On Egypt, Ban plays the waiting game

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Posted By Colum Lynch Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 7:33 PM

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned today's attacks by pro-government mobs on peaceful Egyptian protesters as "unacceptable," called on security forces and demonstrators to show restraint and warned that the world should "not underestimate the danger of instability across the Middle East."

Ban's remarks, made to reporters following a meeting in London with British Prime Minister David Cameron, came one day after the U.N.'s high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, urged the Egyptians authorities to "avoid excessive use of force" against "peaceful" demonstrators. The Geneva-based rights advocate also called for investigations into the police's handling of the crisis, and criticized Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government for demonstrating through 30 years of iron-fisted rule that "human rights have not been one of its prime concerns."

The combined remarks of the top U.N. officials marked an escalation in the organization's criticism of President Mubarak's handling of the current crisis, and offered moral support for the protesters who came under attack by Mubarak's loyalists. While Ban and Pillay stopped short of calling on Mubarak to step down, their remarks constituted an extraordinary public rebuke of the leader of a country that wields enormous political influence and power in the United Nations.

But the tough talk masked an essentially tentative substantive approach by the U.N. leadership to the popular uprisings sweeping across Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and the broader Arab world. After six weeks of near-daily protests in the region, Ban has still not yet convened his top advisors for a major strategy session on the crisis.

U.N. policy advisors, unlike their counterparts in Washington, have not met with Middle East experts to discuss the crisis. Only on Tuesday did the U.N.'s top communications officials meet with the organization's senior political advisors for the first time.

In the meantime, Ban's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, and other top U.N. political advisors have counseled a cautious approach to the crisis, arguing in closed door meetings that it would not be appropriate for the United Nations to initiate bold ideas or proposals in an effort to shape the outcome of events or to be seen taking sides in a fluid political crisis whose outcome remains unclear. These officials maintain that the U.N. can only maintain its relevance over the medium- and long-term if it scrupulously avoids taking sides in the region. The most that Ban and other select officials should be doing, according to these officials, is offer broad public statements that endorse basic human rights.

Nambiar's approach has frustrated other U.N. officials, particularly within the communications division, who have been pressing for a tougher response to Mubarak's rule, and counseling the U.N. leadership to more closely align itself with the protesters. The U.N., they argue, needs to be positioned on what they see as the right side of history if or when Mubarak and other Arab autocrats fall.

Critics within the organization say that the U.N. leadership's caution is fueled by a fear of undertaking a politically risky initiative in a year when Ban is seeking reelection for a second term. They also note that the U.N. is concerned about upsetting other Middle East governments, including Saudi Arabia, which staunchly support Mubarak.

A deeper problem, they note, is that the U.N. lacks the intellectual expertise. None of the senior advisors in Ban's office are Arabic speaking, and none of the five top key policy makers in the Department of Political Affairs, which is taking the lead in fashioning the U.N. response, speak Arabic.

"These guys want to wait and see how this shakes out. They are not willing to stick their necks out because they don't know where this will end up, and they don't want to piss anybody off, particularly in an election year," one U.N. official said of Ban's top advisors. "If we were serious we would at least be briefing senior staff members on the crisis, hosting a panel of wise men, or bringing in experts from DC or from New York's foreign policy community. We're not doing that."

Ban's defenders say that the perception of U.N. inaction has been driven more by the fact that Ban has been traveling abroad, where he has been closely monitoring events in the Middle East and consulting with top regional representatives and advisors accompanying him on the trip. They say many of his critics in New York are not privy to those discussions.

U.N. officials also say that, even in the absence of a broadly coordinated strategy, there have been a number of individual initiatives from the organization in response to the crisis, including an offer to provide electoral assistance to Tunisia.

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Former Africa minister Malloch-Brown advises oil firm on African expansion

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• Rajeev Syal and Solomon Hughes
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 July 2010 17.04 BST
• Article history

Lord Malloch Brown pictured in 2005 at a UN oil-for-food programme meeting in New York. Photograph: Jeff Zelevansky/REUTERS

Just 12 months after resigning from the government, Lord Malloch-Brown, the former Foreign Office minister for Africa, has become an adviser to an oil firm that is expanding its interests on the continent.

