The Amateur

Computerist

December 2008 Journalism Award Volume 17 No. 2

Silver Medal Awarded for ‘Interesting

and Provocative Coverage’ of U.N.

Amateur Computerist founding editor and OhmyNews International

United Nations correspondent Ronda Hauben is the recipient of a 2008

Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize for Excellence in Journalism.

The prize is to be presented at the United Nations Correspondents

Association (UNCA) dinner on Thursday night Dec. 4, 2008. This prize

is one of several given by UNCA annually. Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial

Prizes are for Print Journalism including Online Media.

There is a gold and a silver prize in this category. In awarding

Hauben the silver prize, the judges wrote she was chosen for her

“interesting and provocative coverage of issues at the U.N., notably

about the consequences of the permanent five’s stranglehold on the

Security Council.”

Hauben has reported from the U.N. for OhmyNews International

(OMNI) since October 2006. A collection of her OMNI articles have

appeared in the Amateur Computerist Vol. 16 no. 1.

(

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn16-1.pdf)

The awards this year were for articles written between September

1, 2007 and August 31, 2008. Four such articles by Hauben are on pages

3 to 11 in this Special Issue.

The UNCA Awards are for this year’s best print, electronic, and

broadcast media coverage of the United Nations, its agencies and field

operations as well as the best political cartoons reflecting the U.N. spirit.

Webpage: http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/

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The awards will be presented by United Nations Secretary General

Ban Ki-moon at the dinner to honor the journalists. As part of the event,

Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs will receive an award for

his work promoting the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. Also at

the award ceremony several cartoonists will receive the United Nations

Ranan Lurie Political Cartoon Award.

In addition to the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Prize, the UNCA

Awards include the Ricardo Ortega Memorial Prize for broadcast

journalism, and the United Nations Foundation prize for any entry in any

medium that best covers the humanitarian and development aspects of

the U.N. and its agencies.

Elizabeth Neuffer, The Boston Globe bureau chief at the United

Nations, died while on assignment in Baghdad in 2003. Ricardo Ortega,

formerly the New York correspondent for Antena 3 TV of Spain was

shot on mission in Haiti in 2004 and died shortly after.

There are over 200 journalists active at the U.N. Covering the U.N.

is a particular challenge because of the complexity of U.N. diplomacy

and diversity of the issues considered. The awards, however, are not

limited to U.N. correspondents but are open to journalists anywhere in

the world. The awards are for covering the U.N. and its agencies in

whatever capacity.

The Amateur Computerist is happy to announce this important

accomplishment by our co-editor and friend Ronda Hauben.

Announcing the Thirteenth Annual

UNCA Award Winners!

http://cms.unca.com/content/view/42/10/

UNCA is proud to announce the 2008 UNCA Awards Winners! On

Thursday, December 4, 2008, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will

formally recognize the following winners at the UNCA Awards Dinner

at U.N. Delegates Dining Room in NYC.

This years UNCA Awards include the Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial

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Prize for written media (including online media); the United Nations

Foundation prize for any entry in any medium that best covers the

humanitarian and development aspects of the U.N. and its agencies; and

the Ricardo Ortega Memorial Prize for broadcast (electronic) journalism.

Winners for 2008

Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Award for Best Overall Print

Journalism, including online media:

John Heilprin (Joint Gold Recipient) – Associated Press, USA – “for

his coverage of Myanmar, and adroit use of his trip with the U.N.

Secretary General to get in.”

Bill Varner (Joint Gold Recipient) – Bloomberg News, USA – “for his

serious analysis, investigation and coverage of issues in Afghanistan.”

Ronda Hauben (Silver) – OhMyNews International, South Korea – “for

her interesting and provocative coverage of issues at the U.N., notably

about the consequences of the permanent five’s stranglehold on the

Security Council.”

U.N. Foundation Prize for Reporting on Humanitarian

and Development Affairs:

Imelda Abano (Joint Gold Recipient) – Business Mirror, Philippines –

“for her well-written, well-researched and comprehensive report and by

someone from a country where misery is fairly ubiquitous but nowhere

near as desperate.”

Juan Carlos Machorro (Joint Gold Recipient) – Mi Ambiente, Mexico

– “for a very well written, courageous report on Mexico’s environmental

problems.”

Ricardo Ortega Memorial Prize for Broadcast Journal-

ism:

Jugoslav Cosic (Joint Gold Recipient) – B92 Radio, Serbia – “A special

award for courage in broadcasting in a region where accurate coverage

of U.N. issues can be dangerous for a reporter’s health.”

Marie Lora (Joint Gold Recipient) – Agence France Press TV, Kenya

– “for her coverage of Darfur’s ongoing crisis.”

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Shoichiro Beppu (Silver) – NHK, Japan – “for a comprehensive and

insightful report on the world food shortage.”

Judges

Rob Skinner – U.N. Foundation

Jeffrey Laurenti – Century Foundation

Francis Gomez – ex-Foreign Service Officer and a founder of the

National Association of Hispanic Journalists

Karl Meyer – World Policy Institute

Jose Luis Ortega

Introduction and Remarks at

Award Ceremony

Ian Williams, the moderator and head of the UNCA Awards Committee

introduced Ronda Hauben:

“Ronda’s work the judges singled out because it took a view. She’s

been reporting from the U.N. for several years now. You might almost

say it is idiosyncratic because it gives a rounded view.

They were impressed with the work she did on how a lot of

countries aren’t exactly happy with the permanent five running things.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Presents Award to Ronda Hauben

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And you can say this is idiosyncratic but when you look at the mess

the Permanent Five have made of things for the last 50 years, I think

there’s a lot to be said for it. So congratulations Ronda.”

