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Inner City Press
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Inner City Press -- investigative reporting from local to global, from the inner city to Wall Street to the United Nations
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At UN, Salva Kiir Speaks on Sudan, Uganda and LRA's Otti Mystery
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, November 6 -- Salva Kiir, first vice president of South Sudan, began his trip to the U.S. with a UN stop on Tuesday. He met with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and then spoke to the press. Aside from two mysterious answers he was generally upbeat, saying that just has he built bridges between Eritrea and the National Congress Party of Omar al-Bashir, he aims to do the same between al-Bashir and George W. Bush. ("I hope so," Sudan's Ambassador to the UN Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad said with a smile when asked later about this comment by Inner City Press.) He said, in Arabic, that he has high hopes to get the Comprehensive Peace Agreement back on track upon his return to Sudan. On Darfur, he urged the rebel movements to re-unify, adopt a common negotiation position and a single delegation to what the UN has been calling the third and final stage of the talks in Sirte, Libya.
Inner City Press asked Kiir, in his trademark black cowboy hat, about the Lord's Resistance Army's talks with Ugandan president Museveni, and the International Criminal Court's indictments of Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti and two other LRA leaders. Kiir said that there is almost peace in Uganda, that an LRA delegation is in Kampala, and that if a peace agreement is signed, "the local community" will ask the ICC to drop the indictments. Not addressed is whether the ICC could, should or would accept such a request, based on alternative local arrangements.
Salva Kiir in U.S. in trademark black hat, Vincent Otti not shown
Inner City Press asked Kiir directly if he know if Vincent Otti is alive. There are reports that Otti is dead; some of these reports say that Joseph Kony killed him. Kiir said these are rumors, that someone can be sick and them become restored. Video here. While there was some laughter at the press stakeout at this line, a source with knowledge of the LRA process, Kiir and Northern Uganda tells Inner City Press that the answer only gives more credence to the reports of Otti's demise. We'll see.
The other mystery in Kiir's answers concerned non-Sudanese now in Darfur. Kiir said there are "foreigners" in Darfur, brought there by the National Congress Party. He was asked, who are they? Not necessarily from Chad, Kiir said. Mysteries, mysteries...
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Behind Lockheed's No-Bid UN Contract, State Department Timing, DynCorp, Dissent
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, November 2 -- Documents obtained by Inner City Press reveal substantial disagreement inside the UN before a no-bid $250 million contract was given to U.S.-based military contractor Lockheed Martin, through its subsidiary Pacific Architects & Engineers, for the upcoming Darfur peacekeeping mission. Contrary to defense that have since been offered for the sole source process with Lockheed, that it was an unavoidable emergency triggered by the Security Council's July 31 resolution on the peacekeeping mission, and only Lockheed could provide the infrastructure services, numerous UN officials internally urged competitive bidding.
Documents show that the decision to go sole-source with Lockheed was made as far back as April, three months before the Council resolution, based on a request by the chief of the UN's Department of Field Support, Jane Holl Lute. Click here for Ms. Lute's April 19 request and UN Controller Warren Sach's April 25 approval, which urged that any "follow on arrangements will be executed until established procurement procedures and rules" and that "DPKO develop a logistics concept no later than three months to respond to emergency situations of this nature to prevent reoccurrence of exceptions to competitive bidding." Contrary to Mr. Sach's proviso, more than five months later, a no-bid contract was given to Lockheed, outside of established procurement procedures.
