On
Eritrea,
Bryden &
Schbley Are
Gone, When
Might Hege
Follow
On DRC?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 21 --
The UN has
received
detailed
complaints
about
its experts,
Matt Bryden on
Eritrea and
Steve Hege on
the Democratic
Republic of
Congo and
Rwanda.
Bryden,
a
UN document
this month
confirms, is
no longer on
the committee.
Nor
is the UN's
"expert" in
Ertirea
finances,
Ghassan
Schbley
of the United
States. Click
here for the
document
& h/t.
Bryden's
departure was
telegraphed in
remarks to,
and a
report by,
Inner City
Press on July
24, when
Security
Council
members from
three
countries gave
Inner City
Press
exclusive and
negative
reviews of
Bryden's
performance.
"He's
leaving," one
of them said
dismissively
and definitely
of Bryden.
There was
snarky
speculation
Bryden may
have been
angling for a
book deal, or
a post with a
group like
HRW.
But
Hege remains
in place, even
as questions
beyond his 2009
writings on
the FDLR,
taken
off the
Internet
but highlighted
by Inner City
Press,
proliferate.
There's a
seemingly fake
Rwanda army
identification
card --
similar to
bloody
uniforms Sudan
showed to
Inner City
Press in
Omdurman with
"Chad"
patches
hastily sewn
on -- and
questions
about where
the big guns
came from.
There
were also
media
questions,
about leaking
and quoting
from MONUSCO's
Hiroute
Selassie
Gabreto RFI,
AFP and the
BBC's Gabriel
Gatehouse.
With
Bryden the
questions were
larger of
leaking, of
micro-managing
the
Eritrean air
force and
more. But now
he is gone.
What's next
for
Bryden? And
what, to echo
an ever
sharper
analyst, is
Steve Hege's
business
model?
Late
this month,
DRC officials
are said to be
coming to the
UN Security
Council in New
York. One
would expect a
Rwandan
response. What
this
site.
Footnote:
the NEW
"Eritrea
finance
expert" is
Dinesh Mahtani
of the UK --
who seems to
have
previously
served on the
DRC Sanctions
Group of
Experts...
, 
