By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 30 -- The UN too often presents as facts what are merely its aspirations on paper. For example, this morning UN Peacekeeping tweeted that it "helps countries torn by conflict create conditions for lasting peace."
That would be nice.
But it ignores failed UN missions like that between Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), or the MINURCAT mission that was thrown out by Chad.
It ignores and papers over that the UN mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, nearly certainly brought cholera and not peace to that country, which killed over 7,000 people. Then the UN tersely dismissed legal claims about the cholera, saying they were "not receivable."
There are, of course, tens of thousands of well meaning actual peacekeepers. But the UN doesn't even properly protect them. As simple one example, why didn't the peacekeepers in South Sudan have APCs? Why weren't the pilots there told of the dangers, where to avoid? There are no answers.
The UN Peacekeeping tweet linked to its website. Clicking through, there's a video and even mural of George Clooney but no mention of cholera there. Rather, it claims that it is "guided by... impartiality."
Today, that's not true. In Mali, the UN is being drafted as it was in Cote d'Ivoire into being an adjunct to French military action. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN is setting up an "intervention brigade" which the DRC government says is to "eradicate" the M23 group.
UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to hold the position, has become so aligned with the DRC authorities that Ladsous for months refused to answer Inner City Press questions about 126 rapes in Minova by the DRC Army: November 27, December 7and December 18 - & April 25.
No amount of propaganda or social media sleight of hand can make up for this stonewalling and lack of accountability. #LADSOUS2013. Watch this site.