The reason for the second round of rushing, it now appears, went beyond the Security Council's July 31 resolution. Lockheed's contract with the U.S. Department of State was expiring on August 31, and that day the UN's Headquarters Committee on Contracts met on "an urgency reported by Procurement Services and the Department of Field Support... involving an award of a contract for the provision of the multi-function logistics services in Darfur." See Minutes, obtained exclusively by Inner City Press and now online here. According to the Minutes:
"The Committee questioned the terms of the PAE contract with the US State Department (USDOS). In response, Procurement Services stated that they are given to understand that the contract with PAE is expiring at midnight today (31 August). They are also given to understand that a new bidding exercise is at the concluding stage with DynCorp and PAE as the two finalists vying for the new contract." (Page 4)
The U.S. State Department had been criticized, including by U.S. government auditors, for lack of competition in giving its Darfur camp services contract to Lockheed's PAE. Therefore the USDOS has put it out to bid, and had another finalist, DynCorp (which has its own contracting issues with the U.S.). But Lockheed was able, despite the GAO criticism, to keep getting paid in Darfur on a sole-source basis, by being selected by the UN without bidding for the infrastructure contract. The Minute reflect substantial questioning and criticism of the process, and even a dissenting opinion, based on a lack of "comparators to the agreed price" and "overhead charged by PAE on airfield related services." Click here. As the controversial nature of the approval, however qualified, to eschew competitive bidding for this contract because more clear, the participants decided to in essence further immunize themselves by convincing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to issue an October 2 letter waiving the applicability of procurement and other rules to the Darfur peacekeeping mission.
Ban's letter and its reasoning have been sited by defenders of the contract, notably from the Mission to the UN of the United Kingdom and of the U.S.. As reported, the U.S. Mission's spokesman on November 1 said that if there were irregularities beyond "innuendo" concerning the no-bid awarding of the Darfur contract to Lockheed, the U.S. would be the first ones to demand more transparency. That time has come.
The August 31 Contract Committee Minutes also "note that the US Government has a contract with PAE for the provision of these kinds of good and services. The Committee was informed that the Procurement Service... had not been able to obtain all the prices under that contract from the US Government. The Committee opined that such prices could have been used as a benchmark. The Committee was not informed of the reasons why the US Government would not share such prices with the UN."
These documents and others more generally lead some to see the involvement of the U.S. State Department, perhaps not through its formal Mission to the UN, as involved in the timing and no-bid awarding of the Darfur contract to Lockheed Martin. Others point to the hands-on involvement of the UN procurement official put in charge of the so-called "Darfur Team," Dmitri Dovgopoly. These sources say that Dovgopoly remains in touch, including by cell phone, with disgraced and convicted UN procurement official Alexander Yakovlev, who pled guilty among other things to soliciting bribes from contractors in the UN Oil for Food scandal.
The day after the UN contract with Lockheed was announced, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon why it had been done without competition. Mr. Ban said that it had been an emergency triggered by the tight timelines in the Security Council's July 31 resolution, but vowed that the UN would be transparent about the contract. But Ban's spokesperson then reversed course and said that the contract will not be made public. It is in this context that Inner City Press is putting online the Headquarters Contract Committee meeting minutes and the Lute - Sach correspondence of April, putting the sole-source process in place, with a three month time limit, well before the Council's July 31 resolution, and five months before Lockheed got its $250 million no-bid contract. The time for more transparency has come. Watch this site.
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UN Under Fire From Its Experts, on Torture, Executions and Peacekeeping Standards
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, October 29 -- The UN itself may be engaged or complicit in extra-judicial executions, the UN's special rapporteur on the topic has told Inner City Press. Concerns about the UN's own practices were echoed by the rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism. On Friday, law professor Philip Alston told journalists that he limits his inquiries to execution cases that are not being effectively investigated by the responsible authorities. Inner City Press asked Prof. Aston if, given that the UN system does not discipline its peacekeepers but rather allows them to return to their home countries, he has made such inquiries with the UN. Yes, he said, "the UN has a long way to go," adding that he intends to make further inquiries with the UN.
It emerged that he has already written to the UN's mission in Haiti. Inner City Press raised to further example: allegations of torture and even executions by peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the case of the shooting death of Kosovar protesters by Romanian peacekeepers using 13-year old rubber bullets. These peacekeepers returned to Romania, where neither they nor the officials who, with presumptive criminal negligence, supplied long-out-of-date rubber bullets, have faced any justice.