Ronda Hauben remarks:

“I’m delighted not only with the honor the prize is, but also with

what the judges wrote. What they wrote was ‘for her interesting and

provocative coverage of issues at the U.N.’ And then ‘notably about the

consequences of the permanent five’s stranglehold on the Security

Council.’

What I’m delighted about is that, [though] its not the same as being

out in the field certainly, but it does take a certain amount of courage to

keep asking certain questions and particularly when those questions are

not welcome somehow.

And that there’s times you stop and you say should you keep doing

that and my sense is the judges, by giving this award, have said to all of

us, yes you have to ask the questions that aren’t the popular questions,

and that aren’t the questions that you are going to be welcomed for

having asked.

I think its rare to have [such] an award. I submitted four articles for

this. One of the articles is about a [terrorist] list that’s made up by the

Security Council that has no due process involved when people have

their names put on the list.

And there’s legal cases that people have won [about their inno-

cence] and yet still [their names stay on] this list…. It’s an important

issue and yet it gets very little attention. And there’s similarly other

situations like that that have to do with some of the particulars of the

things that happen as you watch the Security Council and you watch

what’s happening at the U.N.

The spirit of the U.N. is that people want it to be something that can

help with all the problems in the world.

And I think for that to happen this prize is very important and I

appreciate it very much, because I think it says what it takes [is for] the

journalist being willing to be out there, even when it is hard. And so this

is going to give me courage and I think it’s an inspiration for everybody.

Thank you.” The url for the webcast is :

http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/specialevents/2008/se08120

Page 5

4pm.rm

(Ronda Hauben is introduced at around 34:19 minutes and her talk ends

around 37:22 minutes.)

[Editor’s note: In the following interview, Ronda Hauben gives some

background to her award.]

OMNI Interview

When did you first consider yourself a journalist?

I have been doing various forms of journalism and writing for a

long time. So this question is hard to answer. Most recently I have been

writing for Telepolis since 1999. My first article in Telepolis was

subsequently translated into German and published in a book that

Telepolis put out called “Cyberhypes.”

I have appreciated the experience Telepolis provides for a journalist,

as this online magazine has been in existence since 1996 and is well

regarded among journalists and the online community in Germany. Also

there have been very interesting discussions by readers of Telepolis,

sometimes as interesting as the articles themselves. So it has been an

important challenge to write for the participants and readers of Telepolis.

How did you first hear about OhmyNews (OMN)? Why did you

choose to submit articles to OMN? When was that?

I first heard about OhmyNews in early 2003 when I read an article

in the Financial Times that described how the new President of South

Korea, Roh Moo-hyun had been elected by netizens. I learned that

OhmyNews played an important role in the election and was well

regarded in South Korea as a pioneering newspaper.

My first article was submitted to OhmyNews in Korean and English

in March 2004. It was about the Howard Dean campaign for the 2004

U.S. Presidential election and I thought there were lessons to be learned

from what had happened in the Roh Moo-hyun campaign of 2002. I

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subsequently submitted a number of the articles I had had published in

Telepolis which were then reprinted in OhmyNews. This was even before

there was an OhmyNews International (OMNI). I was eager to learn

more about OMN and was happy that it expanded to start OMNI. I hoped

that there would be a version of OMN begun in the U.S. and that I would

be able to work as part of it.

How do you choose the topics you write about?

I try to cover what I feel are important stories that are either not

adequately covered or covered in a way that is not accurate in other

media. For example, it seemed that during the lead up to the invasion of

Iraq by the U.S. government, there were inaccurate reports in the media

that helped to prepare the ground for this invasion.

One journalist has called such inaccurate reports, the creation of a

fictitious narrative. I wondered if it would be possible in the future to

counter such fictitious narratives by accurate narratives. This has been

some of the goal recently of the journalism I have been working to

develop.

One example of such articles are the articles I did about the U.S.

government's use of the Patriot Act to freeze the assets of the Banco

Delta Asia in Macao. Through investigation, I learned that the U.S.

government was acting as the accuser and judge with regard to its claims

of the basis for its actions against the bank. I feel my articles on this

issue were an example of striving to create an accurate narrative to

counter the fictitious narrative that appeared in some other media

accounts of the situation.

How did you become a U.N. correspondent?

I was able to attend the World Summit of Information Society

(WSIS) in Tunis in Nov 2005 as a U.N. correspondent for Telepolis.

This was an exciting experience to see so many heads of state and other

national representatives gathered together to discuss the need for all to

have access to the Internet.

After returning home in NYC, and resuming writing for OhmyNews

International as a featured writer, I followed more of what was

happening at the U.N. Also I pay attention to what is happening in South

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Korea, as I do research and writing about the role of netizens in South

Korea to play a greater role in their society.

When Ban Ki-moon won the nomination to be the new Secretary

General, I asked OhmyNews International if they would sponsor me to

become a correspondent at the U.N. They agreed and I was able to report

on Ban's first day as Secretary General and other events related to South

Korea at the U.N.

Why did you choose to submit articles to the UNCA contest?

When was that?

I submitted a series of articles to the UNCA awards competition in

August 2007 as I had done several articles that I felt were helping to

counter the fictitious narratives on U.N.-related developments.

I was told that I had made the short list but hadn’t won an award. I

then submitted a new set of articles for the 2008 competition.

What is special about the U.N. as your journalistic beat?

The U.N. is a very amazing venue, but it also is a difficult one to be

able to write about in a significant way.

What is amazing is that there are many people who work at the U.N.

in different roles and capacities who have a vision that people cooperat-

ing and working together will be able to solve the problems that exist in

our world. I have had very interesting conversations with people who

feel that just working with other people from so many different countries

around the world teaches them a lot about these different places and

helps them to have a more cooperative perspective on the world.

Also, though, reporting for a newspaper that is not well known

means that one is at a disadvantage. The journalists from more well

known publications have better access to information, to asking

questions of the Secretary General and a myriad of other advantages.

