UN
Said to Give
Boko Haram
Post to
Onanga-Anyanga,
Burundi Trip
Controlled
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS, March
9 -- When the
UN gives out
high positions
it announces
them --
usually.
Sometimes
Inner City
Press is
contacted by
whistleblowing
UN staff or
diplomats who
say they
cannot believe
that the UN
gave a job
without
disclosing it.
So it was with
Augustine
Mahiga being quietly
named an
adviser to the
UN Department
of Political
Affairs, here.
Now this:
Parfait
Onanga-Anyanga
of Gabon, out
of a UN
job since
December when
the UN's
Mission in
Burundi shut
down -- and a
nice guy, by
the way -- has
been made the
UN's
coordinator on
Boko Haram,
sources
exclusively
tell Inner
City Press,
with the UN
having made no
public
announcement.
Inner City
Press learned
this two weeks
ago, and
waited at each
day's noon
briefing for
the
announcement
to be made. On
March 9, the
announcement
was of a new
head of OCHA,
Stephen
O'Brien of the
UK, analyzed
here. With
the Security
Council now on
its way to the
Central
African
Republic,
Addis Ababa
and then
Burundi, Inner
City Press
runs this
story.
As noted, the
Security
Council's
French-drafted
“Terms of
Reference” for
the trip to
Burundi --
which Inner
City Press put
online here --
didn't even
mention the
extrajudicial
killings in
Cibitoke.
For all
previous
Security
Council trips,
UN resident
correspondent
were told if
they were
interested in
covering the
trip to
contact the UN
Spokesperson's
Office
(although as
reported, the
French
mission then
exercised a
veto on which
journalists
could go).
This time it
was said
journalists
had to
directly
contact the
French Mission
to the UN, and
only that
mission. There
seemed
to be no point.
Now after
that, it is
said that
Angola is a
co-sponsor,
with the US
tri-sponsoring
the Burundi
leg. Inner
City Press was
asked, “Have
you seen the
US embassy in
Bjumbura?”
We'll have
more on all
this.
, 
