Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1guehenno072908.html
UNITED NATIONS, July 29, updated July 30 -- As Jean-Marie Guehenno said farewell to the UN on Tuesday after eight years heading UN Peacekeeping, he declined to comment on the UN's ill-fated $250 million no-bid contract with Lockheed Martin in Darfur, saying it had been a "tough call" which he "wouldn't like to second guess." Video here
The contract's lack of competition led to extensive criticism of UN Peacekeeping in the UN's budget committee, and ultimately the UN's own reports found that Lockheed Martin performed poorly under the contract, although it is not clear that any money will be returned. Some were disappointed that even in this light, Guehenno could or would not acknowledge that the no-bid contract with Lockheed was a mistake. While Guehenno to his credit spoke of UN Peacekeeping learning as it goes along, its recent failure to protect civilians in Abyei in The Sudan is reminiscent, structurally if not in numbers, to inaction in Rwanda. As exposed and asked about on Tuesday, the UN's initial report on Abyei was a whitewash contradicted by eyewitness reporting.
Guehenno was similarly evasive on the question, raised in another farewell press conference on July 25 by outgoing UN legal chief Nicolas Michel, about the extent of the provision of information by UN Peacekeeping to the International Criminal Court and its Prosecutor. Michel said that the UN Secretariat, including its peacekeeping operations, "have been in very close contact, repeatedly, with the Office of the Prosecutor" of the ICC. This undermined another argument the UN has been making, that the government of Sudan would be wrong to link the ICC Prosecutor's request earlier this month for an arrest warrant against President Omar Al-Bashir with the two UN peacekeeping operations in the country.
Inner City Press twice asked Guehenno this question on Tuesday. Guehenno's first answer was that "our human rights officers report to the [Security] Council" so it is all "on the table and transparent." But the cooperation, for example in the case of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga which Inner City Press asked about, was by all accounts more extensive the the public reports to the Security Council. Inner City Press followed up, but Guehenno again dodged, saying that "when there's a pending case... if advised by the legal office, we share" information with the ICC. Video here
Again we ask, if UN operations on the ground provide information to the ICC, and will increasingly do so in the future, why would it be surprising if potential or actual targets of the ICC barred access to or expelled UN operations? The question remains for Guehenno's successor Alain Le Roy.
Guehenno did venture some thoughts on peacekeeping in such places as Somalia, saying cryptically that sometimes even a doctor must say no. Less equivocally, and leading to a seemingly unanimous interpretation by the UN press corps that Guehenno does not favor deployment to Somalia, at least at this time, he listed among factors weighing against insertion of peacekeepers the lack of a peace agreement that includes those who actually control the guns on the ground. This is one description of Somalia, wher the Shabab continue fighting even after the Djibouti talks (which Inner City Press attended and reported on), and in which threats to shoot at UN peacekeepers have been made. To some, it appears Guehenno meant, even when there is no other alternative, the Security Council should not send peacekeepers to places like Somalia. It may even appear that, in retrospect, he meant or would have meant to Darfur as well. It could be worse, muttered one wag. One hears that more and more at the UN these days.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1guehenno072908.html
