In UNSC Guterres Supports Equatorial Guinea 40 Year Ruler Obiang Like Biya of Cameroon

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR LetterPFT Q&A

UNITED NATIONS GATE, February 4 – When the Presidency of the UN Security Council was taken over by Equatorial Guinea on February 1 its Ambassador Ndong Mba held a press conference to take questions. But it was only from the media NOT banned by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, his Alison Smale and spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Now on February 4 Equatorial Guinea is holding and Guterres has performed at a Security Council meeting on “Mercenary activities as a source of insecurity and destabilization in Africa," chaired by 40 year ruler Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo who, not unrelatedly, faced a bid to overthrown him in December 2017. He fought it off with the help of his friend, 36 year Cameroon ruler Cameroon, with verbal support from Guterres. On February 4 Guterres said in the Security Council - after UNTV was told not to film him on the way in - that "Equatorial Guinea itself has reported serious attempts against its own government.  Indeed, last year, Ambassador Anatolio Ndong Mba of Equatorial Guinea underscored to this Council the need for 'vigilance and control of groups that sow insecurity and instability.'" In the run up to the noon briefing Inner City Press was banned from for the 215th day, Evelyn Leopold a retired Reuters correspondents said loudly that she didn't understand why there was a meeting about mercenary; she has previously said of Cameroon, video here, "the Anglophone did some shooting today" then acknowledged she never wrote about the country. This is today's UN. In the Press-less February 1 press conference, one of the few remaining independent minded journalists asked Mba why there is no meeting this month on Cameroon (where Paul Biya is slaughtering Anglophones daily). Mba archly replied, video here, that he had no comment as Cameroon is not on the Council's agenda (colonial power France, and turncoat UK haven't even asked, as UK Minister Liam Fox bragged about a New Age natural gas deal with Biya). Remarked on only by banned Inner City Press: Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema was the firstto congratulate Paul Biya on his seventh term, on 20 October 2018, two full days before the dubious results were announced. But who's counting? Now this, from Chinese state media: Officials of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea said on February 2 that they have agreed on plans to construct a bridge to link both countries.  "It is an integrating project that establishes the possibility of movement between the two countries. Once this project is realized, we will have another possibility of traveling by land through Cameroon and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea," said Paul Tasong, Cameroonian ministerial delegate from the Ministry of Economy Planning and Regional Development.  At the end of the day, the agreement was reached during a meeting in Cameroon's commercial capital Douala between delegations led by Tasong and Baltasar Engonga Edjo, Equatorial Guinean minister in charge of regional integration.  The bridge will be constructed over the Ntem River, on the corridor linking Kribi, Campo in Cameroon and Bata in Equatorial Guinea.  A memorandum of understanding will be signed between both countries on March 15. One Belt One Road?  On Cameroon, Mba said he could not comment on Cameroon because "it is not on the program of work of the Security Council." Video here. But there IS no program of work, still - so it's a strange defense, a bridge to nowhere. On February 1 in the mere eight questions taken there was not one about human rights in Equatorial Guinea, which has had the same president for forty years. The first question was taken by the United Nations Correspondents Association, whose Valeria Robecco said there are two issues in Africa: Boko Haram and the DR Congo. That'll all? This UN Correspondents Association - which at most represents 10% even of the journalist who come into the UN each year, and did nothing about its partners Guterres, Dujarric and Smale's censorship - has said nothing about, for example, the automatic exclusion by Guterres' UN of journalists from Taiwan. We'll have more on this UNCA and the permanent seat they devote to China. On February 1, Inner City Press live-tweeted the increasingly craven "press conference" until, at the end, one of the few independent thinking and asking correspondents made it a point to ask why Cameroon was not on the agenda. Ngong Mba answered archly that he would not say anything about Cameroon, since it is not on the Security Council's agenda. That's deference, from a country with a 40 year president to another with a 36 year ruler, currently slaughtering Anglophones with very little said by UNSG Antonio Guterres including in his meetings with Mba's Cameroonian counterpart when he was chair of the UN Budget Committee where Guterres wanted favors. Mba to his credit did reveal that Kuwait has asked for an Any Other Business meeting about Hebron. The session was brief, perhaps in part because there was no Program of Work handed out. Those who want to knock Kosovo off the quarterly reporting schedule refused to agree to a February 7 meeting. Mba cited the US in September as also not having a program of work. But there was a hand out of the rest of the schedule. Not so with Equatorial Guinea. They should be sending their information to Inner City Press which covers the UN Security Council closely - in person until roughed up and banned by Guterres amid its questions about his spending and silence on Cameroon, Obiang style -  but we'll see. Watch this site, daily.  In the eight questions there was no follow up on the expulsion of Guterres' envoy Nicholas Haysom from Somalia.  Nothing on Burundi, or Gabon or Togo.  But on those, the answer presumably would have been the same. This is today's UN, so far unchanged by the other "new" UNSC members Germany, Indonesia, South Africa and Belgium...

