With UN
Peacekeepers' Equipment, Anything Apparently Goes, As Frequency Inhibitors
Called National Issue
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN
UNITED NATIONS, June 27 -- In
the wake of Sunday's bombing deaths of six Spanish peacekeepers with the UN
Force in Lebanon, Spain has disclosed that the vehicle in which its peacekeepers
were killed was not equipped with
frequency inhibitors
which would have prevented the use of remote-controlled detonation devices.
Wednesday at UN
headquarters, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson whether other
of UNIFIL's troop contributing countries, including from France, Italy, Ireland,
Finland, Portugal, Belgium, Ghana, India, Indonesia and Nepal, will now use
frequency inhibitors.
"All of the
equipment of each contingent is national in origins," the spokesperson read out
in response. "The Department of Peacekeeping Operations engages with troops
contributing countries in discussions not only about the rules of engagement but
also about equipment. But it is a national issue." Video
here, from
Minute 14:39.
Ban Ki-moon with UNIFIL
Inner City Press
has been informed of other circumstances in which countries have sent
peacekeepers with insufficient equipment, in response to which additional
equipment has been provided. Some contingents arrived for peacekeeping service
without appropriate helmets, and after some deaths, better helmets were
provided.
In terms of
weaponry, Inner City Press has previously reported that the incident last year
at
Kazana in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
was sparked by the UN peacekeepers' use of out-of-date and defective ordnance,
which flew off-line. More recently, the UN peacekeepers in Kosovo were found to
have used out-of-date and hardened rubber bullets, resulting in two deaths (and
so far, no accountability either from the shooters or their superiors who
arranged for the use of decade-old rubber bullets).
DPKO's Hedi Annabi
took questions from reporters at the Security Council stakeout on Thursday
afternoon. After a half-dozen questions and answers about Darfur, Inner City
Press asked Mr. Annabi for DPKO's position on the use of frequency inhibitors,
in UNIFIL and other missions. Mr. Annabi declined to answer, saying "one issue
at a time." Video
here, at end.
Notably, about Darfur and
Sudanese president al-Bashir's statement that no Westerners will be allowed to
serve in the prospective UN peacekeeping force there, Mr. Annabi said that
sometimes it is good not to hear, not to listen.
News analysis: Not listening is not
the best approach, with regard to frequency inhibitors.
Inner City Press
also asked, at the UN's noon briefing, about three investigations of DPKO that
have recently been mentioned, but never followed up. The alleged beating up of
reporters by UN peacekeepers in Liberia, of which an immediate investigation was
announced, has not been followed up -- and was not, at Wednesday's noon
briefing. Inner City Press asked that an update be provided on that, and also on
two UN Office of Internal Oversight Services investigations into the UN's
Mission in the Congo, the alleged trading of gold and guns, and more recently
allegations of detention and torture. It may be, as the UN's Mission in Sudan
has recently trumpeted, that these allegations are false. But once the UN and
its DPKO announce an investigation, and defer questions until it is completed,
there should be follow up.
Finally, on DPKO,
the UN General Assembly's Fifth Committee is slated later on Wednesday to
approve a watered-down version of Ban Ki-moon's loudly-announced reform. Dropped
from Ban's proposal is the shifting of procurement functions to the new
Department of Field Services. And the new Under-secretary General for DFS is
only approved for one year, although UN Controller Warren Sach is slated to read
out the Secretariat's understanding that it is really being approved for two
years. Really?
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[at] innercitypress.com
