By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, June 30 -- When discussion turns to cover ups in Darfur, the role most covered up is that of the UN itself. Inner City Press has reported in detail how the mass rape in Tabit in November 2014 was covered up by UNAMID, run for the UN by Herve Ladsous, who has met with Omar Bashir while refusing Press questions about that and his role in covering up rapes in the Central African Republic.
Now Inner City Press reports -- exclusively, it seems clear -- on the UN's attempt to cover up a senior P5 staff member's complaint against high official Aichatou Mindaouduo at UNAMID, before she was promoted by Herve Ladsous to head his mission in former French colony Cote d'Ivoire. (Inner City Press asked Aichatou Mindaouduo questions, which she declined to answer on UN microphone, while still better than Ladsous.)
The P5 staff member is Oriano Micaletti. In Darfur, he was head of the UNAMID Humanitarian Protection Strategy, as which he reported for example that "approximately 400,000 people are displaced in Jebel Marra area. They have received very limited assistance during the last few years and are in urgent need of humanitarian aid."
Amid the UN's near-systemic cover up in Darfur, Micaletti filed a complaint about higher UNAMID official Mindaouduo. That's when his problems, leading to him losing his position, began. As Micaletti set forth in a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff Susana Malcorra which Inner City Press has obtained:
“In 2013, I filed a harassment complaint against Ms. Aichatou Mindaouduo. Exactly 10 days later, her Special Assistant deliberately provoked a situation that led to an altercation and a physical confrontation. No action was taken against me because the mission was aware of the provocations that led to the incident. Those reasons are contained in a code cable that transmitted the case to New York. That cable was suppressed by DFS. It was not forwarded to OHRM. A new transmittal was crafted a year later to refer the case to OHRM by DFS that materially misrepresented the facts.
“It was on the basis of this new transmittal that my services were eventually terminated. I brought these facts to the attention of OHRM and asked for a proper investigation, but my concerns were totally ignored by OHRM.
“The fact that the other party provoked the incident and lied about it was not taken into account by OHRM. I even appealed the decision to continue with the disciplinary case without a proper investigation to the UNDT, but OHRM acted without bothering to wait for the court's decision on my appeal.
“In the meantime my P-5 post in UNAMID (I am a continuing appointment holder) was abolished even though at least four vacant posts and a good number of fixed term were saved. There is no satisfactory explanation why my post was selected for abolition under these circumstances, other than the fact that the decision was made by someone in New York.
“The Aichatou case that set all this in motion was itself not investigated. When I tried to follow up more than six months later, DFS set up a low level fact finding panel that reached its conclusions without even interviewing the UNAMID JSR, the DJSR/OPERATIONS or the Chief of Staff who were privy to the pattern of harassment I had been subjected to...Mr. Ladsous had sought informal resolution of the Aichatou case after having promoted her without first resolving the harassment complaint against her.”
While further answers will be sought, it must be noted that Herve Ladsous openly refuses Press questions, now abetted by the UN Spokesperson. But with all due respect to others involved in this alleged case of retaliation, these questions must be answered, not spun through scribes. Ladsous relatedly appears in a UN Dispute Tribunal ruling as urging the firing of another UN whistleblower, Anders Kompass, who did not simply sit on a report about the rape of children in the Central African Republic by French soldiers. What is the common denominator here? Watch this site.
