interactive can be found at www.integrity-interactive.com.]

703a.    “The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said Wednesday that the United Nations should invoke its ‘responsibility to protect’ civilians … to force delivery of aid to Myanmar, even if over the objections of the military government there. …

            Cyclone Nargis is believed to have killed at least 22,500 people, … [and] as many as 41,000 people are missing and up  to one million are homeless. … The government in Yangon has let in little aid … aid agencies say.  …

            In 2005 the United Nations recognized the concept of ‘responsibility to protect’ civilians when their governments could not or would not do it, even if this meant intervention that violated national sovereignty.  But this has rarely been applied.”

            One reason [for the generals’ refusal] may be that on Saturday, Burmese are supposed to vote on … a proposed constitution backed by the military. … Myanmar state television news … [reassured] people that the situation was ‘returning to normal.’ … But even in the capital, Yangon, prices in the market [for key items] were reported to be doubled. … Much of Yangon is without power, so residents could not use their pumps to obtain drinking water from wells.”

Steven Erlanger, “UN is urged to force Myanmar to take aid; French official says civilians are priority”, International Herald Tribune, May 8, 2008.

703b.    “When the most terrible storm in living memory struck southern Myanmar on the night of May 2d-3d, … India’s meteorological department had given the Burmese government 48 hours’ notice of how severe Cyclone Nargis would be, and where it would strike land.  The country’s military dictators broadcast some warnings .,. but they organized no evacuations or other measures to limit casualties as the tempest  approached.  Since then, their response to the emergency has been feeble.                         … Junta leaders are said to believe their own propaganda about being the people’s protectors and the guardians of the nation. … [Will the Burmese people’s frustration boil over?]  In a big uprising in 1988 and again in last year’s protests, the army has shown it will not hesitate to shed as much blood as is necessary to deter any challenge.  Starving, destitute and drenched in the tempest’s wake, it is hard to see the Burmese summoning the strength to throw off the tyrants’ rule.”

“Cyclone in Myanmar: No shelter from the storm”, The Economist, May 10^th, 2008.

703c.    “Western governments fervently hope the Burmese junta will be more open to international aid efforts over the next few days, … but what if the junta fails to change its stance?  Could the major powers conduct relief operations, such as dropping food and supplies …, without the regime’s consent?  Or would that be too risky, both in diplomatic and military terms?

            A senior British official yesterday said the focus … was to get its principal neighbours China, India and Thailand to persuade the junta to grant entry to the international effort.  But if these efforts failed, he admitted, western nations could conceivably carry out a humanitarian intervention without Burma’s consent. … If that consent is withheld, the alternative is that tens of thousands of people are left to die. …

            Western diplomats see risks to a forced intervention.  Airdrops of food and medical supplies will be of limited use without aid workers on the ground to administer them.  A bigger operation risks a military confrontation with the junta.  But diplomats know, too, a failure to act would leave up to 1.5m people vulnerable.”

James Blitz, “West weighs risks of humanitarian intervention”, Financial Times (UK), May 11, 2008.               

703d.    ‘Several relief organizations in Myanmar said Wednesday that some of the international aid coming into the country was being stolen, diverted or warehoused by the military.  … [One confirmed that] it was going to be a growing problem, though he declined to give any further details because of the sensitivity of the situation. …

            The fate of [the supplies after arrival] … remained unknown, because the junta has barred all foreigners … from accompanying any donated aid, tracking its distribution or following up on its delivery. … There were rumors in the capital on Wednesday that special high-energy biscuits for distribution in the disaster areas had been replaced by cheaper, off-the-shelf crackers. …

            One longtime relief coordinator in Myanmar said Tuesday that 30 percent of the people in the affected areas had been reached.”          

“Junta stealing aid, relief groups say”, International Herald Tribune, May 15, 2008.

