Amid
100
Toyotas, UN Retread Speaks of Somalia Support, UNSC Oversight?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
ENTEBBE,
October
6 -- UN corruption and inefficiency echoed, at least for
some, at the first
stop on the UN Security Council's trip to Sudan.
At the Entebbe Regional Center, the advance Press delegation was met
by the former head of UN Procurement, Paul Buades, who left his
position after controversies about favors done for contractors from
his native France and other countries.
Buades
greeted
Inner City Press, going on to say that he is happier in the field,
and that his also controversial deputy Dmitri Dovgopoly has taken
over in New York now that he has become Director of Mission Support
for the UN's shrinking mission in the Congo, MONUSCO.
Even
shrunken,
MONUSCO has a budget of over $1.3 billion dollars. Nevertheless when
hundreds of women were being raped 20 miles from a UN Peacekeeping
base in early August, the peacekeepers did nothing.
Now, Buades
told
the Press, a new budget for “Community Liaison Interpreters” must
be prepared. He said nothing about the cell phone service and
repeaters that Assistant Secretary General Atul Khare told the
Council about back in September.
Inner
City Press
asked Buades how many international staff are are this Entebbe
Regional Center, and how many national staff. The answers veered all
over. Buades deferred to the Deputy Chief of the Entebbe Regional
Center, Yury Cherep, who said 400 total, including 67 international
and 143 national.
But
who then are
the rest? Pressed, Cherep added that there are 40 UN Volunteers -
whose costs are nevertheless paid by the UN -- and 16 “contractors.”
While this still doesn't add up to 400, Inner City Press looked
around the Entebbe base and found for example a locked trailer with a
sign, “AMHOLD LTD Consultants.” Who are these people?
Previously
Pacific
Architects & Engineers (PAE), which is a subsidiary of Lockheed
Martin, got a no bid contract to build “Super Bases” in Darfur,
while pushing the UN around about the air field services contracts in
Entebbe and what used to be MONUC in the Congo.
At
a UN press
conference, Inner City Press asked UN good will Ambassador George
Clooney -- currently in Juba, we're repeatedly told -- what he
thought of Lockheed Martin's deal. “I don't like no bid contracts,”
Clooney responded.
Now
Clooney is in
Juba -- a Permanent Five Ambassador says he is with Ann Curry, others
speak of some exclusive Tweeting deal with MSNBC -- where the Council
is expected later on Wednesday. First, they were taken on a tour of
the base, after a briefing by Buades.
Inner
City Press
was told that the Ambassadors questions, and Buades' answers, were
off the record. so they will not be reported here. To the Press,
Buades made a pitch for help with “swamp ” land given to the UN
by the Ugandan government of Yoweri Museveni.
Yury Cherep to Amb Susan Rice, Rugunda, Churkin, #
of staff not shown
“It will cost a
lot to bring it up to level,” Buades said. One Ambassador said,
don't pay to do landfill. A staffer replied that there was an
environmental impact assessment going on. Another Ambassador laughed,
pointing at the crane out on the swamp. They'll leave when the
concrete is poured, he said. Indeed.
The
Press was
taken to a big room where, after meeting with the Council, President
Yoweri Museveni will hold a press conference. He is sure to be asked
about his offer of 20,000 troops for Somalia. But what about the
human rights violations of which the Ugandan and Burundian troops
already in Somalia are accused? Will that be allowed to be raised?
We'll see. Watch this site.
Footnotes:
in
a back part of the base, Buades and Cherep showed the Council and
press a cafeteria for 100 peacekeepers, with a volleyball court
outside. While one sign said UNMIS (South Sudan), there was another
sign,
“French Classes.” They described sending Toyotas down the Congo
River from Kinangani to Kinshasa, while some Ambassadors shook their
heads. It felt like Congressional oversight, without the oversight.
* * *
In
Uganda
With UN Council, LRA On Agenda But Not Present, Like Karamoja
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
KAMPALA,
October
6 -- On its way to Sudan, the UN Security Council early
Wednesday morning reached its first official stop in Entebbe, Uganda.
Their UN-painted plane landed on the airstrip where in 1978 Israeli
assault troops moved on a plane full of hijackers and hostages. This
was barely comment on, however. It was the middle of the night.
The
Security
Council's Terms of Reference for Uganda were released Monday in New
York, after Uganda's Permanent Representative Ruhakana Rugunda had
held a press conference about the Council's work.
The five
bullet
point range from supporting the fight against the Lord's Resistance
Army and the Uganda troops in Somalia to “examining... the Regional
Service Center in Entebbe.”
With
Entebbe the
first stop after sunrise Wednesday, some wondered why the Council
members, staff and press were driven fifty kilometers in the middle
of the night, past other hotels, past Kampala, to the plush “Speke
Resort - Munyonyo.” The scuttlebutt is that the government wanted
the Ambassadors to stay in this particular hotel.
Inner
City Press
rode in a World Health Organization van, past tidy shops including
the Jesus Cares Supermarket and branches of Tropical Bank and Post
Bank, speaking with a Ugandan staff member of the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights. The UN Resident Representative had
asked him to come to the airport at midnight and he had.
He
said his job is
to monitor human rights, showing reports to the government, and to
work with the local media. Inner City Press asked if his Office has
received any push back about the wider OHCHR's Democratic Republic of
the Congo Mapping Report, which accuses the Ugandan UPDF army of
atrocities in the DRC. Not much, he said. Those complaints are
directed elsewhere.
Since
the Lord's
Resistance Army forms one of the Council's five bullet points for
Uganda, Inner City Press asked what his office had to say about the
LRA. Not much, he said, the LRA has long left, to the Congo, the
Central African Republic and South Sudan (where they Council's going
midday Wednesday).
In
fact, the
Council could order its mission in the Congo, MONUSCO, to do more to
break up reported LRA camps there. Uganda's Ambassador Ruhakana
Rugunda was his government's negotiator on LRA in 2006, and visited
Juba as he will later on Wednesday.
To the UN plane, October 5-6, 2010, TOR not shown (c) MRLee
Inner
City Press
asked about the situation in Karamoja on which it has reported,
specifically on UNDP funded involuntary disarmament of pastoralist
Karamojong resulting in death and village burn downs. There are still
incidents, he said. But what is the UN doing about them? It is not on
the Council's agenda.
Footnote:
in
the VIP lounge in Nairobi, a request was made to Inner City Press
on behalf of a unnamed Council member not to report that “nothing
is being done.” There is, of course, one or more ways to avoid
that. Inner City Press is here to cover the Council's trip and
results through Uganda, South Sudan, Darfur and Khartoum. Watch this
site, follow on Twitter @InnerCityPress.
* * *
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