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The Strange, Short Tenure of UN's Verbeke in
Lebanon, Reports of Safety Threats
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
August 1 -- The UN announced Friday
that Johan Verbeke, who only recently was appointed UN Special
Coordinator for
Lebanon, is
being given a new assignment, as UN envoy to Abkhazia, Georgia. On
July 24,
Inner
City Press asked UN spokesperson Michele Montas why Verbeke had not
meaningfully deployed to Lebanon. Ms. Montas responded
that "I can simply tell you that Mr. Verbeke had to go back home for
personal reasons, family reasons, and that's why he was not in Lebanon."
Inner City
Press has been told by well-placed Beirut sources that Mr. Verbeke
faced
threats to his safety, to such an extent that rather than rely on UN
Security,
he approached the Lebanese government and even the Hariri family.
Neither could
offer assurances. He stayed for a time
in the Moven Pick hotel, Inner City Press is told and can now report,
given his
transfer to Georgia. But ultimately he left Lebanon due to lack of
security,
Inner City Press is told.
At the
August 1 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson
Montas why
Verbeke was leaving, personal or safety? From the transcript
Inner City Press: "I didn't know that there was
announcement today of Mr. Verbeke. Before I had asked, and you
had said
there was some personal issue. I don't want to get into any
personal
issue, but I do want to ask you, I had heard that there were some
security
concerns. I know that you also don't like to talk about
them.
Specific, not to just the mission in general, but to Mr. Verbeke
himself.
Either threats or that he'd sought protection from either the Lebanese
Government or the Hariris, various things. Does this transfer,
what is,
how does it relate to whatever the personal issue was, which I don't
want to
know what it was? But is it because of a personal issue or is
because of
a safety issue? What's the basis of the transfer?"
Ms.
Montas said, "I am not
aware
of the details." Video here,
from Minute 24:08.
Mr. Verbeke speaks at UN, by image of Mandela
He will be
replaced by Michael Williams, returning to the UN from a stint with the
UK
government. Why is it safer in Lebanon for Williams than Verbeke?
Various
theories have been advanced to Inner City Press, including some
connection to
an investigation of the bombing of U.S. embassies in East Africa last
decade.
What is concrete is that due to this uncertainty, the UN was un- or
under-represented even at the inauguration of Lebanon's new president. Another part-time UN envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen,
competed with the head of UN Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno to
attend. The
result was the UN becoming less and less of a player in the conflicts.
Watch
this site.
* * *
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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Other,
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