The UN rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, had been quoted that "as long as the military in Nepal tortures, no (Nepalese) troops should be consulted for peacekeeping missions" of the UN. Inner City Press asked about the quote, and Nowak specified that he had made a finding of torture in Nepal, in 2005, and that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DKPO) should able stricter scrutiny to peacekeepers offered by countries engaged in torture. He said that he personally had spoken with a Nepali officer who served as a UN peacekeeper and also admitted to engaging in torture. Video here. Nowak said similar issues exist as to Jordan, in terms of torture, and cited the unresolved case of sexual abuse allegations against Moroccan peacekeepers in Cote d'Ivoire.
UN headquarters in Geneva: human rights are a two-way street
At Monday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Michele Montas if Nowak had spoken with, or would be listened to by, the UN's DPKO. Ms. Montas said that Nowak as a special rapporteur directs his recommendations to the Human Rights Council. But is DPKO listening? A report emerged of more Fijian peacekeepers headed to Sudan. In light of previous UN statements about not accepting more Fijian peacekeepers until Fiji is returned to democracy, Inner City Press inquired into this as well. Ms. Montas responded that seven Fijians initially slated to serve the UN in Iraq had been kept in Fiji, based on "criminal" issues. Video here, from Minute 22:21. Whether this indicates DPKO listening to the issues raised by human rights experts like Nowak remains to be seen.
Finnish academic Martin Scheinin, the rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, also said that the UN could and should do more. Inner City Press asked about the UN having "cast its lot" with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, even as TFG figures began openly characterizing as "terrorists" women and children of clans which generally oppose the TFG. Scheinin said that while he is just beginning inquiry into Somalia, he is of the view that the UN Security Council, which calls on member states to respect human rights while implementing its resolution, should require the same of the UN itself. Video here. He also said that human rights should become a formal part of the work of the UN's Counter Terrorism Committee, which for now is set to sun-set by the end of 2007. Scheinin predicted, like most including Slovak Ambassador Peter Burian, the Council's liaison, that the CTC will be continued. But will it give more place to human rights? We'll see.
UN rapporteur Paul Hunt, beyond meeting with pharmaceutical companies, was one of five rapporteurs who tried to go to Guantanamo Bay. Inner City Press asked about this; Hunt said that the U.S. invited three of the five, and disallowed two. While Hunt did not say it, he was one of the two who was disallowed. The five issued a scathing report, without having made the visit.
Following his last appearance before the UN General Assembly's Third Committee, the outgoing rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, told reporters that "bio-fuels are a crime against humanity." Inner City Press asked if he knew the view of Ban Ki-moon. Ziegler said he had raised the issue to Ban at a lunch on the 8th floor of the UN's Palais in Geneva, but could not ascertain Ban's thoughts. Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson, who said, "That is a controversial issue."
Ziegler mentioned that North Korea had not allowed him to enter the country. Meanwhile the UN's rapporteur for that country, Vitit Muntarbhorn, spoke again without having entered the country. He appeared to be trying to convince the Kim Jong-il government to let him in, by echoing claims by the World Food Program that access is being given, and that there is "no aid without access." In fact, WFP staffers on the ground say different, click here for that.
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In Burma, UN Envoy Sees Saffron But No Revolution, No Kiev in Myanmar
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, October 24 -- "It's saffron, but not a revolution," the UN human rights envoy to Burma, Paolo Sergio Pinheiro, told Inner City Press on Wednesday. Mr. Pinheiro said Yangon "is not Kiev, and its not East Berlin... there will be no Orange Revolution." Triggering Pinheiro's six-minute explanation was Inner City Press' request for clarification of Pinheiro's quote to Portuguese news agency Lusa, that "I would not qualify the protests as a popular uprising and I see no possibility that they will precipitate a change of regime."
Piniero began, "Perhaps in Portuguese I was speaking too much." Other reporters reviewed Pinheiro's candor as rare at the UN; some thought it inappropriate that a UN expert would say that protesters being clubbed in the street then arrested have no chance of bringing about change. "I refuse to read the marching of the monks as a prelude to revolution," he said. He said that monks had been seeking an apology for an attack on a single monastery. The monks are inter-dependent with society, as unlike Catholic monks, they do not "produce wine or honey." But after the junta's "terrible mistake," the monks stopped soliciting or accepting donations from the military. "They refused the military a safe route to salvation," Pinheiro said, predicting that this might bring political change, but far in the future.
