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On Landmines, Inner City Press Asks US About Myanmar & UN Contractor Killed in S Sudan

By Matthew Russell Lee, Photos

UNITED NATIONS, April 4 --  When UN Mine Action Service held its annual press conference on April 4, Inner City Press asked UNMAS Director Agnes Marcaillou about the landmines Myanmar is laying on its border with Bangladesh, and about an UNMAS contractor killed last month while demining in South Sudan. Marcaillou said the contractors are hired through the UN Office of Project Services and referred to a fire-wall. Knowing the UN, which for example cited immunity for bringing cholera to Haiti, one wonders if that's a fire-wall against liability. How much did the family of the killed "UN" deminer get paid? That remained unanswered. So Inner City Press put the question to the US State Department. From the US' transcript: Moderator: from the line of Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press.  Please, go ahead.

INNER CITY PRESS:  Great, thanks a lot and thanks for doing the call.  I wanted to ask two things.  One has to do with Myanmar, which I know is not a signatory to the conventions, but it’s said to be laying land mines on its border with Bangladesh.  Is the U.S. concerned about that, doing anything about that?

The other one is very nitty-gritty.  I don’t know how much of the U.S. assistance goes to the UN Mine Action Service, but I just asked them today about a contractor of theirs that was killed while demining in South Sudan last month, and it’s not clear to me sort of how much of the money that you’re describing, is it really done – is it done through UN agencies, is it done through their contractors?  And when someone does in fact die, as happened in this case in South Sudan, are they compensated?  What’s the sort of – what arrangements are made to make sure that they’re taken care of?  Thanks.

MR GUILBERT:  Thanks a lot.  Regarding the question of Burma, right now we have very limited mine action programming inside of Burma.  Our focus has largely been on risk education to keep vulnerable populations who live near landmines safe as well as providing some victims assistance to people who have fallen prey to landmines.  As you know, the humanitarian situation in Burma overall remains a key concern for the United States, and landmines and landmine contamination continues to be a part of that overall humanitarian concern that we have.

Regarding your question about funding for UN mine action service or UN agencies more generally, for the most part, the State Department doesn’t provide very much funding to UN mine action service for mine action programs.  Most of our budget – like I said, it’s about $189 million for Fiscal Year 2018 – that funding is going to go directly to NGOs and contractors who are in the field doing the work themselves.  We found that doing direct grants to NGOs or direct contracts is the most effective way to use taxpayer funding because it removes the most number of middlemen as possible, making sure that every dollar that can go to actual clearance on the ground is going to clearance on the ground.

Unfortunately, it is a dangerous business, and from time to time, the NGOs and contractors whom we work with do have casualties.  In those cases, each one of those NGOs or contractors will have corporate policies in place for what to do should a casualty occur.  We insist that all of our operators are fully insured and that their personnel are fully insured so in the event of an accident, there is an appropriate financial safety net there for the people who are putting their lives on the line every day.

MR GREENAN:  Thank you very much.

INNER CITY PRESS:  Gotcha, thanks a lot.  Sounds like the contract from South Sudan maybe would have been better if they were working with you, but thanks a lot.

MR GUILBERT:  Sure, thank you.

MR GREENAN:  I think – is there any – are there any additional questions in queue?

OPERATOR:  Yes, from the line of Conor Finnegan, ABC News.  Please, go ahead.

QUESTION:  Hey, thanks very much for holding the call.  I just wanted to follow up quickly on Kylie Atwood’s question." Myanmar is not a party to the landmines ban, and Secretary General Antonio Guterres has yet to name the Myanmar envoy mandated last September, and funded in December. Also on the podium, Germany's Ambassador to the UN Christoph Heusgen disagreed with a question about Germany exporting not only weapons but also landmines; Iraq's Mohammed Hussein Bahr Aluloom answered a question in Arabic, in Arabic and said his prime minister is working against corruption. It was Mohammed Hussein Bahr Aluloom who said that those who give their lives demining will not be forgotten. But is that true for the UN in South Sudan? Back in 2015, before the UN evicted Inner City Press for pursuing these UN corruption stories (it remains restricted), when the UNMAS held its annual press conference on April 1, Inner City Press also asked about Myanmar, to 2018 Security Council member the Netherlands, and also wanted to ask UNMAS' Marcaillou about landines in South Sudan and UNMAS' promotion of multiply-accused deminer David Bax from Somalia to Gaza.

  But also at the press conference were Japan's Deputy Permanent Representative and the Dutch Permanent Representative Karel van Oosterom, who it was said had to leave early, to meet with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

  So Inner City Press first asked van Oosterom if Dutch Queen Maxine, in Myanmar, would be raising the landmine issues in that country.

   No,  van Oosterom said, the Queen is in Myanmar in her capacity as UN Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development. But he (and UNMAS' Marcaillou) assured that she and other Dutch official raise the landmine issue wherever they go.

  Later, Inner City Press asked Marcaillou about the reported use of landmines in South Sudan and about the disposition of the investigation(s) into David Bax, who whistleblowers in Somalia alleged shared DNA information about Somalia bombers with US intelligence, as well as engaging in conflicts of interest. (Video and background here.)

   Marcaillou spoke passionately about South Sudan, where UNMAS found cluster bombs were used but could not find by whom. She said UNMAS coordinated a statement on the landline allegation, by IGAD with the UN Mission UNMISS. Later she said that UNMAS dogs were used to check if explosives were being brought into UNMISS protection of civilians site.

Photo: @UNMAS Marcaillou & Japan DPR still here, @FUNCA_info has Qs on #SouthSudan, #Somalia / #Gaza pic.twitter.com/4hBNC0eb9A

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) April 1, 2015

  On Bax, the answer was less convincing.  Marcaillou as she did last year pointed to an investigation by the UN Office of Project Services - but this time acknowledged that she had not seen the whole UNOPS report.

This is the case even though Bax is a UNMAS employee - it's that UNMAS outsources its human resources activities to UNOPS. But shouldn't Marcaillou as UNMAS director have access to investigative reports about UNMAS staffers? We'll have more on this.

Footnote: After the briefing, Inner City Press mused whether the Netherlands, running for one of two Western European and Other Group seats on the UN Security Council against Italy and Sweden, would be upping its contributions to UNMAS.

    Karel van Oosterom replied that “currently, tender process under way for for years 2016-20. Share UNMAS will depend on quality its proposals.”

  This level of detail is appreciated. And wouldn't one think that assessment would include UNMAS' transparency, including whether it demands and gets access to investigative reports about UNMAS staff like Bax and the issues raised? We'll have more on this.

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