In
Somalia,
Entrepreneurs Prosper & Petrie Violate
Sanctions in Puntland, TFG Tricks
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 6 -- Somalia and Puntland have become hotbeds for
diplomatic entrepreneurs as they leave the UN and US government. The
UN's
Charles Petrie has said he will be working for the Transitional
Federal Government -- but some in the TFG are not so such, not
least
about for whom Petrie will be working.
On
December 6,
Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Martin Nesirky about a former US
State Department official seemingly involved in violations of the
1992 UN Somalia sanctions regime:
Inner
City
Press: there is a former US official, Pierre Prosper, who has
said that Puntland, the portion of Somalia, has hired a private
military contractor, Saracen, to do anti-piracy work — that it’s
being all funded by a Muslim nation that he wouldn’t name. So what
I wonder is whether, given Mr. [Augustine] Mahiga or anyone in the
UN, given both the prohibitions against mercenaries and also the 1992
sanctions on Somalia, what does the UN say to Puntland pretty openly,
or at least as acknowledged by a former US official, hiring a
mercenary firm to patrol the coast of Somalia, and what’s the UN
going to do in light of this report?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well, thanks for the question, Matthew, and let’s see
what we can find out. I don’t have anything at the moment.
After
UN business
hours on December 6, Inner City Press asked SRSG Mahiga directly. He
said the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General had not
asked him, but to his credit gave a long and detailed answer.
Mahiga
said he had
told Puntland officials that they might well be violating the UN's
Somalia sanctions. They replied, according to Mahiga, that since it
“doesn't involve arms, it can't violate the sanctions.” This is
an inaccurate reading of the sanctions regime.
Mahiga
asked if
Prosper was still working for the US. Not on paper, is the answer.
Mahiga said Petrie's roll is even more confusing. According to
Mahiga, Petrie wanted to work as a consultant to the TFG while still
under UN contract.
Inner
City Press previously corresponded with Petrie -- one of the more
intriguing UN officials -- then asked for formal confirmation, of his
letter, and his role.
UN's Ban and Mahiga, Charles Petrie, Prosper and Somalia sanctions not
shown
The following
arrived:
From:
UN
Spokesperson - Do Not Reply
To: Inner City Press
Subject:
Your question on Charles Petrie
Mr.
Petrie
submitted his resignation from the UN effective 1 November,
but was asked, for operational reasons, to postpone his departure to
the end of the current mandate, which concludes 31 December, 2010. He
is continuing to exercise his functions as ERSG for Burundi until
that time. It was also decided that while still under the UN’s
employ Mr. Petrie would provide some support to the UN Political
Office for Somalia's work with the Transitional Federal Government,
drawing on his past experience as Deputy SRSG for Somalia. He is
doing so in close collaboration with SRSG Augustine Mahiga.
But
on December 6, Mahiga told Inner City Press that "No one knows who
Petrie is working for." Petrie says he had the agreement of
the previous TFG, but according to Mahiga, the current government is
not so sure. Watch this site.
* * *
UN
Resignation
of Petrie Caused by Inaction on Staff Genocidaire, UN No
Comments
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October
20 -- The UN moved Charles Petrie from Somalia to
Burundi in April of this year, and now on
November 1 he is leaving
the employ of the UN.
On
October 19, Inner City Press
asked the UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq why
Petrie is leaving. He is not being thrown out of the country, Haq
said. “Clearly, he has been talking about this, and so, you could
get the answer just as easily from Mr. Petrie. I wouldn’t have any
way of adding to his own comments.”
But
a September 30
resignation letter from Petrie to Ban Ki-moon, obtained elsewhere in
New York by Inner City Press, shows that Petrie is choosing to leave
the whole UN system, due to the UN's inaction on genocidaire Callixte
Mbarushimana, and that while he will now work part time on Somalia,
it will not be through the UN, but on behalf of European donors.
For
a UN official
to leave the UN system due to its failure to act on a genocidaire who
worked for the UN is news -- which may be why Ban Ki-moon's
Spokesperson's Office has refused to say anything. Back
on
October
11, Inner City Press asked
Inner
City
Press:
does the UN have any comment on the arrest in Paris of
Callixte Mbarushimana?
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky:
I know who you mean, and this is an ICC
[International Criminal Court] arrest. We’ve seen the same press
release or statement that you have on this person…
Inner
City
Press:
He worked for the UN; I am wondering what the response…
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
We
of course know where he worked before, and you also know
the full history to that. What I can simply say is that we are aware
in the same way that you are — from the media and from their press
release — that the International Criminal Court has announced that
this man was arrested earlier today in Paris by the French
authorities following a sealed ICC arrest warrant. That’s what I
can tell you.
But
the UN could
have said more.
UN's Ban with Petrie, inaction on genocidaire and
resignation not shown
The public
record shows that Petrie was the UN's
Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Rwanda at the time of the 1994
genocide. In his September 30 letter of resignation to Ban, Petrie
urged
“the
UN to come to terms with the case of Callixte Mbarushimana, a former
staff member of UNDP (1992 - 1995 Rwanda, 1996 - 1998 Angola) and
later UNMIK (2000-2001), accusing of having participated in the
murder of thirty-three people at the time of Rwanda's genocide, among
[them] UN colleagues. To a large part as a result of the UN's
inability, or unwillingness, to initiate an investigation of the
accusations that were know to it by 1996, Callixte Mbarushimana won a
legal action against the UN in 2004 which resulted in the
organization paying his thirteen months salary as compensation for
the 'violation of his rights.'”
The
UN could have
addressed this, but didn't. Perhaps the “review” that Petrie's
letter to Ban says he will embark on will help address this. Watch
this site.