Vitol, the Swiss-based oil firm, has previously been fined for paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussain's regime. It recently entered talks to take over oil businesses in 19 African countries.

The disclosure about the talks and that Malloch-Brown, the Labour peer and former UN deputy secretary general, is a consultant to the firm, has raised concerns among Labour MPs over former ministers who have left government and gone into lucrative, private-sector, jobs closely related to their ministerial roles.

Sir Peter Soulsby, a Labour member of the Commons' political and constitutional reform committee, said: "There ought to be much tougher rules on the jobs that ministers take when they leave office. Taking this particular job at the very least shows an unfortunate lack of judgment."

Malloch-Brown, 57, joined Gordon Brown in July 2007 as part of the former prime minister's "government of all the talents". Her was also made a life peer. He stood down from office in July last year, for "personal and family reasons".

His new role has been approved by the advisory committee on business appointments, which advises ex-ministers on jobs taken within two years of leaving office.

Vitol is in negotiations with Shell Oil Products Africa for the potential acquisition of their businesses in several countries, including Egypt, Togo Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana and Namibia. It already has interests in Ghana and Cameroon.

In 2007, the firm admitted paying illegal kickbacks under the UN oil-for-food programme and agreed to pay $17.5m in restitution and fines.

The oil-for-food scheme was designed to use proceeds from Iraq's sales to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian aid, to alleviate the impact of international sanctions.

In 2006, when Malloch-Brown was chief of staff to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, he defended the organisation's oil-for-food programme from claims of fraud by telling the security council that "not a penny was lost from the organisation".

Malloch-Brown, who is also a consultant to Southwest Energy, an Ethiopian oil firm, defended his new role and dismissed claims of a potential conflict of interest. "My knowledge of Africa was not gained as a British minister. Rather I was recruited into government because I had worked extensively on African and international issues throughout my career. My activities today continue to reflect that," he said, adding that he had never been in contact with Vitol during his time at the UN, nor had any dealings with the company when he was a minister.

When in government, Malloch-Brown quickly gained a reputation for making colourful comments. The then foreign secretary at the time, David Miliband, who is 11 years his Malloch-Brown's junior, was said to have been upset when he the latter told a newspaper: "It's fine for me to be, for the first time in my life, the older figure, the wise eminence behind the young foreign secretary." He also raised eyebrows when he said that Tony Blair and George W Bush were "joined at the hip".

Other ministers who worked under Gordon Brown and who have taken up private-sector jobs include Lady Vadera, a former business minister who is now advising the authorities in Dubai, and Lord Carter of Barnes, the former head of strategy at No 10, now marketing chief for Alcatel-Lucent telecoms group. Ruth Kelly, the former education secretary, was appointed as senior strategic manager for HSBC. John Hutton, the former energy minister and defence secretary, has become an adviser to Eversheds, the law firm, and is joining the board of the US firm Hyperion Power Generation, which sells nuclear reactors.

Malloch-Brown, who is also a consultant to correctSouthwest Energy, an Ethiopian oil company, defended his new role this week and dismissed any allegations of a potential conflict of interest. "My knowledge of Africa was not gained as a British minister. Rather I was recruited into government because I had worked extensively on African and international issues throughout my career. My activities today continue to reflect that," he said.

He added that he had never been in contact with Vitol during his time at the UN, nor had any dealings with the the company when he was a minister.

"As part of my due diligence prior to starting my consulting appointment, I have discussed the oil-for-food issue and reviewed the steps that have been taken by Vitol to ensure that the necessary lessons have been learnt and the right compliance programme put in place," he said. He declined to say how much he would be paid for the role.

A spokesman for Vitol said the timing of Malloch-Brown's recruitment, and the decision to negotiate to take over parts of Shell's operations in Africa, was a coincidence. "This type of expansion activity is something that Vitol has been looking at for some time."

A statement added that the peer's new consulting agreement began last month and had been properly disclosed on the Lords website. "Lord Malloch-Brown provides consulting services on geo-political issues of importance to the Vitol group, including current and potential future business in Africa," it read.

