AMISOM
Tells ICP
Probing Arms
Transfers, VOA
Flubbed Uganda
Quote
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
12 -- When the
African Union
Mission to
Somalia took
questions on
the morning of
March 12,
Inner City
Press asked
about
the lack of
transparency
in weapons
imports
reported by
the UN's
Somalia and
Eritrea
Monitoring
Group and the
410 Ugandan
troops now
in-country as
the UN Guard
Unit
AMISOM
or its
spokesperson
Colonel Ali
Eden Houmed said
as to the arms
transfers -- specifically,
the lack of an
October 3,
2013 packing
list -
that "investigations
are ongoing by
SFG and
AMISOM."
SFG
is the Somali
Federal
Government --
to which
AMISOM says it
gave its
own report on
a high profile
rape case in
Mogadishu back
in August.
But what
happened after
that? There's
a lack of
transparency.
On
the Guard
Unit, Inner
City Press
asked if UN
Peacekeeping
and the UN
Security
Council have
themselves
been
transparent;
AMISOM's
Colonel
Ali Eden
Houmed was
quoted by
Voice of
America that
"this
special forces
from Uganda
are not part
of their
mission. 'We
do not
have the fact
of what these
forces are and
they are not
part of us,'
he told the
VOA [adding]
that he only
knew that UN
and Uganda had
been
conducting 'a
secret
negotiation'
relating to
the security
of
the UN staff
in Mogadishu."
To
this, AMISOM's
Colonel Ali
Eden Houmed
responded, "It
was a mis
-interpretation."
Inner
City Press
replied,
"Misinterpretation
by Voice of
America?"
VOA, which has
tried to get
the investigative
Press thrown
out of
the UN
through
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
current spokesperson,
is run by the
US State
Department. UN
Mine Action
Service boss
David
Bax was
accused by
whistleblowers
of providing
US
intelligence
with
information,
including DNA,
from bombings
in Somalia. A
UNOPS
letter
cites Bancroft
Global
Development
and,
separately,
African Skies
Limited (which
which Bancroft
has a
contract),
and referred
the issue
back to
management.
Now what?
At
the UN in New
York after the
Security
Council met on
March 11 about
Somalia and
the Council's
president for
March Sylvie
Lucas of Luxembourg
came out and
read a
summary of the
consultations,
she was only
asked
questions
about
Libya, North
Korea and
Ukraine.
This is the
place of
Somalia in the
UN in New
York; it is
what allows
for the lack
of
transparency,
and
the lack of
accountability.
Later
on March 12,
UN envoy
Nicholas Kay
will answer
questions.
Inner City
Press has
already asked
one. Watch
this
site.
, 
