At
UN,
Kay Tells ICP
No Quotes
Around
Somaliland,
Aware of Bax
Probe
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 12
-- When UN
envoy to
Somalia
Nicholas Kay
came
out of the UN
Security
Council on
Thursday there
were only two
journalists
waiting at the
stakeout. Such
is the
domination of
the
Syria issue at
the UN. But
Kay agreed to
take
questions, and
Inner
City Press asked
him a half
dozen.
The
first
concerned the
text of his
speech to the
Security
Council. On
its third page
it referred
repeatedly to
"Somaliland"
in
quotation
marks, while
the references
for example to
Puntland and
the
Jubba regions
had no
quotation
marks. Why
not?
Kay
quickly said
that there
should not
have been
quotation
marks around
Somaliland.
Inner City
Press asked
him about the
demand for
self-determination;
he referred to
the Turkey
mediated
talks, and
that UN
flights
started going
in again.
Inner
City Press
asked Kay
about Kismayo
and Kenya, and
also about the
widespread
sanctions
violations
reported by
the Somalia
Eritrea
Monitoring
Group. Kay
replied that
there was
recently a
productive
Troop
Contribution
Countries
meeting; he
said the
export of
charcoal
from Kismayo
fuels the
conflict and
must be
stopped.
Referring
to
the attack on
the UN
Compound in
Mogadishu and
the loss of
life,
Inner City
Press also
asked about
what the UN
continues to
say is an
ongoing
investigation
by UNOPS into
UN Mine Action
Service chief
David Bax. Kay
said he is
aware of the
investigation,
but only that.
So
here's a bit
more: it is
alleged that a
component of
the AMISOM
mission
provides
personal
security to
Bax on what
can only be
called
an irregular
basis.
This
comes after
the UN tried
to whitewash
Bax through
the same
pass-through
now used to
try to
pre-spin the
Syria chemical
weapons
report as
"fingering"
Assad. As
Syrian
Ambassador
Bashar
Ja'afari said
earlier at the
same stakeout
microphone Kay
used,
sometimes the
media can be a
weapon. Not
for expose but
cover up.
On the lines
of the former,
back on August
7 Inner City
Press reported
that Mogadishu
signed a deal
with an oil
firm called
Soma Oil and
Gas, led by UK
former
Conservative
Party leader
Baron
[Michael]
Howard of
Lympne. (A
report being
inquired into
by Inner City
Press has it
that Somali
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
to the UN Idd
Beddel
Mohamad, a/k/a
Mogadishu in
Manhattan,
claims he
formed a
similarly
named company
and so the
contract is
void.)
Now we can
add: Idd sent
letters to the
UK company
advising them
that the
contract they
entered with
the Somali
government is
void. Idd has
also given
interviews
saying he
would resign
over this.
Sources say
this is
creating havoc
around
diplomatic
activity, as
Idd did in the
past, purporting
to fire an
intern who was
subsequently
rehired.
Modadishu in
Manhattan,
indeed. Watch
this site.
, 
