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UN Peacekeeping Chief Guehenno Dodges On ICC and Lockheed to the End, Still a Fond Farewell

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, July 29, updated July 30 -- As Jean-Marie Guehenno said farewell to the UN on Tuesday after eight years heading UN Peacekeeping, he declined to comment on the UN's ill-fated $250 million no-bid contract with Lockheed Martin in Darfur, saying it had been a "tough call" which he "wouldn't like to second guess." Video here, from Minute 1:00:37. Inner City Press, which asked him the question on Tuesday, had previously asked him and been referred to then-logistics chief Jane Holl Lute, who did not answer.

  The contract's lack of competition led to extensive criticism of UN Peacekeeping in the UN's budget committee, and ultimately the UN's own reports found that Lockheed Martin performed poorly under the contract, although it is not clear that any money will be returned. Some were disappointed that even in this light, Guehenno could or would not acknowledge that the no-bid contract with Lockheed was a mistake. While Guehenno to his credit spoke of UN Peacekeeping learning as it goes along, its recent failure to protect civilians in Abyei in The Sudan is reminiscent, structurally if not in numbers, to inaction in Rwanda. As exposed and asked about on Tuesday, the UN's initial report on Abyei was a whitewash contradicted by eyewitness reporting.


Guehenno under a blue helmet in Haiti, which he claimed as a success

   Guehenno was similarly evasive on the question, raised in another farewell press conference on July 25 by outgoing UN legal chief Nicolas Michel, about the extent of the provision of information by UN Peacekeeping to the International Criminal Court and its Prosecutor. Michel said that the UN Secretariat, including its peacekeeping operations, "have been in very close contact, repeatedly, with the Office of the Prosecutor" of the ICC. This undermined another argument the UN has been making, that the government of Sudan would be wrong to link the ICC Prosecutor's request earlier this month for an arrest warrant against President Omar Al-Bashir with the two UN peacekeeping operations in the country.

  Inner City Press twice asked Guehenno this question on Tuesday.  Guehenno's first answer was that "our human rights officers report to the [Security] Council" so it is all "on the table and transparent."  But the cooperation, for example in the case of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga which Inner City Press asked about, was by all accounts more extensive the the public reports to the Security Council. Inner City Press followed up, but Guehenno again dodged, saying that "when there's a pending case... if advised by the legal office, we share" information with the ICC. Video here, from Minute 1:00:37.

  Again we ask, if UN operations on the ground provide information to the ICC, and will increasingly do so in the future, why would it be surprising if potential or actual targets of the ICC barred access to or expelled UN operations? The question remains for Guehenno's successor Alain Le Roy.

  Guehenno did venture some thoughts on peacekeeping in such places as Somalia, saying cryptically that sometimes even a doctor must say no. Less equivocally, and leading to a seemingly unanimous interpretation by the UN press corps that Guehenno does not favor deployment to Somalia, at least at this time, he listed among factors weighing against insertion of peacekeepers the lack of a peace agreement that includes those who actually control the guns on the ground. This is one description of Somalia, wher the Shabab continue fighting even after the Djibouti talks (which Inner City Press attended and reported on), and in which threats to shoot at UN peacekeepers have been made. To some, it appears Guehenno meant, even when there is no other alternative, the Security Council should not send peacekeepers to places like Somalia. It may even appear that, in retrospect, he meant or would have meant to Darfur as well.  It could be worse, muttered one wag. One hears that more and more at the UN these days.

 Footnote: Inner City Press ran into Guehenno later on Thursday, said a proper farewell and noted that Guehenno had not been asked about the UN's need to decide whether to retain as deputy force commander in Darfur the Rwandan general Karake Karenzi, who has been indicted for war crimes by a Spanish court. Guehenno said he was surprised and glad that the question had not come up. Consider it a farewell gift -- the question who not have been answered anyway.  Guehenno has told Inner City Press he is weighing proposals and offers from think tanks in New York; he confirmed on Tuesday that he will be writing a book. Perhaps answers to the questions of the no-bid Lockheed Martin contract, and the implications of peacekeepers sharing information with the ICC's Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will finally be answered in that format.

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These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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