Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un4lracar032908.html
UNITED NATIONS, March 29 -- Some fifty five children have been abducted in the Central African Republic, by nearly all accounts by the Lord's Resistance Army, even while the LRA is part of a UN-backed peace negotiations with Uganda's government. On Friday at the UN, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson, who had mentioned the Central African Republic but not the mass hostage-taking in her opening remarks, about the abductions, noting that they had been validated by a local UN team. The spokeswoman, in a statement visible on video but not included in the UN's transcript of the briefing, asked "what do you mean by validating?" and quickly stated that the team "could not identify" if the perpetrators were "LRA combatants." Click here for video, from Minute 18:19, and compare to transcript, here, and below, with no mention of LRA.
Later on Friday, Inner City Press asked Abdou Diouf, Secretary-General of the International Organization of La Francophonie, who had said he discussed the CAR with Ban Ki-moon, if the abductions by the LRA had come up. Mr. Diouf appears surprised, asking "the LRA, are they not in Uganda?" Video here, from Minute 13:35. Clearly, Ban Ki-moon while discussing the CAR did not mention the kidnapped children. Presumably, CAR only arose because of its proximity to Darfur, despite the problems in the CAR.
As it turns out, the UN in the CAR capital Bangui on Friday morning issued a report pointing the finger at the LRA -- but when the Agence France Presse ran it, they received a call from the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, disclaiming the report, claiming it had been issued "under embargo," and asking that the link to the LRA be retracted.
News analysis: Why would the UN at the highest levels -- OCHA chief John Holmes was said to be involved, or was at least cited, in the policy switch -- put so much energy into protecting the likely perpetrator of these abductions? The most benign explanation is that the UN wants peace, and so wants to make sure that a hasty identification, or even any identification at all of perpetrators, does not undermine the peace talks, slated to culminate in Juba on April 5. Skeptics go further, and say that the UN is so desperate for seeming "wins" around the world such as UN envoy Chissano's involvement in Juba that it is willing to cover-up the abduction and reported rape of children. Even under the benign explanation, why was the kidnapping of 55 children, surely worse than other things denounced from the UN podium on March 28, not even mentioned, until it was asked about? The questions will continue.
Footnote one: While OCHA's John Holmes' name was invoked to seek retraction of reports linking the abductions to the LRA -- whose ICC-indicted leaders Holmes' predecessor Jan Egeland visited -- Holmes had the day previous been besieged by General Services-level OCHA staff, complaining of the UN's stratified system which blocks promotion from the G to the Professional level. Holmes promised to do something. We'll see.
Footnote two: The BBC's report has, as a sidebar, an OCHA quote trying to exonerate the "Real" LRA of Joseph Kony: "'We cannot confirm it is official LRA - it could be a dissident branch,' Jean-Sebastien Munier, Ocha." But there *is* no Mr. Munier -- his name is Munie...
Footnote three: Inner City Press also asked Abdou Diouf, Secretary-General of the International Organization of La Francophonie, to comment on whether the chief peacekeeping post of Jean-Marie Guehenno should go to a French national or, rather, a Franco-phonite, perhaps from Africa. Diouf replied that he'd read "in a newspaper on the way here" that France is proposing it own candidate. We'll see. Watch this site.
