As Theft of UN Jet Fuel Alleged By Congo Ex-Staffer, UN Calls Him Unstable, a Trend with UN Whistleblowers

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un3dimandja111109.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 11 -- In Eastern Congo UN vehicles were used to transport jet fuel stolen from the UN in Bunia, former UN staff member John Dimandja has told Inner City Press, after having submitted his evidence and photographs to the highest levels of the UN.

The response of the UN to date has been to send New York City Police Department officers to tell Dimandja to stay away from the UN, after he said he would step in front of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's vehicle if he had to in order to deliver his letter.

Mr. Dimandja has written, "I keep the pictures of fuel-JA1... the plates of UN vehicle that transported fuel-Jet-A1 can be identified... MONUC administration sustained by putting out all those that condemn its acts of UN fuel Jet-A1 robbery, in this cases MONUC put out some colleagues from MONUC Bunia security section so that to remove all traces. The real fuel Jet-A1 robbery managers are supported by MONUC administration and continue to their work."

Dimandja states that when he arrived in New York after fleeing death threats in the Congo for his work for the UN disarming militias, he made the UN aware of these irregularities, but "nothing was done."

Dimandja has written, "UN air crafts Fuel Jet-A1 file is very sensitive, that continues to put me and my family again in an other insecurity, I am requesting again the Nations United to assist us by securing my family, I did not travel to USA with a purpose to accuse MONUC of its misbehaviors but to save my life as well as of those of my family."

On November 10, a senior UN official implied to Inner City Press that Mr. Dimandja is unstable and needs counseling.

We note that the whistleblower about the UN Development Program's financial irregularities in North Korea had his photo put in the same "do not let enter" photo array as Mr. Dimandja is now in. Most recently, in this whistleblower's case in the UN Dispute Tribunal, he states that the UN's lawyer said that UN Ethics Officer Robert Benson, who ruled he was presumptively retaliated against and then denied due process, would not be "allowed" to testify to the UNDT.

Nicolas Baroncini, who exposed an e-mail by Alan Doss, the UN's top Congo envoy -- and Dimandja's boss -- in which Doss asked UNDP to grant him "lee-way" and hire his daughter for Baroncini's job, after being pepper sprayed and biting out at Security Officer Peter Kolonias was taken to Bellevue Hospital to mental observation, and now faces trial in Criminal Court in lower Manhattan.

There is a pattern, then, of the UN describing many recent whistleblowers as mentally unstable or threatening. We will continue to follow this.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un3dimandja111109.html

Congo Staffer, Barred from UN, Describes Fuel Thefts, Videos of Warlord Work

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un2dimandja111009.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 10 -- Months after the plight of Congolese UN local staff member John Dimandja was raised to the top levels of the UN, and the day after Inner City Press wrote about it, UN Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq said first that "we're looking into that question" then that "the Department of Field Security is deeply concerned." Video at Minute 7:55 then 10:57.

As of November 9, the UN's concern was that Mr. Dimandja not follow through on his desperate threat to stand in front of the vehicle Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in order to deliver to him a letter asking that his family, put in danger by Dimandja's work for the UN, be helped to escape to safety.

As reported, the UN called the New York City Police Department threats unit on Dimandja. NYPD officer, in front of Inner City Press, told Dimandja to stay away from the UN.

NYPD officer John C. Fernandez of the Threat Assessment Unit suggested to Dimandja that he try contacting the Congo's Mission to the UN. Dimandja laughed and said the Congolese government is made up of former militias.

Out of First Avenue, Dimandja gave Inner City Press a video tape of his work in Eastern Congo. It consists of speeches Dimandja gave to groups of warring ethnic militias, some of whose leaders like Mathieu Ngudjolo were later indicted for war crimes. (Significantly, Ngudjolo's trial begins November 24 along with Germain Katanga's at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.) That Dimandja had filmed these defendants led to death threats against him and his family, he says.

Dimandja adds that he witnesses international UN staff engaged in theft and re-sale of airplane fuel in the Congo. He surmises, and told the NYPD officers, that this and other knowledge led some in the UN to refuse him protection, even to wish him harm.

But when he fled to New York to ask the UN for help, he was given the run around, told to come back in a week for appointments when he had nowhere to stay. Only is desperation did he write to Ban Ki-moon, and this resulted in his photo being put in an array of mugshot of people not to be let into the UN complex. On November 10, Dimandja asked that this be rescinded.

Also on November 10, after Inner City Press' story and questions at the day's UN noon briefing, Dimandja received a call from the Administrative Office of the UN's Division of Safety and Security Services Joseph Martella. Inner City Press, meanwhile, asked the head of the Department of Field Support Susana Malcorra about Dimandja's case. She said it is sensitive, and seemed to gently imply some instability of Dimandja's part. But who wouldn't be?

One wonders about the role of the UN Mission in the Congo, headed by Alan Doss. One wonders why the Office of Internal Oversight Services, which Dimandja first approached, has not acted on the theft of airplane fuel. One wonders at the different treatment the UN gives to its international versus national staff. Will Mr. Dimandja's family be offered protection? The UN has promised answers. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un2dimandja111009.html

UN Calls NYPD On Congo Staffer They Used Against Rebels, "UN Put My Family in Danger"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 9 -- While the UN Security Council held consultations Monday about its peacekeeping mission's involvement in the armed conflict between rebel groups and the Congolese Army, a related but more personal drama played out just outside the UN on First Avenue.

The UN summoned New York City police officers to deal with John Dimandja Wembalonge. John C. Fernandez of the NYPD's Threat Assessment Unit counseled Mr. Dimandja to "stay away from the UN," following an e-mail Dimandja had sent to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, reproduced in full below.

In it and related correspondence to the UN, Dimandja explained that he was a national staff member of the UN Mission in the Congo who had fled death threats after helping the UN disarm rebels in Ituri in Eastern Congo.

Now Dimandja's family remains in the region at risk. "The UN is doing nothing," Dimandja told Inner City Press on First Avenue on Monday night. He said that the chief of the UN's Department of Field Services Susana Malcorra had, though an intermediary named Cedrick, told him to bring in his internal UN employment file, called at PHP, that perhaps a job could be found for him in New York and then his family brought.

"But that will be too late," Dimandja told Inner City Press, and Officer Fernandez.

According to Dimandja, while working for the UN in Ituri he was sent in to meeting of Lendu militias to convince them to disarm..Dimandja took pictures and video, and had, he says, much success in disarmament. But when militia leader Mathieu Ngudjolo was indicted for war crimes, Dimandja's video footage put him in danger.

"They were trying to kill anyone who had taken pictures," he told Inner City Press. Who? "The militias had become soldiers in the Congolese Army," he said. It was the same government soldiers who the UN assists who were trying to kill him.

Dimandja says a UN official, Philip Toulet, advised him to pay a bribe to Congolese police, and to get paperwork to flee to the U.S. and seek asylum. He arrived in New York a year ago, and went straight to UN headquarters. He says the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, ostensibly in charge of investigations, referred him to the staff counsel. He got nowhere, and lacking the funds to stay in New York City, he went upstate to Rochester for three months.

Since being back in New York, he has sought to meet with Ban Ki-moon. But his e-mails, culminating in a threat to step in front of Ban's motorcade, resulted only in interventions by NYPD. "Stay away from the UN," Officer Fernandez advised him Monday night. "Perhaps this gentleman can help you." Here's hoping.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1dimandja111009.html