On UN Official Accused of Hiring Relatives in African Mission, DPA Mute

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/dpacar1nepotism122109.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 21 -- A complaint of systemic nepotism in a UN mission, in the Central African Republic, has been raised and rebuffed by the UN Department of Political Affairs. Inner City Press, which has reported about the Central African Republic for three years, has received detailed reports from whistleblowers there, summarized below.

Rather than simply write the story, six days ago on December 15 Inner City Press formally asked the director of DPA's Africa II Division Sammy Kum Buo the following questions about the United Nations Peace-building Office in the Central African Republic:

Mr. Buo -- I am writing a story about this morning's Security Council session on BONUCA / Central African Republic. I am also covering management issues in BONUCA and DPA and am writing for you to confirm or deny on deadline each of the following [about BONUCA staffers]

Is Gabriel Buh Kang a relative of yours? A cousin?

Is BONUCA staffer Ekei a relative of yours? Your niece?

What is the status of Brindou Germain Kabran ?

When in CAR, have you stayed with Brindou Germain Kabran?

Did you still collect DSA? Please provide records.

What can you say about the case of Gozo Tshamala?

On deadline, Matthew

Mr. Buo is also accused of hiring a former mercenary from Executive Outcomes, in violation of UN rules. While Mr. Buo has refused to respond, Inner City Press has discussed the matter with other Mission officials and finally, on December 21, with Mr. Buo's boss in DPA, Haile Menkerios. Mr. Menkerios confirmed he is aware of the issue. Inner City Press asked Mr. Menkerios what DPA's response would be. It is a management issue, Mr. Menkerios replied, that will be responded to in a management way.

Previously, Mr. Menkerios' boss, and Ban Ki-moon's chief political official Lynn Pascoe has refused on camera to comment on a rift between himself and the two top staffers in DPA's Security Council Affairs branch, calling it an internal matter.

But the abuse of UN funds for hiring relatives in a DPA administered mission is not an internal matter.

There are other brewing DPA scandals, on hiring on other issues, on which Inner City Press is still waiting for substantive answers. But the matter of Central African Republic, which is on the Security Council's agenda for December 21, must now be moved forward on, given Buo's and now Mr. Menkerios' non answers. Watch this site.

Summary:

Subject: BINUCA

From: Name withheld due to retaliation concerns

To: matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Dear Matthew Please innercity should absolutely look into this matter which is serious WHAT IS GOING ON IN BONUCA/BINUCA?

DPA has created a new mission called BINUCA to replace BONUCA starting January 2010 in Central Africa Republic. For more than 9 years, BONUCA a DPA led mission was plagued with nepotism and favoritism... Of particular importance is the role played by Mr Sammy Kum Buo, the Director of Africa II, very famous with his absence of political judgment (remember Rwanda where he was advising the SRSG Booh Booh) who had succeeded in appointing a niece called Ekei as Administrative Assistant, a cousin called Gabriel Buh Kang in the finance section... the recruitment of the security Officer, Antonio de Jesus a former memeber of Executive Outcome was done in violation of all the recruitment rule procedures. Buo is trying to maintain in the mission his friend Brindou Germain Kabran where he lives when he is mission in CAR despite he, receiving the DSA.. His fellow Cameroonian... Marie Claire Bikia, recruited as administrative Assistant, is trying to be promoted Gender assistant. She went several times in Turin for gender training.

In order to cover this integrity issues, Sammy Kum Buo with the support of or not of Lynn Pascoe is currently deciding on the future of the staffs by trying to impress upon the new SRSG, the Ethiopian diplomat, Ms Zewde who is in her first experience in the UN and doesn't know the administrative procedure. Sammy Kum Buo would like to keep his cousin, niece and friends and sacrifying the other staffs. This is UNACCEPTABLE Inner city press should try to raised this issue

Consider it done, or started. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/dpacar1nepotism122109.html

In UN's Silent CAR Alarm, Impunity for Assassinations, Civilians Still Unprotected

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/car2impunity120308.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 3 -- "In northwest Central African Republic, we have no force there and the rebels are in activities," UN envoy Francois Lonseny Fall told Inner City Press on Tuesday. It has been that way in CAR for some time now, and the UN appears to have given up on trying to protect civilians there.

Fall had been leaving his briefing to the Security Council, not planning to speak with reporters, many of whom had mistaken acronym of his mandate, BONUCA, as concerning Burundi rather than CAR. Some jokes, a country so poor it cannot afford a name. Others commented how the MINURCAT peacekeeping force, stationed in northeast CAR, is only about Darfur, not about the locals. Who cares about the the people of the Central African Republic? In the northwest, fighting has forced them in their thousands into the bush.

Even the UN's envoy Fall is dismissive, pitching an upbeat vision of peace talks this week in Bangui. But at what cost? The UN's report on CAR recites without criticism an amnesty agreement for CAR's former leaders Ange-Felix Patasse and others "and their accomplices for embezzlement of public funds and assassinations, among other offences." This is in a UN document, S/2008/733 at Paragraph 7, without any criticism. Where, for example, is Luis Moreno Ocampo?

If such an arrangement were proposed in Darfur, for example, their would be worldwide outcry. But this is the CAR. Impunity, mass displacement, none of it seems to matter. It is not a high profile conflict, the wrongdoers don't fit into into wider global template. And so the suffering continues, with the pretense of UN caring.

Inner City Press asked Fall four questions on Tuesday. Has there been an upsurge in violence, and areas to which the UN cannot go? Yes, he said, in the northwest. The report under staff security says that "following an attack on the north-eastern town of Sam Oundja on 8 November, one UN staff member and either humanitarian workers were evacuated by EUFOR on 9 November. UN activities are currently suspended in that part of the country."

Note that is the north-east: when such attacks occur in the north-west of CAR, there is no EUFOR to evacuate the workers, and no inclusion in the report.

Inner City Press also asked about the Lord's Resistance Army, reportedly rampaging in from the DRC. Fall acknowledged the incursions, but played them down, nothing since the end of the year. Nothing but hopeful upcoming talks, all based on impunity. Where is Luis Moreno Ocampo now? The toolbox of double-standards adds new drivers every day.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/car2impunity120308.html