Exclusive: Somalia & Eritrea Monitor Used UN to Ask States for Favor, "Regime Change on UN Letterhead"

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, October 7 -- A member of the UN's Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group has reportedly used UN SEMG time and supplies for unrelated advocacy regarding Eritrea, Inner City Press learned and then obtained documentation of, exclusively put online here.

 Sources told Inner City Press that Dinesh Mahtani, the finance expert on SMEG and previously on the DR Congo Sanctions group, was found requesting favors from a member state, to which the SEMG reports. Here is a document:

a letter from Dinesh Mahtani, ostensibly in his SEMG role, saying that former Eritrean official Ali Abdu "has great potential to play a stabilizing role in Eritrea with the country possibly headed to an uncertain period in its history." Eritrea says: regime change, on UN letter-head. Eritrea's complaint, also obtained by Inner City Press, isnow put online here.

This is hardly the first controversy in the SEMG -- but usually the members wait until they are off or on their way off the Monitor Group to “let it all hang out,” as one source put it of previous SEMG chair Matt Bryden. 

  The current chair, Jarat Chopra, has faced complaints from Somalia, also exclusively reported by Inner City Press.

  Bryden's departure was telegraphed in remarks to, and a report by, Inner City Press on July 24, 2012 when Security Council members from three countries gave Inner City Press exclusive and negative reviews of Bryden's performance. 

  "He's leaving," one of them said dismissively and definitely of Bryden. There was snarky speculation Bryden may have been angling for a book deal, or a post with a group like HRW.

  With Bryden the questions were larger of leaking, of micro-managing the Eritrean air force and more. Those about Mahtani, the sources tell Inner City Press, are "bigger... regime change on UN letterhead." We'll have more on this.

From Somalia, UN Envoy Kay Upbeat, Omits Sanctions Issues, Somaliland Airspace, Bax

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- When UN envoy to Somalia Nicholas Kay briefed the Security Council on Tuesday by video from Mogadishu, amid snow in New York, he said the country has weathered the storm of the removal of prime minister Abdi Farah Shirdon and resignation of the Central Bank governor Yussur Abrar.

  But what of Somalia's request, first reported by Inner City Press, that the coordinator of the UN's Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group be removed?

  What about the SMEG's reporting on continued charcoal exports in violation of sanctions, which Inner City Press reported and published long-form here?

  What of the UN's own transparency, in the long delayed and seemingly buried investigation of Mine Action Service "cowboy" David Bax, regarding whom a whistleblower wrote months ago to UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, as first reported by Inner City Press?

  Kay said that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has a plan for 410 UN guards for the mission, which will soon be presented to the Security Council. But the Council approved by letter a contingent of 230 guards for its mission in Libya, which the government of Libya has yet to approve.

On Somaliland, Kay said it "continues to reject UNSOM's mandate," so "our operations there remain on hold." And what about the UN system's repeated moves to transfer Somaliland's airspace to Somalia? We'll have more on all this. Watch this site.

   

Exclusive: Somalia Asked UN to Fire Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group Coordinator Jarat Chopra, Letter Shows, Now What?

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, December 5 -- Somalia has asked the UN to "terminate the contract" of Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group coordinator Jarat Chopra, in a letter obtained by Inner City Press and today published online here.

   Somalia has asked for a revision of the SMEG's last report, on the topic of "misappropriation of Somalia's public resources."

  The letter is signed by Fawzia Yusef J. Adam as deputy prime minister. Other sources in Somalia tell Inner City Press that with the voting-out of Somalia's prime minister this week, the position of Fawzia Adam and of this letter and the US-based outside counsel it cites to are now in doubt. 

  In the run-up to the November 26 closed door briefing of the UN Security Council on Somalia and Eritrea sanctions, as exclusively reported in Inner City Press and in greater detail in Beacon Reader, here, Chopra raised to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and others the shipping and sale of charcoal from Somalia in violation of the sanctions.

  The UAE and Oman did not immediately respond to inquiries about particular ships. The UAE prefers the re-sale of seized charcoal to its destruction under the supervision and advice of the UN Environment Program, despite concerns about corruption in re-sale that have been raised.

