By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 12 -- After more than four months of stonewalling by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous on the mass rapes in Minova by his partners in the Congolese Army in November, on Thursday Ladsous' spokesman Kieran Dwyer spoon-fed purportedly exonerating information not only to Louis Charbonneau of Reuters but also to Agence France Presse, click here.
Then, Witcher launched a kangaroo court proceeding against Inner City Press in the UN Correspondents Association -- now known as the UN's Censorship Alliance -- to censure Inner City Press for its reporting on Ladsous' last minute selection.
More recently, on March 8, 2013 Witcher filed a complaint with UN Security leading off with how Inner City Press asked a question to Ladsous about the Minova rapes, which battalions were involved.
Witcher wrote to UN Security that on March 8 outside the Security Council Inner City Press started shouting and “abusing” Ladsous, and that Ladsous did not respond.
That was a lie. Inner City Press asked which two battalions Ladsous had given his ultimatum to, and Ladsous responded that he was going to the Council to talk about Syria.
In any event, it is disgusting that AFP has sunk so low as to file a complaint with UN Security leading off with how another more investigative media asked a question about these rapes of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping.
AFP's story, that 12 Congolese have been “suspended” -- not arrested, mind you -- still does not name the battalions. It doesn't mention Ladsous' stonewalling.
Click here to view November 27, 2012 footage of Ladsous refusing to answer Inner City Press question about the rapes, and then taking Witcher, Lou Charbonneau of Reuters and Margaret Besheer of Voice of America out into the hall for a private briefing. None of them wrote about the rapes at that time.
Nor does AFP or Reuters' Charbonneau even mention the BBC and then Guardian piece which clearly triggered Kieran Dwyer spoon-feeding the information to them.
That both AFP under Witcher and Reuters under Charbonneau have tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN for things it has written is one thing. But now both are ignoring the work of BBC and the Guardian which gave them their bogus pro-UN stories for free. This is shameful.
The problem, we've said and have every right to say, with “articles” like Charbonneau's on Reuters and now AFP's is they let the UN off the hook -- for doing nothing during the rapes, for stonewalling for months afterward. They ensure that this will happen again and again. They are... part of the problem. Watch this site.
