Flaws
in
UN Aid to
Central Africa
Republic
Detailed by
Bangladesh
Diplomat
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 7 --
After a UN
meeting on
"Civilian
Capacities"
from which
civilians and
the press were
excluded on
November 4, a
detailed
complaint
about the
endeavor and
about the
UN's
engagement
with civilians
was made to
Inner City
Press by the
Permanent
Representative
of Bangladesh,
Abulkalam
Abdul Momen.
Momen
told Inner
City Press
that inside
the meeting,
in a UN
conference
room that was
far less than
half full, he
had described
a recent and
troubling trip
to a country
on the UN's
Peacebuilding
agenda,
without in the
meeting
naming the
country.
He
said he
visited
UN projects in
the rural part
of the country
and found that
civil
society groups
and even
direct
neighbors had
never heard of
the
projects.
He met with
the president
of the
country, who
said he did
not know how
much the UN
spent in his
country, or
how. He said
there
are almost no
roads in the
country,
"fifty years
after
independence."
Inner
City Press
asked him, "Is
it the Central
African
Republic?"
After
hesitating,
Momen said
yes.
What was this
meeting
[closed]? (c)
MRLee
Inner
City Press has
previously
spoken
about CAR with
the head of
the UN's
Peacebuilding
configuration
for
the country,
Belgium's
Permanent
Representative
Jan Grauls,
who
painted a
rosier picture
of things in
CAR's capital,
Bangui.
"There's
not
even a hotel
there," Momen
said. He
contrasted CAR
with his
country and
its vibrant
civil society.
When Inner
City Press
said,
"Even the
indigenous,"
referring to a
previous story
about
complaints
that
Bangladesh
denies it has
indigenous
people even in
the Hill
Tracks and
uses their
land to train
UN
peacekeepers,
Momen
laughed. Yes,
vibrant.
Because
the
meeting was
closed, Inner
City Press had
to wait until
it ended to
ask the
presenter, the
UN's chief of
Field Support
Susana
Malcorra,
about Momen's
critique.
(c) UN Photo
Ban Ki-moon
and Momen,
improved UN
aid delivery
in CAR not
shown
Malcorra told
Inner City
Press, that's
why we had the
meeting. She
said, we have
to focus on
the needs of a
country, not
only on what
the UN is
already ready
to deliver. We
have to align
ourselves with
the plans of
governments,
she said.
Inner
City Press
asked her,
what about
governments
which are
killing their
own people.
Malcorra said
the meeting
was focus on
"post-conflict"
situations.
But are those
already
without
attacks on
civilians? Now
even in UN
post conflict
post child
Liberia,
political
opponents are
being shot by
police.
The
UN might
benefit from
having such
meetings open,
rather than
reflexively
keeping them
closed to the
press and
public and
making
critiques
diplomatically,
without naming
names. Public
money is being
spent,
and it should
all be public.
Watch this
site.
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