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On Landmines, Inner City Press Asks UN About Myanmar & UNMAS Contractor Killed in S Sudan

By Matthew Russell Lee, Photos

UNITED NATIONS, April 4 --  When UN Mine Action Service held its annual press conference on April 4, Inner City Press asked UNMAS Director Agnes Marcaillou about the landmines Myanmar is laying on its border with Bangladesh, and about an UNMAS contractor killed last month while demining in South Sudan. Marcaillou said the contractors are hired through the UN Office of Project Services and referred to a fire-wall. Knowing the UN, which for example cited immunity for bringing cholera to Haiti, one wonders if that's a fire-wall against liability. How much did the family of the killed "UN" deminer get paid? That remained unanswered. Myanmar is not a party to the landmines ban, and Secretary General Antonio Guterres has yet to name the Myanmar envoy mandated last September, and funded in December. Also on the podium, Germany's Ambassador to the UN Christoph Heusgen disagreed with a question about Germany exporting not only weapons but also landmines; Iraq's Mohammed Hussein Bahr Aluloom answered a question in Arabic, in Arabic and said his prime minister is working against corruption. It was Mohammed Hussein Bahr Aluloom who said that those who give their lives demining will not be forgotten. But is that true for the UN in South Sudan? Back in 2015, before the UN evicted Inner City Press for pursuing these UN corruption stories (it remains restricted), when the UNMAS held its annual press conference on April 1, Inner City Press also asked about Myanmar, to 2018 Security Council member the Netherlands, and also wanted to ask UNMAS' Marcaillou about landines in South Sudan and UNMAS' promotion of multiply-accused deminer David Bax from Somalia to Gaza.

  But also at the press conference were Japan's Deputy Permanent Representative and the Dutch Permanent Representative Karel van Oosterom, who it was said had to leave early, to meet with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

  So Inner City Press first asked van Oosterom if Dutch Queen Maxine, in Myanmar, would be raising the landmine issues in that country.

   No,  van Oosterom said, the Queen is in Myanmar in her capacity as UN Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development. But he (and UNMAS' Marcaillou) assured that she and other Dutch official raise the landmine issue wherever they go.

  Later, Inner City Press asked Marcaillou about the reported use of landmines in South Sudan and about the disposition of the investigation(s) into David Bax, who whistleblowers in Somalia alleged shared DNA information about Somalia bombers with US intelligence, as well as engaging in conflicts of interest. (Video and background here.)

   Marcaillou spoke passionately about South Sudan, where UNMAS found cluster bombs were used but could not find by whom. She said UNMAS coordinated a statement on the landline allegation, by IGAD with the UN Mission UNMISS. Later she said that UNMAS dogs were used to check if explosives were being brought into UNMISS protection of civilians site.


  On Bax, the answer was less convincing.  Marcaillou as she did last year pointed to an investigation by the UN Office of Project Services - but this time acknowledged that she had not seen the whole UNOPS report.

This is the case even though Bax is a UNMAS employee - it's that UNMAS outsources its human resources activities to UNOPS. But shouldn't Marcaillou as UNMAS director have access to investigative reports about UNMAS staffers? We'll have more on this.

Footnote: After the briefing, Inner City Press mused whether the Netherlands, running for one of two Western European and Other Group seats on the UN Security Council against Italy and Sweden, would be upping its contributions to UNMAS.

    Karel van Oosterom replied that “currently, tender process under way for for years 2016-20. Share UNMAS will depend on quality its proposals.”

  This level of detail is appreciated. And wouldn't one think that assessment would include UNMAS' transparency, including whether it demands and gets access to investigative reports about UNMAS staff like Bax and the issues raised? We'll have more on this.


 

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