By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 4 -- Five months after Inner City Press exclusively reported on the $600,000 UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari spent to build himself a mansion in Darfur, now Al Jazeera has asked him about it, citing the UN's confirmation to Inner City Press. Video here, from Minute 14:25.
Gambari's answers are at odds with what UNAMID whistleblowers have told Inner City Press. Gambari calls it a "representation house" meant for guests. But sources say only Gambari says there, with five (Nigerian) staff members.
Gambari does say that the World Food Program has been cutting rations in Darfur, which has elsewhere been denied. When asked about the contradiction of a UN envoy in a mansion while internally displaced people live in huddled, inhuman conditions, Gambari doesn't directly respond, instead saying that for a time he stayed in a container.
As Inner City Press exclusively reported on May 11 of this year, Gambari came to New York and turned in his resignation, as well as skipping nearly all of the UN envoys' retreat at the suburban Greentree Estate. Where will Gambari go next?
Another Nigerian long time UN Department of Political Affairs staffer has landed on this feet, we are glad to report. After being unfairly blocked inside DPA, Oseloka Henry Obaze has been appointed Secretary to the State Government (SSG) by Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, Nigeria. We wish him well.
On the other hand, while Al Jazeera English correctly credited Inner City Press for its Casa Gambari scoop, in New York Al Jazeera Arabic staffer Marcelle Hopkins has repeated voted to investigate and oust Inner City Press, including for complaining at others' uncredited use of Inner City Press scoops, most recently at a July 3 meeting in which due process was entirely ignored.
Do the two sides of Al Jazeera not know what the other is doing? Watch this site.
