The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved a bill introduced by Senator Coleman, a Republican of Minnesota, that would bar American funding of the council for at least two years. Mr. Coleman said he may try to attach the legislation to an upcoming foreign operations appropriations bill when it reaches the Senate floor in the next few weeks. The move comes as the council has received intense criticism at the end of its first year in existence for singling out Israel – and no other country – for human rights violations while removing independent investigators from Belarus and Cuba, known as two of the most repressive states in the world. “After a year of operation, the only thing the council has accomplished is to create a platform to shield human rights abusers from criticism and launch vitriolic attacks against one country – Israel,” Mr. Coleman said…
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that rather than address accusations of amazing mismanagement of the UN Development Program in North Korea, the geniuses at Turtle Bay are launching salvos at the whistleblower:
“Every morning from 8 to 10, we would issue checks” in euros for staff and projects, Mr. Shkurtaj says. “Then the checks, instead of going directly to the people or institutions by mail, as they should go [as specified by U.N. rules], the checks were given to the driver of our office.” The driver would take them to the Foreign Trade Bank, where he would “exchange them into cash and come back to the office.” North Korea did not permit Mr. Shkurtaj to have access to the UNDP’s accounts at the Foreign Trade Bank, which refused even to keep his signature on file. Then, every day at noontime, “North Koreans saying they represented U.N.-funded projects would come to receive cash at the UNDP offices.” Mr. Shkurtaj says he was not allowed to require the North Koreans to sign receipts for the money or even to present IDs. “I had to trust them,” he says. “But, hey, if headquarters tells me to give the money away, I’ll give the money away…” As the recent U.N. audit confirmed, the North Koreans who worked at UNDP were selected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which also collected their salaries; both practices were violations of U.N. rules. Mr. Shkurtaj notes, too, that North Koreans selected by the government performed “core” functions such as dispensing cash — another violation of the rules. All communications tools — fax and telex equipment, computer servers, the local area network — “were in the hands of the North Koreans…”
To punctuate this reckless handling of UN contributions, Mr. Shkurtaj notes that on at least two occasions he attempted to audit funds awarded for the purchase of computers and GPS systems. It turns out there’s no telling where those items ended up–but in Kim Jong Il’s Korea, we can take a good guess. The aforementioned Senator Coleman, as well as Representative Ileana Ros Lehtinen, have written to UN Secretary General Moon to learn why Shkurtaj–who received an exemplary review from his superior–was fired, in apparent violation of the UN’s ‘whistleblower protection’ policy. We look forward to seeing the answer. And amidst the expansion of Congressional investigations in recent months, perhaps we can recommend one more.