  The Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group's most recent public report "estimates... an overall international market value of US $360 to $384 million, with profits divided along the charcoal trade supply chain, including for Al-Shabaab." The SMEG puts the Al-Shabaab share at 40% - and says "the remaining 60% is divided between the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) (20%) and Ras Kamboni (40%)."

  Sources informed Inner City Press that the SMEG had been ordered out of, or "Persona Non Grata-ed" from, Kenya. 

  Inner City Press exclusively spoke with senior representation of Kenya on this, and it was denied. Others said the UN's Department of Political Affairs was trying to resolve the situation, particular in light of the Security Council's rejection with eight abstentions of the African Union's request that the Council suspend the Kenya proceedings of the International Criminal Court for a year.

   Since then, the issue has been explained to Inner City Press as more individually-based. Then the Somalia letter specifically asking that Jarat Chopra be fired was obtained.

  In its last report the SMEG named an array of arms embargo violators in Somalia. Click here for Inner City Press'reporting on those violations, including by the UK, which(overly) "insider" Reuters for example neglected to mention in its gushing report.

   (Actually, Inner City Press sources in Somalia link Fawzia Adam, the request and counsel to the UK - we'll have more on this.)

  In its 120 day report to the Council, obtained by Inner City Press from multiple sources, it says "with regard to the arms embargo, the Committee considered three notifications for exemptions from the arms embargo pursuant to paragraph 11(a) of resolution 2111 (2013) [Australia, International Maritime Organization and Yemen] and received, for its information, four notifications pursuant to paragraph 10 (g) of the same resolution."

  These last were from Norway and the United Kingdom (two notifications) -- and from UNPOS, the UN Political Office in Somalia now UNSOM, run by Nicholas Kay. The UN had previously, it seems, violated its own sanctions.

  Kay has been talking up charcoal sanctions enforcement in the UAE and wider Gulf, along with long time hangers-on in what we call the Somalia Industrial Complex; we still await updates on the Somaliland airspace issue.

  On Eritrea, the SMEG said it will meet with Eritrean representatives in Paris now in December. We will have more on this. Watch this site.

   

As UN Won't Answer on Somalia Eritrea Sanctions Monitor Banned from Kenya, Ban's Son in Law Banned?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 3 -- How are the relations between Kenya and the UN, not only the Abstaining Eight members of its Security Council but also its Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, following the lobbying and decision against deferring for one year the International Criminal Court's proceedings against President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto?

Last week Inner City Press exclusively reported that at least one member of the UN's Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group was removed from Kenya. See short form here, andupdated longer form on Beacon Reader site, here.

  On November 29 after hearing more, Inner City Press put in a question to Ban's spokespeople, in writing because there was no UN noon briefing that day: "Please confirm or deny that one or more members of the UN's Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group was / were removed or expelled from Kenya and explain why, and the impact on the SMEG's work."

  Four days later there is still no answer to this question, nor for example to another about corruption in the UN's UMOJA program alleged to Inner City Press by whistleblowers.

  Today the Kenya Star has a story referencing Inner City Press' earlier reporting on the UN's lack of protections against nepotism including regarding the Secretary General son in law, hired successively by Staffan de Mistura then UNOPS in Denmark, then the International Federation of the Red Cross - and now back to the UN system. The links above are Inner City Press' reporting: there's nothing personal, just the question of if it's good for the UN.

  Now the Star says the the UN Population Fund UNFPA wants to send Ban's son in law Siddharth Chatterjee to Nairobi as its Kenya representative -- but that the government has not given in right away. 

 The Star cites not only the ICC -- regarding which Ban made calls to African Union heads of state -- but also Ban not confirming an appearance at the December 12 50th Jamhuri Day celebration.

  While we'll have more on this, having the UN chief's son in law in such positions -- not only how they are obtained, but how it then works -- may show another reason for rules on the hiring of relatives of high officials in the UN system.

   

Exclusive: On Sanctions, UN Monitoring Group Recounts Somalia Charcoal Disputes, Arms Embargo Filings, Eritrea Meeting

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 26 -- In the run-up to the November 26 closed door briefing of the UN Security Council on Somalia and Eritrea sanctions, the new Monitoring Group coordinator Jarat Chopra raised to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and others the shipping and sale of charcoal from Somalia in violation of the sanctions.

