Of Mercenaries in Eastern Congo & Bahrain, If Not Denel, Who Are the UN's, Kay's and Bax' Guards in Somalia?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- In Somalia, which private armed guards were running around Mogadishu with UN Mine Action Service chief David Bax, as acknowledged but not named by UN envoy Nicholas Kay? Were they with South Africa-based Denel?

  In Eastern Congo, would Ukrainian pilots in helicopter gunships be considered mercenaries, while recently naturalized Bahrain "security" force members are not? 

  These were the questions Inner City Press put to three members of the Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries on Thursday, and unlike at the UN's own briefing in this room, each question got an answer. Video here, from Minute 40:24.

  On Somalia, Working Group rapporteur Anton Katz of South Africa said he and fellow member Faiza Patel of Pakistan had been there in December and would be reporting soon. He said Denel may be working for some other entity -- UNMAS? - but that the UN system does not employ Denel. Video here, from Minute 18:32.

This seemed strange, since three Denel employees were killed in the most recent attack on UN Compound on Mogadishu.An arms expert tweeted to Inner City Press that Denel mostly doesn't do armed guards. Then who were they? We'll await Kay's or less likely Bax's answer.

  On behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, Inner City Press suggested to the Working Group members that they encourage UN agencies to publicly disclose which security companies they use, and for what.

On Ukrainian pilots in the Congo, Gabor Rona replied that if they were members of Ukraine's army, they could not be mercenaries, only parties to a conflict. On Bahrain, he said that naturalization is enough, legally, to come out from the definition of mercenary.

Can one be naturalized retroactively, Inner City Press asked, laundered so to speak? Video here from Minute 42:38.

Anton Katz asked, to some laugher, Are you thinking of becoming one?

* * *

  Speaking of mercenaries, once again the UN Correspondents' Association asserted its "right" to have the first question, a right that 2013 president Pamela Falk has said can be delegated to any dues paying UNCA member, even one who ran for the Executive Committee and lost. 

 This means that in exchange for money, someone is given a question at the UN. 

   Particularly now with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky outright refusing to take some Press questions, this pay to play is unsavory, and the outstanding favoritism and rule of law questions must be answered. Watch this site.

   

UN Uses Mercenaries, UN Expert Says, Citing "French Person" in Libya

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 2 -- "The UN does use private military companies," the Chairperson of the Working Group on Mercenaries Faiza Patel told Inner City Press on Tuesday. Video here, from Minute 11:32.

At her press conference, Inner City Press asked about Somalia, where the mercenary firm Saracen which is partially owned by a relative of Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni was found to be violating sanctions, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Of some in the UN system's defense of using Saracen to combat piracy, Patel told Inner City Press that "the UN system is a large beast."

Earlier she had said that the UN is "very aware" of the mercenary issue, and has a program to coordinate its use of private military companies to ensure that those charged with human rights violations are not used.

When Inner City Press just after the press conference asked for details of this UN program and whether it is in the Department of Safety and Security, Patel said she wasn't sure. She said that while the UN and its agencies use private military companies in many countries, Iraq is not one of them.

But she did not know that there is in that country, from which the US and its protection are slated to leave, a new Special Representative of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. We hope to have more on this.

Patel said she will soon visit and report on Cote d'Ivoire and Libya. Inner City Press asked if the focus in Libya will only by on Gaddafi's use of mercenaries, or would include trainers provided by such countries as Qatar and France. Video here, from Minute 21:33.

Patel said, you must be aware of "a French person killed, setting up a private security company" in Benghazi. Yes -- but will that be investigated for her report? Watch this site.

Ms. Patel is employed at the Brennan Center at NYU, and was described at the beginning of the press conference as "independent of all governments." She did criticize Equatorial Guinea, which she visited. But some might say she is not independent of the UN, saying for example that peacekeeping missions are "our" interaction with the world.

Beyond this symptomatic pronoun problem, she was also very quick to try to say the UN's use of private military companies is per se better than governments, without being able to provide specifics. She tried to say that securing a convoy would bring about "engagement with civilians" and a "human rights incident" more than providing "static security or close protection." Why?

And what of UN Peacekeepers themselves, and the human rights incidents created in places like Haiti, and inaction in places like South Kordofan? A person in Ms. Patel's position should be or try to be scrupulously independent of the UN as well, as least its Secretariat. We'll see.