UNITED NATIONS, May 4 -- When Chad claimed to have killed 105 rebels in a fight last week, human rights groups were quick to point to the incident as another reason the UN peacekeeping mission MINURCAT should be allowed to stay.
But after speaking with Chad's Ambassador Ahmad Allam-mi, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Martin Nesirky what MINURCAT was going to do. "The closest the MINURCAT is to that location where the reported clash has taken place is about 150 kilomters. It's not related, clearly, to the discussions abou the future of MINURCAT."
So while human rights groups seem to believe that the UN peacekeeping mission could be or even is doing something about this, it is not.
Ambassador Allam-mi described the rebel group at issue, the Popular Front for National Renaissance, as little more than gangsters, living in a heavily mined area that the government barely controls. They work with the Lord's Resistance Army, he told Inner City Press. They worked with the forces of Bemba [now on trial for war crimes before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.)
Allam-mi described in novelistic fashion the career of PFNR leader Adoum Yacoub: he was in London, he fought in South Sudan, he got a bullet in his stomach. But where is the UN?
From the UN's April 30, 2010 transcript, Inner City Press' questions
Inner City Press: There are these reports in Chad. The Chadian Government claims to have killed 105 rebels near the Sudan border. I wonder what the UN knows about this, and how it may or may not relate to MINURCAT [United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad] or other UN missions in the area, or has any comment on this reported large killing?
Spokesperson Nesirky: We can’t confirm the death toll in that fighting. And the closest that MINURCAT is to that location where the reported clash has taken place is about 150 kilometres away. It’s not related, clearly, to the discussions about the future of MINURCAT.
Question: I guess that, since MINURCAT does have this mandate of to some degree protection of civilians, is it that it is geographically out of MINURCAT’s zone or that it is viewed as being a military conflict not affecting civilians?
Spokesperson: I think it is simply geography and logistics rather than mandate here. It’s just where they are located at the moment. It doesn’t mean that they’re not trying to find out. They are trying to find out what is going on. But at the moment they can’t confirm the figure that you are saying now. We have seen the same reports. We can’t confirm that. We have also seen the denial from the other side. What we can say is that, clearly, the Mission would like to know what is going on and is trying to do precisely that: to find out.
Question: Just one follow-up on this. The Chadian ambassador was just telling me that the area in which this took place is, has been for a long time, heavily landmined by what he called this rebel group which he alleges works with the LRA [Lord’s Resistance Army] and with the forces that Mr. [Jean-Pierre] Bemba used to command in the Central African Republic. So what I wonder is, given the UN’s overarching … has the UN ever, maybe you’ll know this so you could, have they ever done mine removal or mine action? What is the UN’s degree of access to the geographical area that this is in? I wouldn’t expect, if you can look into that …
Spokesperson: Sure. Happy to do so.
But four days later, there has been no additional information provided. Watch this site.