703e.    “The military junta in Burma is failing the most basic responsibility of any government --  to take care of its citizens. … But the government has denied aid workers entry and has seized the limited United Nations relief supplies sent, … forcing the UN to suspend operations … late last week. …

            If not the national government, who can protect the people? … Three years ago all the members of the United Nations agreed that governments have a responsibility to protect their people, and the international community had to assume that responsibility if a government cannot or will not do so. …

            [Bernard Kouchner’s suggestion] that the United Nations invoke this collective responsibility. … [was] met with a deafening silence. …

            Skeptics will doubtless say, why bother?  China … and perhaps Russia will block any such efforts. ... [But] Beijing cannot afford another global public relations crisis … [shortly before the Beijing Olympics.] …

            We are at a pressing moment.  If the international community fumbles this, it will not only confirm [a hollow commitment to the principle], but accelerate the increasing irrelevance of the United Nations.

            The world – not least the people of Burma – cannot afford such failure.”

Ivo Daalder and Paul Stares, “The UN’s responsibility to protect: Saving Burma’s people”, International Herald Tribune, May 14, 2008.      [Note: Another useful summary article is Fred Hiatt, “In Burma, a U.N. promise not kept”, Washingtonpost.com, May 12, 2008.]

703f.     “Is the bleak situation in Myanmar following Cyclone Nergis a crime against humanity?  French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner … said the concept should be invoked. … But the UN’s special advisor on Responsibility to Protect, Edward Luck, … diplomatically disagrees with Kouchner. … Mr. Luck responded [in writing]:

‘No, in my view. … it would be a misapplication.  (RtoP) principles limited their applicability to … genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing. … There is no agreement among the Member States on applying them to other situations, no matter how disturbing or regrettable the circumstances.’

            Could non-response to a natural disaster rise to the level of a crime against humanity?  Luck responded:

‘[That] is a matter to be debated by legal scholars and jurists.  It seems to me however, that larger and well-established human rights principles are at stake here.’

            … What would be the series of steps to apply R2P in such a case?  Luck’s response was shorter and more telling: “we have yet to develop a clear decision-making process or standard operating procedures for implementing RtoP decisions.’  Who the ‘we’ is that will develop such standard operating procedures is not yet clear.”

Matthew Russell Lee, “’Responsibility to protect’ does not apply to Myanmar, UN’s expert tells Inner City Press, but older rights concepts do”, Inner City Press, May 12, 2008.

704.      “A decade after a famine killed 500,000-1m people in North Korea,  recent news … suggests it is once again on the brink of mass starvation.  The state food distribution system seems to have broken down everywhere. …  [A Buddhist group] says that in rural areas families are again adding tree-bark and grass to their diet, … [and] in west-central North Korea, people are already dying of starvation. …

            North Korea’s … 23m-odd population is large for the country’s arable land, and the weather is often unfavourable. …[And] calculating North Korea’s food needs is a politicized game of inadequate data. …  It is not just grain itself: electricity and fuel for threshing and transport are also short.  People are forced on to the black market. …

            The World Food Programme struggles to raise money and awareness. … Yet since late 2005 North Korea has restricted its operations in the country. … [South Korean aid is] now in doubt under [a] new administration. … China wants no trouble, while North Korea has also cracked down at the border.            … If there is to be a second famine, it seems no North Korean is to be allowed to escape its rigours.”   

“North Korea: Let them eat juche: what the world’s most repulsive regime has in store for its people”, The Economist,  May 10^th, 2008.

705a.    “The rich world’s response to … [rising food costs] has mostly been muddled. …

            [A British expert] says … donors need a single, simple guide on how and where to help, not a clamour of competing United Nations bureaucracies with different plans. … The first priority has been to finance the World Food Programme. … Ban Ki-moon … set up a task-force …and has called for a food summit in early June to work out a plan.  So far, so good. …

            [But] the crisis has set off a round of bickering. … Criticism has long been swirling round the largest agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation. … On May 4 Senegal’s  president, Abdoulaye Wade … [called] the FAO a ‘bottomless pit of money largely spent on its own functioning’ … and proposed … incorporating it into the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), … [to be] moved to Africa. …

            An independent evaluation last year damned … [FAO’s] ‘heavy and costly bureaucracy.’  Merging all three Rome-based agencies (the WFP is there, too) … [could] stir up a hornet’s nest of discontent.  … [But] bureaucratic infighting would … [probably not facilitate a coherent global] response to higher food prices.”

