Friday, August 9, 2013

On Somalia, Ban Ki-moon's Office Doubles-Down on its Stonewalling on UNMAS and Bax Abuses, In Ladsousification of UN


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 9 -- The UN of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon under Herve Ladsous has reached this point: this Friday evening it claimed that its non-response to Inner City Press questions since June 24 about the UN in Somalia either were answered, or have not yet been partially answered in a statement by Ladsous' spokesperson Kieran Dwyer spoon-fed to another media. Both are false.
Inner City Press: a question that I have asked all the way back to June about Mr. David Bax of UNMAS [United Nations Mine Action Service] in Somalia. One of the questions that was asked was, who were the private security personnel or armed guards with whom he went to the compound on the day of the attack; it seems like if they are UN contractors and they are getting paid by the UN, it shouldn’t be hard to answer it, but it is yet to be answered. I am wondering if you either have that answer or can provide it today?
Associate Spokesperson Haq: On the latter, as I believe Martin [Nesirky] had mentioned a few days ago, the United Nations Office for Project Services, which is the contracting group regarding Mr. Bax, is looking into this particular case, and we wouldn’t have any further comment while it looks into it.
Inner City Press: Are they looking into just the sexual harassment allegations or the private security?
Associate Spokesperson Haq: We have no comment while they look into the matter.
Inner City Press: I went back and looked, I think it was 5 July, in this room, when I asked about Mr. Bax. You made a big point of saying, “we always answer your questions, we always send answers,” and I am wondering, should I still be waiting, which I have yet to receive from your Office, so it’s an answer on the questions that I asked about Mr. Bax, or is this is indirectly answering the answer that’s gonna be given?
Associate Spokesperson Haq: No, while… as I just made clear, while they are looking into this, we wouldn’t have any further comment. At some point, if we have some answers…
Inner City Press: Well, why is Kieran Dwyer sending an answer to other… if the policy is that there will be no answer, so I am still wondering why…
Associate Spokesperson: Matthew, I don’t speak for Kieran. Whatever information we have, we’ve provided once we have it. As we did, by the way, with David Bax.
  Well, no. After Inner City Press on Friday afternoon published a piece with the video and Haq's previous July 5 statement, Ban's Spokesperson's Office sent this:
Subject: Your question at noon on Somalia
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 6:39 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
On 24 June, you asked whether the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) had a response to the email received from an anonymous source in relation to a contractor in Somalia.
Today and on earlier occasions, DPKO says it has relayed the position that the hiring agency of the UN Mine Action Service staff member in question, the UN Office for Project Services, is inquiring into the complaint and will not make further comment while its inquiries are ongoing. This was and continues to be the case.
DPKO's public affairs team did not share any other information with other correspondents on questions on this anonymous email. This is the United Nations' response to questions on the email, and DPKO has relayed that.
  The game here seems to be to pretend that Inner City Press only asked about the whistleblower's complaint. But as simply one example, Inner City Press at the June 26 noon briefing asked Ban's deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey
Inner City Press: What’s their response to a… to public allegations that the head of the Mine Action Service in Somalia… a David Bax, shares information with United States intelligence through Bancroft Global Services and also was seen and photographed entering the UN compound with armed private contractors?
Deputy Spokesperson: Well, we’ll have to check on that for you, Matthew. I don’t have an answer to that right now.
Agnes Marcaillou, the director of UN Mine Action Service in New York: Note to Kieran Dwyer [ ]
#1 The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) supports AMISOM and Somali Police Force explosive ordnance device teams collect evidence from the site of an IED incident or from recovered IEDs which have been rendered safe.
UNMAS is mandated to provide technical assistance, including training and mentoring, to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the Somali Police Force (SPF) in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), first response and post-blast investigation (PBI) to improvised explosive devices (IED), including mentoring and training them in law enforcement investigative techniques. This assistance to Somalia contributes to building a capacity commensurate with that of most nations with a well functioning security sector.
UNMAS provides assistance to the Somali Police in the preservation of evidence from IED incidents, to enable them to later prosecute through proper judicial process. This is important because improper handling and/or disposal of explosive devices would destroy evidence and result in minimal opportunity for possible legal action.
UNMAS supports cooperation between law enforcement agencies in facilitating knowledge sharing between the Somali Police Force and law enforcement agencies, such as Interpol and the FBI.
#2 At UN[S]OM’s request, UNMAS provided emergency response to the 19 June attack to save lives
UN[S]OM (the new UN mission in Somalia) asked UNMAS to assist while the attack was actually underway. The Burundian convoy escort team provided by AMISOM to support UNMAS was deployed in Mine Protected Vehicles to assist in the evacuation of UN staff from the common compound. UNMAS technical staff also deployed in cooperation with Department of Safety and Security (DSS) focal points and the Somali Police.
As part of this deployment supporting DSS and the Somali police, UNMAS Programme manager David Bax and team helped secure the area from residual explosive threats. At the request of the Somali police, UNMAS provided assistance in the gathering of forensic evidence for possible use in a criminal investigation, following recognized law enforcement forensic guidelines. Bodies also had to be checked to make sure they were free from explosive hazards and not booby trapped. A number of unexploded devices were discovered. Several were armed and extremely dangerous, posing a direct threat to the UNMAS and AMISOM teams as well as to anybody planning to reoccupy the UN common compound.
The whole investigation team evacuated when their position was no longer tenable due to the deteriorating security situation.
Under the circumstances UNMAS was the only entity equipped to gather information for both the internal UN investigation, and to support the Somali police before evidence was destroyed or compromised in the event that the compound fell out of UN control, following established international guidelines for the recovery of forensic material.
In an extremely difficult and dangerous environment, the UNMAS team contributed to the success of the evacuation of more than 35 staff and allowed important evidence for later inquiry/investigation to be obtained without further casualties from unexploded ordnance.
#3 Bax oversight of allocation of rooms on UNMAS compound follows normal procedures
...As in the case of other UN facilities world-wide controlled by their respective Head of Agency, David Bax, as Head of UNMAS-Somalia, has oversight over UNMAS accommodation facilities. It is logical therefore that, for UNMAS facilities, Bax has final say over allocation given tight resources and high demand. At some point over the past three years, UNMAS has hosted staff from all UN agencies operational in Mogadishu, and has gladly been an enabler for the UN family to gain access to Somalia.
  So what does Ban's Spokesperson's Office mean, "DPKO's public affairs team did not share any other information with other correspondents"? This is the Ladsousification of the UN. We'll have more on this Watch this site.

