At UN, Churkin Critiques Expulsion of Syria Diplomats, Ladsous Blames Shabiha, Doesn't Have "All the Tools"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 29 -- After the UN Security Council heard from Syria envoy Kofi Annan's deputy Jean-Marie Guehenno and his second successor atop UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous on Wednesday, Inner City Press asked Russian Permanent Representative Vitaly Churkin about Ladsous' comments that there is a "strong rumor" that the killings in Houla were started by pro-government Shabiha militia.

  Tuesday during Ladsous' press conference he was already pronouncing on his "strong suspicions" that the Shabiha did it. But he flatly refused to answer any questions from the Press, saying "Well, Mister, I will start answering your questions when you stop insulting me and making malicious and insulting insinuations." Video here, at Minute 28:10.
 
  Wednesday Churkin answered Inner City Press that the investigation of Houla is not finished, and that as an investigator Ladsous does not have "all the tools."  It may be that truer words have not recently been spoken at the UN.

  Inner City Press also asked Churkin about the trend of countries expelling Syrian diplomats. He replied that while this is a bilateral matter, it had come up in the Council's consultations. He said that such moves could be "misinterpreted" as presaging a military intervention.

  Churkin took questions without a spokesman mediating. By contrast when French Deputy Permanent Representative Martin Briens spoke, his Mission's spokesman Brieuc Pont took full control of who could ask questions. After the series, as Inner City Press asked "what about expelling diplomats," Briens shrugged and walked away from the microphone.

  German Ambassador Peter Wittig, also mediated by spokesman, did much the same thing, walking away as the Press started asking the "expelling diplomats" question. The previous day Wittig bragged on the record at the stakeout about his foreign minister expelling Syria's representative from Berlin. It would be good to take the question: watch this site.

Footnotes: When a representative of Agence France Presse asked Churkin if Russian weapons were being used to kill civilians in Syria, Churkin responded that the sales were in the past and had complied with law. Not asked was France's more recent air-dropping of weapons into the Nafusa Mountain in Libya: how many of those weapons are in today's Mali / Azawad?


  In an interesting aside, Ja'afari slammed Germany, saying it controls the maritime portion of the UNIFIL mission and did not stop a ship of weapons from Libya meant for non-governmental forces in Syria. Inner City Press' more recent reporting on Germany and military operations has been its new initiative, through the EU's Operation ATALANTA, to strike up to two kilometers inside Somalia. Choices, choices.

As EU Hits In Somalia, Question of Consent, Mahiga's Tardiness Echoed by TFG?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 15 -- While US Ambassador Susan Rice on Tuesday stressed that the Somali Transitional Federal Government must finally transition to a new elected government by August 20, the UN's envoy Augustine Mahiga arrived more than 20 minutes late for the Security Council meeting. 

 

  Whether or not Mahiga's tardiness portends another delay for the TFG, Inner City Press inquired into why he had come late and was told "he was to meet with Karl Wycoff," a US official on Africa.

  Mahiga was to have addressed the Council first, but once he did not arrive TFG president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed took his place, and asked for the arms embargo to be removed. This came right after the first of what may be many European Union helicopter raids inland in Somalia. 

 

  Inner City Press asked the EU about this plan, and was told not to over-focus on inland attacks. Specifically, on April 27 Inner City Press asked Operation ATALANTA commander Admiral Duncan Potts about this proposal, he said the reporting was "incorrect." 

 Potts told Inner City Press, "I wouldn't focus too much on the two kilometers. We want to create the perception in the mind of the pirates that they can no longer act with impunity from beaches of Somalia. It's about the perception of impunity rather than a kinetic effect."

  At the at time Inner City Press wrote that it still seems that the way the EU wants to "create this perception" is to shoot guns, from helicopters, up to two kilometers inside Somali territory.

   And now it has happened. 

 

  Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to his credit did a UN TV stakeout, at which Inner City Press asked him about the EU inland helicopter action and how and why it was approved, and about other non-Somali military actors in the country. 

 

  He said that the way to solve piracy is ongoing development, that one or two action like this won't solve it. I have no details on approvals, he said somewhat strangely. Another Security Council diplomat said Germany described not only approval but close cooperation.

  Sharif Sheikh Ahmed had with him a big entourage, from Permanent Representative to First Secretary, amid much talk of the Millennium Hotel. But when will they take the T out of the TFG and actually hold elections? Watch this site.

As EU Proposes to Shoot 2 Km Into Somalia, No Comment on Halliday Finch

By Matthew Russell Le

UNITED NATIONS, April 27 -- When the European Union held a briefing Friday about its naval force off Somalia, by Operation ATALANTA commander Admiral Duncan Potts, it seemed the time to ask about reported EU plans to pursue pirates, at least by air, up to two kilometers inland.

