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UN Mine Action Calls Chechnya a Country, Uses
Troubled UNOPS, Downplays Ossetia Cluster Bombs
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 4 -- "There were some
issues of managerial performance at the UN Office of Project Services,"
the UN's rule of law chief Dmitry Titov told the Press on Wednesday,
suggesting
that any further questions be directed to UNOPS. But Titov was briefing
about
the UN's Mine Action Projects, which use UNOPS and its private
contractors as
"implementing partners" in many countries, including Afghanistan.
Inner City Press asked, what is the value added of having UNOPS and
these
private contactors? The question was not answered. Video here,
from Minute
47:55.
Meanwhile
UNOPS has been refusing to provide basic documents about its projects
in
Afghanistan, and an expose is brewing.
Inner City
Press asked Titov to explain the statement, in the thick book of
Projects he
was promoting, the statement on page 284 that "Chechnya is one of the
most
mine-affected countries in the world." Is Chechnya a country? "As a
citizen of Russia," Titov said, "it's a territory, please interpret
it that way." Interpret the word "country" as
"territory"? It's reminiscent of a UN arms publication that referred
to Taiwan without adding, "Province of China." The mis-prints were
destroyed, and China stopped reporting.
UN's Titov in Timor Leste, Chechnya as
country, cluster bombs in Ossentia not shown
Inner City
Press asked Titov about cluster bombs in South Ossetia. "Relatively
small," Titov said. In Chechnya, the UN has no de-mining program, just
a
mine avoidance training program. And what about Ingushetia?
Even those
UN Mine Actions Cris Stephens has said the UN has lost 5 million Euros
in
currency exchange in Afghanistan in the last two months, a colleague of
Titov's
whom he introduced as Simon Parker said, "We don't have that problem
anywhere we work." Video here,
from Minute 33:59. This we will revisit. Because
what about Myanmar?
On that, it was announced past 5 on December 4 that the following
day, Ban Ki-moon with meet with his Friends on Myanmar, andt then speak
with the Press.
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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