On Somalia, Belated Disclosure by UNDP, Protest by UN-Funded Academic

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/unsc3somalia032909.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 -- In the debate about Somalia, those who matter least are actual Somalis. Dozens were for example killed by supposed peacekeepers, on the day that the new Somali president was being applauded in Ethiopia. When some media reported on the slaughter, they were castigated by the UN's envoy for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, and told they were like Radio Milles Collines in Rwanda, hate media. Later Ould Abdallah told Inner City Press he only meant that it was unfortunate that one days of good news for Somalia, other news was also reported.

Likewise, one of the United States' most -- well, few -- expert professors on Somalia, Ken Menkhaus of North Carolina's Davidson College, has recently lashed back at media coverage of a talk he gave across the street from the UN, at the International Peace Institute. Inner City Press attended the session and asked Menkhaus two questions, to review Ould Abdallah's and the UN's performance in Somalia. Later that day, Inner City Press reported three of Menkhaus' responses, all accurately, in an article also noting that just as the UN was refusing to disclose its funding in Somalia, the head of IPI Terje Roed Larsen declined UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's call to make minimal public financial disclosure, since he is an Under Secretary General.

Menkhaus the next day wrote:

From: Menkhaus, Ken @davidson.edu>
To: Inner City Press
Cc: @ipinst.org>
Sent: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:32 pm
Subject: IPI Somalia Story

Dear Mr. Lee,

Your Innercity article about our IPI Somalia presentation was just brought to my attention. I write to tell you, in no uncertain terms, that you badly misrepresented the nuanced points Jabril and I made... Maybe you didn’t hear us stress how incredibly dangerous Somalia is now. Jabril and I have lost close colleagues to asssassinations in the past because of this kind of irresponsibility by foreigners. You seem to fancy yourself an investigative journalist challenging the UN -- fair enough, we can use more of that. But investigative journalists need to be very careful with how they present claims and quote third parties, especially in zones of armed conflict...Please do not ask me to go through your article point by point -- I am busy.

Dr. Ken Menkhaus
Professor of Political Science
Davidson College
Davidson NC 28035

It is difficult to respond to Menkhaus if, of the mere three citations of what he said, he chooses not to contest any of them. As should be clear, a journalist does not go to a policy briefing such as those so profitably offered by IPI in order to transcribe verbatim was is said. For that, Menkhaus writes his own books.

In fact, he has: in the library of a major university in New York City, there is a book by Menkhaus, albeit a slim monograph entitled "Somalia: State Collapse and the Threat of Terrorism," circa 2004. The first page, "About the author," notes that Menkhaus "frequently serves as a consultant to the UN." With the UN, that means a paid consultant. One might infer that, while as an academic Menkhaus was necessarily critical of the UN's performance, for example of UNDP being seen to take sides with the same security forces which are engaged in killing civilians, as a past and seemingly future wanna-be recipient of UN funding, he was troubled to see what he said, online in print.

Interestingly, Menkhaus' book at page 46 says of a Somali Transitional Government that “it succeeded in netting enough aid (roughly $50 million over two years, mainly from the Gulf Arab states) to make it a worthwhile venture for some.” There is a strange resonance here with IPI and its funding sources. Without comment or critique, Menkhaus mentions that “the management of several UNICEF municipal piped water systems has been outsourced to a multi-clan consortium of businessmen, who have run the water system... as a money making venture.”

Belatedly, UNDP responded to the simple question Inner City Press posed just after Ould Abdallah and his spokeswoman referred to UNDP the issue of the UN system's funding of the Somalia government. UNDP now writes:

Subject: Responses to your queries on Djibouti Start-up Package

From: UNDP Spokesman
To: Inner City Press
Sent: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:47 am

Here is our response to your question “please describe any UNDP role in Djibouti Start-Up Package."

START

The Djibouti peace process is led by the UN political office (UNPOS) and funded by various donors, for which UNDP plays an administrative and logistical support role. As far as the start-up package is concerned, donors contributed to the project and their contributions have been channeled by UNDP in 2008 to provide some basic infrastructure support to the TFG institutions. This includes computers, office furniture, travel costs to/from Somalia and some rehabilitation of office buildings. In total, around 6.5M USD has been disbursed for this project, financed by a consortium of donors (EC, DFID, Norway, Sweden, USAID, Italy).

END

Was that so difficult? To be continued...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc3somalia032909.html

In Somalia, UNDP Said to Take Sides, No Financial Answers, UN Post Intrigue

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unsc2somalia032409.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 24 -- Optimism about Somalia is a new trend in and around the in UN in New York. Days after the country's new foreign minister -- himself British -- told the Press outside the Security Council that one month of receipts from the Mogadishu port portends well for the paychecks of the Transitional Federal Government's ever multiplying number of parliamentarians, the International Peace Institute presented two experts, both upbeat about the negotiations in Djibouti and the UN which sponsored them.

As at the Council, however, no one would say how much the UN paid, from or to whom. IPI's two presenters, Ken Menkhaus of Davidson College and Somali expert Jabril Abdulle, both said that the Shabaab rebels are on the run, the port is in government hands and the future is rosy. Inner City Press asked for an assessment of the performance of UN envoy Ahmedou Ould Abdallah and the UN's Group of Experts on sanctions. The former called for a moratorium on reporting from Somalia; the later reported a few years ago that Somali militants were in South Lebanon for training, which made more Somali-watchers laugh.

Menkhaus defended the Group of Experts recent work, dismissing the Lebanon error -- circa 2006 -- as "in the distant past." [It emerged later that he has served as a paid adviser to the UN.] He did, however, sound a cautionary note about the role of the UN Development Program, which he said has been paying the salaries of security forces in Somalia. Abdulle added that the UN paid to transport the bloated Somali TFG contingent from Djibouti to Mogadishu. On Friday, Inner City Press' question to Ould Abdallah about what the UN pays for in Somalia was referred, through his spokesperson Susie Price, to UNDP. Four days after promising an answer, UNDP has still not answered.

Menkhaus noted the attack on UNDP last year, and said the agency is perceived as taking sides. Perhaps this partiality is mirrored in an unwillingness to provide basic financial information about what it spends in Somalia, and on what.

Footnote: The head of IPI, Terje Roed Larsen, was not in attendance on Tuesday. Inner City Press has asked UN spokespeople for reaction to Syria's critique of Roed Larsen as exceeding him mandate as UN envoy under Security Council resolution 1559. Roed Larsen is also one of the most senior UN officials who has rebuffed Ban Ki-moon's call to make basic public financial disclosure. Now, Roed Larsen's wife Mona Juul is rumored as a closed but failed candidate for the vacant Assistant Secretary General post in the UN Department of Political Affairs vacated by Angela Kane. The post, sources say, is slated for UNDP's previous Middle East operative, Oscar Fernandez Taranco, well imbued in UNDP's culture. We'll see.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc2somalia032409.html