In
Nepal, Another Death Tied to Downing of UN Copter, ID and Term of
Contractor Still Withheld
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, March 10 -- While
the UN Mission in Nepal only had a mandate of one year, it reportedly
entered into a three year contract for helicopter services with Vertical
T, a Russian firm to which the UN has given over $127 million in
business, it
emerged on
Monday. A week ago, Inner City Press asked the UN in New York to
disclose the identity of its contractor for the helicopter downed on
March 3, killing ten. The UN has yet to provide the name.
On
March 7, the UN told Inner City
Press it apologized for
an "altercation" with media in Nepal, claiming this was only to prevent
filming of dead bodies. The UN subsequently bought advertising in media
throughout Nepal to deliver this apology -- or, as local sources say, to
try to buy off the journalists' associations which had criticized the
UN's behavior. A
local paper reports
that following the alleged suicide of the Russian engineer associated
with the helicopter, UNMIN personnel arrived to seal off the dead
engineer's apartment: "a foreigner sporting identity cards of UNMIN...
visited the house and instructed security guards not to let any one in
except UNMIN staff and the police personnel." Questions are multiplying,
and from the UN Spokesperson's office, there have been no answers
forthcoming.
Early on March 10,
Inner City Press asked the UN Spokesperson's Office to comment on a
local
story
which reported that "Vertical T was contracted for hiring two
helicopters, which were flown in from Entebbe in Uganda to Nepal in
April 2007, incurring a substantial transportation cost. Then,
inexplicably, the two choppers were flown out of Nepal in December 2007
to Khartoum in Sudan, adding to the expenses. Around that time, two more
choppers were brought to Nepal from another Russian company, Aviacon
Zitotrance."
More than 12 hours later, the UN
Spokesperson's office had not provided any response, despite the fact
that procurement information is available at UN Headquarters in New
York. Inner City Press' research reveals that Aviacon Zitotrance is an
operator of IL-76s, which can transport helicopters (but which does not
usually operate them). Aviacon Zitotrance also has contracts in the UN
system with, among others, the World Food Program.
Vertical (or Vertikal) T in
action
News analysis: the ten, now eleven,
deaths are tragic. The dead are not served by silence, much less
cover-up. There is no reason that the UN in New York cannot disclose to
which company they had given the Nepal helicopter contract, and for how
long. In fact, Inner City Press has asked, early Monday, what happened
to the confiscated footage of the crash site. The inquiry will continue.
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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile
(and weekends): 718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner
City Press are listed here, and
some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com -