   
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On Haiti Cholera, Ex-UN Guehenno Now Switches "Come Clean" to "Make Others Pay," UN's Way


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 9 -- When a hole opens in the UN's armor of immunity, there are fast moves to close it.
   On August 7, with the UN of Ban Ki-moon and Herve Ladsous still denying all claims that Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping brought cholera to Haiti and killed 8,000 people, after Inner City Press again asked Ban's spokesperson about it, Ladsous' predecessor Jean-Marie Guehenno tweeted this:
"Peacekeepers have done a lot for Haiti, but UN needs to come clean on cholera crisis."
  Inner City Press retweeted then wrote about it, noting that this is a former chief of UN Peacekeeping. So where is Herve Ladsous on this? He's out of headquarters, after refusing Press questions then spoon-feeding spin to a friendly scribe. August 7 Q&A with's Ban's lead spokesperson Martin Nesirky, here.
  Thursday August 8 was a UN holiday. So in its August 7 story, Inner City Press asked: what will the UN say about its own former head of peacekeeping, a post now devolved to Herve Ladsous who was rejected in favor of Guehenno, then in favor of Alain Le Roy, then a third strike in favor of Jerome Bonnafont -- only to be put in the job by France after Bonnafont bragged about getting it?
The flaw was that Ladsous has a record, of arguing for the escape of the genocidaires from Rwanda into Eastern Congo. How can he lead an (all African) intervention brigade now in the Congo?
On August 9, Inner City Press asked Ban's associate spokesperson Farhan Haq about what Jean-Marie Guehenno said. Haq replied there would be no UN comment on what Guehenno said in his "private capacity." Video here, from Minute 2:07.
But lo and behold later on the afternoon of August 9, Guehenno who is now a professor at Columbia but still in the UN loop, having had at least one Under Secretary General job, and a posting on Ban's Senior Advisory Group of Peacekeeping Operations (with a Sri Lankan military leader depicted in the UN's own report as engaged in war crimes),"clarified" his August 7 tweet:
"UN can take responsibility by pushing harder on member states to fund health and sanitation in Haiti with substantial donations."

