Somalia
Would Out
Sources,
Whistleblower
on Bax &
Bar, Re-Open
in NY
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
17 -- The UN
Security
Council heard
Wednesday
morning
from Agence
France Presse'
Somalia
reporter
Mustafa Haji
Abdinur, who
called himself
a “dead man
walking.”
Meanwhile in
Somalia, the
cabinet has
passed a law
which would
end
confidentiality
for
journalists'
sources.
One
wonders, will
the UN and the
Security
Council member
states,
including
permanent
members, who
support and
have leverage
with the
Somali
government,
use it to stop
this law?
As
regard the UN,
a Mogadishu
whistleblower
contacted
Inner City
Press
to recount how
the head
of the UN Mine
Action Service
there, David
Bax, shares
information
with US
intelligence.
While the
whistleblower
also recounted
other
practices and
abuses at the
UN in Somalia,
Inner
City Press
focused on
this
abdication of
impartiality
in handing
information to
US
intelligence.
The
whistleblower
said clearly:
this
puts UN staff
at risk, makes
THEM “dead
people
walking”
sometimes.
But
despite Inner
City Press
putting the
question in
writing to
UNMAS'
director and
to the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations led
by
Herve Ladsous,
no answer
came.
The Free
UN Coalition
for Access and
Inner
City Press pursued it
with Nicholas
Kay, the UN's
envoy to
Somalia, who
at least
responded. But
he said,
sorry, that's
question
for New York.
Inner
City Press
asked it at
the noon
briefing in
New York, of
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokespeople
including
outgoing
Deputy Eduard
Del Buey, but
still
no
substantive
answer.
Now
in the name of
the
whistleblower
we continue.
It is
recounted how
David Bax,
formerly with
the South
African
military,
controls jobs
and
accommodations
and even the
bar in the UN
Compound in
Mogadishu.
The
whistleblower
describes in
some detail
how these are
used in a
quid pro pro
fashion,
calling it
harassment.
DPKO and
Ladsous
individually
have been told
about this,
but nothing
has been done.
More
nitty gritty,
and as a
segue, the bar
in the
compound in
controlled
by Bax, he
makes money
off it (and
screened a
grisly video
there
recently.)
Meanwhile
(and
this is the
segue), at the
UN in New York
the bar in the
Delegates
Lounge is to
re-open later
today, Inner
City Press is
told
by well placed
sources.
The bottles
will be
hidden, unlike
in the
past,
consistent
with other
recent
changes. But
it will be
fully
stocked. (In
more positive
news, we'd
like to see a
farewell for
the Deputy
Spokesperson
there - we'd
heard he was
leaving, then
a recruitment
notice on the
UN's "Inspira"
data base,
which requires
a password to
view.)
Will
the Somalia
law be
blocked? Will
any action be
taken on the
whistleblower's
detailed
complaints
about UNMAS'
Bax in
Mogadishu?
Watch this
site.
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