What other goodies is Annan locking away in UN file cabinets?
by Judi McLeod
Why is the "black box" flight data recorder from a downed 1994 aircraft, sent from Rwanda, in a UN file cabinet? Even though online publication giants like the Drudge Report covered the black box story, why is it that the jarring discovery was barely mentioned by major mainline print media? Why is it that no one is joining the dots between the discovery of the black box and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annanâs refusal to send badly needed troops to Rwanda at the request of former Canadian General Romeo Daillaire? The recorder, unearthed from a locked UN file cabinet, is believed to be the one from the fatal 1994 plane crash that killed the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi. The crash led to large-scale African massacres, which the UN estimated, killed more than 600,000 people. Suspicion pointed to Rwandaâs current president, Paul Kagame, who was said to have ordered the plane shot down.
Proof against Kagame was never found. On discovery of the black box some 10 years later, smooth-talking Kofi Annan registered surprise: "It sounds like a foul-up, a first-class foul-up," he admitted to reporters. Why was the finger of blame pointed at Kagame? It was Kagame who had been leading the rebellion against the Rwandan government of the day, By mid-1994, the governments of both Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi were overthrown, despite zealous efforts by the French and Belgian militaries to defuse coming insurrections. It took the accusation of the French attorney-general, who charged the UN of obstructing his investigation into the 1994 crash by hiding the flight recorder, to get at the truth. "There is no black box, I donât know what youâre talking about," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters, reinforcing his comments with the pretext of peeking under his desk.
Within days Eckhard was backtracking and was now admitting that a black box had indeed been found. No further information would be provided he said, until the data was analyzed. By this time, Stanislas Kamanzi, Rwandaâs UN ambassador was wondering aloud whether some sort of cover-up was involved. "The whole thing smells fishy," he told CNN.
The bureaucratic ways of the worldâs largest bureaucracy clouds the timeline of the missing recorder. No one, and least of all Kofi, can really say why it was never sent out for analysis. Thatâs only UN bungle Number One. Wouldnât you just know it? Denis Beissel, the UN official who admits taking receipt of the recorder, is now retired. Beissel whose career is marked by controversy departed in 2003 after a highly publicized clash with the UN Staff Union. Charged with attempts to bust the employee group and suppress criticisms of the UNâs executive management, he headed off into the sunset. In 1994, when the plane went down, the department of peacekeeping affairsâincluding the responsibility for the investigation into the crash--was headed by then undersecretary-general Kofi Annan. Annan got it right when he called the black box affair a "first-class foul-up". Itâs a foul-up that leads all the way to his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Dec. 10, 2001.
The UN has failed Rwanda in the tragedy of some 600,000 deaths, many of them children hacked to death by machete. According to Candians.ca, the ABC of famous Canadians, "General Romeo Daillaire did everything he could pleading for 2,000 more peacekeepers to add to his insufficiently equipped 3,000 main force. Instead his forces were cut down from 3,000 to a mere 500 men, who had to watch as one of the most horrible genocides in human history took place before their very eyes."
When Annan was trotted out by Canadian Parliament earlier this month, the diplomat heaped praise on Daillaire for his dedication to Rwanda. Kofi and Company will likely remain mum on how the black box ever got to be locked into a file cabinet. Perhaps the French attorney-general and Stanislas Kamanzi can look to the British for information. Two weeks ago, Annan discovered that British intelligence (M16) may have planted listening devices in his office. No word if there were any bugs planted in the new, bulletproof BMW issued to the secretary-general last November. Meanwhile, you donât need black helicopters to hide black box flight recorders in a locked file cabinet in the UN Peacekeeping Department. |
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