By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 23 -- The
UN's Working
Group on the
use of
mercenaries
visited
Tunisia
earlier this
month and
reported that
"During their
mission, the
expert
received
information
that there are
some 4,000
Tunisians in
Syria, 1,000 –
1,500 in
Libya, 200 in
Iraq, 60 in
Mali, and 50
in Yemen."
The Mali and
Yemen numbers
seemed so
specific that
on July 23 Inner
City Press
asked the
Working
Group's chair
Elzbieta
Karska if
these were
simply figures
given to them
by the Tunisian
government. As
part of a
longer answer,
she said yes.
Video
here.
Inner City
Press also
asked Gabor
Rona about the
Working
Group's review
of the UN's
use of private
contractors.
He said it
remains
unclear if the
UN will make
public what it
considers
before opting
to use
contractors,
or what due
diligence it
engages in. Video here. UN Peacekeeping
under Herve
Ladsous
engaging with
forces charged
with child
rape in the
Central
African
Republic gives
rise to more
questions.
Back
on November 4,
2103, Inner
City Press
asked Anton
Katz,
then-Chair of
the UN
"Working Group
on the use of
mercenaries as
a means of
impeding the
exercise of
the right of
peoples to
self-determination"
about the
Group's report
on Somalia -
and if he has
met David Bax.
(He has, in
Cape Town.)
The report
states for
example that
"The
Working
Group was
informed by
UNMAS that to
avoid this
problem, their
agreement with
Bancroft
requires that
when
conducting EOD
and
counter-IED
operations,
Bancroft
employees must
remain a
minimum of 500
metres behind
any front
line. This
type of rule
might serve as
an appropriate
safeguard in
other
contracts as
well... The
Working Group
notes that at
least one
employee of
Bancroft
pleaded, and
was found,
guilty in a
South African
court of,
inter alia,
recruiting
persons for
mercenary
activities in
Côte d’Ivoire
and providing
logistical
support for
the venture
[See High
Court of South
Africa
(Transvaal
Provincial
Division),
case number
A2850/03 of 2
and 20 May
2005 (ZAGPHC
248).]"
Why
are the UN,
AMISOM and
UNMAS working
with Bancroft
Global
Development?
What do they
do together?
Inner City
Press has been
informed by
whistleblowers
beyond Somalia
that Bax has
been part of
the process by
which genetic
and DNA
information
from IED
bombings have
been
transferred to
US
intelligence.
After
Inner City
Press first
reported this
-- and others
have tried to
rehabilitate
Bax -- the UN
said that
UNOPS is
investigating,
and that it
would have
nothing to say
while it does.
But the UN has
still said
nothing. UN
investigation
as a way to
sweep things
under the
carpet?
Katz
was highly
specific,
distinguishing
Mark Thatcher
in Equatorial
Guinea and the
"Dogs of War"
from
privatized
security in
prisons. He
discussed
Syria and
Jihadists,
Libya, WEOG
and tellingly
at the request
of UNCA's 2013
president
Pamela Falk,
drones. Will
any of these
answers to
make-work
questions ever
see the light
of day? Her
electronics
made noise,
and she
claimed to
speak for "the
UN
correspondents"
-- but that is
not true.
As
with
November's
Security
Council
president,
Inner City
Press offered
thanks for the
briefing for
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
which will
continue to
push for
increased
transparency
from the UN on
cases like
that of Bax.
Watch this
site.
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