Home » News » On Eritrea, UN document confirms Matt Bryden is gone – Inner City Press
On Eritrea, UN document confirms Matt Bryden is gone – Inner City Press
Contributor: Daniel H /
August 21, 2012
By Matthew Russell Lee | Inner City Press
UNITED NATIONS, August 21 — The UN has received detailed complaints about its experts, Matt Bryden on Eritrea and Steve Hege on the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
Bryden, a UN document this month confirms, is no longer on the committee. Nor is the UN's "expert" in Ertirea finances, Ghassan Schbley of the United States. Click here for the document & h/t.
Bryden's departure was telegraphed in remarks to, and a report by, Inner City Press on July 24, 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.
But Hege remains in place, even as questions beyond his 2009 writings on the FDLR, taken off the Internet but highlighted by Inner City Press, proliferate. There's a seemingly fake Rwanda army identification card — similar to bloody uniforms Sudan showed to Inner City Press in Omdurman with "Chad" patches hastily sewn on — and questions about where the big guns came from.
There were also media questions, about leaking and quoting from MONUSCO's Hiroute Selassie Gabreto RFI, AFP and the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse.
With Bryden the questions were larger of leaking, of micro-managing the Eritrean air force and more. But now he is gone. What's next for Bryden? And what, to echo an ever sharper analyst, is Steve Hege's business model?
Late this month, DRC officials are said to be coming to the UN Security Council in New York. One would expect a Rwandan response. What this site.
Footnote: the NEW "Eritrea finance expert" is Dinesh Mahtani of the UK — who seems to have previously served on the DRC Sanctions Group of Experts…
State of Eritrea ሃገረ ኤርትራ Hagere Ertra دولة إرتريا
Dawlat Iritrīya
Anthem: Ertra, Ertra, Ertra Eritrea, Eritrea, Eritrea
Capital (and largest city) Asmara
15°20′N 38°55′E / 15.333°N 38.917°E / 15.333; 38.917
Official language(s) Tigrinya, Arabic, English Other languages Tigre, Saho, Bilen, Afar, Kunama, Nara, Hedareb,.
Ethnic groups 60% Tigrinya, 30% Tigre, 4% Afar, 3% Saho, 3% Kunama
Demonym Eritrean Government Provisional government
- President Isaias Afewerki
Independence
- From Italy November 1941
- From United Kingdom under UN Mandate 1951
- from Ethiopia de facto 24 May 1991
- From Ethiopia de jure 24 May 1993
Area
- Total 117,600 km2 (100th)
45,405 sq mi - Water (%) 0.14%
Population
- 2009 estimate 5,224,000[4] (109th)
- 2008 census 5,291,370
- Density 43.1/km2 (165th)
111.7/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2010 estimate
- Total $3.625 billion[5]
- Per capita $681[5]
GDP (nominal) 2010 estimate
- Total $2.117 billion[5]
- Per capita $397[5]
HDI (2007) steady 0.472 (low) (165th)
Currency Nakfa (ERN)
Time zone EAT (UTC+3)
- Summer (DST) not observed (UTC+3)
Drives on the right
ISO 3166 code ER
Internet TLD .er
Calling code 291
1 ,. National TV: Eritrea Television (ERI-TV)
Eritrea (play /ˌɛrɨˈtreɪ.ə/ or /ˌɛrɨˈtriːə/;[6] Ge'ez: ኤርትራ ʾErtrā, Arabic: إرتريا Iritrīyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeast and east of the country has an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands are part of Eritrea. Eritrea's size is approximately 117,600 km2 (45,406 sq mi) with an estimated population of 6 million...
Source: Wikipedia