Often the issues in contention are hidden from public view to those

who don’t have inside connections at the U.N., so it is hard to know

what is really going on behind the scenes. It is necessary to be able to

get beneath the surface on important issues, but it is also very difficult.

What do you think is the significance of the award?

Page 8

What I said when I had the chance to offer my thanks and thoughts

on the award at the December 4

awards dinner, is that the award is

something important.

It is an encouragement and an inspiration to have more courage

when trying to deal with the difficult issues and questions that emerge

when working on stories about the U.N. For example, Israel has

blockaded Gaza and it has been important to report how the Security

Council is blocked from condemning this blockade by political

maneuvers. Several of the nonpermanent members of the Security

Council spoke up to share their frustration with this activity of some of

the P-5 members. One of my four articles that won this prize described

this situation in the Security Council.

Some of the journalists ask at press conferences about the situation

and what U.N. officials or Security Council members are doing to solve

this problem. It gets frustrating to keep asking, as it seems that there is

no answer given. The award, however, is an encouragement to continue

to ask and to write about the situation, and not to give in to allowing it

to continue in silence.

There are other similar stories that I have been working on and the

award is the encouragement to work harder on them. Other journalists

who feel they are at a disadvantage when reporting about the U.N.

because they write for small or less well known publications have

indicated to me that they are encouraged by my getting the award, that

they, too, will be taken more seriously in their efforts.

Anything else you want to add?

Yes, there is. One journalist I know told me that she thought that my

winning the award was the first time that she felt the UNCA journalism

competition was important to pay attention to. She explained that this

was redeeming the U.N. for her, as it was some of what should happen,

but so rarely does.

OMNI: Thank you.

[This Interview first appeared in OMNI at:

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_cla

Page 9

ss=10&no=384361&rel_no=1]

[Following are four articles submitted for the 2008 competition.]

U.N. No Longer Seen as

Impartial, Independent

What Are the Implications of a New Book on U.N.

Diplomat Sergio Vieira De Mello?

by Ronda Hauben

What happens when idealism meets this awful messy world we live

in? asked the moderator as he introduced the program on Samantha

Power’s new book about Sergio Vieira de Mello at the New York Public

Library

. The form of the program was a conversation between Power

and Iranian human rights advocate Azar Nafisi.

The book, Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight

to Save the World, has recently been published by the Penguin Press.

http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/pep/pepdesc.cfm?id=3920

Working on the biography of Vieira de Mello gave Power the

chance to spend the past four years following in the footsteps of the

remarkable United Nations diplomat who was killed in the bombing of

the U.N.’s Iraq mission in August 2003.

Power presented a short description of Vieira de Mello’s experience

from 1968 up to when he was killed in Iraq.

“He was a guy who moved with the headlines,” she noted, as she

described some of the many hot spots Vieira de Mello had found himself

in during the 34 years that he worked for the U.N.

In 1968, as a student from Brazil at the Sorbonne, he had been part

of the student rebellions in Paris. Like other students of the 1960s, he

hated imperialism. He also hated the state, Power explained. The

alternative to the state and to the polity that he found was the U.N.

He went to work for the U.N. at the age of 21 and continued to do

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so for the rest of his life. Some of the hot spots he was in included

Bangladesh, Sudan and Cyprus, during the earliest phases of his U.N.

career. By the early 1980s he was in Lebanon, and then Cambodia. By

the 1990s he was in Bosnia, Congo and Kosovo – and then East Timor

and, in 2003, Iraq.

Power described how Vieira de Mello believed deeply, perhaps

even to a flaw, in the power of reason. He earned two Ph.Ds., one in

Hegel and the other in Kant. Deeply steeped in political theory he felt it

was possible to order the world according to reason, in line with the

lessons one could gain from the study of the great philosophers. His

dream was that the U.N. would make possible the rule of law.

Power described how Vieira de Mello did not want to go to Iraq, but

had agreed in response to Kofi Annan’s urging.

The reluctance was in part because he did not feel that Paul Bremer,

the United States official in charge of the U.S. occupation, could respect

an independent role for the U.N. The U.N. Security Council had not

supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq; however, it did subsequently pass

a resolution approving a dominant role for the U.S. in the ensuing

occupation of Iraq. Security Council resolution 1483 authorizing the

occupation put the U.S. in charge with no appropriate role provided for

the U.N.

The bombing of the U.N. compound in Iraq was a vivid reminder

that those fighting against the occupation in Iraq did not consider the

U.N. to be an impartial, independent entity.

Just before Vieira de Mello was killed, he had come to believe that

there was a need to publicly criticize the U.S. occupation. He had

concluded there was nothing he could do to influence Bremer. “I have

to start speaking out,” he is quoted telling Marwan Ali, a political aide.

If the U.N. was to have a legitimate function in Iraq, its obligation

was to function as an impartial entity supporting the sovereignty of Iraq,

not as a support for the continuing occupation. This was the conclusion

he had drawn just before he was killed.

The program at the NYPL failed to grapple with this central

dilemma that Vieira’s de Mello’s tragic death raises. A more focused set

of questions and discussion could have been helpful to tease out the

serious problems facing the U.N. when it is perceived of as taking sides

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instead of upholding with impartiality and independence the tenets of its

charter and international law.

This issue is once again especially timely as the U.N. is now

planning to expand the scaled back U.N. presence in Iraq that followed

the bombing.

Following in the footsteps of someone whose life was so steeped in

the difficulties and trouble spots of our times, as Power in her book has

done, can provide a painful but important education. This is the

continuing legacy of Vieira de Mello’s life.

Notes

1. “Samantha Power in Conversation with Azar Nafisi: Chasing the Flame: Sergio

Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World,” New York Public Library, Feb. 21,

2008.

