After Bashir Meets UN's Ladsous, Public Call for Transparency, Private Grumbling, Disgust at Sri Lanka on International Justice Day

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 17 -- In an International Justice Day event held at the UN on Wednesday, there was much talk of Sudan's president Omar al Bashir, indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court, visiting but quickly leaving Nigeria.

Despite the event being held inside the UN, during the two panel discussions there was no mention of UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous having met with Bashir earlier this month. 

  Why did Ladsous meet him? What was accomplished? Would Ladsous do it again?

  There was no question and answer period for the first panel, which included the Permanent Representatives of Liechtenstein and Costa Rica, as well as UN anti-genocide official Mr. Adama Dieng, US Ambassador Stephen J. Rapp, former US official Richard S. Williamson (now Co-Chair of R2P working group) and Karen Mosoti, Head of the Liaison Office of the ICC to the UN.

  The panel went so long that no questions were allowed. One wonders each of their positions on the UN's Ladsous meeting with Bashir.

  But after the next and last panel, Inner City Press asked the first question, including: was Ladsous' meeting with Bashir “strictly necessary?”

  From the podium, John Washburn said that since there was “no one from UN on this panel,” he would answer as a former UN official. He said there should be a review of the issue of non-essential contacts.

  He said the UN should be clearer about rules for conduct of non essential contacts, should define the circumstances in which a contact can be deemed to be essential, and should “be transparent.”

An additional problem with Ladsous, as we've shown, is that he refuses to answer questions. Click here for video compilation. And some non-governmental organizations such as Human Rights Watch so prize their access to the UN that they will not criticize it, only member states.

  Tom Andrews, a former Maine Congressman now heading United to End Genocide spoke passionately that countries which invite Bashir should be penalized. But he did not answer the question of the UN's Ladsous meeting with Bashir.

  Then a “half-French” speaker from Human Rights Watch questioned that government's invitation to “ministers from Africa who meet... with dictators,” musing that these invited African states should be subject to economic sanctions. But nothing on Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping.

  After the panel, and discussion with a variety of groups from Sudan, Inner City Press was approached by NGO representatives who would not speak publicly about Ladsous. They said they had asked the UN not to let Ladsous meet with Bashir, “but it happened anyway, with these consequences,” as one of them put it.

  Maybe if the groups spoke more publicly, and if Ladsous were at least required to take if not answer questions, things might improve.

  Inner City Press also asked about Sri Lanka, and the lack of accountability. Scott Edwards, the director of Amnesty International's Crisis Prevention and Response Unit replied, “when I think of atrocity, nothing sticks out more than the obvious war crimes in Sri Lanka, lack of will for investigation,” including by the international community. 

 Does that include the UN? We'll continue to cover that. Watch this site.

   

In Darfur, Lockheed is Late and Poor Performer, UN Admits of No-Bid Contract

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un4lockheed071608.html

UNITED NATIONS, July 16 -- Lockheed Martin in Darfur is "far behind schedule and has not performed as expected," the UN's Ban Ki-moon admitted in a report released this week. This comes eight months after Ban awarded Lockheed's PAE subsidiary a no-bid $250 million contract to build peacekeeper bases for the hybrid UN African Union Mission in Darfur, known as UNAMID. Faced with questions about why competition rules were waived and the aura of corruption, Ban insisted to Inner City Press that PAE was the only company that could do the job, as did the United States' special envoy for Sudan, Richard Williamson. Now Ban's July 7 report, released to the public this week, states

"37. A major support issue that will have a significantly negative impact on UNAMID deployment relates to the commercial contractor which is constructing accommodations and other critical infrastructure for the Operation. The contractor is far behind schedule and has not performed as expected. In order for it to meet its obligations and complete critical preparations for deployment, a major acceleration of its work will be required. Otherwise, there will be serious negative consequences for our deployment efforts, including a reduction in the Operation's capacity to absorb new military and police units, as well as civilian staff."

Lockheed's "poor performance" in "constructing accommodations" was noted in another recent review of conditions for those deployed along with UNAMID. Inner City Press' visit to UNAMID's El Fasher base last month found rows of trailers, Internet barely working, complaints everywhere.

PAE's failure to deliver value for the money the UN has paid it could have been and was predicted. PAE previously overcharged the UN for airfield services in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and for breakfasts in Darfur, click here for that.

Both UN Peacekeeping and its Procurement Division, as well as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, have been under fire since October 2007, when the no-bid contact with Lockheed was announced. At first, the UN Spokesperson said that Lockheed had been selected through a competitive process, then retracted the claim. It was said that the contract would be made public, but that has still not taken place.

Inner City Press obtained and published letters from Jane Holl Lute, whose husband is U.S. President George W. Bush's war czar for Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing for Lockheed to be given a no-bid contract each before the Security Council approved the Darfur mission in July 2007. Further back, there were inquiries about the contract from Condoleezza Rice, click here for that. These revelations were cited in the General Assembly's budget committee in December when it called for greater use of local vendors and formally demanded an investigation of the Lockheed contract, which the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services has still not completed. The report of poor performance on the no-bid contract sure can't help.