  The UAE and Oman did not immediately respond to inquiries about particular ships. The UAE prefers the re-sale of seized charcoal to its destruction under the supervision and advice of the UN Environment Program, despite concerns about corruption in re-sale that have been raised.

  The Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group's most recent public report "estimates... an overall international market value of US $360 to $384 million, with profits divided along the charcoal trade supply chain, including for Al-Shabaab." The SMEG puts the Al-Shabaab share at 40% - and says "the remaining 60% is divided between the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) (20%) and Ras Kamboni (40%)."

  Sources informed Inner City Press that the SMEG had been ordered out of, or "Persona Non Grata-ed" from, Kenya. 

  Inner City Press exclusively spoke with senior representation of Kenya on this, and it was denied. Others say the UN's Department of Political Affairs is trying to resolve the situation, particular in light of the Security Council's rejection with eight abstentions of the African Union's request that the Council suspend the Kenya proceedings of the International Criminal Court for a year.

  In its last report the SMEG named an array of arms embargo violators in Somalia. Click here for Inner City Press'reporting on those violations, including by the UK, which(overly) "insider" Reuters for example neglected to mention in its gushing report.

  Now in its 120 day report to the Council, obtained by Inner City Press from multiple sources, it says "with regard to the arms embargo, the Committee considered three notifications for exemptions from the arms embargo pursuant to paragraph 11(a) of resolution 2111 (2013) [Australia, International Maritime Organization and Yemen] and received, for its information, four notifications pursuant to paragraph 10 (g) of the same resolution."

  These last were from Norway and the United Kingdom (two notifications) -- and from UNPOS, the UN Political Office in Somalia now UNSOM, run by Nicholas Kay. The UN had previously, it seems, violated its own sanctions.

  Kay has been talking up charcoal sanctions enforcement in the UAE and wider Gulf, along with long time hangers-on in what we call the Somalia Industrial Complex; we still await updates on the Somaliland airspace issue.

  On Eritrea, the SMEG is saying it will meet with Eritrean representatives in Paris in December. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Kay Tells ICP No Quotes Around Somaliland, Aware of Bax Probe; Idd Beddel Rides Again, Mogadishu in Manhattan

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 12 -- When UN envoy to Somalia Nicholas Kay came out of the UN Security Council on Thursday there were only two journalists waiting at the stakeout. Such is the domination of the Syria issue at the UN. But Kay agreed to take questions, and Inner City Press asked him a half dozen.

The first concerned the text of his speech to the Security Council. On its third page it referred repeatedly to "Somaliland" in quotation marks, while the references for example to Puntland and the Jubba regions had no quotation marks. Why not?

Kay quickly said that there should not have been quotation marks around Somaliland. Inner City Press asked him about the demand for self-determination; he referred to the Turkey mediated talks, and that UN flights started going in again.

Inner City Press asked Kay about Kismayo and Kenya, and also about the widespread sanctions violations reported by the Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group. Kay replied that there was recently a productive Troop Contribution Countries meeting; he said the export of charcoal from Kismayo fuels the conflict and must be stopped.

Referring to the attack on the UN Compound in Mogadishu and the loss of life, Inner City Press also asked about what the UN continues to say is an ongoing investigation by UNOPS into UN Mine Action Service chief David Bax. Kay said he is aware of the investigation, but only that.

  So here's a bit more: it is alleged that a component of the AMISOM mission provides personal security to Bax on what can only be called an irregular basis.

  This comes after the UN tried to whitewash Bax through the same pass-through now used to try to pre-spin the Syria chemical weapons report as "fingering" Assad. As Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said earlier at the same stakeout microphone Kay used, sometimes the media can be a weapon. Not for expose but cover up. 

  On the lines of the former, back on August 7 Inner City Press reported that 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.)

  Now we can add: Idd sent letters to the UK company advising them that the contract they entered with the Somali government is void. Idd has also given interviews saying he would resign over this. Sources say this is creating havoc around diplomatic activity, as Idd did in the past, purporting to fire an intern who was subsequently rehired. Modadishu in Manhattan, indeed. Watch this site.