From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Mar 12 2010 - 11:47:14 EST
Somali tied to Islamists worked with two UN agencies
Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:18pm GMT
* Kidnapped aid workers' ransom sent to contractor account
* UN report details aid diversion, arms embargo breaches
* UN's Ban urged to open independent investigation of WFP (Adds WFP remarks
about inaccuracies in U.N. report, details)
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, March 11 (Reuters) - A Somali businessman linked to Islamist
rebels who likely received a ransom paid for kidnapped French aid workers
was a contractor for the World Food Program and UNICEF, a U.N. report said.
The confidential report by the U.N. Somalia Monitoring Group, seen by
Reuters on Thursday, said the man, Adbdullah Ali Luway, and his links with
Islamist al Shabaab militants was a case study in how U.N. agencies have
unwittingly allowed aid for needy Somalis to enrich rebels and criminals.
Three French workers with humanitarian group Action Against Hunger were
seized by gunmen in July 2009 and held for several months. In October, a
ransom of $1.36 million was paid into an account belonging to Luway at a
money transfer firm in Baidoa, Somalia, the report said.
"A prominent businessman, Luway serves as a contractor for WFP and UNICEF in
the Baidoa area," it said, adding that he rents vehicles to both agencies
and his water firm Gargarwadag often works for UNICEF.
He also receives $3,000 a month in rent from UNICEF, the United Nations
children's fund, for use of a building that formerly housed the parliament
of Somalia, a virtually lawless country that has lacked an effective
government since 1991.
In addition to his work with the United Nations, Luway had been the "local
financier" of the al Shabaab authority in Baidoa since the Islamist group
took control of the area in January 2009. He is a "close associate" of
Sheikh Muktar Robow Abuu Mansuur, a senior al Shabaab official, the report
said.
The United States lists Robow as a terrorist.
FOOD AID DIVERTED
Al Shabaab, which controls much of southern and central Somalia, has pledged
loyalty to al Qaeda and wants to impose its own harsh version of sharia law
throughout the country.
Luway, the report says, is also believed to have been involved in the
looting of the U.N. compound in Baidoa in July 2009, when U.N. vehicles were
stolen and taken to Mogadishu.
"Luway has successfully exploited his social and political connections into
an intermediary role between al Shabaab leadership in Baidoa and the United
Nations -- a situation that has evoked formal protest from clan elders," it
said.
The report, which was submitted to the U.N. Security Council's Somalia
sanctions committee and will be discussed by the council next week, says
that as much as half the food aid sent to Somalia is diverted to a network
of corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and local U.N. staff.
The report, which has not been published, outlines such serious problems
that it recommends U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon open an independent
investigation into the WFP's operations in Somalia. It also urged the United
Nations to create a database of people linked to the kidnapping of aid
workers.
The report also details violations of the U.N. arms embargo against Somalia,
saying many of the rebels' weapons come not only from Yemen, but also from
Somalia's weak U.N.-backed transitional government, which al Shabaab hopes
to overthrow.
WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement that her agency
"stands ready to offer full cooperation with any independent inquiry into
its work in Somalia."
The WFP suspended its work in much of southern Somalia in January because of
threats against its staff and because al Shabaab was demanding payments for
security.
A WFP spokeswoman in New York, Bettina Luescher, complained of numerous
inaccuracies in the report, which she said the WFP was not consulted on. For
example, the report describes what it says was a staged looting in Mogadishu
that led to the theft of 1,229 metric tons of food aid in September 2008.
"This was a genuine looting incident and all of the looted food was replaced
by the contractor," Luescher said.
UNICEF spokesman Christopher de Bono said his agency had neither received
the report nor had it been consulted about it. "With no information, we are
not able to determine the facts or respond at this time," he said. (Editing
by Anthony Boadle and Doina Chiacu)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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