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UN's Congo Scandal was Covered-Up, Former OIOS Investigator Says, Accountability Delayed

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, May 23 -- Faced with evidence that UN peacekeepers traded guns for gold with rogue militia leaders in the Eastern Congo, the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services engaged in a cover-up and issued a whitewash report, its deputy chief investigator in the Congo announced in a detailed article published Friday morning. At the noon briefing at UN Headquarters, Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe for a response to the expose, if the militia leaders have been re-interviewed, as OIOS chief Inga-Britt Ahlenius said she was trying to bring about, and for a briefing by Ms. Ahlenius. Video here, from Minute 20:03.

            Ms. Okabe replied, "Normally I do not represent OIOS as you know, but in response to these questions these you just asked, OIOS does have a number of points, so I'm going to read them, but this is really for follow-up with OIOS." She referred to a "background" briefing given on April 28 by a senior - but not the most senior - OIOS official, who insisted that his name not be used. What was presented at that briefing is directly contradicted by the new information from former OIOS investigator Matthias Basanisi. As Inner City Press pointed this out, Ms. Okabe put down her talking points and said, "I will provide you this after the briefing."

   The five points that OIOS had given to Ms. Okabe are, in full, as follows:

- OIOS categorically denies all the accusations by Mr. Basanisi as baseless.

-Professional investigations cannot rely on rumor and unsubstantiated allegations, and require corroboration and evidence to draw definitive conclusions.

-During the course of his investigation, Mr. Basanisi was not able to provide credible corroboration of a single allegation. In fact, he never progressed further than cataloguing allegations.

-OIOS reiterates that it drew the right conclusions based on the evidence. As in all cases, OIOS applied common quality control procedures to examine and test whether evidence has be adduced.

-Should, however new evidence come to light -- OIOS will investigate.

            Inner City Press asked Ms. Okabe, regarding just the first of the five points, if OIOS disputes that Mr. Basanisi was its deputy chief investigator in the Congo from 2005 to 2007.  Ms. Okabe said, "This is what OIOS gave me. I don't speak for OIOS."  Who does?

            An obvious question for Ms. Ahlenius to answer is, "Did OIOS remove Mr. Basanisi and others from the Congo investigation when they resisted attempts to influence the outcome?"

Gold mine in Congo: OIOS cover-up not shown, but becoming apparent

   Previously, Ms. Ahlenius told Inner City Press by e-mail that "given the fact that the persons known as 'Dragon' and 'Kung FU' respectively have changed their statements from denying obtaining any armaments from UN peacekeepers in their interviews with OIOS on 19 and 20 of July 2007, OIOS investigators in Kinshasa currently are making efforts to obtain access to them."  That was more than three weeks ago. Have the interviews taken place? Inner City Press hopes to have more on this, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, soon.

            Questions on which more is hope for from Mr. Basanisi include, who attempted to "influence the outcome"?  Were such persons in his chain of command?  If so, who?  Are such persons still in the employ of the United Nations?  If not, why?

            Mr. Basanisi asserts that the reason for the whitewash is that the UN needs to continue to receive troops from Pakistan and India, and therefore covers-up abuses committed by these contingents.  This would imply that the pressure to quash his report came from Peacekeeping -- that is, either Jean-Marie Guehenno or the just-passed head of the Department of Field Support Jane Holl Lute. Guehenno has already confirmed that he is leaving -- still unanswered is the question of which Frenchman will replace him, Jean-Maurice Ripert, Jean Arnault or some other. Jane Holl Lute, who was passed over to head DFS in favor of Susana Malcorra, is said to be preparing to leave.  Some analogize this to the way the mere repatriation of accused peacekeepers keeps accountability from ever taking place. Time, then, is of the essence, and these questions must be answered.

  Answers -- which Inner City Press has sought without success from Ban Ki-moon himself -- are particularly important in light of two audits of the Office of Internal Oversight Services which OIOS chief Inga-Britt Ahlenius told Inner City Press she owned and would not release have been put online by Inner City Press, here (1st) and here (2nd).

  The reports are damning.  The first, by Erling Grimstad, states among other thing that

"OIOS suffers from an ineffective and unclear structure, lack of independent budget and limited to no administrative support (check in and separating procedures, travel arrangements, etc.), poor management, conflicts at the senior management level, lack of communication inside ID/OIOS as well as with stakeholders and clients of ID/OIOS, lack of standard operating procedures and constant disagreements with regard to the scope of some of the investigative procedures of the division. This has obviously resulted in instability, high turnover rates and non-optimal working conditions for investigators."

  The second report, on the "culture" of OIOS and compiled by Michel Girodo, states for example that, "secrecy and central control of information facilitated independence but also insulated managers from external review."

   The fact that Ms. Ahlenius refused to release these on her own is, if anything, more troubling. The refusal to disclose could not be blamed on member states. She told Inner City Press, "It is my document."  Now what does she say? Watch this site.

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These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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