UN Misspeaks on Sri Lanka Complaints

UN Misspeaks on Sri Lanka Complaints and Skanska Suit, Kosovo Runaround, Fiji Connections

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, April 19 – In last week’s UN answers to questions asked at noon, there were at least two seeming misstatements, and one near-comical runaround. On Sri Lanka, Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq told Inner City Press on both April 13 and April 14 that the UN had “repeated” urged the government to release UN staff members detained in internally displaced people’s camps. But by week’s end, Sri Lankan “Resettlement” Minister Rishad Baduideen replied that the first the government heard from the UN about the issue was on April 15 -- two days after Inner City Press wrote and asked about it, and Mr. Haq’s answer.

On April 17, Inner City Press asked and Haq responded

Inner City Press: Just on this asbestos, first can you either confirm or respond to the seeming fact in the public record that Skanska is a named defendant in an ongoing civil suit about mishandling asbestos in the Monterey Courthouse in California, and that it had paid a fine in connection with that case earlier on? And also that ATC has been issued an order of non-compliance from the Clean Air Act by the EPA, and why they were selected.

Associate Spokesperson Haq: You know, I have something for you on that, but I don’t know whether I have it here. So many papers, but that one is still upstairs. I’ll have to tell about that on afterwards.

[The Associate Spokesperson later said regarding the lawsuit in California concerning Skanska and asbestos abatement: Skanska had made the United Nations aware of this lawsuit before they were selected, in the 2007 Request for Proposal process. Neither Skanska nor Skanska subcontractors performed any asbestos abatement on the referenced project and all charges were dismissed in 2007 and permanently removed from the record by the State of California.]

There is only one problem with this answer: it is false to say that the lawsuit is dismissed, because the civil suit continues, as Skanska and CMP personnel below the level of Michael Adlerstein admit. Adlerstein has misspoken, and the Spokesperson’s office has repeated it, in writing. (Similarly, it is possible that OCHA or the UN Country Team in Sri Lanka are the origin of Haq's statements that the Sri Lankan government has denied.) Now what?

Of the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General, sources tell Inner City Press that it is filing complaints with DPI chief Kiyosaka Akasaka and others that the Office is under-staffed, particularly with Ban Ki-moon's near constant travel. Despite Sri Lanka directly contradicting with Haq and John Holmes said, it is of course possible that it is the UN telling the truth. But then one expects the UN to publicly take issue with Sri Lanka's denials, just as the UN and OSSG have with Sudan, Zimbabwe and other member states. We'll see.