By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 5 --
The drone that
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous has procured
for Eastern
Congo, the Selex
ES Falco,
has a history
of crashes,
from
Pakistan
to Wales.
How then was
it selected?
And who would
run it? These
are questions
that the UN
must answer.
In
Pakistan
last year:
"an Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle
(UAV) of
Pakistan Air
Force (PAF)
crashed near
PAF Mureed
base during a
test-flight
mission due to
a reported
technical
fault, some
kilometres
away from the
district
Mianwali in
Punjab... The
crashed
UAV was
identified as
SG Falco-I
(Selex), a
sophisticated
PAF
surveillance
drone equipped
with the
latest stealth
and
surveillance
features."
Before
that
in Wales:
"a drone spy
plane has
crashed just
weeks after
an Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle
test centre
was launched
in West Wales.
The crash,
involving a
Selex Falco
unmanned
plane, has
raised fears
about the
safety of
testing
unmanned
aircraft in
the skies over
Ceredigion and
Pembrokeshire.The
crash happened
at the Parc
Aberporth
UAV centre
near West
Wales Airport
in Ceredigion,
where new
craft
being tested
include drone
planes capable
of delivering
missiles."
So
how was the
Selex ES Falco
chosen? On
July 31, with
the UN then as
now allowing
its Herve
Ladsous to
conceal which
units of the
Congolese Army
he is aiding,
on
July 31,
Inner City
Press asked
the
UN who won its
contract for
drones:
Inner
City Press:
Ladsous
announced
during the
Bastille Day
in France that
the drone
contract had
been signed.
I’ve checked
various
databases
that are
publicly
available.
What’s the
company that
won? And if
it’s not yet
public, how
could the UN
be signing a
contract
declaring a
winner and not
have it be
public? Is it
public and
what
is the name of
the company?
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky: I
will check. I
don’t believe
it is
public...Yes,
Evelyn?
Question:
Just to be
certain the
drones that
are being used
are for
observation
This
last is a
point Ladsous
drone-like
makes: he, his
mission and
the
drones are not
offensive. To
not parrot
that,
according to
Ladsous,
is "innuendo,"
a basis to
explicitly
refuse to
answer Inner
City Press'
questions. Video compilation here.
The
Office of the
Spokesperson
for Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
provides
answers
between noon
briefing to
some media,
notably
Reuters as
well
as Ladsous'
favorite,
Agence France
Presse
(Ladsous
served on one
of
AFP's
management
boards.)
But
on this who
won the drone
contract
question,
neither
Nesirky nor
his
office got
back to Inner
City Press.
Twenty four
hours later at
the
August 1 noon
briefing, Nesirky
read out this
answer:
I
was asked
[and] the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations can
confirm that
it has reached
the final
stage of the
procurement
process in
relation to
the trial use
of unmanned
aerial
vehicles,
UAVs, by its
Mission in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo
(MONUSCO). The
selected
vendor is the
Italian
company SELEX
ES. The
UAV is known
as the “FALCO”
and is
designed to be
a
medium-altitude,
medium-endurance
surveillance
platform
capable of
carrying a
range of
payloads,
including
several types
of
high-resolution
sensors. Of
course, its
payload does
not include
weapons.
When
Spokesperson
Nesirky was
further
elaborating
that final
point of
Ladsous', and
Inner City
Press asked to
follow up,
Nesirky
refused.
He had given
others two
rounds of
questions, but
refused to
Inner
City Press.
Now
these question
must be
answered,
particularly
given the
history of
crashes by the
Selex Falco
documented and
raised
(including h/t
by a
source the UN's former
Group of
Experts chief
Steve Hege
tried to
intimidate by
listing in his
last report):
how was the
Selex Falco
selected? How
many other
companies bid?
How much is
the UN
spending?
Who would run
the drones?
Who would get
the
information?
Watch this
site.
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