2. Sergio Vieira de Mello was the U.N.’s special representative in Iraq at the time of

the bombing and in charge of the U.N.’s Mission in Iraq.

See for example: “U.N.’s Iraq Bombing Survivors Hold Memorial Service:

Concern expressed about its expanded role in Iraq.”

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=3784

63&rel_no=1

3. “Our flag that used to be a protection is becoming a target. I’m not sure we have

absorbed that reality and acted on it,” observed Lakhdar Brahimi at a press briefing

held at the U.N. on Feb. 28, 2008. Brahimi has been appointed as the head of the panel

to investigate why the U.N. has been subjected to attacks like the one in Iraq in August

2003 and another in Algeria in December 2007. In response to a question from a

journalist, Brahimi responded, “I think the U.N. is not seen as an organization that is

independent and impartial any more. People question the independence of the U.N. It’s

taking sides. A lot of people are rightly or wrongly angry with the United Nations.”

The webcast of the press conference is online.

http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand/pressconference/2008/pc080228am1.rm

4. Samantha Power, “The Envoy,” The New Yorker, Jan. 7, 2008.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/01/07/080107fa_fact_power?currentPage=1

This article appears in OhmyNews International at:

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=3819

32&rel_no=1

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Security Council Fails

to Act on Gaza Crisis

‘The Silence Is Deafening,’ Says

Indonesia’s U.N. Ambassador

by Ronda Hauben

“(M)y delegation believes that silence on the situation in the Middle

East is more dangerous than even meetings where there might be a

raising of temperatures and heat,” explained Dumisani Kumalo, the

South African ambassador to the United Nations.

Speaking in the U.N. Security Council discussion held on Jan. 30,

Kumalo was responding to a statement by the British Ambassador Sir

John Sawers. The British ambassador was questioning the usefulness of

the Security Council discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian question.

This exchange followed the events of the previous week. The

Security Council had spent a week struggling to agree on a non-binding

Presidential statement in response to the Israeli closure of all the

border-crossings into the Gaza Strip. Israel’s action left the Palestinians

in Gaza without fresh supplies of fuel, food or other necessities vital to

life upon which they relied.

By Jan. 29, however, the Council failed to agree on what such a

statement should say and decided to end their efforts. No statement by

the Security Council would be issued.

The original issue brought before the Council was Israel’s closing

of the border crossings into Gaza. From the beginning of the discussion,

however, the U.S. framing, focused the statement on the rocket attacks

into Israel and the right of Israel to defend itself.

Several members of the Security Council explained that such an

interpretation runs counter to the obligations of Israel, as an occupying

power and that punishing the whole population of Gaza for what were

the acts of a few is contrary to the tenets of the prohibition in interna-

tional law against collective punishment and disproportionate actions.

In his presentation to the Security Council in its public discussion

on Jan. 22, Le Luong Minh, the ambassador from Vietnam said, “(W)e

Page 13

consider the acts undertaken by the Israeli authorities against Palestinian

civilians, like any act that literally targets the innocent civilians of a

country, to be unjustifiable, even in the name of security or under any

other pretext.”

Speaking in his capacity as the ambassador from Libya, Giadalla

Ettalhi, who held the rotating chairmanship of the Council in January,

said, “We do not believe these practices against civilians can be justified

on any pretext; nor can they be equated with any other acts.”

Stating a similar view, Ambassador Michel Kufando of Burkina

Faso said, “It is not for us today to engage in a rhetorical exercise but to

concretely consider through a careful review of the situation what the

Council and the international community can do to put an end to the

blockade of Gaza. This blockade is unacceptable because it holds

hostage a whole population subject to all types of privation.”

Several other ambassadors who spoke at the Jan. 22 Security

Council discussion said that the right of a nation to self defense is not

intended as a license to harm or blockade a civilian population as Israel

is doing in Gaza.

The U.S. framing of the situation, however, is that Israel has

disengaged from Gaza and therefore is no longer an occupying force in

Gaza. Israel is being attacked by terrorists in Gaza. Israel has the right

to self defense against Gaza. Though the U.S. framing says that Israel

should, when feasible, minimize the harm to civilians, the U.S. does not

propose any means of imposing such an obligation on Israel.

Others on the Security Council disagree with how the U.S. frames

the situation in Gaza. The South African ambassador said that though

Israel had withdrawn from Gaza, “the territory of Gaza remains under

de facto Israeli occupation. Israel controls Gaza’s air space and Gaza’s

territorial waters. By virtue of its illegal occupation Israel continues to

be bound by the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, states, “No

protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not

personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of

intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is prohibited.

Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.”

Panama’s Ambassador Ricardo Arias said that “the State of Israel

Page 14

has the right to defend itself, however, measures for self-defense should

be carried out in a restrained manner that is proportionate to the threat.”

He further explained that “the Actions of the Government of Israel

violate all humanitarian standards including the most basic rules of

international law.”

Participating in the discussion but not a member of the Security

Council, the Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari challenged the notion

that Israel is not the occupying power in Gaza. He said that Israel’s

claim, “it has withdrawn from Gaza is a blatant distortion of the facts.

Israel controls international borders and all crossing points…. It controls

the flow of food, medicines, water and electricity. In short, Israel, the

occupying power as defined under international law has transformed

Gaza into a sealed ghetto and the West Bank into besieged Bantustans.”

The Syrian ambassador attributed Israel’s belief that it does not

have to abide by the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention to the failure of

the Security Council and the international community to condemn Israel.

At the Security Council discussion on Jan. 30, the Indonesian

ambassador said “The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is dire and unaccept-

able. The people of Gaza have been suffering not only from the border

crossings, but also from repeated military incursions by Israel.”