“Food prices and protest: Taking the strain”, The Economist, May 10^th, 2008.   [Note: see also Overview Quotes XIII, item 692a-b.]

705b.    “The United Nations’ food crisis taskforce will meet for the first time in New York today. … John Holmes, … named by Ban Ki-Moon to head the panel as … co-ordinator, was preoccupied last week with … [aid to] cyclone-battered Burma. 

            The frustrations he acknowledged at dealing with one small, recalcitrant UN member state risk being magnified … [in] drawing up … a global consensus acceptable to all 192 member states on a longer-term and more widespread challenge.  …

            Last week he … [told UN envoys] to cool some of the dire rhetoric about the impact of global food prices … since overstating the problems would only make … [them worse.  However,] some of the most chilling predictions … have come from the UN system itself. … Mr. Ban … last month warned: ‘If not properly handled, this crisis could cascade into multiple crises affecting trade, development and even social and political security around the world.’ . …

            The task force … will first have to seek consensus among themselves before presenting an action plan to an even more disparate UN membership. … Mr. Holmes has said the taskforce will look at all the issues affecting world food supply.”

Harvey Morris, “First meeting for UN food crisis panel”, Financial Times (UK), May 12, 2008.

706.      “The U.N. World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) faces a potentially bitter North-South battle this week over who will steer it through the next six years.  A total of 14 candidates are in the list to replace Director-General Kamal Idris of Sudan who is stepping down a year early after accusations that he faked his birth date to win quick promotion within the body.

            ‘This is very important for business because WIPO plays a key role in managing global patent and trademark pacts which underpin many trade agreements.  And the DG can certainly influence the line it takes’, [said an expert.]

            Some diplomats … say the WIPO election could reflect a wider struggle for influence in the world body between Western nations and Islamic countries and their allies – African states, Russia, China and Cuba.

            This is what we have seen in the Human Rights Council to the benefit of the OIC (the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference) and not to the benefit of universal human rights,’  said a Western envoy.”         

Robert Evans, “North-South battle looms on chief for U.N. agency”, Reuters India, May 12, 2008.     [The current battle follows a very major and drawn-out confrontation last year to force the departure of Mr. Idris, who was accused of much more than faking a birth date, see the IO Watch Overview Quotes VII, item 351, X, item 498a-f, and XI, item 539.]

707.      “[Amid severe new global tensions, some seek] a new international organization … of democratic nations. … [Backers in the US and Europe since the 1990’s cite the idea] to promote liberal internationalism … [and ideals, including most recently] the ‘responsibility to protect.’ …

            Would a concert of democracies supplant the UN?  Of course not. … But the world’s democracies could make common cause to act in humanitarian crises when the UN Security Council cannot reach unanimity … [as] Nato and the European Union did in Kosovo.] …

            [Some bicker about] which nations are democracies and which are not. … [Yet the EU employs] precise and stringent criteria for deciding whether a possible entrant is or is not a democracy. …

            Ideological competition is already underway.  Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, notes that … ‘a real competitive environment has emerged’ … between different ‘value systems and development models.’ … Democracies should not be embarrassed about … entering this competition.  Neither Beijing nor Moscow would expect them to do anything else. …

            [Finally.] a league of democracies will not … [happen] unless the world’s great democracies want it to.  This is one idea that the US cannot impose.”

Robert Kagan, “The case for a league of democracies”, Financial Times (UK), May 14, 2008.

