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On

Ukraine, US
Biden On If
Pension Cuts
Are Collective
Punishment

By
Matthew

Russell Lee

UNITED
NATIONS,
December 3 —
Leave it to a
read-out by US
Vice President
Joe Biden to
defend Kyiv’s
suspension of
pension
payments in
Eastern
Ukraine, which
many see as
collective
punishment.

 
Biden’s read-out
of his conversation
with Arseniy Yatsenyuk
on December 3
said that he
and the “Prime
Minister also
discussed the
armed robbery
of cash
delivery
trucks and
ATMs by
Russian
proxies in the
east, as well
as the ‘war
tax’ being
exacted by
these proxies
on pensioners
and other
citizens. 
The Vice
President
condemned this
outrageous
behavior, and
welcomed Prime
Minister
Yatsenyuk’s
commitment to
hold in escrow
pension and
other social
benefit
payments to
citizens in
the
separatist-controlled
territories
with the aim
of delivering
these payments
as soon as it
is safe to do
so.”

 
How long can
that be? In
the Ukraine
meeting of the
UN Security
Council on
November
12,  UN Assistant

Secretary
General Jens
Toyberg-Frandzen
said, among
other things,
that “on
November 5,
Prime Minister
Yatsenyuk
announced that
pensions would
be halted to
areas under
rebel
control.”

 
Inner City
Press asked,
in a November

12 story
and at the
November 13 UN
noon briefing,
isn’t the
halting of
pensions to
rebel held
areas by the
government in
Kyiv a form of
collective
punishment?

 
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon’s
Office of the
Spokesperson
did not offer
any
substantive
response —
but later, as
we will
explain, there
would be
selective
background
spin on the
eve of the
UN’s release
of its “new”
report on
Ukraine.

 
The Office of
the High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights in
Geneva issued
the report and
a press
release on
November 20.
Among many
problems with
the report, on
this issue it
does not
mention
Yatsenyuk or
the role of
Kyiv in
suspending
pensions, even
the heading
“Right to
social
security.”

 
Nor is
Yatsenyuk’s
and Kyiv’s
role mentioned
in the OHCHR
press release,
despites its
statement that
“Severe
curtailment of
the economic,
social and
cultural
rights of
people in
Ukraine is
also of grave
concern.”

 
The OHCHR
press release
quotes the new
(September 1)
head of the
office, Prince
Zeid of
Jordan, who
has yet to say
anything
publicly about
a mounting
scandal of leaked

cables
depicting two
high employees
of the Office,
one still
there,
servicing
Morocco on the
Western Sahara
issue.

 
But the
Ukraine report
is not
primarily
under Zeid’s
supervision
within the
Office. Does
he know how
its spin
works, or
doesn’t, in
New York?
Inner City
Press has put
into a
question on
deadline on
precisely
this: watch
this site.

 On

November 12,
while the UN
spoke about
the death of
children on a
playground on
Donetsk on
November 5,
they didn’t
say who did
it. Russia’s
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Pankin said it
was Ukraine’s
army. Later he
stated that an
adviser to
Poroshenko
said on
October 24
that “the
ceasefire is
going to work
in our favor,
tank factories
working around
the clock.”

 
Ukraine’s
Sergeyev
mentioned this
in his reply,
neither
confirming nor
denying the
quote. The
meeting ended;
Sergeyev
headed up the
escalator to
be interviewed
by scribes.
And so it goes
at the UN.

  Last
month, Ukraine
was scheduled
to speak at
the UN about
its “Committee
on
Information”
on October 21,
but as UN
speeches
usually go
longer than
allowed, its
turn was
postponed
until October
22.

That
didn’t stop
the “UN

Radio on
October 21
reported

“The
representative
of Ukraine
accused Russia
of using the
information
strategy of
the Cold War

“One of
the main
prerequisites
of violence in
Ukraine became
a propaganda
information.
This was
stated by the
representative
of the Mission
of Ukraine to
the United
Nations,
speaking at a
meeting of the
Fourth
Committee of
the UN General
Assembly.”

The
UN’s Fourth
Committee did
meet on
October 21 –
but Ukraine
didn’t speak.
Instead it was
the first
speaker on the
afternoon of
October 22.
Its speech,
delivered in
perfect French
including the
word “rigolo,”

linked Russia
to Joseph
Goebbels.

In
reply, the
Russian
mission’s
spokesman
brought up the
recent Human
Rights Watch
report of the
Ukrainian
government
using cluster
bombs in and
against
Donetsk, and
the lack of
clarity on who

called the
snipers shots
in Maidan
Square.

Later
in the Fourth
Committee
meeting,
Bolivia
slammed
“powers” who
use
information
technology to
intervene and
violate
privacy,
bringing to
mind USAID’s

NSA.

Then
Jordan said it
was first
among Arab
nations to
enact an
Access to
Information
law, in 2007.
The Free

for a Freedom
of Information
Act at the UN,
click here
and
here for that.

FUNCA
covers the
Fourth
Committee,
including on
Decolonization,
and the
Committee on
Information,
where at least
theoretically
the UN’s
descent into
censorship
could be
raised and
resolved. The
old UN
Correspondents
Association, a
part of this
trend toward privatization
of

copies of
their
complaints to
the UN’s MALU
banned from
Google’s
search, here
— was nowhere
to be seen.
We’ll have
more on this.

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