“Today,” he explained, “we wish to emphasize the importance of a

common Council response on this humanitarian catastrophe.”

The South African ambassador added that “The situation in

Occupied Palestine cannot be ignored any longer. Try as it might, this

Security Council cannot remain silent and hope that the situation will

change as time goes by when 1.5 million residents are left without water,

electricity, and basic sewage situations.”

“We have to remember,” Kumalo said, “that the United Nations,

particularly the Security Council, has a special responsibility in

supporting a peaceful resolution in the conflict in the Middle East.”

The fact that the Council was not able to issue a statement against

the Israeli blockade of Gaza led the Indonesian ambassador to observe,

“It is indeed a deafening silence.”

Despite the week long effort of consultations, public meetings,

various proposed draft statements, experts meeting to draft statements

and public discussions, the Security Council was not been able to issue

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a statement. Why?

One week earlier, on Jan. 23, 14 members of the Security Council

had agreed on a statement in which the Council said it “expresses deep

concern about the steep deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the

Gaza Strip due to the closure of all the Gaza Strip’s border crossings.”

(Draft PRST on the Middle East, Jan. 23, 2008 Rev 2)

The draft statement ended with a call that “all parties cease all acts

of violence including the firing of rockets into Israeli territory and all

activities which are contrary to international law and endanger civil-

ians.”

A Presidential statement issued by the Security Council, however,

requires the agreement of all 15 members. Ambassador Alejandro D.

Wolff, U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N. would not

agree with the statement. Wolfe said that the issue was that Israel was

under siege. “We feel very strongly“ he told reporters, “that if you are

going to address this situation you can’t look to the last page of a book

and say ‘Gee we don’t like the ending of this story’ without knowing

what preceded it. It’s out of context. It’s not fair.”

The following day, on Thursday, the U.S. delegation introduced a

number of elements it wanted to be included in the statement. At the end

of the Thursday session of the Council, Kumalo told reporters he was

depressed “because we still do not have an agreement and the way its

going its not hopeful.”

On Friday, the U.S. Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff brought

an alternative statement to the Council.

The deliberations on this statement and the consideration of

modifications to it went on till late in the evening on Friday. Only a few

journalists were still at the stakeout when the meeting ended and brief

explanations of what had happened were presented by the few Security

Council members willing to speak with the press. By then the version of

the U.S. statement had been modified, but it included a description of the

attacks on Israel as coming from “terrorists” and wording that Israel was

suspending its closure of the crossing points.

Sources describing the Security Council’s response to the modified

statement on Friday were contradictory. Some sources claimed that 14

members of the Security Council were prepared to accept the modified

Page 16

U.S. statement, but that Libya would not agree. Another source indicated

that the British and U.S. ambassadors had used a maneuver to make this

claim as other members of the Security Council only agreed to consider

the statement, not to approve it. On Friday evening the Libyan ambassa-

dor said he would send the draft statement to his government for its

response, which he would present to the Council on Tuesday.

On Jan. 29, Libya offered alternative wording to modify several

aspects of the Friday draft. Libya wanted the reference to those who

launched the rockets into Israel as “terrorist groups” removed, but it

accepted the wording condemning the launch of the rockets and calling

for their immediate cessation. Libya objected to the wording indicating

that Israel suspended its closure, as there had not been evidence this was

true.

Journalists were told that the U.S. rejected the changes and that the

Council had ended its effort to issue a statement.

While the Security Council did not issue a statement about Israel’s

closing the border crossings to Gaza, the Committee on the Exercise of

the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, created by the General

Assembly in 1975, explained that “The Bureau deeply regrets that the

Security Council, having considered the situation at a recent meeting,

once again failed to act in response to the grave situation in the

Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

This Committee of 22 member states and twenty-two observers

created by the U.N.’s General Assembly demonstrated that it was

possible to issue a statement on the situation in Gaza that is consistent

with the obligations of Article 33 of the Geneva Convention.

The statement says: “The Bureau wishes to restate its position of

condemning the killing of innocent civilians by both sides, including

Israeli operations and the firing of rockets from Gaza. At the same time,

the Bureau considers it totally unacceptable and unjust that the entire

civilian population of the Gaza Strip is subjected to a suffocating

economic blockade for the actions of a few militant groups. The Bureau

supports the Palestinian Authority proposal to assume responsibility for

the Palestinian side of all of the Gaza Strip’s border crossings.”

All 15 members of the Security Council had said they were

concerned for the deteriorating situation in Gaza, it was the U.S. alone

Page 17

that prevented the Council from issuing a non-binding Presidential

statement on Jan. 23 expressing the concern of the Council. The U.S.

introduced elements for changes in the statement in the Council and then

the following day presented an alternative statement which changed how

the problem was to be framed. Then it tried to shift the blame to Libya

for the failure of the Council to issue a statement condemning Israel’s

actions in Gaza.

The Security Council, as the South African Ambassador Kumalo

explained, has a special obligation with regard to peace and security in

the Middle East and particularly with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian

conflict. Article 24 of the U.N. Charter confers on the Security Council

the “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace

and security” and obliges the Security Council to carry out its duties on

behalf of all the member nations of the U.N. When the Council is unable

to act in an issue so crucial to its obligations under the U.N. charter, it

is failing in its duties not only on the particular issue, but also in the

obligations it has to all the member nations of the U.N. This represents

a serious problem to be considered by the member nations.

Notes

1. See Security Council Documents:

S/PV.5824 Security Council 5824

meeting, Jan. 22, 2008, 10 a.m.

S/PV.5824 (Resumption 1) Security Council 5824

meeting, Jan. 22, 2008 3 p.m.

S/PV.5827 Security Council 5827, Jan. 30, 2008 10 a.m.

2. Ambassador Alejandro D. Wolff, U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative, on the

situation in the Middle East, at the Security Council Stakeout, January 24, 2008.