708a.    “A former employee of the U.N. Development Programme has accused the agency of throwing him out for blowing the whistle on corruption in its operations in Somalia.  Ismail Ahmed, a British national, said the UNDP first transferred him to another office and later ended his contract and set out to blacken his reputation, including by accusing him of the wrongdoing he had tried to expose.  He also said, in a detailed dossier … that the UNDP supported a Somali money transfer company with suspected links to Islamic militants. …

            [A UNDP spokesman] said ‘Clearly UNDP takes all these allegations extremely seriously’ … [and] an investigation team would fly in mid-June to Nairobi. …

            Ahmed worked for the UNDP between 2005 and 2007 as an expert on Somalia’s financial system. … In March 2006 he submitted an anonymous complaint of corruption … [but] UNDP investigators cleared those involved of any wrongdoing.  Ahmed openly filed a complaint in October 2006, but it [only] prompted a ‘systematic destruction of documents that could be used to provide evidence of wrongdoing.’  … [He said further that a UNDP representative’s defamation campaign led to the withdrawal of three job offers he had received in Somalia.]”

Mark Trevelyan, “Whistleblower accuses UNDP over Somalia projects”, Reuters, 14 May 2008.

708b.    [An excellent report on the struggles of this UNDP whistleblower in Somalia is provided by the Washington-based Government Accountability Project, the leading US whistleblower protection organization, which represents Dr. Ahmed.  It highlights numerous serious problems evidenced by his extensive  dossier, and then explores the background of the situation, alleged wrongdoing by a Nairobi-based accounting firm, UNDP support to a company with suspected links to terrorist organizations, retaliation actions by UNDP, and the evasiveness of UNDP’s Ethics Office in late 2007. 

            In particular, the GAP provides a precise letter, of March 28, 2008, that it sent to the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services.  In the context of the UNDP’s own Legal Framework for Addressing Non-Compliance with UN Standards of Conduct, it presents the conflicts of interest of the UNDP’s investigative unit and the reasons that OIOS should take jurisdiction of this case.  The report and the letter can be found at www.whistleblower.org, under “International Reform” and then “United Nations.

            It remains to be seen whether the UNDP will destroy another conscientious staff whistleblower and maintain its impunity, but also its very tattered credibility.]

“UNDP whistleblower details comprehensive wrongdoing in Somalia projects: Evidence shows lack of oversight, retaliation, and program ties to terrorist groups”,  Government Accountability Project, May 14, 2008.

709.      “The UN’s budget process is broken, the Secretariat and the General Assembly pass the buck, and no one seems to be willing to talk about it.  Halfway through the month in which the Budget Committee must vote on $7.5 billion of peacekeeping missions, many of the proposals and reports are not available.  Who or what is to blame? …

            [A letter from] the chairman of the budget committee … Hamidon Ali, … complains to outgoing Management chief Alicia Barcena about the slow-down, rejecting all arguments for why the Secretariat and the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) do not make documents available.  The response, not by Ms. Barcena … shifts the blame to ACABQ and the department of peacekeeping.  But is that any proposal to improve all this? …

                        [Inner City Press also queried the work patterns of ACABQ members, since] the allegation is that the vice chair of ACABQ has not attended [meetings] in several months, and the Belgian member for weeks.  And so it goes at the UN.”

Matthew Russell Lee, “At UN, leaks show budget process is broken, Germany claims $41 million for Lebanon ships”, Inner City Press, May 15, 2008.

710.      “Will there ever be a good moment to cite the notion of a responsibility to protect -- unanimously adopted by more than 150 states at the UN World Summit in 2005 – [as Bernard Kouchner, France’s foreign minister, suggested for Myanmar?] …

            A Canadian International Commission … [suggested in 2001] a more muscular ‘responsibility to protect’, or R2P … to take, if necessary, coercive action to protect people at risk of grave harm. …

            From the start, … [the developing world viewed it as a Western trick]  to impose its values.  Others … are asking whether [R2P] will ever be more than an empty slogan. … Besides, the Iraq fiasco has … [shown] that an armed intervention, even if its declared aims are benign, can set off a whole chain or terrible consequences. … Proponents of … [R2P now seek] to correct ‘misconceptions’, … [to claim R2P] as a modest ‘strategy’ for protecting the defenceless.  …

            Responsibility to protect is not yet dead, but it is fragile. … The idea will need some clearer successes than the … [recent Kenya power-sharing deal] if it is going to survive.  And Myanmar, apparently, is not going to be one of them.”

