At UN,
Kutesa Says
Was Uganda FM
Whole Year,
Troops in S.
Sudan
By Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 14
-- When Inner
City Press put
two South
Sudan question
to outgoing UN
President of
the General
Assembly Sam
Kutesa, it
prefaced the
first by
saying it
learned
halfway
through his
PGA term that
Kutesa was
still Uganda's
foreign
minister. Not
halfway
through,
Kutesa says,
"I am still
the Minister
of Foreign
Affairs of
Uganda." Video
here.
So Inner
City Press
asked Kutesa
of his country
- the country
of which he is
still foreign
minister - and
its role(s) in
South Sudan.
Will Ugandan
troops leave
South Sudan?
Does Entebbe
Handling
Services,
ENHAS, in
which he has
or had a
financial
stake, run the
airport in
Juba?
Kutesa
said he
transferred
his shares in
ENHAS and that
he didn't know
if it operates
in South
Sudan. Each
should be easy
to check -
though the UN
has refused to
say with whom
it deals in
the Juba
airport, which
closes on
weekends, see
below.
On
Ugandan troops
in South
Sudan, Kutesa
said Uganda is
not supporting
Salva Kiir "as
such," citing
operations
with the US to
pursue the
Lord's
Resistance
Army.
The
questioning
moved on, but
these,
previously
asked,
remain
UNanswered:
The UN
is often a
patronage
mill, which
undermines not
only its
credibility
but also its
attempted
political
work.
The
most recent
example is
what multiple
sources
exclusively
tell Inner
City Press is
the attempt by
outgoing UN
General
Assembly
President Sam
Kutesa to
place his
chief of
staff, Arthur
Kafeero, in a
high UN
Department of
Political
Affairs Africa
post vacated
by another's
retirement.
Sources
initially told
Inner City
Press that
Kutesa was
lobbying
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
chief of staff
Susana
Malcorra to
get Kafero the
job.
Now, other
sources say
that Malcorra
has put
pressure on
DPA chief
Jeffrey
Feltman to, in
fact, employ
Kafeero.
Kafeero
is a perfectly
nice guy, but
this is not
the way things
are supposed
to work in the
UN. Nor is
having a
relative
working in the
PGA's office,
but that's
another story
for another
time. Inner
City Press has
been closely
covering
Burundi,
including as
Ugandan
president
Yoweri
Museveni was
named as
mediator for
the term
limits dispute
there. This
has, in an
understatement,
not been going
well.
So why
at this time
in particular
would the UN
be considering
placing the
nominee of Sam
Kutesa, still
operating as
the foreign
minister of
Uganda, in
this high UN
DPA post on
Africa? Watch
this site.
Inner
City Press
posed
questions to
Kutesa back in
June 2014 when
he got the
post, video
here.
More than one
source noted
to Inner City
Press that
Malcorra is
said to be
angling to
succeed Ban,
if the post
slips from the
grasp of the
Eastern
European
group.
Would this
move help or
harm those
chances?
Malcorra is
also in
the midst
of the still
unresolved
scandal of the
cover up of
alleged child
rapes in the
Central
African
Republic by
the French
Sangaris
peacekeepers,
on which
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
chief Herve
Ladsous, even
less qualified
than Kafero,
is said in UN
Dispute
Tribunal
rulings to
have pressured
to get the
whistleblower
fired.
Inner
City Press and
FUNCA
previously
asked for
disclosure of
which of PGA
Kutesa's
staffers were
being paid by
the UN, and
which seconded
by member
states. The
list has yet
to be
provided,
while some say
a relative is
paid by Uganda
- so
disclosure
might have
helped.
The incoming
PGA, Inner
City Press is
exclusively
told, is
mulling as
spokesperson
either a
national of
his own
Denmark, or
from Iceland.
The criterion
should be
transparency.
He is also
said to be
mulling a
(deputy) chief
of staff from
Africa. We'll
have more on
this. Follow @innercitypressFollow @FUNCA_info
, 