Inner City Press Asks UN Mercenaries Group About Tunisia, UN's Contractors

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 23 -- The UN's Working Group on the use of mercenaries visited Tunisia earlier this month and reported that "During their mission, the expert received information that there are some 4,000 Tunisians in Syria, 1,000 – 1,500 in Libya, 200 in Iraq, 60 in Mali, and 50 in Yemen."

  The Mali and Yemen numbers seemed so specific that on July 23 Inner City Press asked the Working Group's chair Elzbieta Karska if these were simply figures given to them by the Tunisian government. As part of a longer answer, she said yes. Video here.

  Inner City Press also asked Gabor Rona about the Working Group's review of the UN's use of private contractors. He said it remains unclear if the UN will make public what it considers before opting to use contractors, or what due diligence it engages in. Video here. UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous engaging with forces charged with child rape in the Central African Republic gives rise to more questions.

UN Told Inner City Press David Bax Was Cleared in Somalia, But UNOPS Letter Shows Referral on African Skies Ltd, Bancroft Contractor

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 24 -- After the UN told Inner City Press that its Somalia de-mining boss David Bax was fully exonerated by an investigation by the UN Office of Project Services that followed an Inner City Press exclusive expose of Bax sharing information with US intelligence through Bancroft Global Development, Inner City Press has obtained a UNOPS letter to Bax that says "However, the Internal Audit and Investigations Group referred several issues to management, including your trip on an African Skies Limited flight."

  There is a problem here: as even the UN's report on mercenaries in Somalia notes, Bancroft has had a financial relationship with African Skies Limited, to provide security at the Mogadishu airport. Click here for UN report, see Paragraph 45. 

  So a favor from African Skies Limited is a favor from Bancroft, to which Bax gave information including genetic information from suicide bombs.

  UNOPS' Paul Lucas' "Dear David" letter, dated December 9, 2013, also references sexual harassment. That involved, among other things, putting UN staff at risk by doing favors for "a girlfriend," and breaking the rules of Bax' own UNOPS camp.

The larger question is even when the UN conducts an investigation and announces a results, including case exoneration, can it be believed? On investigation into charges of gang rape by UN peacekeepers in Mali, the UN has told Inner City Press that the investigation is complete -- but not the result.

   Back on November 4, 2013, Inner City Press asked Anton Katz, Chair of the UN "Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination" about the Group's report on Somalia - and if he had met David Bax. (He had, in Cape Town.)

The report states for example that

"The Working Group was informed by UNMAS that to avoid this problem, their agreement with Bancroft requires that when conducting EOD and counter-IED operations, Bancroft employees must remain a minimum of 500 metres behind any front line. This type of rule might serve as an appropriate safeguard in other contracts as well... The Working Group notes that at least one employee of Bancroft pleaded, and was found, guilty in a South African court of, inter alia, recruiting persons for mercenary activities in Côte d’Ivoire and providing logistical support for the venture [See High Court of South Africa (Transvaal Provincial Division), case number A2850/03 of 2 and 20 May 2005 (ZAGPHC 248).]"

  Why are the UN, AMISOM and UNMAS working with Bancroft Global Development? What do they do together? Inner City Press has been informed by whistleblowers beyond Somalia that Bax has been part of the process by which genetic and DNA information from IED bombings have been transferred to US intelligence.

  There are also detailed accounts of Bax using UN and private contractor resources, without mandate, for a close friend. The problem here, it is reiterated, is that it put others at risk on Bax's whim. We'll have more on this - because the UN Secretariat says again and again that it puts staff safety first. This for example is the rationale, as Inner City Press also exclusively reported, for threatening to close down in New York the UN cafeteria and Dag Hammarskjold Library. 

  As with January Security Council president, Inner City Press offered thanks to Katz for the briefing for the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which will continue to push for increased transparency from the UN on cases like that of Bax, particuarly given the slated changing of the guard in the UN Spokesperson's office, click here for that. Watch this site.

   

UN Mercenaries Group Chief Met Bancroft Global Dev't in Somalia, David Bax in Cape Town: Still No Results of (Cover Up?) Probe

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 4 -- With the UN still providing no update on its investigation of Somalia UN Mine Action Service boss David Bax, first reported by Inner City Press, his work alongside US-based Bancroft Global Development arose Monday at the UN.

Inner City Press asked Anton Katz, Chair of the UN "Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination" about the Group's report on Somalia - and if he has met David Bax. (He has, in Cape Town.)

The report states for example that

"The Working Group was informed by UNMAS that to avoid this problem, their agreement with Bancroft requires that when conducting EOD and counter-IED operations, Bancroft employees must remain a minimum of 500 metres behind any front line. This type of rule might serve as an appropriate safeguard in other contracts as well... The Working Group notes that at least one employee of Bancroft pleaded, and was found, guilty in a South African court of, inter alia, recruiting persons for mercenary activities in Côte d’Ivoire and providing logistical support for the venture [See High Court of South Africa (Transvaal Provincial Division), case number A2850/03 of 2 and 20 May 2005 (ZAGPHC 248).]"

