By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, October 18 -- When did the UN Mission in the Congo become aware of the burst of mass rapes this summer in North Kivu? And when did the Mission, now known as MONUSCO, inform Margot Wallstrom, the UN's Special Representative on Sexual Violence and Conflict, who didn't appear in the Congo until a month after the rapes occurred?
Roger Meece of MONUSCO was asked these questions by Inner City Press, again, Monday morning at the Council on Foreign Relations on Park Avenue in Manhattan. When he previously appeared before the Press at the UN by video conference, Meece said that MONUSCO only learned by mid August.
Since then, a July 30 e-mail within MONUSCO has emerged, showing awareness of the rebel takeovers and rapes within 20 miles of a MONUSCO peacekeeping base. But Meece has never altered his timeline, much less explained or apologized.
Monday Meece continued the smoke screen, saying that there were only “bits of information” and that it “did not alter” what MONUSCO could do.
But when did MONUSCO know? And why didn't Meece know, if he didn't?
Wallstrom said she only learned of the rapes in the second half of August, from “emerging media reports.” Inner City Press on Monday morning asked Meece when he told Wallstrom, and he didn't pointedly did not answer.
Inner City Press repeated the question, and CFR's moderator Philip Gourevitch closed the session, saying there was no more time. More time was spent saying this then simply providing a date. Afterward, Inner City Press waited to get such a date from Meece, while he chatted with a consultant from Dalberg Global Development Advisers. By deadline, the question was not answered. Watch this site.
Footnote: the other speaker, Tony Gambino formerly of USAID, described Nkunda as being under “loose house arrest” in Rwanda, and said the UN “gave up on its protection of civilians mandate.” Gourevitch noted, correctly, that there were “almost no Africans in the room.”
Meece, when asked about indicted war criminal Bosco Ntaganda, continued the double talk that began under his predecessor Alan Doss, that the UN has no contact with Ntaganda -- despite his recent interview right next to UN peacekeepers. Most surprising was the lack of any mention of the Lord's Resistance Army. To be continued.
See CFR's transcript: www.cfr.org/publication/23178/crisis_in_congo.html
