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Resources updated Thursday, July 27, 2017

July 27, 2017

Ng Lap Seng, who was found guilty in a corruption scandal involving high level UN officials (File photo)

"A U.S. jury on Thursday found Macau billionaire Ng Lap Seng guilty on charges he bribed two United Nations ambassadors to help him build a multibillion-dollar conference center.

Ng, 69, was convicted on all six counts he faced, including bribery, money laundering and corruption, in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Jurors needed less than a day to reach a verdict, following a four-week trial.

'In his unbridled pursuit of even greater personal fortune, billionaire Ng Lap Seng corrupted the highest levels of the United Nations,' Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said after the verdict.

'Through bribes and no-show jobs, Ng turned leaders of the league of nations into his private band of profiteers.'

Tai Park, a lawyer for Ng, said in court that his client had 'substantial' legal issues to raise on appeal. Park later declined to comment to reporters. The United Nations also had no comment. Prosecutors accused Ng of paying more than $1 million of bribes to bypass the normal hassles of dealing with the U.N., with a goal of winning 'fame and more fortune' by developing in Macau what he thought of as the 'Geneva of Asia.'..."

U.S. jury finds Macau billionaire guilty in UN bribery case Article

UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic

"Despite years of 'zero tolerance' of the sexual abuse crisis by United Nations' peacekeepers, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR), which has been at the center of the worst U.N. sexual abuse scandal in years, is still a bureaucratic shambles when it comes to recording, investigating and keeping track of those crimes, as well as training its personnel to avoid them, according to a U.N. internal report.

Among other things, the 23-page document itemizes the controversial mission's spotty and often-delayed record-keeping of sex abuse allegations, glacial follow-up on investigations, lack of 'risk assessment' examinations of potential problems at more than half of its 37 operating bases where sexual abuse allegations have occurred, and other jaw-dropping issues of delay and neglect.

The leadership of the 10,700-member peacekeeping force, known by its acronym of MINUSCA, has not yet even come up with a final version of a communications campaign to encourage the battered citizens of CAR to repel and report peacekeeper sexual abuse -- or enough safe places where alleged victims of such crimes can report the abuse in private.

The main reason, the report says, is that the vital outreach program 'had to be included in the mission-wide communication strategy that was still pending finalization by the MINUSCA Public Information Office.'

The snapshot provided by members of the U.N.'s watchdog Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) of MINUSCA's sloppy and erratic efforts to handle the sexual abuse crisis go a substantial way to illustrate what U.N. critics have long called its pernicious 'culture of impunity' regarding sexual abuse, which the U.N.'s top leadership has said repeatedly it intends to eradicate..."

UN war on sexual abuse in Central African Republic still a shambles, internal study shows Article

Rohingya people fleeing an attack

"The United Nations' Human Rights Council has replaced the chairwoman of a team investigating allegations of killings and rape by Myanmar's security forces, it said on Thursday, amid concerns over her perceived bias.

Indian Supreme Court advocate Indira Jaising was initially named to chair the fact-finding mission, which has a focus on the western state of Rakhine that is home to the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority.

Council president Joaquín Alexander Maza Martelli had decided to replace Jaising with Marzuki Darusman, a former attorney-general of Indonesia who has previously conducted rights investigations on North Korea, the council said in a statement from its headquarters in Geneva...

The statement did not give any reason for the change of personnel, but a U.N. official told Reuters Jaising agreed to step down after the council president raised concerns about public comments she made that could be seen as indicating bias...

The U.N official and a human rights advocate familiar with discussions around the mission told Reuters that Jaising's comments had stirred concern among U.N. officials in Geneva that she would not be considered impartial.

After her appointment, Jaising was quoted by broadcaster Al Jazeera as saying the Rohingyas' situation in Myanmar 'is especially deplorable because they face the risk of genocide'..."

UN fires expert for "bias" (worrying Rohingya face genocide in Myanmar) Article

A victim of the cholera epidemic caused by UN peacekeepers seeking information on when he will receive compensation

"In a suburb a few miles south of Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince, Vilner Benjamin walks through a concrete maze of unpainted cinder block homes and narrow alleys pointing out the filthy, standing water and the canal that floods with disease-carrying waste whenever it rains.

His cell phone rings nonstop as he makes his way through the neighborhood called Bergamoth, with caller after caller anxiously asking the same question: 'Any news?'

The calls are from Haitian cholera victims who are desperate to know if they'll receive any of the compensation promised by the United Nations after its blue-helmeted peacekeepers infected Haiti's Artibonite River and one of its tributaries with the deadly disease in 2010.

'They are thirsty for information,' says Benjamin, head of ASOVIK'K, the Association of Cholera Victims of Carrefour, which is compiling a list of cholera victims - about 2,700 and growing - in anticipation of U.N. payment.

A treatable but potentially fatal bacterial infection, cholera causes severe diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to dehydration and death in a matter of hours. Unknown in Haiti for at least a century, cholera has afflicted more than 812,000 Haitians, fatally infecting over 9,600 since it was introduced by Nepalese peacekeepers 10 months after the country's Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake...

The United Nations, which after years of denial finally acknowledged its role in the outbreak in August, has pledged $400 million to treat cholera victims and improve sanitation and water infrastructure in Haiti, while also providing "material assistance and support" to those most severely affected. But it's unclear how long Haitians will have to wait, and if compensation is offered, what it might involve.

A suggestion last month by U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed that $200 million of the money would be used to build 'community projects' has been met with anger and angst in Haiti.

Victims and their advocates view it as a betrayal of the promise made by former U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who, after offering a long-sought after apology in December for the U.N.'s role, promised the victims would be consulted on any compensation decisions.

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for current U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, offered little clarity on the issue when he was asked about individual payments earlier this month at U.N. headquarters: 'I think we will take one step at a time.'

Brian Concannon Jr., executive director of the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), said despite Ban's promise, 'the U.N. has not consulted a single cholera victim about the response, while it is making important decisions.'..."

Anger and angst in Haiti as cholera victims wait for UN compensation Article