By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un2dimandja111009.html
UNITED NATIONS, November 10 -- Months after the plight of Congolese UN local staff member John Dimandja was raised to the top levels of the UN, and the day after Inner City Press wrote about it, UN Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq said first that "we're looking into that question" then that "the Department of Field Security is deeply concerned." Video at Minute 7:55 then 10:57.
As of November 9, the UN's concern was that Mr. Dimandja not follow through on his desperate threat to stand in front of the vehicle Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in order to deliver to him a letter asking that his family, put in danger by Dimandja's work for the UN, be helped to escape to safety.
As reported, the UN called the New York City Police Department threats unit on Dimandja. NYPD officer, in front of Inner City Press, told Dimandja to stay away from the UN.
NYPD officer John C. Fernandez of the Threat Assessment Unit suggested to Dimandja that he try contacting the Congo's Mission to the UN. Dimandja laughed and said the Congolese government is made up of former militias.
Out of First Avenue, Dimandja gave Inner City Press a video tape of his work in Eastern Congo. It consists of speeches Dimandja gave to groups of warring ethnic militias, some of whose leaders like Mathieu Ngudjolo were later indicted for war crimes. (Significantly, Ngudjolo's trial begins November 24 along with Germain Katanga's at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.) That Dimandja had filmed these defendants led to death threats against him and his family, he says.
Dimandja adds that he witnesses international UN staff engaged in theft and re-sale of airplane fuel in the Congo. He surmises, and told the NYPD officers, that this and other knowledge led some in the UN to refuse him protection, even to wish him harm.
But when he fled to New York to ask the UN for help, he was given the run around, told to come back in a week for appointments when he had nowhere to stay. Only is desperation did he write to Ban Ki-moon, and this resulted in his photo being put in an array of mugshot of people not to be let into the UN complex. On November 10, Dimandja asked that this be rescinded.
Also on November 10, after Inner City Press' story and questions at the day's UN noon briefing, Dimandja received a call from the Administrative Office of the UN's Division of Safety and Security Services Joseph Martella. Inner City Press, meanwhile, asked the head of the Department of Field Support Susana Malcorra about Dimandja's case. She said it is sensitive, and seemed to gently imply some instability of Dimandja's part. But who wouldn't be?
One wonders about the role of the UN Mission in the Congo, headed by Alan Doss. One wonders why the Office of Internal Oversight Services, which Dimandja first approached, has not acted on the theft of airplane fuel. One wonders at the different treatment the UN gives to its international versus national staff. Will Mr. Dimandja's family be offered protection? The UN has promised answers. Watch this site.And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2dimandja111009.html
