Somalia & Eritrea Monitor Resigns, Exposed Using UN to Press Regime Change
By Matthew Russell Lee, Follow Up to Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, October 8, 2014 -- On October 7 Inner City Press exclusively
reported that a member of the UN's Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group Dinesh
Mahtani used UN SEMG time and letterhead for unrelated advocacy regarding
Eritrea. Mahtani's letter was exclusively put online here
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/smeg1mahtaniicp.pdf> by Inner City Press.
On October 8, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about
Mahtani's letter and if it was appropriate behavior for a sanctions monitor.
No, Dujarric said, adding that the letter was shown "shown" to Dinesh
Mahtani, who has resigned.
Sources had told Inner City Press that Dinesh Mahtani, the finance expert
on SEMG and previously on the DR Congo Sanctions group, was found requesting
favors from a member state, to which the SEMG reports. Here is a document
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/smeg1mahtaniicp.pdf> :
a letter from Dinesh Mahtani, ostensibly in his SEMG role, saying that
former Eritrean official Ali Abdu "has great potential to play a stabilizing
role in Eritrea with the country possibly headed to an uncertain period in
its history." Eritrea says: regime change, on UN letter-head. Eritrea's
complaint, also obtained by Inner City Press, is now put online here
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/smeg1eritrea080114.pdf> .
This is hardly the first controversy in the SEMG -- but usually the members
wait until they are off or on their way off the Monitor Group to "let it all
hang out," as one source put it of previous SMEG chair Matt Bryden.
The current chair, Jarat Chopra, has faced complaints from Somalia, also
exclusively reported
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/sanctions3smeg120513.html> by Inner City
Press.
Bryden's departure was telegraphed in remarks to, and a report by
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/som1jimale072412.html> , Inner City Press on
July 24, 2012 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.
With Bryden the questions were larger of leaking, of micro-managing the
Eritrean air force and more. Those about Mahtani, the sources tell Inner
City Press, are "bigger... regime change on UN letterhead." Now Mahtani has
resigned. We'll have more on this.
Received on Wed Oct 08 2014 - 13:59:13 EDT