By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 23 --
Amid threats
by Syria
rebels to
international
aid groups in
Jarabulus
and with the UN
preparing to
"go to war" in
Eastern Congo,
Inner City
Press on
Friday asked
UN Security
chief Kevin
Kennedy what
his Department
of Safety and
Security is
going on these
and other
issues. Video
here and
embedded
below.
Although
the
UN Office for
the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs'
spokesperson
Amanda Pitt
told Inner
City Press
that "on
northern
Syria, UNDSS
would be the
UN department
to comment on
security
issues,"
Kennedy did
not offer
specifics
about the threats
by the ISIS
rebels,
acknowledged
by the US
State
Department.
Kennedy
did
say that the
UN offers
security
recommendations
to NGOs, as
"implementing
partners" of
the UN,
through a
program
grandly called
"Saving Lives
Together."
A UN veteran,
Kennedy said
this work has
long been
going on
without the
catchy name.
NGOs, however,
do not have to
take the
recommendations
of the UN's
designated
security
official in
the 117
countries DSS
operates in.
(As if
to prove that,
when Inner
City Press
asked Kennedy
about MSF's
recent
decision to
leave Somalia
and if the UN
had
recommended
it, the answer
along with
praise of MSF
was
essentially,
no.)
On
Eastern Congo,
Inner City
Press asked if
the new UN
Intervention
Brigade with
its mandate of
neutralizing
armed rebel
groups changes
the way UN
Security
prepares.
Kennedy
likened the
new posture to
the Katanga
war in what
become Zaire
"in 1960, 61
and 62... it's
deju vu
all over
again, a more
robust
mandate."
Kennedy
said
he supports
it, if it
helps the UN
fulfill its
mandate. But
some wonder,
what is the
UN's mandate:
to support a
particular
government?
Even if it
means
continuing to
work with Army
units like the
391st
Battalion,
implicated in
mass rapes
like in Minova
in November
2012, and
corpse
desecration
since?
Kennedy's
DSS
colleague
added that
"the change of
posture will
influence
decisions of
parties to the
conflict of
using violence
against the
UN, we
acknowledge it
may change."
He added,
"it's only one
component.. it
changes the
variables, we
react to it."
Video
here and
below.
Inner
City Press
also asked
Kennedy about
a recent UN
Dispute
Tribunal case
it has
exclusively
covered, in
which under
"Geographic
Representation"
the UNDT
recited that
"twenty
supervisers
are from the
Caribbean...
and one each
from Portugal,
South Africa,
Egypt, Italy
and 'Africa.'"
Inner City
Press
continues to
receive
inquiries and
complaints;
Kennedy said
he's aware of
the case
and/but his
staff is very
diverse. We'll
have more on
this.
Overall,
Kennedy
illustrated
the shift in
UN Security by
contrasting
the pull out
of UN staff
from all of
Afghanistan in
1998 after the
US missile
strike on a
training camp
in Eastern
Afghanistan to
the current
posture of
attempting to
stay, even if
in smaller
numbers.
Afterward
by
the 27th floor
elevators,
still with the
smell of smoke
from a fire
last night in
the UN's third
sub-basement,
Inner City
Press asked
Kennedy more
about Somalia
and about
Louis Maxwell,
the UN
Security
officer
murdered after
defending a UN
guest house in
Kabul, for
which there
has been no
accountability.
Kennedy's
answer
was more
heartening
than in Inner
City Press'
previous
stories on the
topic,
consonant with
a recent
answer from
Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson.
We hope to
have more on
this. Watch
this site.
Footnote:
Kennedy's
briefing was
set up by the
Department of
Public
Information,
as it has for
example with Margaret
Vogt, the
former UN
envoy to the
Central
African
Republic.
To be fair,
these
briefings are
a DPI
improvement,
even as working
conditions and
access at the
Security
Council
and General
Assembly are
declining, free
speech and the
right of
association
are under
attack,
and questions
go answered.
The
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
@FUNCA_info
will continue
to press for
increased
access to the
UN for the
press and
public. Watch
this site.
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