At
UN,
Somalia Post Handed from Ould Abdallah to Mahiga, of Yemen's G-77
Deal
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 9 -- The UN's envoy on Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdallah,
who called for a moratorium on press reporting of civilian deaths in
Mogadishu and cut a stealth deal about Somali off shore rights with
Kenya and Norway, has been relieved of his functions.
Sources
last week
told Inner City Press that he was being replaced by Tanzania's
current Permanent Representative to the UN, Augustine Mahiga. The
affable Ambassador Mahiga has been seeking a UN job for some time. He
put himself up for the number two post in the UN Development Program,
running against his own foreign minister. Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon and UNDP's Helen Clark bypassed the African Group and gave to
post to Rebecca Grynspan of Costa Rica.
On
June 4, rather
than simply write the story without receiving confirmation, Inner
City Press asked
UN Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe:
Inner
City
Press: Ould-Abdallah.. is leaving in July and seeks to remain as
an adviser to the Secretary-General. I just want you to confirm that
he is leaving, and to confirm or deny that Augustine Mahiga, the
Tanzanian ambassador, is going to be named the SRSG
[Secretary-General’s Special Representative].
Deputy
Spokesperson:
I have nothing on any appointments.
Inner
City
Press: But Ould-Abdallah has said publicly that he is leaving
in July. Is that the case?
Deputy
Spokesperson:
I have nothing on that.
Inner
City
Press: He said it.
Deputy
Spokesperson:
I have nothing on appointments for Somalia today.
Even
thought
Inner City Press knew it to be true, confirmation was sought from
Mahiga himself. The Tanzanian Mission said he was in Europe thought
June 18, but they would ask him (the staffer said, "that is good
news"). But Mahiga, who previously asked Inner City Press to
email him articles, did not respond.
Now,
five
days after Inner City Press publicly asked about Mahiga and Somalia,
Ban Ki-moon has formally named Mahiga to the Somalia post, which is
actually based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Mahiga, stars and bars behind him, TFG not shown
On June 9, before the confirmation, Inner City Press asked
Ban's Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq if the UN had consulted with
the Transitional Federal Government about Mahiga. Haq said yes --
but we'll have more on this.
Several sources say that Mahiga is
"so pro American, he'll make it all about counter - terrorism."
Then again, that has already been the UN's approach.
These
sources note
that the UN way for a diplomat to seek a Secretariat job is for he or
she -- almost always he -- to beginning selling out his Group and
even his country, in exchange for the coming favor. The Secretariat
uses the needs and wants of Permanent Representatives to obtain
certain actions or forbearance in the budget committee -- which has
continued meeting this week, despite the announced conclusion in May
-- the General Assembly and in this case the peacebuilding
commission.
"Consider
Yemen,"
one well placed source told Inner City Press. "With
all of the conflicts and problems, you might expect the UN to name an
envoy or otherwise get involved. But since Yemen managed to head the
Group of 77 this year, they use that leverage to tell the UN to do
nothing. In exchange for which, the Group of 77 does not move to hold
Ban accountable." Watch this site.
* * *
On
Somalia,
UN's Ould Abdullah Dismisses 300 MPs as Web
Sites, Hasn't Read Report
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 12 -- The UN's envoy on Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdullah,
fresh from being denounced and asked to resign by over 300 members of
the Somali parliament, dismissed the criticism on Wednesday as being
the product of web sites. "I don't consult web sites, except
yours from time to time," he told Inner City Press.
He
went on to say
that the AP
report
of 300 MPs was "based on a letter not
signed." He did not respond
to the rejection
of
the Norway-funded deal he unilaterally made with Kenya, about
Somalis' rights to their shelf continential shelf. As to the criticism
that rather than mediating he has
taken sides in the Somali conflict, he said "yes I take sides..
for peace, stability, legality, human rights." Video here, from
Minute 21:33.
But
he has in fact
defended violations of human rights by Ugandan and Burundian troops
in Mogadishu, who have fired into civilian areas trying to "drain
the sea" to get at Islamist rebels. Ould Abdullah earlier called
for a moratorium on the reporting of the killing of civilians by AU
peacekeepers. Now he says reports by human rights groups are
overblown.
Ould Abdullah on May 12, all critics are mere web sites
Speaking
of
reports,
UK Deputy Permanent Representative Philip Parham told the
Security Council on Wednesday that he would "like to register
our disappointment that the Secretary-General’s report was issued
less than 24 hours before this meeting."
Ould
Abdullah
claimed
that he had only read the first draft of his report, trying
to explain why in person he was more dismissive of claims of aid
diversion than the report was. What exactly is Ould Abdullah doing? He
is a man of action. He does not read UN reports, he does not read
web sites (except this one, from time to time). He is not based in
Mogadishu but rather Nairobi, Kenya. Soon he will be in Turkey
beating the drum for donations. But does he have support in Somalia?
Apparently not. What is the UN going to do about this? Watch this
site.