  Suddenly Guehenno's (re) definition of coming clean has nothing to do with taking responsibility, but rather "pushing" others to pay for the consequences of DPKO's ongoing negligence.
  Here's the question: how can the UN, and DPKO which Guehenno used to head, preach rule of law if it never takes responsibility? Blaming plaintiffs' attorneys is not enough: to merely push others to pay, and not accept responsibility, is lawless.
  Who "got to" Guehenno? Or is the promise or desire for future UN-world posts enough to bring about such a quick reversal? If even standing by his statement for two days, Guehenno hearkens back to a time before the spreading "Ladsousification" of Ban's UN. Watch this site. And this noon briefing video, before Guehenno's afternoon "clarification," from Minute 2:07:


   
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No UN Role in DRC National Dialogue, Nothing on MSF Death Near Juba, Guehenno's Haiti Cholera Tweet


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 9, updated -- Despite spending billions of dollars in public funds, and enjoying or abusing immunity as in Haiti, the UN is often irrelevant when real peace talks start.
  This may now take place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - but earlier this year when in Burkina Faso Mali reached a deal with rebels, the UN despite having three envoys played no role.
  Now in the DRC, where a "national dialogue" has been announced to be mediated by the president of next door Congo-Brazzaville, it appears the UN again has no role.
  Inner City Press went to the UN's August 9 noon briefing and asked, what is the role of the MONUSCO mission or of envoy Mary Robinson?
  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's associate spokesperson Farhan Haq said he is not aware of any UN role at all, that Mary Robinson is working with countries in the region.
  Why then did Mary Robinson do an interview with the UN's own Radio Okapi, the purpose of which seems to have been to pledge support for the new Intervention Brigade which declared a 48 hour ultimatum in North Kivu recently?
  And why did Haq, when Inner City Press asked, have nothing to say about Doctors Without Borders sounding the alarm on security threat in Pinga in the Kivus? Haq said he wouldn't speak for MSF -- and this extended to the MSF worker recently killed near Juba in South Sudan, Haq said the UN had nothing to say. 
  When aid workers were killed in Darfur, the UN spoke. What's different -- South Sudan? Or MSF?
  Coming full circle to Haiti, when Inner City Press asked Haq about the comment by Herve Ladsous' predecessor at UN Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno having tweeted that the UN needs to "come clean" about cholera, Haq said there would be no response to what Guehenno said in his "private capacity." Video here, from Minute 2:07.
  So much impunity, but so little role in the peace deal in Mali, and the "national dialogue" in the DRC. Watch this site.
Update: then this came in, on Pinga, and we publish it in full. What for example about Bax and Somalia?
Subject: Your question at noon on the DRC
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 2:34 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Regarding your question on fighting in Pinga, we have the following additional information from the UN Mission, MONUSCO:
MONUSCO reports that, since 5 August, following reports of localized clashes in Pinga, North Kivu province, its peacekeepers have provided protection to more than 450 civilians and four humanitarian workers. The clashes reportedly involved combatants from local armed groups. The Mission is closely monitoring the situation.
But what about which FARDC units MONUSCO is supporting? Watch this site.
    
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In Somalia, UN Covers Up, Still No Answers on Weapons, Spoon-Fed Guards: Video Q&A on UNMAS, Haiti, DRC, Sri Lanka


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 9 -- The UN on Friday refused to tell Inner City Press what armed guards it uses in Somalia, and if the UN Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group would look into the day's burning in Mogadishu of an Ethiopian plane reportedly full of weapons.
  Inner City Press had first asked the question of which armed guards the UN Mine Action Service's David Bax used in Mogadishu back on June 24, after publishing an exclusive June 22 story about Bax's role in sharing genetic information about bombings with the United States.
Compare video below to this from August 7.

Inner City Press: DPKO was asked about just to respond yes or no whether to their knowledge the head of UN Mine Action Service in Mogadishu, David Bax, provides information to the United States as alleged by a whistleblower, but just yes or no; and it’s been two weeks, what is the time frame? Are they not going to answer that question?
Associate Spokesperson Haq: We answer all of your questions. It takes time for some answers to come back, and others… and less time for others. But you have seen over the time, and you know this; I have sent you e-mails like this, and you know, sometimes a week or so later, we get an answer and we send it to you.
  But after this Haq statement, DPKO's Herve Ladsous' spokesperson Kieran Dwyer provided half-answers to the questions Inner City Press had publicly asked -- to another media, for a story that, as many have commented, attempted to rehabilitate Bax, including on sexual harassment charges (in the same way UN Peacekeeping sought to deny, to this same media, Inner City Press' charges that it covered up the murder of UN Security officer Louis Maxwell by Afghan National Forces.)
  On August 9, Inner City Press asked Haq about his July 5 statement, and whether it should still expect the promised answers. Haq said that since "the contracting agency" UNOPS is investigating, the UN will have no comment. Video here.
  But UNOPS is not investigating which Private Military Contractor the UN system says public money to in Somalia - that question should have been immediately answered. And the referenced UNOPS investigation is highly dubious - we'll have more on that. Watch this site.