“To protect sovereignty, or to protect lives?: The UN and humanitarian intervention”, The Economist, May 17^th, 2008.       [Note: See also item 703a-f above.]

711.      “Somalia  … was about the last place on earth that needed a food crisis. …  But now with food costs spiraling … villagers across this sun-scorched landscape say hundreds of people are dying of hunger and thirst. … Some village elders said their children were chewing on their own lips and tongues because they had no food. …

            [Somalia] … has some of the highest malnutrition rates anywhere in the world – in a good year.  The collapse of the central government in 1991 plunged [it] into a spiral of clan-driven bloodshed that it has yet to pull out of … and began with a famine that killed hundreds of thousands of people.  …

            The consensus now is that all the same elements of the early 1990s – high-intensity conflict, widespread displacement and drought – are lining up again. …

            The UN says that … [some 3.5 million Somalis may soon need assistance.] …  Whether Somalia slips into a famine may depend on aid, … [but] eleven aid workers have been killed this year and United Nations officials say Somalia is more complicated, and dangerous, than ever … [and that it] is now too dangerous to expand their life-saving work.”

Jeffrey Gettleman, “’Perfect storm’ ravages Somalia: Global food crisis meets local chaos, International Herald Tribune, May 17-18, 2008.

712.  “As diplomats at the United Nations prepare to sign off on the biggest ($7.4 billion) peacekeeping budget in the organisation’s history, concerns are being raised that the growing demands on the world’s ‘Blue Helmets” are running out of control. …

            [The budget is] to field about 90,000 uniformed personnel worldwide … an almost threefold increase, in terms of cash and troops, since  2003 … [and now three times as high as UN non-military expenditure.] …

            ‘The Security Council has gone mandate crazy,’ says an expert.   Missions … currently total 15 … [with perhaps] some 60,000 troops on the ground in East Africa alone. … [The UN also] now has some 27,000 civilian auxiliary posts – many of which it does not have applicants to fill – a figure up 17,000 on 2003. …

            Traditionally, the Blue Helmets were not intended for a fire-fighting role. … [Major suppliers such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are] increasingly reluctant to face the risks that 21^st century Blue Helmets are required to run.   … But with unrest simmering in many parts of the world, the Security Council  … is under pressure to respond … more often than not [by putting] … boots on the ground.”

Harvey Morris, “UN peacekeeping in line of fire”, Financial Times (UK), May 17-18 2008.

713a.    “An annual study ranking nations in terms of how peaceful they are has just given poor marks to the US and Russia, placing them firmly in the bottom half of a list of 140 states. …

            Iceland tops the survey, which analyses how peaceful countries are both in terms of international policy and domestic conditions.  For the second year running, Iraq is in last place. …

            The Global Peace Index, … published today, finds that 16 of the 20 most peaceful states are European democracies. … However, China is put in 67^th place, the US is 97^th and Russia is at 131. …

            [The Index] … tests each nation against 24 ‘peacefulness’ criteria, including a nation’s relations with its neighbours,  arms sales and foreign troop deployments, … [its] crime rate, its prison population and the potential for terrorism within its borders. …

            The 2008 list also reveals the … nations making the biggest jump up the table,  … Angola, Indonesia, India, and Uzbekistan.  Kenya, … which  witnessed serious internal violence after December’s presidential elections, has been the biggest faller.”

James Blitz, “US and Russia ranked among least peaceful states”, Financial Times (UK), May 20, 2008.     [Note: The index is drawn up by the Institute for Economics and Peace, an independent think-tank, along with the  UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit.  It is found at www.visionofhumanity.org.]