* * *
On
Somalia,
UN Belated Admits Rejections of its MOU With Kenya
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 15 -- A UN-promoted joint Law of the Sea filing by
Kenya and those Somalis the UN works with, about Somalia's offshore
rights, has finally been acknowledged by the UN as rejected by the
Somalia parliament.
On
March 12, 2010,
the UN
web
site quietly added the notation that the "Memorandum of
Understanding" about the filing, pushed by Nairobi based UN
envoy Ahmedou Ould Abdallah and funded by oil drilling Norway, "has
been rejected by the Parliament of the Transitional Federal
Government Somalia, and is to be hence treated as non-actionable."
Inner
City
Press
has reported
extensively about this controversial MOU, which despite
rejection in Somalia has been defended by the UN, Ould Abdallah and
Norway. Another analysis by some Inner City Press sources is below.
But
the UN's quiet
admission that its plan for the Somali coastline was rejected by
Somalis comes as the UN's Sanctions Group on Somalia is promoting its
findings about widespread diversion of aid to Al Shabab. As Inner
City Press reported,
the Sanctions report has subject last week to a
staged leak, first to the New York Times and then to wire services.
Some UN correspondents reported did not appreciate the exposure of
how the document was shown. But it is relevant, and should have
been
reported in the initial stories.
Ould Abdallah at UNSC stakeout, rejection of his LOS deal not shown
Here
now
is an
alternative telling of the UN - Somali story, an update to Inner City
Press' previous reporting on the MOU:
From
the
[beginning, many] Somalis were furious about the Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU), saying “Somali territorial waters would have
been lost had this MOU succeed”. And any where that the Somali TFG
delegations travel they were confronted by angry citizens asking them
“why did they sign that MOU” and demanding answers from them.
While
many
Somali lawmakers (MPs) were criticizing the government about the
controversial MOU with Kenya, and hand full of TFG ministers were
shying away from defending it, Deputy Prime Minister ( he is also
Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources) Abdirahman Adan Ibbi (AKA
Prof. Ibbi) became the biggest lobbyist for the MOU - Weird huh!
Prof.
Ibbi
fought very had so that the MOU would go forward. In doing so he
wrote a letter* to Ban Ki Moon on August 19, 2009 supporting the MOU
– it was after the Somali parliament rejected the same MOU (and
voted down on August 1, 2009).
What
is
serious about that letter was: it was signed by him, Prof. Ibbi,
but is says it was written by TFG Prime Minister Omer Abdirashid Ali
Sharmarke who was out of town at the time. When that letter became
public Prof. Ibbi started to fade away into the background.
Prof.
Ibbi
had a backing of the TFG president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed,
who also defended the MOU .
When
the
Somali PM Sharmarke realized that his deputy used his name, he
(Sharmarke) wrote his own letter to Ban Ki Moon on October 10, 2009,
supporting the Parliament decision. The funny thing is, Sharmarke’s
office did not send that letter to The Secretary-General of UN as
they should. Much later, realizing again, Sharmarke handed the
letter to Somalia's Foreign Minister, Ali Jama Jangali so that he
could hand deliver to Ban Ki Moon or at least send through
appropriate channel.
Nobody
knows
whether Jangali handed that letter to The Secretary-General –
at least it was not posted at the UN website as they did the previous
letters regarding the same MOU.
While
all
these were going on, a group of Somali lawmakers, who were fed up
with government, sent their own letter to Ban-Ki Moon asking him not
to accept the controversial maritime deal between Kenyan and Somalia
and remind him that Somali Parliament rejected it. Again that letter
also was not posted at UN website and as far as we aware of, The
Secretary-General of the United Nations did not respond the Somali
MPs’ letter – at least he did send reply back.
We
do
not know what did it or which letter reached at the Ban Ki Moon’s
desk. But we do know that there was an update at UN website on 12
March 2010 stating that: “The MOU has been rejected by the
Parliament of the Transitional Federal Government Somalia, and is to
be hence treated as non-actionable.
This
has
been a huge relief for Somalis in general as they realize that
the MOU between Somalia and Kenya is non-actionable – which in
legal term means NULL & VOID.
Somalis
think
this is very good statement from UN headquarters, why? The MOU
between Somalia and Kenya had a backing of UN Somalia Office (based
mainly in Nairobi Kenya). This has been a concern for Somali people.
And that is why many believe that UN Headquarters did not acknowledge
quickly when Somali Parliament rejected the same MOU.
This
is
also a news dawn for Somali political system, some say, as members
of parliament realize that they can overrule any law (for Somalia)
even if the president doesn’t approve it. There had been even a
talk to impeach the Somali parliament speaker, Sheikh Aden Mohamed
Nur (AKA Aaden Madoobe) as he did not act swiftly when the TFG
government started the maritime MOU between Somalia/Kenya.
*
Below
is the link of Prof. Ibbi’s letter (at UN website)
http://www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/submissions_files/ken35_09/som_re_ken_clcs35.pdf
You
can
compare with the Somali PM’s signature at following link (UN
website).
http://www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/submissions_files/preliminary/som_2009_letter.pdf
We'll
have
more on
this.
, 
