In Somalia, UN Covers Up, Still No Answers on Weapons, Spoon-Fed Guards: Video Q&A on UNMAS, Haiti, DRC, Sri Lanka

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 9 -- The UN on Friday refused to tell Inner City Press what armed guards it uses in Somalia, and if the UN Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group would look into the day's burning in Mogadishu of an Ethiopian plane reportedly full of weapons.

  Inner City Press had first asked the question of which armed guards the UN Mine Action Service's David Bax used in Mogadishu back on June 24, after publishing an exclusive June 22 story about Bax's role in sharing genetic information about bombings with the United States.
Compare video below to this from August 7.

Inner City Press asked the Bax questions again to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's associate spokesperson Farhan Haq on July 5:

Inner City Press: DPKO was asked about just to respond yes or no whether to their knowledge the head of UN Mine Action Service in Mogadishu, David Bax, provides information to the United States as alleged by a whistleblower, but just yes or no; and it’s been two weeks, what is the time frame? Are they not going to answer that question?

Associate Spokesperson Haq: We answer all of your questions. It takes time for some answers to come back, and others… and less time for others. But you have seen over the time, and you know this; I have sent you e-mails like this, and you know, sometimes a week or so later, we get an answer and we send it to you.

  But after this Haq statement, DPKO's Herve Ladsous' spokesperson Kieran Dwyer provided half-answers to the questions Inner City Press had publicly asked -- to another media, for a story that, as many have commented, attempted to rehabilitate Bax, including on sexual harassment charges (in the same way UN Peacekeeping sought to deny, to this same media, Inner City Press' charges that it covered up the murder of UN Security officer Louis Maxwell by Afghan National Forces.)

  On August 9, Inner City Press asked Haq about his July 5 statement, and whether it should still expect the promised answers. Haq said that since "the contracting agency" UNOPS is investigating, the UN will have no comment. Video here.

  But UNOPS is not investigating which Private Military Contractor the UN system says public money to in Somalia - that question should have been immediately answered. And the referenced UNOPS investigation is highly dubious - we'll have more on that. Watch this site.