Malloch Brown Will Face a Zimbabwe Question

Turtle Bay
By BENNY AVNI April 14, 2008

Here is a question I plan to ask Britain's Minister Mark Malloch Brown, who will visit his old Turtle Bay stomping grounds this week: Are the U.N. Development Program's representatives in Zimbabwe too close to the dictator Robert Mugabe?

President Mugabe, who for decades has held back his country's potential for success on the pretext of fighting colonialist ghosts, is justly one of Britain's least favorite world leaders. He is currently involved in a fight for his long political life, attempting to steal the recent election. Mr. Malloch Brown, whose role for the British government includes responsibility for Africa and the United Nations, would score a victory for British Prime Minister Brown — and for himself — if he gets the Security Council involved in Zimbabwe during this week's summit of world and African leaders here. But more about that later.

Prior to joining Britain's government, Mr. Malloch Brown was the U.N.'s deputy secretary-general. Before that, between 1999 and 2005, as the UNDP's administrator, he was hailed by admirers as a forceful leader who made sweeping changes at the agency, and created practices and policies that govern its activities to this very day.

It was therefore entirely appropriate for Baroness Park of Monmouth to address Lord Malloch Brown during an April 3 debate on African issues in Britain's House of Lords. "Unless the present head of the UNDP" — Agostinho Zacarias — "is withdrawn, there will not be very much confidence in the U.N.'s role in the future of Zimbabwe," Ms. Park was quoted as saying by Zimbabwe's Sunday news. "Two successive UNDP leaders" — Victor Angelo and Mr. Zacarias — "have been far too close" to Mr. Mugabe.

A UNDP spokesman, David Morrison, told me the agency has looked into the matter of whether its officials ever accepted land from Mr. Mugabe and has determined that the charge is unfounded. Privately, UNDP officials wonder how they could ever operate in dictatorships without being considered "too close" to the local dictator.

Zimbabwe's crisis is not expected to be on the agenda of Wednesday's special Security Council meeting on Africa's relations with the United Nations, called by Prime Minister Mbeki of South Africa, which holds the rotating council presidency in April. Mr. Brown will represent Britain, and will be accompanied by Mr. Malloch Brown.

Currently, issues involving Sudan-Chad, Somalia, Kenya, and other African crises are expected to be discussed only "at the margin" of the council's summit, as a Western diplomat put it last week. Mr. Mbeki was hoping to raise Africa's profile in general, and to stress international coordination on the continent. He certainly did not intend to embarrass Mr. Mugabe. On his way to this weekend's emergency meeting of southern African leaders, Mr. Mbeki defied some of his neighbor's wishes, stopping by for a visit with Mr. Mugabe in Harare. There is "no crisis in Zimbabwe," Mr. Mbeki announced, indicating no change in his long-held opposition to international intervention in his neighbor's affairs.

The London Times reported over the weekend that to soften such opposition, Mr. Malloch Brown is conducting a "discreet" visit to Beijing, where he would try to leverage worldwide anger over China's policies in Tibet and Sudan to convince the Communist regime to drop its support for Mr. Mugabe. China has long insisted that problems in places like Burma and Sudan — not to mention Tibet or Taiwan — do not add up to threats to international peace and security, the threshold for Security Council action. getting Beijing, a veto-wielding council member, in this case to drop such opposition could help pave the way for a British-led action on Zimbabwe.

The British prime minister is the highest-ranking official among the Security Council's permanent members planning to attend Wednesday's council meeting and the press in London will laugh at him if he returns home without action on Mr. Mugabe. Conversely, Mr. Malloch Brown will be crowned a hero if the council does issue at least a statement on Zimbabwe. But first, Mr. Malloch Brown will have to field a question about the role there of the UNDP he once led.

British House of Lords denounces secret deals among UNDP Res Reps and Zimbabwe's Mugabe - demands their immediate dissmisal

Sunday News Reporter


THE British House of Lords has vowed to pressure its government to expeditiously press for a regime agenda change in Zimbabwe and has pledged to move in if “chaos” erupts in the country after harmonised polls despite its other commitments in war torn Iraq and Afghanistan, it has been learnt.