  The German media Die Welt has reported:

"Last Wednesday, the [German] Federal Cabinet approved a mandate [that] states that 'German forces can go inland from the beach for a maximum of 2,000 meters to reach logistics sites set up by the pirates.' German helicopters can thus engage in air attacks against pirate boats, weapons or fuel storage installations up to 2 km in from the beaches."

  But when Inner City Press asked Potts about this proposal, he said Die Welt's reporting was "incorrect." He told Inner City Press, "I wouldn't focus too much on the two kilometers. We want to create the perception in the mind of the pirates that they can no longer act with impunity from beaches of Somalia. It's about the perception of impunity rather than a kinetic effect."

  But it still seems that the way the EU wants to "create this perception" is to shoot guns, from helicopters, up to two kilometers inside Somali territory.

  Afterward Somalia's Permanent Representative told Inner City Press that this is a problematic proposal, that their might be people hurt who are not pirates. He and his counterpart from Ethiopia came to the session, but both perceived it to be for journalists or other EU diplomats only. 

  To their credit they ultimately spoke up, and stayed afterward questions Potts, who answered by referring to a letter from Sheik Sharif to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Will "General" Ban Ki-moon give his blessing to these helicopter strikes inside Somalia?

Already, Ban's UN is using the private military contractor Saracen for its Congo mission's operations in Uganda. (The Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous, who had also proposed the UN's use of drones, had promised to provide a fuller answer about UN use of private security firms but then stopped responding.)

Back on March 30, Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey:

Inner City Press: On Somalia, there are reports saying that the Transitional Federal Government has contracted with a private security firm based in Nairobi called Halliday Finch to patrol its coast. I wanted to know, one, whether there is any UN involvement — whether Mr. [Augustine P.] Mahiga is aware of this, whether this constitutes the use of mercenaries...

Deputy Spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey: No, we’ll have to get information on that; I don’t have anything with me on that.

  The UN has yet to get or provide any information on this. But on April 5, Inner City Press received a reply of sorts from the spokesman for Halliday Finch:

Date: Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 4:05 AM
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] innercitypress.com
From: Stephen Harley, Director of Communications Halliday Finch

Dear Mr Lee, Allow me to introduce myself – my name is Stephen Harley and I am the Director of Communications for Halliday Finch, the East Africa-based security provider you referred to in your 03 APR 12 article, 'At UN on Somalia, Diplomat Admits Probe & Firing, Mercenaries Not Known' and in other entries.

 

We greatly appreciate your interest in our activities in support of the TFG's initiative to establish a national coast guard service. However, we are certainly not 'mercenaries,' nor do we employ any personnel who have ever been ‘mercenaries’. Halliday Finch is a provider of security services with extensive experience in Africa delivering training, static and mobile security (including escorting various senior politicians and celebrity humanitarians) and risk assessment. We are already a recognized UN vendor (and have provided services to the UN in Sudan and Somalia as a result).

As you are aware, only last week Halliday Finch, contracted by UN ODC, safely transferred 17 convicted pirates as part of regional judicial arrangements on piracy between the governments of the Seychelles and the Somaliland authorities.

Furthermore, the international community is fully aware of and in agreement with our support (primarily training and logistics) to TFG coastguard program. We can only assume that some UN staff in New York, with so many other issues to address, may not be aware of the program – key international players in East/Horn of Africa (UN POS, UN ODC, the EU, the various national embassies) certainly are.

We are still in the set-up period of the project and have yet to conduct any activities that would be relevant to the arms embargo. Rest assured, when we reach that phase of the project, all activities will be in complete concordance with the legislation and with the approval of the relevant international entities.

Should you require further information regarding our support to the TFG coastguard program or any of Halliday Finch’s other activities, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

We look forward to reading further articles on the subject of Somalia and East/Horn of Africa in the future,

Yours aye,

Stephen Harley
Halliday Finch International

  Given the reference not only to "celebrity humanitarians" but also to the EU, Inner City Press on April 27 asked the EU's Admiral Potts about the TFG's use of Halliday Fitch, as well as Saracen.

  Potts replied, "I'm going to be unhelpful. I am aware of, we take a keen interest in those other actors in the maritime space. It's not for me to comment on other nation's policies."

  No - just to fly two kilometers in, guns blazing. But to comment on the use of private military firms, and how this might implicate or need the approval of the UN's Somalia / Eritrea Sanctions Committee? No, then the EU, or at least Admiral Potts, will not "comment on other nation's policies." At least for now. Watch this site.