By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 27 -- In the wake of documented inaction by UN Mission in Sudan peacekeepers earlier this year, at a briefing by UN force commanders on Wednesday Inner City Press asked for an explanation of the remaining-in-base of the Zambian battalion in Abyei, then the Egyptian battalion in Southern Kordofan.
The question was not answered, on the theory that of the four force commanders on the podium, Darfur but not UNMIS was represented. (There are separate issues of inaction in Darfur, with respect to Tawila and verifying Antonov bombings by Khartoum.)
But Inner City Press was told to direct the question afterward to the force commander of the new “two-s” UNMISS in South Sudan, Major General Moses Bisong Obi.
Since Obi was in charge of UNMIS during the incidents in Abyei and Southern Kordofan, the latter the subject of a scathing report by representatives of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that Inner City Press has put online, he seemed to be the right person to answer for the inaction.
But when Inner City Press approached Obi, as had been suggested on the record during the press conference, Obi said this should not be the subject of a private interview, and refused to answer any questions about it.
As Obi left the building with other force commanders, the Security Council began a closed door meeting about the new all Ethiopian force in Abyei, UNISFA.
Inner City Press has also asked the assembled force commanders if this model, of one-country missions (in this case with a force commander from Ethiopia as well) is a good one. There was no answer to that either.
Rather, UNAMID's Lieutenant General Patrick Nyamvumba said that “only” 135 patrols have been blocked by Khartoum, out of 20,000. While questions remains about why these patrols are blocked, and about Tawila, at least Nyamvumba gave an answer.
For Moses Obi, who was in charge of UNMIS when at least two of its battalions failed to protect civilians, what accountability is there?
The UN report states, as simply one example, that
Questions and answers about UN peacekeeping, and the UN more generally, often devolve into either it's all good or all bad. But the reality is, some UN Missions, SRSGs and Force Commanders do well and are transparent and some do and are not. Surely Nigeria has other, qualified potential force commanders.
A problem with the UN is that there seems to be no correlation between performance and keeping (or getting) your job.
Some say this extends to the prospective new chief of UN peacekeeping, Jerome Bonnafont, France's Ambassador to India. Despite UN denials and no-comments on Inner City Press' Bonnafont scoop of three weeks ago, the Press has again been told that Bonnafont has told diplomats that he has the UN job. What military experience does he have?
At Wednesday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked about Nepal's complaint that despite being the Number Six troop contributor its candidate for force commander at MINURSO in Western Sahara was bypassed and a Bangladeshi named.
While Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky wouldn't say why, outgoing DPKO chief Alain Le Roy to his credit came and explained that “speaking French” is a plus in Western Sahara, and said that while Nepal's didn't, Bangladesh's candidate does. We'll see. We'll also publish any response provided, even late, to questions, video via here, about the UN inaction (and status) in Abyei and Southern Kordofan. Watch this site.