   
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As Plane of Ethiopian Weapons Burns in Somalia, Sanctions Violations Cited, Press Excluded, UN Silent


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 9 -- When an Ethiopian military plane full of weapons was burning today on the tarmac of the airport in Mogadishu, journalists trying to take photographs were refused entry and told to leave. What does the UN have to say about it?
  It must be noted that the UN's own sanctions panel, the Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group, in its most recent report at page 319 linked the Ethiopian National Defense Forces to violations of sanctions in Somalia:
according to data received by the Monitoring Group, the Ethiopian air force has operated in January and February 2013, three military cargo flights to Baidoa, without prior notification of the Committee. On 22 April 2013, the Monitoring Group sent a letter to the Government of Ethiopia requesting clarification and additional information, for which no reply has yet been forthcoming.
19. Information obtained by the Monitoring Group from several UN sources indicates that these flights may be related to supply of military equipment to Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF) operations on Somali territory, and therefore constitute a potential violation of the arms embargo on Somalia.
  So will the SEMG have access to the plane? And what DOES the UN say?
  The SEMG report also has the UN itself violating sanctions. And the UN Mine Action Service's David Bax,despite spoon-fed attempts to rehabilitate him, not only played a role in the sharing of genetic information from bombs in Somalia with the US FBI, but ran around Mogadishu, not only on the day of the attack on the UN compound, with weapons of dubious origin - click for Inner City Press's first exclusive and now most recent story. What does the UN say? The Free UN Coalition for Access has asked. Watch this site.

   
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Thursday, August 8, 2013

On Syria, Aid as Politics: UK Valerie Amos Letter Promoted by UK Reuters, IRC Brag Not Mapped by OCHA


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 8 -- Humanitarian aid is supposed to be impartial and non-political but here is how it works at the UN these days.
  The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which as Inner City Press has covered ignored just such impartiality questions raised by Doctors Without Borders in Eastern Congo, wrote a "confidential" letter to the UN Security Council about access in Syria.
  The head of OCHA is Baroness Valerie Amos of the UK. Mysteriously, Reuters had the "confidential letter," most say, from the UK Mission to the UN. (While noting that Reuters' UN Bureau demonstrably leaks TO the UN, here.) Soon, Reuters' re-type job was re-tweeted by WFP's spokesman... in the UK.
  Meanwhile in the UK, there's been an expose of outrageous salaries at the big aid NGOs, but nary a word from Amos' OCHA. Nor any similar listing of the tax-free compensation of UN aid big wigs.
  On August 7, OCHA in Syria put out a map of UN agencies and international staff in the country, which included the International Organization on Migration -- which is NOT a UN agency. The Free UN Coalition for Access asked, why was IOM included?
  A techie working for OCHA, more responsive than most of the UN's UNsocial media, replied that the footnote says IOM is in the UN County Team. Is any other group? Apparently not.
  Then on August 8, OCHA put out a map of NGOs in Syria. Earlier in the day, the International Rescue Committee, run by former UK politician David Miliband, teased a press call featuring its "team inside Syria." But IRC is not mentioned in the OCHA map. They brag of a visit by new US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power - and replied about where the cited refugees were from (including Syria).
   It's all good - but why is IRC, not on the UN's map, bragging of its team inside Syria? Watch this site.

   
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Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Ex-UN Official Guehenno Says Successor Ladsous Must "Come Clean" on Haiti Cholera, Inner City Press Asks


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 7 -- With the UN of Ban Ki-moon and Herve Ladsous still denying all claims that Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping brought cholera to Haiti and killed 8,000 people, on August 7 after Inner City Press again asked Ban's spokesperson about it, Ladsous' predecessor Jean-Marie Guehenno tweeted this:
"Peacekeepers have done a lot for Haiti, but UN needs to come clean on cholera crisis."
  This is a former chief of UN Peacekeeping. So where is Herve Ladsous on this? He's out of headquarters, after refusing Press questions then spoon-feeding spin to a friendly scribe. August 7 video here.
  On Haiti, here's Inner City Press' question from the August 7 UN noon briefing:
Inner City Press: on Haiti first. There is a report that I am sure that you have seen, it came out of the Law School and the Medical School at Yale yesterday regarding the cholera in Haiti, it’s a medical and legal analysis that there should have been the claims process and saying that the UN needs to rehabilitate --
Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: What’s the question?
Inner City Press: My question is: what’s your response to this study, and also, whether the new Head of the Office of Legal Affairs, whether there is any indication that, you know, like Nicolas Michel in the past, but unlike Ms. O’Brien, whether he will take questions on legal topics such as these? Why the claim was was dismissed and what the legal implications are?
Spokesperson: Well, on the second part of your questions, we just in the past few minutes announced this appointment, so I don’t think you would expect me to pass further judgement on what he may or may not wish to do with regard to speaking to the media, but we will certainly convey your wishes to him. With regard to the first part of your questions, I don’t have anything further to say beyond what we have said in the past. We are obviously aware of this latest report. [More here.]
  Thursday August 8 is a UN holiday. But what will the UN say about its own former head of peacekeeping, a post now devolved to Herve Ladsous who was rejected in favor of Guehenno, then in favor of Alain Le Roy, then a third strike in favor of Jerome Bonnafont -- only to be put in the job by France after Bonnafont bragged about getting it?
  The flaw was that Ladsous has a record, of arguing for the escape of the genocidaires from Rwanda into Eastern Congo. How can he lead an (all African) intervention brigade now in the Congo? Watch this site.