This article appears in OhmyNews International at:

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=3816

89&rel_no=1

At Legal Crossroads

Security Council Sanctions Imposed

Without Due Process

Page 18

by Ronda Hauben

One of the most contentious issues at the United Nations is the issue

of Security Council reform. Along with sharp disagreements over the

proposals of member states for expanding the number of seats on the

Security Council is the less apparent issue of the need for change of the

procedures by which decisions are made by the Security Council.

A letter

dated 13 May to the Security Council regarding SC

resolution 1267 (1999) states that the sanctions regime it established is

“at a legal crossroads, with much attention focused on two challenges

now on appeal before the Court of Justice of the European Communi-

ties.”

One of these challenges is the case of Yassin Abdullah Kadi. Kadi

is a Saudi Arabian resident whose name was added to the security

council list of persons suspected of terrorism on October 19, 2001. The

individuals on this list are subject to the freezing of their funds, a ban on

their travel and other punishments to be enforced by the member nations

of the United Nations. It is mandatory, according to the U.N. charter, for

member nations of the United Nations to enforce sanctions decided

under Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter by the Security Council. The

European Union subsequently passed a regulation to enforce these

security council sanctions.

On December 18, 2001, Kadi filed a legal case contesting the E.U.

regulation. asking that the sanctions be annulled. (See Opinion

, Kadi,

I-3) When the Court of First Instance ruled against Kadi, he appealed the

decision to the European Court of Justice. An opinion is expected in Fall

2008.

An opinion submitted to the Court in January 2008 by the Advocate

General Poiares Maduro raised serious issues regarding the E.U.’s legal

ability to enforce Security Council sanctions which have been imposed

on individuals without providing due process procedures. The Advocate

General recommended that the Court annul the E.U. regulations

enforcing the sanctions. An article

in the Economist noted that it is still

up to the Court to decide whether to rule in accord with the Advocate

General’s opinion, but that the court “in the past has followed such

opinions in about 80% of the cases.”

Page 19

The Security Council itself realizes the potential for negative court

decisions on its lack of due process. One SC report states: “The way

entities or individuals are added to the terror list maintained by the

Council and the absence of review or appeal for those listed raise serious

accountability issues and possibly violate fundamental rights, norms and

conventions.... See Opinion, I-16” The Advocate General sees as

positive the ability to bring the rule of law back into the process of

dealing with even the “threat of terrorism.” Quoting the words of the

former President of the Supreme Court of Israel, Aharan Barak, the

opinion says: “It is when the cannons roar that we especially need the

laws.”

Kadi contends that the sanctions against him were imposed without

any opportunity for him to be “heard on the facts and circumstances

alleged and on the evidence adduced against him.” (See Opinion, I-20)

Though the procedures in the listing and delisting of individuals on

these sanctions lists have undergone some change since they were first

established, the Advocate General points out that “the de-listing

procedure does not provide even minimal access to the information on

which the decision was based to include the petitioner in the list.”

The Advocate General reasons that absent minimal due process

procedures for the accused, the sanctions could be “disproportionate” or

even “misdirected” on who they are imposed against and they can

“remain in place indefinitely.” (See Opinion, I-22) Such a situation is

“anathema in a society that respects the rule of law,” explains the

Advocate General.

Six European nations have been exploring how to resolve this

possible conflict between the duty of the E.U. to enforce the security

council sanctions and the duty of E.U. members to uphold due process

procedures as part of their obligations under the Universal Declaration

of Human Rights of which they signatories. The countries are Denmark,

Liechtenstein, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, and The Netherlands.

They held a meeting at the U.N. on June 13, 2008 where they discussed

a Paper they prepared for the Security Council. The Discussion Paper is

subtitled “Improving the Implementation of sanction regimes through

ensuring ‘fair and clear’ procedures.”

In the annex to the paper [the six countries] propose that the

Page 20

Secretary General recommend the appointment of 3-5 experts to a panel

which the Security Council could then appoint to review the cases before

them of individuals who are on their sanctions lists who ask to be

delisted.

The paper proposes a procedure for the panel to review cases before

[it] of individuals who ask to be delisted and to make a recommendation.

It would be left to the Security Council to decide whether or not to

accept the panel’s recommendation.

Also present at the June 13 meeting was Yvonne Terlinger, who

heads the Amnesty International Office at the U.N. She presented an

open letter to all members of the security council which critiques the

Discussion Paper. The letter explains the importance of four principles

which would need to be part of any effective correction to the problem

of how the security council imposes sanctions. These principles are:

1. The right of persons in question to be informed of measures taken and

to know the case against them.

2. The right to be heard within a reasonable length of time. This would

include the right to call and examine witnesses, to be represented by an

attorney and to submit sworn written testimony.

3. The right to an effective review mechanism. This would include the

the right to impartial, qualified persons on a review panel, and to a

means to have the sanctions lifted and even reparations if the imposition

of the sanctions was judged to be mistaken.

4. Periodic review of all sanctions on individuals imposed by the

Security Council.

Also at the June 13 meeting was the Ambassador from Yemen. He

gave the example of one individual on the list who is an eminent

theologian in the Arab world. When the individual’s name was placed

on the list, Security Council members were given 24 hours to object.

Since they said they were waiting for instructions from their govern-

ments there was actually no time to challenge the listing. After the

individual was on the list the Yemeni ambassador was told that there

was nothing they could do, but that they should tell the individual to

write a letter to the Security Council. He did that and it had been a year

Page 21

and a half since the letter was written and there had not been any

response.

