In
UN Mine Action Service
Complaints Of
Harassment By Marcaillou Who
Counts on Lacroix and
Guterres
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive CJR PFT
UNITED NATIONS,
February 1 – In today's UN
system, decay and rot are
rarely addressed and cleaned
up. Rather, those who complain
are retaliated against. And if
the Press reports on it, it to
faces retaliation - in Inner
City Press' case, a ban
from even entering the UN that
now stands at 212 days with no
end in sight. In that
context, the leaked just keep
on coming. In December Inner
City Press reported
on complaint against the head
of the UN Mine Action Service,
Agnès Marcaillou of France,
adding that UNSG Antonio
Guterres' peacekeeping chief
Jean-Pierre Lacroix was seen
by UNMAS staff as covering up
for
Marcaillou.
Since then Inner City Press
has learned of more complaints
against Marcaillou and of her
attempt, which many staff call
desperate, to address or shut
them up. For the February 1
noon briefing that Inner City
Press was again banned from
attending in person, it before
the briefing in writing asked
Guterres and his spokesman
Stephane Dujarric (also
French) questions including:
"February 1-3: On UNMAS please
immediately confirm or deny
what whistleblowers tell Inner
City Press, that there are
over a dozen harassment,
bullying and abuse of
authorities cases filed at UN
against head of UNMAS Agnès
Marcaillou and that the
cases came to attention to
head of DPO rule of law and
security ASG Alexander Zuev
and Under-Secretary-General
for Peace Operations
Jean-Pierre Francois Renaud
Lacroix. Was she politely
asked to resign but refused to
do so? Confirm / explain her
statements: " Today I want to
appeal to those of you who
have shared their discontent
with colleagues, partners,
inside and outside the
UNMAS/UNOPS circles, to please
not break UNMAS; what you have
work so hard for; please do
not split the strong and
capable team that has made
UNMAS the worldwide respected
entity it is today; do not
undermine what most colleagues
have worked so hard for in the
past 6 years that I have been
here with you. I
feel that there is too much
for UNMAS to
lose!"
Despite
Dujarric's on camera promise
to answer such questions, and
the written promise of USG
Alison Smale, there has been
no answer. So here is more of
Marcaillou's "address to
staff," in advance of a
meeting she and other USGs
will be attending in Geneva on
February 4 - how soon will she
be fired? From her address to
all staff: "today’s UNMAS team
picture is not all pink and
rosy. All is not
well in UNMAS when a few of
you are unhappy. Unhappy to
the extent that they have
reached the highest echelons
of the Organization,
complained about their
condition and about their
Director on a number of mostly
undisclosed
grievances. From
what I gather, some of the
grievances are related to the
fact that my standards are too
high; that I am overly
demanding; that staff are
being victimized and drawn to
seek counseling and medical
support. Some of you have also
made disparaging/belittling
statements about me, and also
about UNMAS performance, to
quite a large and diverse
audience; a few of you have
even stated, wide and large
enough to reach me, that my
leadership “was mean on
purpose” and “my management
ineffective: that they needed
to clear their way, and,
according to rumors, that
because I had not been forced
into retirement last Summer,
“with some more push I would
be ousted soon and even maybe
before the end of the
year”. This means
a lot to me... I
was obviously blinded by a
rising UNMAS, by its
accomplishments, good results
and the enthusiasm shared by
other colleagues; I thought I
was coaching an “all- winning
team" .. Today I want to
appeal to those of you who
have shared their discontent
with colleagues, partners,
inside and outside the
UNMAS/UNOPS circles, to please
not break UNMAS; what you have
work[ed] so hard for; please
do not split the strong and
capable team that has made
UNMAS the worldwide respected
entity it is today; do not
undermine what most colleagues
have worked so hard for in the
past 6 years that I have been
here with you. I
feel that there is too much
for UNMAS to lose! ... I am
committed to presenting, at
the earliest, in January 2019,
to Under Secretary-General
Lacroix a forward-looking
plan; this requires your
inputs. I will also seek his
and other UN departments
support to help us, his staff,
all of us together, to rebuild
a unified, strong and happy
team. He has always been open
to listening and meeting his
staff and I do not expect him
to react any differently to
our demand for support and
help... I thank you for your
attention. Agnès
Marcaillou
Director UNMAS." So Marcaillou
is counting on Lacroix. Inner
City Press has tweeted
the issue at @Lacroix_UN.
Watch this site.
***
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