Murder
of
UN Afghan Staff by US Forces Covered Up Like Louis Maxwell,
-UN Staff
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 26 -- When a UN contractor is killed in Afghanistan is
killed by US forces, what happens? Nothing, an official spokesman
told Inner City Press last week.
In
front of the
Security Council on July 21, UN public information officer Alexandre
Dolivet approached Inner City Press, which reported on the October
2009 killing of the UN's Louis Maxwell by friendly fire from Afghan
National forces.
“It's happened
again,” Dolivet said. “A contractor for UNOPS [the UN Office of
Project Services] was killed in Kabul, this time by US forces.”
Very little has been reported. On July 23, Inner City Press formally
asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky about this death. “Have you asked
UNAMA?” was Nesirky's response, referring to the UN Mission in
Afghanistan.
Mr.
Dolivet is with
UNAMA's Spokesperson's Unit. But Inner City Press demurred, seeking
Nesirky's confirmation. More than 48 hours later, no response: to
some, a cover up.
When
a UN Security
officer from Miami was killed by Afghan National forces last October,
the US like the UN said very little. When video of Louis Maxwell's
execution by Hamid Karzai's soldier became public, belated
investigations began. But so far nothing has come of it, with the FBI
delaying, and the UN constrained by “cultural sensitivity” given
how many Afghans have been killed. Click here
for exclusive Inner
City Press story.
UN's Ban and Mistura, Louis Maxwell and UNOPS
contractor not shown
In
the light of
the documents released by WikiLeaks, first to three elite papers then
the public, the UN's and US's cover up of the death of UN staff
becomes all the more important. Watch this site.
Footnote:
the
tale of Ban's arrival in Kabul for the conference is more
detailed than elsewhere reported, but heard first hand by Inner City
Press and footnoted here. Ban stopped in Tblisi for
re-fueling, but the windshield of the plane was broken. Another plane
was found, which arrived in Kabul 30 minutes later. Rockets had been
fired, and so it proceeded to Bagram. From there, Blackhawk
helicopters to the Presidential Palace,and 1 1/2 hours sleep. Sleep
walk through the summit, fly back through Abu Dhabi. The costs of
diplomacy...
* * *
Probe
of
Afghan
Murder of UN Staffer Maxwell Stalled by “Cultural Sensitivity,”
Starr Says,
Glitch of Karzai Firing
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July
18 -- The murder
by
Afghan National Forces of UN
Security officer Louis Maxwell last October is supposed to now be
investigated by the Hamid Karzai
government.
Inner
City
Press has
learned that the Karzai administration has yet to do anything, and
now that the UN is only half heartedly following up, for reasons of
“cultural sensitivity,” as UN Security chief Gregory Starr told
Inner City Press -- or cynical political accommodation, as diplomats
close to the case put it.
Asked
about
the
Maxwell case on July 14, Starr told Inner City Press, “The problem
is, in many cases you're asking the Afghans to really follow up on
one person. How many thousands of Afghans have died? So you've got to
be sensitive culturally.”
Other
UN
Security
personnel since interviewed by Inner City Press have expressed concern.
“He's supposed to represent us,” as one put it, asking
that his name not be used for fear of retaliation. “He's not
supposed to accept the cover up of the murder of a UN staff, to suck
up to the Afghans - or to the Americans.”
A
UN Board of
Inquiry report, still be withheld from the public and Mr. Maxwell's
family, calls on the Afghans to identify the individuals who killed
Maxwell long after an attack on a UN guesthouse, which Maxwell fought
off.
When
Inner
City
Press asked UN peacekeeping official Susana Malcorra for any
progress, she said that the head of the UN Department of Safety and
Security Gregory Starr had traveled to Kabul, and to ask him. But Mr.
Starr has yet during his tenure to hold a press conference.
On
July 14, Inner
City Press waited outside the UN's ECOSOC chamber to ask Starr about
the case. After six o'clock he emerged, and to his credit agreed to
answer some questions from the Press. He said:
“There's
a joint investigation by the American FBI and the Afghans. We know
Louis was killed after the attack. The circumstances of that are
still under investigation. I spoke to the minister of the interior of
Iraq [sic] myself and they are looking into it. I hope
ultimately to find all the circumstances. There is the
video. The
problem is interpreting what really happened in that video. We're not
an investigative agency. We've turned it over to the proper
investigative authority.”
Significantly,
Starr
added
as a concession, “I think there is a momentary glitch.
The Minister of Interior was dismissed.”
UN's Ban swearing Starr in, Maxwell murder follow
through not shown
After
a
pause,
Inner City Press asked Starr about (non) answers it got on June 30
from UN envoy to Afghanistan Staffan de Mistura (video here)
and
from
then Security Council president Claude Heller of Mexico, who'd
led the Council's trip to Kabul (video here).
Inner
City Press
concluded, it seems like the issue is falling off the map.
Staff
considered
it,
then said, verbatim: “The problem is, in many cases you're
asking the Afghans to really follow up on one person. How many
thousands of Afghans have died? So you've got to be sensitive
culturally.”
Not
only other UN
Security officers but also diplomats and non UN military personnel
since interviewed by Inner City Press have expressed deep concerns.
“They
are covering up the death of this guy, because the UN and US want
good relations with Karzai,” one said. “So if they go to Somalia,
if the TFG [Transitional Federal Government] or Ugandan peacekeepers
kill a UN staff, they'd cover that up too?”
Perhaps Mr.
Starr, and Ms. Malcorra's deputy Tony Banbury who asserted there was no
cover up, but then ducked questions, will now provide more answers,
including to the Maxwell and UN family. Watch this site.
And see cell
phone
video,
here, esp. at Minute 1:01 to 1:04
, 