Terlinger pointed out that not only was Amnesty International

concerned with the human rights violations due to the current sanction

procedure, but it also was concerned that the U.N. charter was being

construed as legitimating and requiring member nations to impose

sanctions which are in opposition to the requirements of the charter that

human rights be respected.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) explained

a similar concern in an “Open Letter to the Members of the Security

Council” dated May 21, 2008. It wrote that security council imposed

sanctions “must respect internationally recognized human rights, which

are fundamental to the United Nations architecture.”

It explains that though “targeted sanctions were initially conceived

as preventative measures,” they “often turn into permanent punitive

sanctions, and even sometimes have direct criminal consequences. Yet

no effective remedy is available for individuals or entities who were

wrongly listed, or whose human rights were violated.”

The FIDH letter says that “The United Nations cannot promote the

universal application of human rights on the one hand and violate them

within its own procedures.”

Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the U.N. has expressed

a similar concern for the problem represented in these security council

imposed sanctions in an informal paper entitled “Targeted individual

sanctions: fair and clear procedures for listing and de-listing.” (June 15,

2006) He lists four basic elements “to ensure fair and clear procedures”

for a process for imposing such sanctions. The four basic elements are

similar to those proposed in the June 3 2008 letter by Amnesty Interna-

tional. This is the framework in which the Security Council on Monday,

June 30 is to discuss renewing

the mandate of the Analytical Support

and Sanctions Monitoring team which assists the 1267 sanctions

committee.

Also the June 13 meeting, the Danish ambassador to the U.N.

summed up the situation, “I definitely agree that we have an issue at

hand that creates a lot of frustration with a number of people who

suddenly find themselves in a situation that is Kafkaesque in a sense that

Page 22

they don’t know how to react or what to (do) to get normal procedures....

This is not an issue that will go away unless this is dealt with properly.”

Links

1. http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=S/2008/324

2. http://blogeuropa.eu/wp-content/2008/02/cnc_c_402_05_ kadi_def.pdf

3 . h t t p : / / w ww . e c o n o m i s t . c o m / w o r l d / i n t e r n a t i o n a l / d i s p l a y s t o r y

.cfm?story_id=10608577

4 . h t t p : / / w w w . s e c u r i t y c o u n c i l r e p o r t . o r g / s i t e / p p . a s p x ? c =

glKWLeMTIsG&b=4147109&printmode=1

This article appears in Telepolis at: http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/28/28217/1.html

International Cartoon

Exhibit Opens at U.N.

In ‘Cartoon Art for World Peace’ Horrors of

War Contrast Yearning for Peace

by Ronda Hauben

[Editor’s Note: Note the cartoons below have no captions. From the

exhibition catalog: “Artists, especially those who have the ability to

convey a message without resorting to words, carry on their shoulders

a huge social responsibility because their message will inspire leaders

of the future to work in pursuit of peace.”]

An exhibit of cartoons has opened at the U.N.

which presents a

number of striking images contrasting the frustrations of war with the

difficult quest for peace.

Page 23

Picasso’s Guernica and the members of

the U.N. Security Council. Cartoon by

Xiao Qiang Hou 2007 / P.R. of China.

Referring to the power of cartoons to

affect public opinion, Kiyo Akasaka, the

Undersecretary for Communication and

Public Information at the U.N., introduced

the exhibit noting that, “Cartoons can ex-

press both simple ideas and complex is-

sues.”

He described how these cartoons “com-

municate across languages and across cul-

tures. Their message, which as you will see in this exhibition is about the

cost of war and the elusiveness of peace, can be grasped by all.”

The ambassador to the U.N. from Turkey explained that the

cartoons were “this time in the service of peace.” In his opening

remarks, he explained that the concept of peace is more than the absence

of war. It involves seeing others not as an enemy but as a friend. He

expressed his hope that the current efforts at reform of the U.N. would

strengthen its ability to contribute to the quest for peace.

Several of those who attended the opening of the exhibit expressed

their appreciation of the cartoons in the exhibit. One of the cartoons

which attracted considerable interest is a cartoon raising the question of

what is the role of the U.N. Security Council. It is the cartoon by Xiao

Qiang Hou of China.

In this cartoon the members of the Security Council are portrayed,

each dressed in the military uniform of their different nations. The

generals are seated around the table of the Security Council, each with

the flag of his nation. The painting by Picasso depicting the horrors of

war, Guernica, hangs on the wall of the Security Council above the

heads of the generals.

Page 24

The business of war. Syouhei Otsuka/Japan

Column of newspaper being loaded into

gun. Cartoon by Jurij Kosobukin

1996/Ukraine

Flying subs. Cartoonist: Oleg Serena/

Hauben)

Another cartoon that attracted comment was the cartoon by Jurij

Kosobukin of the Ukraine. The cartoon shows someone loading a pistol

with a column cut from a newspaper. The cartoon provides a commen-

tary on the nature of the press.

The cartoon by Syouhei Otsuka of Japan presents a tank leading a

group of business men who are following behind the soldier.

These are just a few of the many thought provoking images

portrayed by the cartoonists.

In the guest book, one person wrote that the exhibit was “Calling for

world peace, one cartoon at a time.” An-

other wrote that “as John Lennon said, we

Page 25

Children playing, poor children with

pitchforks, rich children with soldiers.

Cartoon by Michael Kountouris/Greece

Horrors pour from the TV. Cartoonist: Nikola

Runic/Yugoslavia 1996

Poster opening exhibit at the U.N. (photo of

Groundhog helping U.N. to dig up land mines.

Cartoon by Hideo Toyomasu 2005 / Japan

Following like sheep. Cartoon by Wolfgang

Schlegeli/Germany 2006. (photo of cartoon

can imagine....” Another said, “I’ve liked very much this exposition. I

don’t know if it is possible, but people need a world of peace.”

Page 26

The Turkish Mission to the United Nations, along with the Aydin

Dogan Foundation is sponsoring the exhibition titled “Cartoon Art for

World Peace” in the main lobby. The exhibition presents but a few of

the cartoons from the competition held by the Foundation each year over

the past 25 years.