   
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Of Somaliland & EU Conference, Somalia Oil & Idd Beddel, UN Fumbles & Spoon-Feeds


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 7 -- The UN has congratulated itself for how it handles Somalia, at least of late. The most recent UN Security Council resolution ignored issues raised by Somaliland; its letter to the Council wasn't even distributed.
  Now comes word to Inner City Press from Hargeisa that president Ahmed M. Silanyo has decided that Somaliland will NOT attend the European Union's "Somalia" conference in Brussels, per Free UN Coalition for Access member Mohamoud Walaaleye.
  This comes after Puntland severed relations with Mogadishu -- Inner City Press asked for and got UN envoy the response of envoy Nicholas Kay, formerly the UK's ambassador to Sudan, here -- and then a critique by Jubaland, not yet responded to.
  Mogadishu signed a deal with an oil firm called Soma Oil and Gas, led by UK former Conservative Party leader Baron [Michael] Howard of Lympne. (A report being inquired into by Inner City Press has it that Somali Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Idd Beddel Mohamad, a/k/a Mogadishu in Manhattan, claims he formed a similarly named company and so the contract is void.)
  Somaliland went in another direction: Turkey-based Genel Energy. A proxy war for oil?
  Before the attack on the Turkish compound on Mogadishu, in the attack on the UN compound it's reported that UN Mine Action Service boss David Bax was the hero. Maybe -- but he is accused of sexual harassment and of playing a role in the passing of genetic information to US intelligence. August 7 Q&A here.
  The UN stonewalled Inner City Press after its exclusive report to this effect on June 22; reclusive UN official Herve Ladsous through his spokesperson Kieran Dwyer spoon-fed a pro-Bax and UNMAS spin to a friendly scribe. This dysfunctional approach is unacceptable; the UN's spin on Somalia and environs isn't working either. Watch this site.

   
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On North Korea in 6 Days, 6 UN Experts Go to Panama, Not Cuba, South Korea PR on Nuclear Backpacks


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 7 -- Six days before the UN experts visit Panama to inspect the ship that was bound from Cuba to North Korea, the sanctions were discussed in a closed door meeting of the UN Security Council Wednesday afternoon.
The timing seemed off -- most diplomats indicated they'd have to wait to see what was found in a week's time -- but still when South Korean Permanent Representative Kim Sookemerged, he told more than a dozen reporters that Cuba is cooperating.
  He also indicated that the North Korean nuclear backpacks on view at the recent parade probably don't have the powers they try to portray. He deferred to Committee chair Sylvie Lucas of Luxembourg.
  Ambassador Lucas gamely fielded questions. Inner City Press asked if there had been any discussion of whether sending materiel from Cuba to North Korea and back for repair would violate the sanctions regime. She replied that it was best to wait and see what the experts found in their visit to Panama.
  She said the experts -- six of the eight member panel will go, from February 13 to 15, including the coordinator Martin Uden -- would not be going to Cuba. She said the committee has not heard from North Korea.
Footnote: The conditions for the Q&A were far from ideal, worse even than when the Committee meets in the UN's North Lawn building. At the Security Council stakeout, despite repeated complaints and even a petition from the Free UN Coalition for Access, there is still no media work table, as existed before and during the renovation.
  Wednesday there were 15 journalists and only four seats available in the stakeout area, next to which the so called "Turkish Lounge" and its three tables and ten chairs sat entirely empty. 
   No response at all. Dujarric was asking another UN official, "in the bubble" as they say, about the fire in the major airport in Nairobi, Kenya, then, during the stand-up at the stakeout, musing about the Clintons. Who's in charge of media access and facilitating or at least not hindering press coverage of the Security Council? We'll have more on this.

   
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