By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 11 -- Eleven days after the UN claimed to have received assurances from the Congolese government that those who committed 126 rapes in Minova in November 2012 were being held to account, it has been reported that only three low level military personnel have been arrested.
This is Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's claimed “Zero Tolerance” policy? Or his “Human Rights Due Diligence Policy” which is supposed to be implemented by Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping?
Ladsous refused to answer Inner City Press' questions about the mass rapes in Minova by his partners in the Congolese Army on November 27, December 7 andDecember 18.
On March 5, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon himself about it, leading to a rambling answer about the UN doing its utmost.
Two days later Ladsous' DPKO summoned its scribes and spoon-fed a misleading half-answer, that an ultimatum had been given. When Inner City Press asked, the UN would not name the two battalions which had supposedly been given the ultimatum.
But later the deadline was specified: April 1. Ban's spokesman Eduardo Del Buey said it was a midnight deadline, but then refused to say what “assurances” were given to make the deadline go away.
Now the Guardian has reported that only three have been arrested, all low level. Ladsous2013. Watch this site.