The exhibit opened on March 13. It will continue at U.N. head-

quarters in New York until April 15.

Notes

1. 13 March - 15 April 2008 : Exhibition “Cartoon Art for World Peace,” Organized

by the Aydin Dogan Foundation

Co-sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the U.N., U.N. Main Gallery –

Visitor’s Lobby – New York

The Turkish Mission to the U.N. Tel: (1-212) 949-0150, 821 U.N. Plaza, New York,

NY 10017

This article appears in OhmyNews International at:

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=3821

08&rel_no=1

[Editor’s note: The following article appeared in the U.N. Observer &

International Report (http://www.unobserver.com/).]

Changing Culture of U.N. Media

by Elisa Burchett

Capturing the important stories that major news media tends to let

slip by and countering “fictitious narratives,” by writing accurate

accounts are two of the driving forces behind Ronda Hauben’s Journal-

ism. Although Mrs. Hauben has been a U.N. correspondent for

OhmyNews International (OMNI), a South Korean publication, since

2006, her stint at the United Nations has not been an easy one. This is

what makes her winning the U.N. Correspondents Association (UNCA)

2008 Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Award for exceptional coverage of the

Page 27

U.N. so pertinent.

Mrs. Hauben said of her experience, “Reporting for a newspaper

that is not well known means that one is at a disadvantage. The

journalists from more well-known publications have better access to

information, to asking questions of the Secretary-General and a myriad

of other advantages. Often the issues in contention are hidden from

public view and to those who don’t have inside connections at the U.N.,

so it is hard to know what is really going on behind the scenes. It is

necessary to be able to get beneath the surface on important issues, but

it is also very difficult.”

Mrs. Hauben represents the historical shift towards independent

and/or smaller media in light of big media consolidation (i.e. Rupert

Murdoch) and indirectly, the expansion of the public sphere. She writes

on a freelance basis, as a featured writer for OMNI and for Telepolis

(Germany). She also has a blog at the German newspaper Tageszeitung.

She has co-written, with her son Michael Hauben, a book called

Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet. It has

been published in the U.S. and Japan (Japanese edition), and is available

on Amazon.com or can be read online at the Columbia University

website. (Please see below.)

Examples of her journalism range from articles revealing the nature

of the U.S. government’s use of the Patriot Act to freeze the assets of the

Banco Delta Asia in Macao – where she discovered the U.S. assumed

the role of accuser and judge in its claims – to articles focusing on the

U.N. Security Council’s failure to act on the Gaza crisis, one of the

articles which won Mrs. Hauben the award.

The U.N. Observer & International Report asked Mrs. Hauben how

she would describe herself and she said the term “Netizen Journalist”

would describe her best. In the preface to “Netizens,” Michael Hauben

explained how he discovered the emergence of a new community while

researching the Internet – a community of what he called ‘netizens’

(citizens of the net or net citizens). His words evoke the formation of a

new community without borders. He explained, “I found that on the Net,

people willingly help each other and work together to define and address

issues important to them. These are often important issues which the

conventional media would never cover…. These people understand the

Page 28

value of collective work and the communal aspects of public communi-

cations….”

“These are people who discuss the nature and role of this new

communications medium. These are the people who, as citizens of the

Net, I realized were Netizens. However, these are not ALL people.

Netizens are not just anyone who comes online, and they are especially

not people who come online for individual gain or profit. They are not

people who come to the Net thinking it is a service. Rather they are

people who understand it takes effort and action on each and everyone’s

part to make the Net a regenerative and vibrant community and re-

source.” In this context, one can understand Mrs. Hauben’s interest and

excitement about South Korea and China. In his remarks announcing

Mrs. Hauben for the award, the head of the UNCA awards committee,

Ian Williams, commented, “The judges were impressed with the work

Ronda did on how a lot of countries aren’t exactly happy with how the

permanent five are running things. And you can say this is idiosyncratic

but when you look at the mess the permanent five have made of things,

for the last 50 years, I think there’s a lot to be said for it.” One could feel

her sense of recognition as Ban Ki-moon handed her the award.

Elisa Burchett is the UNHQ Bureau Chief for the U.N. Observer & International

Report. For more information about Ronda Hauben, please see: FEATURED

WRITERS: Ronda Hauben

http://english.ohmynews.com/sub_form/column_list.asp?article_class=9

Silver Medal Awarded for “Interesting and Provocative Coverage” of U.N.

http://blogs.taz.de/netizenblog

Netizens: An Anthology http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120

Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet (Hardcover)

h t t p : / / w w w . a m a z o n . c o m / N e t i z e n s - H i s t o r y - I m p a c t -

-Internet-Perspectives/dp/0818677066

Please also see: U.N. Correspondents Association (UNCA) http://www.unca.com

Winners for 2008 Elizabeth Neuffer Memorial Award for Best Overall Print

Journalism, Including on Line Media: http://cms.unca.com/content/view/42/10

Page 29

EDITORIAL STAFF

Ronda Hauben

William Rohler

Norman O. Thompson

Michael Hauben (1973-2001)

Jay Hauben

The Amateur Computerist invites submissions. Articles can be

submitted via e-mail:

[email protected] Permission is given to reprint articles from

this issue in a non profit publication provided credit is given, with name of

author and source of article cited.

The opinions expressed in articles are those of their authors and not

necessarily the opinions of the Amateur Computerist newsletter. We

welcome submissions from a spectrum of viewpoints.

ELECTRONIC EDITION

ACN Webpage:

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ All issues of the Amateur

Computerist are on-line. Back issues of the Amateur Computerist are available at:

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/Back_Issues/

All issues can be accessed from the Index at:

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/NewIndex.pdf

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