  Why are the UN, AMISOM and UNMAS working with Bancroft Global Development? What do they do together? Inner City Press has been informed by whistleblowers beyond Somalia that Bax has been part of the process by which genetic and DNA information from IED bombings have been transferred to US intelligence.

  After Inner City Press first reported this -- and others have tried to rehabilitate Bax -- the UN said that UNOPS is investigating, and that it would have nothing to say while it does. But the UN has still said nothing. UN investigation as a way to sweep things under the carpet?

  Katz was highly specific, distinguishing Mark Thatcher in Equatorial Guinea and the "Dogs of War" from privatized security in prisons. He discussed Syria and Jihadists, Libya, WEOG and tellingly at the request of UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk, drones. Will any of these answers to make-work questions ever see the light of day? Her electronics made noise, and she claimed to speak for "the UN correspondents" -- but that is not true.

  As with November's Security Council president, Inner City Press offered thanks for the briefing for the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which will continue to push for increased transparency from the UN on cases like that of Bax. Watch this site.

   

UN Mercenary Panel Asks of DPKO Use in Valencia & Congo, Somalia Still Murky

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- When the UN's Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries held a panel discussion Wednesday morning, listing forty minutes of questions and answers, it was assumed that for example the UN's use of armed guards in Somalia, so far left murky, could be clarified.

  But the Q&A was devoted only to member states, mostly for speeches. From the podium, it was claimed that all of the UN's uses of armed guards must comply with international law. Why then won't the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous answer if the Geneva Conventions apply to its impending offensive in the Eastern Congo?

  Rick Cottom of various UN staff unions said that in his experience, UN Security would rather be the one in the field, not paid outsiders.

  Lou Pingeot of Global Policy Forum asked why the UN Peacekeeping location in Valencia, Spain (the lawless establishment before its General Assembly approval Inner City Press covered at the time) uses outside armed security, and noted UN Peacekeeping's use of Saracen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  Saracen is now repackaged as "Sterling," as noted in the most recently Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group report. In Somalia, as Inner City Press reported, David Bax of the UN Mine Action Service is said to provide information to US intelligence through the shadowy PMSC Bancroft Global. Bax has been photographed tooling around Mogadishu with armed guards.

The UN's Nicholas Kay acknowledged to Inner City Press that "some of our guards are armed." How many? From which company? Denel? Where is the transparency? We will pursue this.

But Wednesday morning the interventions were all from member states. Indonesia spoke of being part of the Syria observer mission killed off by Herve Ladsous. The Free UN Coalition for Access believes minimal transparency requires disclosing who can ask questions, raised here. Watch this site.

   

UN's Ban Ki-moon Asks Rwanda for Evidence His Sanctions Group of Experts Has, Captured Tanzanian UNknown by MONUSCO?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 19 -- With UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous not answering questions, either in Security Council consultations from Council member Rwanda or from the Press outside the Council, information about Eastern Congo and the Ladsous' controversial Intervention Brigade comes through the UN's noon briefing, on a delay.

  On July 8, Rwanda's foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo wrote to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about among other things “ongoing patterns of enhanced collaboration between the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC) and FDLR, often with the knowledge and/or support of certain Force Intervention Brigade contingents.”

  When Inner City Press at the July 19 noon briefing asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky two questions about the Eastern DRC, his reply included that Ban has replied to Rwanda, saying his inquiries with the UN mission MONUSCO have not verified statements in Minister Mushikiwabo's letter and asking for evidence. Video herefrom Minute 11:13.

(Rwanda's Mission to the UN tells Inner City Press that “We indeed received that letter on Wednesday. The SG was responding to a letter by our MoFA informing that GoR has credible information and concrete evidence on the collaboration between the FDRL and the FARDC, as well as MONUSCO-FIB. He basically requested our Minister to provide evidence mentioned in the letter. We sent it to Kigali and a appropriate response will be provided.”)

  For some of this evidence, Ban should be asking the UN's own Group of Experts. Inner City Press exclusively put online the full text of their report, which details FARDC arming the FDLR.

  Inner City Press also asked Nesirky on July 19 about a claim by the M23 that they captured a Tanzanian fighter. After 5 pm on Friday, the UN replied:

Subject: Your question on the DRC
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Jul 19, 2013 at 5:25 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

On the Democratic Republic of the Congo, MONUSCO has no information confirming the capture of a Tanzanian soldier.

  We appreciate the answer, of the type of question that not only Ladsous but his four spokespeople for the last 20 days have refused to provide. To move this issue forward, we note that M23 buttressed their claim with the serial number on the fighter's AK47 (1372) and later a photograph of his passport, as Christopher George Yohana, born on the Fourth of July, 1990.

  If authentic, it would appear that a Tanzanian mercenary was fighting with the FDLR. Already, a well placed UN Security Council tells Inner City Press there are major problems with the national make-up of the Intervention Brigade. This would seem to confirm / complicate that. 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.