UNITED
NATIONS, June
24 – What
happens when a
detailed complaint
that a UN
official is
improperly
supplying
information to
US
intelligence
agencies
is received
and asked
about in UN
Headquarters?
Stonewalling
of
the Press'
request for
confirmation
or denial, and
a witch hunt
to
find the
source.
Two
days ago Inner
City Press
asked the
director of
the UN Mine
Action
Service Agnes
Marcaillou
about a
complaint from
a
whistleblower
in
UNMAS in
Somalia. First
exclusive here.
The
allegation is
that country
director David
Bax has been
passing
along genetic
information
from bombings
to US
intelligence
agencies,
in a move the
UNMAS
whistleblower
says has
endangered the
lives of UN
personnel.
But
instead of
responding, a
dragnet along
the wider
world of UN
personnel
working in and
on Somalia
began.
Who was
it that
“outed”
Bax, not only
for
inappropriate
service of the
US (for which
he has
been thrown
out of a
country
before) but
also for
“ruling over”
the UN
compound,
abusing his
power to
decide who
gets which
accommodation
and job, and
even
controlling
and profiting
from the
sale of liquor
in the UN
compound's
bar.
Rather
than
answering, the
UN questioning
began: who
would know
about this?
The better
question is,
why has been
been allowed
to go on so
long?
And what's
going to be
done about it
now?
At
the UN's June
24 noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press began by
asking
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey to
simply confirm
receipt of the
UNMAS
whistleblower's
complaint, and
whether
UNMAS's
Somalia chief
David Bax and
his Denel
contractors
are
expected to
run around
Mogadishu
armed. Video
here from
Minute 6:28.
Del
Buey told
Inner City
Press to “ask
DPKO,” the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations.
But DPKO's
chief Herve
Ladsous has
repeatedly
refused to
answer Inner
City Press'
questions, video here.
And another at
DPKO, and the
head of UNMAS,
have not
responded to
Press
inquiries
about the
complaint. But
as noted, the
witch hunt
has begun.
“I
wouldn't call
it a witch
hunt,” Del
Buey insisted.
But when
people
are accused,
we have to
look into it
and get to the
bottom of it.”
Inner
City Press
asked if the
complainant
would be
subject to the
UN's
stated
whistleblower
protections.
And that too
is a question
to be
answered.
Watch this
site.
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