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UN's Darfur Mission Mis-Served by Lockheed and
Donors, Agwai Says JEM's the Player
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
August 12 -- The UN and African
Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur was badly mis-planned from the
beginning,
comments by UNAMID force commander Martin Luther Agwai on Tuesday made
clear.
Inner City Press asked about the $250 million the UN gave on a no-bid
basis to
Lockheed
Martin to build camps, work only 20% completed by the contract's
expiration on July 15. Agwai first attempted to defend Lockheed's
PAE
subsidiary, saying they were only in charge of four "super camps" in
Darfur. But he then said that the Nyala super camp has only moved
forward once
Chinese engineers arrived. Video here,
from Minute 29:11.
Pressed on the issue, he
noted both that
Lockheed was trying to maximize profits and that, as an American
company,
Sudan's government was obviously not well-disposed toward granting
Lockheed
visas or fast access to equipment. Of course, this could and should
have been
foreseen. Instead, then logistics chief Jane Holl
Lute, wife of U.S. President
Bush's war czar for Iraq and Afghanistan, insisted that
Lockheed must get the no-bid
contract, that only Lockheed could do the job. In fact, Lockheed
was uniquely
unqualified for the job. The Lockheed question now is how much of the
money
they should have to return.
Inner City
Press asked Agwai why UNAMID does not protect the World Food Program
trucks
bringing supplies into Darfur, as WFP
staff in June in El
Fasher told Inner City Press is needed. Agwai pointed out that
UNAMID still has
less than 10,000 of its approved 26,000 strength, and has not been
given the
legal mandate to protect trucks on their way to Darfur. Again, bad
planning.
Martin Luther Agwai at UN, sufficient
troops and performance by Lockheed not shown
Agwai went
further, saying the before the UN took over peacekeeping in Darfur from
the
African Union force AMIS on January 1, 2008, the AMIS force had its
equipments
and maintenance from donors. Agwai said that now the donors no longer
pay for
spares and repairs, and have taken away a maintenance workshop. Why the
donors
took his all away is not know.
Inner City
Press asked Agwai why UNAMID had not noticed the build-up of Justice
and
Equality Movement rebel forces preparing their May 10
assault on Khartoum,
which ended five kilometers outside in Omdurman. Agwai bemoaned the
lack of
even a single surveillance plane, then opined both that JEM is the only
organized Darfur rebel groups, and that they must have infiltrated
toward
Khartoum in small "packets" of vehicles. He noted that the government
must have known something was coming, because it started bombing in the
area
just before the attack. Agwai said UNAMID was so bound up in verifying
the
bombings, if they happened or not, that they missed the real target.
Video
here,
from Minute 1:02:34.
Appearing
alongside Agwai was his fellow Nigerian Lt.-General Obiakor, the new UN
Military Advisor. Inner City Press asked Obiakor about the
proposed UN
logistics and computer base in Valencia, Spain, which sources say
Nigeria
wanted. I will have to look into that, Obiakor said, promising to get
back with
an answer.
Watch
this
site. And this (on
South Ossetia), and
this --
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