By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 16 --
There's been
an ongoing
spat between
the Somalia
Eritrea
Monitoring
Group under
Jarat Chopra
and many of
those he
reports on, in
Somalia,
Eritrea and
even Kenya.
Back
on December
5, 2013,
Inner City
Press exclusively
reported
-- and put
online -- that
Somalia had
asked the UN
to "terminate
the contract"
of Somalia and
Eritrea
Monitoring
Group
coordinator
Jarat Chopra,
in a letter
obtained by
Inner City
Press and then
published
online here.
Somalia has
asked for a
revision of
the SMEG's
last report,
on the topic
of
"misappropriation
of Somalia's
public
resources."
The letter
was
signed by
Fawzia Yusef
J. Adam as
deputy prime
minister.
Now
Reuters in
Vienna has
been handed
Chopra's
report against
Adam, as well
as the Shulman
Rogers law
firm and
President
Hassan Sheikh
Mohamud --
Reuters passed
it through but
does not put
it online.
Why?
The
Somalia and
Eritrea
Monitoring
Group's public
report
"estimates...
an overall
international
market value
of US $360 to
$384 million,
with profits
divided along
the charcoal
trade supply
chain,
including for
Al-Shabaab."
The SMEG puts
the Al-Shabaab
share at 40% -
and says "the
remaining 60%
is divided
between the
Kenya Defence
Forces (KDF)
(20%) and Ras
Kamboni
(40%)."
Sources
informed
Inner City
Press before
(and included)
in its
December 5,
2013 report
that the SMEG
had been
ordered out
of, or
"Persona Non
Grata-ed"
from, Kenya.
Inner City
Press
exclusively
spoke with
senior
representation
of Kenya on
this, and it
was denied.
Others said
the UN's
Department of
Political
Affairs was
trying to
resolve the
situation,
particular in
light of the
Security
Council's
rejection with
eight
abstentions of
the African
Union's
request that
the Council
suspend the
Kenya
proceedings of
the
International
Criminal Court
for a year.
Since then,
the issue has
been explained
to Inner City
Press as more
individually-based.
Then the
Somalia letter
specifically
asking that
Jarat Chopra
be fired was
obtained.
In its
last report
the SMEG named
an array of
arms embargo
violators in
Somalia. Click
here for
Inner City
Press' reporting
on those
violations,
including by
the UK,
which (overly)
"insider"
Reuters
for example
neglected to
mention in its
gushing
report. The
Reuters
pass-through
scribe, full
disclosure
from
Electronic
Frontier
Foundation's Chilling
Effects
project, has
engaged in
outright
censorship,
claiming his
"for the
record"
anti-Press
complaint to
the UN was
somehow
covered by
copyright and
getting it
blocked from
Google's
Search, filing
online here.
We
will have more
on all this.
Watch this
site.
, 