Footnote: On another Darfur issue, the suspension of deployment of peacekeepers, Inner City Press asked the UN Spokesperson's Office on July 11 and July 15 to confirm what Australian defense minister Joel Fitzgibbon told Inner City Press and a few other reporters on July 11, that nine military officers would not be going to Darfur, pursuant to UN policy. On July 11, associate spokesperson Farhan Haq told Inner City Press he would prefer not to answer, since the head of Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno who be takin questions at the stakeout. But Guehenno's appearance was subsequently cancelled, as Inner City Press reported.

On July 15, Inner City Press asked deputy spokesperson Marie Okabe to confirm the suspension of deployment. "If DPKO is listening, they should answer you," she said. Apparently they weren't listening. Inner City Press re-asked, but hours later was told to keep on waiting. Now another reporter who interviewed Fitzgibbon has reported it. And on July 16, again Guehenno's press availability was cancelled, for another farewell lunch. It's said he will take questions before he leaves and Alain Le Roy arrives. We'll be here.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un4lockheed071608.html

On Darfur, Need for "More Activity from UN," US Envoy Says, France's Chad Support Acknowledged as a Problem

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/usun2darfur061708.html

UNITED NATIONS, June 17 -- The U.S. envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson on Tuesday announced that Khartoum has been asked for permission to open up six additional routes for humanitarian convoys to Darfur. Inner City Press had asked if the UN peacekeepers stationed in El Fasher should rather be deployed to protect at least some of the World Food Program trucks which have been subject to hijacking. Williamson agreed there should be "more activity from the UN." Video here. The non-governmental organizations which stood beside him at the microphone, however, did not speak of what the UN could be doing on the ground, but rather only about obstruction from Khartoum and paralysis by the Security Council, which Mia Farrow and John Prendergast said is due to China, and China alone.

Inner City Press asked if France's unqualified support for the Idriss Deby government of Chad, even as it is accused of supporting attacks on Sudan and recruiting child soldiers, is not at least part of the problem. Prendergast, who has earlier accused Sudan of waging a proxy war against Chad, did not answer this question.

Williamson approached it diplomatically, speaking of "the bleed between Chad and Sudan." He said that the U.S. is "taking an active role" in trying to defuse the "mutual destruction on the border." Apparently referring to France, he said that "some of our friends are taking a more active role as well." But active how? When he led the Security Council delegation in Chad last week, French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert neither delivered nor allowed any criticism of Chad.

Footnote: some of Amb. Ripert's sudden standoffishness with the press during the Council mission became more comprehensible on Tuesday. Sources tell Inner City Press that it was only on the trip that Ripert learned that he would not be getting the job of head of UN Peacekeeping. At the last moment, these sources say, the Ban Ki-moon administration because concerned that Ripert's constant references to Bernard Kouchner might create a problem of split loyalty. And so France was asked for another name, and forwarded that of Alain Le Roy. Who ever takes the job should move quickly to deploy existing UN peacekeepers in Darfur to protect the humanitarian trucks.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/usun2darfur061708.html

In Khartoum, UN Council Comes In Just as US Envoy Leaves, Alternative Tours Offered, the Spin of Carnival Rides

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press in Africa
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1khartoum060308.html

KHARTOUM, June 3 -- As members of the UN Security Council arrived in Khartoum fresh from hearing about escalating tensions in Abyei from South Sudan President Salva Kiir, U.S. envoy Richard Williamson was leaving Sudan, saying he was "sad and disappointed" at the lack of prospects for peace. Nafie Al Nafie, advisor to Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, said "if they come back, we will engage." Sudan's Ambassador to the UN Abdalmahmoud Abdalhaleem Mohamed, in Khartoum to greet the same Ambassadors he lobbies in New York, was more blunt, saying Williamson "did not negotiate in good faith... He came just to pollute the atmosphere and go."

Now the Security Council is here, slated to meet with Nafie on Wednesday before heading Thursday to Darfur. Some in the Council delegation seem fixated on not being deemed polluters. In Juba, UK Ambassador John Sawers listed several issues he said will be raised to the leadership in Khartoum, including President Bashir, but again did not mentioned the International Criminal Court among them.

Since the Council's meetings with Nafie and Foreign Minister Deng Alor are closed to the press, the Foreign Ministry has offered through the UN an "Alternative Media Program," complete with "child soldiers arrested during the attack on the Sudanese capital," some alleged to be from Chad. The UN's child soldiers envoy Radhika Coomaraswamy gave a briefing in New York about Chad, saying commitments had been won for the release of child soldiers. Whether she interviewed these particular children is not known. Also not known is the origin of a rumor that the UN's plane was shot at. It was not, a media on the trip rushed to clarify.

When the Council members arrived without incident in their special UN plane, it was dark in Khartoum. They were whisked into a greeting room and served tall glasses of fruit juice. Sudan's UN Ambassador was there, glad-handing reporters and diplomats. Busses swept the delegation to a spacious hotel, the Rotana, which is said to only take payment in cash. Out the window, the rides of an amusement park were visible. The UN set up a media room with a half-dozen computers, all tuned to the webpage of the UN Mission in Sudan. "Are they secure?" was a question asked more than once. The answer appeared to be no. Like the UN and its host, outside the carnival rides continued to spin.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc1khartoum060308.html