As
UN Eviction Loomed, Press
Published Audit Showing
Gallach No Due Diligence,
Conflict of Interest
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Series,
Video
I,
II
UNITED NATIONS,
March 3 – Six weeks after
the UN ousted me came April 6,
full eviction day in my
reporter's notebook, there was
a meeting about the
peacekeeper rapes in CAR. The
guard at the turnstile shook
his head, no way. “Get Malu,”
he said. “You need Malu.”
But in Malu there was
only a single staffer. “We
can't do it,” the staffer
said.
I went back into the hall and
turned on my phone, broadcast
a Periscope. “This is how they
cover things up,” I said
loudly. I saw the guard get on
the phone.
The MALU staffer came
out and didn't say a
word, gestured for me to
follow. I did, to the hall
outside the meeting. The
staffer stayed ten feet away,
glaring. An United Nations
Correspondents Association
scribe came by and chatted
with the staffer, who was
working for them, it seemed.
Still I got some quotes,
tweeted, wrote a live blog.
The meeting was still
going when the staffer said,
I'm going. You can come with
me or I'll live you for the
guards. It's like I was a
piece of meat. Leave me, I
said. Could things get much
worse?
The time for
eviction approached. I
wondered if I should watch it.
Instead I went down to the
Vienna Cafe. I was plugging in
my laptop when a junior
diplomat, fourth or fifth
highest in his mission, came
back. “I got it for you,” he
said.
Got what? “The audit, the one
about John Ashe. I just sent
it to you.” I looked at my
email and lo and behold there
is was. I can never thank you
enough, I told him. I started
to read it, then put it on
Scribd. It named Gallach, or
at least her position: the USG
of DPI failed to do due
diligence. I tweeted it, I
wrote a story. I thought: this
might save me.
A photographer I knew
came by. “Can you go
upstairs,” I asked him, “and
see if my office is still
locked? Just text me either
way.”
He nodded and went up.
Half an hour went by, then an
hour. He didn't write back.
Had it all been cleaned out?
Past 8 pm I went up, on
the escalator. I looked into
the elevator bank on the third
floor. The FUNCA sign was up,
the old maps too. I was still
in. And now I had the audit. I
went to Fed Ex to make copies
to hand out and upload.
***
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