This came out in a full text of the United Kingdom's House of Lords debate on Zimbabwe held on Thursday 3 April 2008 and was presented by UK Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown. The House of Lords had a lengthy debate on Zimbabwe’s harmonised elections and the need to put the right people in the right places in order to effect regime change in the country. The lords could not wait to see an MDC Tsvangirai government taking over in the country which they described as good news and pledged to assist the new government as they were a major donor to the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

Baroness Northover in her contribution to the debate, said the situation in Zimbabwe was fragile and there was need for Britain’s position on the country to be clarified, likening the happenings in the country with Iraq and Afghanistan..
“We cannot let Zimbabwe slide into chaos. Could the Minister assure us that, even though we have pressing concerns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we will not let Zimbabwe slide down the agenda.

“I did not anticipate that Mugabe might be removed, as now seems possible, by peaceful, democratic means. That makes me feel incredibly optimistic about development in Africa. However, we must make sure that the citizens of Zimbabwe, who are not resorting to violence, are supported and reinforced in their exercise of democracy. We are still in very dangerous and fluid circumstances and the present crisis is far from over,” she said.

The House of Lords was unanimous that although the harmonised elections were held within the confines of the country’s electoral laws and Southern Africa Development Community’s principles and guidelines governing the conduct of democratic polls, the political playing field was still tilted towards the ruling party.

“The conditions for free and fair elections were not in place. The playing field was tilted heavily in favour of Zanu-PF.

“ We will probably never know how many dead people on that roll cast ghost votes. But we do know that, in spite of those problems, millions of ordinary Zimbabweans still queued peacefully and voted. Now they are holding their breath: will their country reverse the spiral of decline or exacerbate it,” she said.

The house confirmed that a heft package was already in place to rescue the MDC Government if it win the Presidential poll.

“I welcome the Minister’s confirmation that a $1 billion package is being discussed. I hope that it will be further discussed at the IMF spring meeting in Washington later this month,” said Lord Watson of Invergowrie. The house also agreed to put more pressure on the region, mainly the South African leader, Mr Thabo Mbeki to put pressure on President Mugabe to step down.

Contributing to the debate, Baroness Park of Monmouth, argued that for change to take place in Zimbabwe, there was need for what she called right people being put on “the right places.”

“Unless the present head of the UNDP (Agostinho Zacarias) is withdrawn, there will not be very much confidence in the UN’s role in the future of Zimbabwe. Two successive UNDP leaders (Victor Angelo and Dr Zacarias) have been far too close to (President) Mugabe and indeed, in one case, have taken land from him.

“It will be extremely important to create confidence among the people of Zimbabwe by telling them that the international community is going to come to help them, but it will be the right people. I propose having Anna Tibaijuka as the UN commissioner. She would have their total trust - she reported honestly on the (Operation) Murambatsvina.

“Her role in the UN is to do building and that is what is going to be necessary. She understands the situation, she is respected and she understands women’s issues. She would make an excellent UN representative,” she said.

Dr Tibaijuka, a Tanzanian was dispatched by the UN to access the impact of Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Hope in June 2005, but later produced a damning report on the country. The Government of Zimbabwe however dismissed the report as flawed as it did not also input the steps by the Government to construct house for affected people under Operation Garikai/Hlalani Khuhle.

Baroness Park said Britain had left the decisions to resolve Zimbabwe’s crisis too long to the Southern African Development Community (SADC.)

She argued that Zimbabwe left the Commonwealth in 2004 because President Mugabe took the country out - not because the people wanted to leave. She argued that it was time that the country was re-admitted.

“…Therefore, I hope that the Secretary of State, who said that he would be approaching the new head of the Commonwealth at the appropriate time, will regard this as the appropriate time. It is a time when the Commonwealth can do a great deal,” she said.

Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth after the 2002 Presidential election which the Commonwealth observer mission argued was flawed inspite of the fact that other observers said it was free, fair and legitimate.

Zimbabweans went to the polls on March 29 to choose President, Senate, Lower House Assembly and Councillors. The results of the council, Senate and House of Assembly polls were made public at the command centres. So far the out of the results of announced Zanu-PF got 97 seats, MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai 99 seats and MDC led by Aurthar Mutambara 10 seats. Professor Jonathan Moyo, an independent got one seat in Tsholotsho.