Pinheiro at the UN, in 2005. Plus ca change.
Pinheiro said his trip to Myanmar will follow UN envoy Gambari's, but will finish before the November 17 ASEAN meeting. He will visit, or seek to visit, detainees in jail. If he is not allowed, he said, he will leave the country. Can the same be said of Gambari? We'll see.
Inner City Press asked Pinheiro about two of his other human rights jobs, to push for a new UN office on violence and children -- the Latin America group GRULAC has agreed to it, Pinheiro confided -- and monitoring U.S. prisons for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. "Today's not about that," Pinheiro said. The world is a prison...
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As UN Worker Released in Mogadishu, UN Transcript Deletes Word "Bail"
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, October 23 -- When the Somali Transitional Federal Government released the local head of the UN World Food Program, UN spokesperson Michele Montas in New York said "he is supposed to be out on bail, according to the people in charge." Video here, from Minute 14:20. The phrase "on bail" was later deleted or omitted from the UN's transcript of the briefing. Inner City Press asked if the UN had agreed to stop distributing aid through mosques, reportedly the reason for the TFG's arrest of Idris Osman. Ms. Montas answered that "the distribution through mosques has been continuing." Video here, from Minute 17:16. Soon thereafter, two corrections arrived:
Subj: Info on Somalia
From: WFP NY Spokesperson
To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com
cc: OSSG
Date: 10/23/2007 12:54:49 PM Eastern Standard Time
Hi Matthew,
Here is the latest on Somalia about release of our WFP staffer and your questions: No bail was requested. Mr. Osman was released because of a decision by President. WFP and the Transitional Federal Government will shortly launch a joint fact-finding mission looking into the circumstances of his detention on 17 October. Food distributions will resume in Mogadishu as soon as possible with the agreement of the Transitional Federal Government. We will distribute food in the most effective way to reach the people in need. We cannot rule out it being through the mosques.
This was reiterated -- and inserted into the UN's summary of the noon briefing, as if it had been said:
Subj: revised if-asked on Somalia questions
From: ossg [at] un.org
To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com
Date: 10/23/2007 3:01:23 PM Eastern Standard Time
Asked why Osman had been detained, the Spokeswoman said that he was now back at work at the UN office in Mogadishu upon a decision by the President, with no charges laid against him. WFP and the Transitional Federal Government will shortly launch a joint fact-finding mission looking into the circumstances of his detention.
Asked about WFP food distribution through mosques in Mogadishu, Montas later added that food distributions had been interrupted after Somali National Security Service officers entered the UN compound in Mogadishu on 17 October. They will resume in Mogadishu as soon as possible, with the agreement of the Transitional Federal Government. Asked whether distributions will resume through mosques, Montas said that WFP had announced that they would distribute food in the most effective way to reach the people in need, including through the mosques.
If the UN can re-write the summaries and transcripts of its noon briefing, why not its relations with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government?
UN WFP truck in Somalia, bail not shown
Inner City Press on October 18 asked UN humanitarian coordinator Eric Laroche if the issue underlying the arrest was the TFG ordering the UN to cease delivering aid through mosques, Mr. Laroche answered that no charges had been filed. He said he would not answer "political" questions; the UN office that would is still based in Nairobi, not Somalia. After some initial misunderstanding, he largely dodged Inner City Press' questions about what he'd done in meeting in Washington. A DC source tells Inner City Press that at an October 17 meeting there, Laroche made excuses for the mayor of Mogadishu, who equated non-TFG-supporting refugees as "terrorists" by saying, "Mohamed Dheere is Mohamed Dheere and he is known to speak aggressively but..." But what?
Inner City Press asked if Laroche now acknowledged that the UN had gotten too close to the TFG and the organizers of the National Reconciliation Congress. Video here. Laroche called the latter a political question he would not answer. On the former, he said that "no one" -- he listed the donors, NGOs, the international community and the UN -- is against the idea of there being structure in Somalia. No one, indeed. But structure imposed by whom, and how?
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