UNITED NATIONS, August 16 -- With the Lord's Resistance Army building up a base in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ban Uele region, killing, abducting and raping, what is the UN system doing? Very little, it appears.
The UN now says it patrols an are “as large as Belgium” with its shrunken mission MONUSCO, and that it just can't keep up with the LRA. It says that the pull out of nine Indian helicopters from MONUSCO in the Kivus hurts its ability to patrol Bas Uele.
The fact remains that the UN has two $1 billion peacekeeping missions in the area. It has a new Sexual Violence and Armed Conflict office, that Inner City Press specifically asked about the LRA on August 6. What is the UN doing?
So little that in exclusive interviews with Inner City Press, Ugandan diplomats express dissatisfaction bordering on disgust with MONUSCO performance. This began under scandal plagued UN envoy Alan Doss, but has apparently not changed under his successor SRSG Meece. On August 12, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky:
Inner City Press: On the Lord’s Resistance Army, Human Rights Watch has put out a report saying that they’ve newly recruited 700 more people, one third of them children, and Reuters, in a related piece, quotes a UN source that the LRA is proportionally a much greater threat than the FDLR or ADF, two other rebel groups in [Democratic Republic of] the Congo. I’m just wondering, obviously, you know what [MONUSCO] and the various other missions in the region, including UNMIS… One, can they confirm these recruitment numbers and what’s really being done on this idea of somehow coordinating the missions and trying to put out what’s now described as a bigger threat than what the Congolese Army has been fighting in the ADF and FDLR?
Spokesperson Nesirky: We’re obviously aware of that report, the Human Rights Watch report, and I will be in a position to provide you with a little bit more of a detailed response shortly. What I can tell you is that the area covered by this rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, is quite enormous, about the size of Belgium. And the resources available to police that area are rather limited. But I will be able to give you some more information shortly.
Four days later, having gotten no answer, Inner City Pres asked again about the LRA, this time more specifically about the base in Bas Uele. Video here, from Minute 17:26.
Acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq repeated Nesirky's line about patrolling an area as large as Belgium, which he called “huge,” and spoke of the LRA as mobile. But they are putting down roots, reportedly with an eye on targeting Uganda again in 2011.
Later on August 16, the UN sent Inner City Press this follow response:
Subject: In response to your question at noon today LRA/MONUSCO
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply
Date: Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 12:37 PM
To: Matthew Lee [at] innercitypress.com
- We focus our available resources first on protection of civilians, about 1,000 MONUSCO troops have built and maintain the area's main airstrip and base that serves as a critical logistical hub for MONUSCO, FARDC and humanitarian resupply operations; they also have reconstructed critical main roads and maintain five temporary operating bases in Haut Uele, conducting patrols alone and with the FARDC.
- We provide logistical support to some 6,000 FARDC troops in the area to aid them in their patrols and efforts to protect civilians and counter the LRA threat.
- We have stepped up our civilian presence in the area, including teams working to bring LRA fighters -- most of whom are abductees -- out of the bush and leave the group.
- We are working with local authorities, civil society, church groups and bilateral donors to increase communications and early warning, but communications infrastructure and roads are nonexistent in much of the affected area.
- The UN Missions in the region met in Entebbe in June and have taken measures to improve the exchange of what information is available, identify feasible actions and better coordinate their activities with respect to the LRA threat. MONUSCO has created a coordination cell on the LRA. None of the missions (UNMIS, BONUCA, nor MONUSCO) has the resources needed to neutralize the LRA.
- The recent withdrawal of nine (Indian) helicopters from MONUSCO's fleet have further stretched MONUSCO's capacity to protect civilians -- even though the Indian helis were based in the Kivus. The mission is now "short" some 24 helicopters overall.
There are several problems with this answer, of which we will list only three. First, it is reported that in Bas Uele, MONUSCO is only in Dingila, not in such places as Banda and Anga.
Second, a senior Indian diplomat tells Inner City Press that India told the UN in advance that one of its two helicopter contracts with MONUSCO would not be renewed upon its expiration. "So where was the UN's Plan B?" he asked -- watch this site.
Third, while the UN response brags about providing logistical support to the Congolese Army, FARDC, it is reported that it is the FARCD's “Ours” battalion which since November 2009 has also terrorized residents of Bas Uele, including by committing rapes.
On this -- sexual violence as a tool of war -- Inner City Press on August 6 asked Ms. Margot Wallstrom, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, what the UN and her office have been doing to protect civilians from the LRA. Video here, from Minute 24:02.
Ms. Wallstrom spoke about the benefits of the International Criminal Court indictments, saying that the ICC's cases will now included those who did not stop rape. Video here, from Minute 26.
Some wonder whether those who “didn't stop rape” now include the UN itself. Watch this site.
