Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un3algeria022808.html
UNITED NATIONS, February 28 -- "The UN doesn't have to be in every single place," Lakhdar Brahimi told Inner City Press on Thursday, responding to a question about the lack of safety in the UN's premises in Morocco and Yemen. Following a protest by the Algerian government to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's call for an investigation into the December 11 bombing of the UN in Algiers, Ban named former Algerian foreign minister Brahimi to head a panel, which now has "worldwide" focus.
"I am not Sherlock Holmes," Brahimi told reporters on Thursday. He said the terms of reference for the panel's work are those in Ban's February 5 press release. When Inner City Press asked if the panel's report will be made public, he said it would go to Mr. Ban, and that "there are few reports of the UN that remain secret." But it should not require a leak get this report on what went wrong in Algiers. Inner City Press asked another of the panel's members, Margareta Wahlstrom, about Brahimi's failure to committee to release the report. "I know what his choice would be," Ms. Wahlstrom said, "but he has to give it to the S-G."
When the UN Development Program's Administrator Kemal Dervis was asked by Inner City Press about what many describe that UNDP's Mark de Bernis' failure to get action on security threats that mounts throughout 2007, Dervis defended UNDP by saying that it asked Algeria for help in blocking off the street, but that there was no response. Thursday Inner City Press asked Brahimi about this. Video here, from Minute 12:45. "I have heard that," he said. "We will look into that... whether Algerians were over-confident, or UNDP."
In fact, the shift of the focus for the panel, from the specifics of what went wrong in Algeria to a more vague, worldwide study of why the UN is a target, is reminiscent in reverse of another Ban switch, about UNDP in North Korea. In January 2007, when reports emerged of UNDP irregularities with the Kim Jong Il government, Ban called for a worldwide audit of all UN funds and programs. After he was told this might dredge up more than he'd bargained for, he limited the scope to North Korea, and only UNDP.
In this case, where the requisite focus on Algeria might embarrass both UNDP and the government, the focus shifts wider, the lens is covered with grease. And where in all this are the families of the victims?
