Travel
Danger Makes
Yemen Unlikely
for UNSC,
Kabul Pushed
by Germans
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 2, updated
-- After
outgoing UN
Security chief
Gregory Starr
briefed the
Security
Council
Tuesday about
safety in
Afghanistan
and
Yemen, both of
which the
Council has
considered
visiting,
several
Council
members
emerged
expressing
concern.
"Both
are very
dangerous,"
one told Inner
City Press.
"But at
least in
Afghanistan
there is a
presence and
some security.
Yemen? No
way."
The
UN's
envoy to Yemen
Jamal Benomar
also attended;
members told
Inner
City Press he
recounted the
many times
he's been in
and out of the
country
without
incident. Some
were not
convinced.
"The
Germans are
really pushing
to get us to
Afghanistan,"
another
member said.
Germany leaves
the Security
Council in
three months,
and
Afghanistan
has been one
of their
focuses. The
UK has the
lead on
Yemen, and has
a Permanent
seat on the
Council.
The
decision on
both trips was
not taken at
Tuesday's
meeting, which
broken up past
5 pm; it was
postponed. "We
got new
information,"
a Council
member told
Inner City
Press. "We
have to check
it
out." Yemen
looks
unlikely,
Afghanistan
more possible.
Since
June Inner
City Press has
published a
series of
internal
audits of
irregularities
in the UN
Development
Program's Law
and Order
Trust
Fund for
Afghanistan;
top UN envoy
Jan Kubis
recent told
Inner City
Press there
will be a
"public
accounting."
Now
this
afternoon,
Inner City
Press has exclusively
reported
on another
audit showing
that the
problems
are myriad:
money paid to
the wrong
Afghan
ministry (in
one
case, to the
Institute of
Music instead
of to the
Ministry of
Education);
contracts on
blank paper
without
letterhead at
the
Ministry of
Foreign
Affairs; no
oversight, no
required
audits. Click
here for Page
1 of this
audit; click
here for Page
2. Watch
this site.
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