By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, June 7 -- Jan Egeland is moving from Human Rights Watch to the Norwegian Refugee Council. It's probably a good move: at HRW, Egeland was roped into Ken Roth's positions on Rwanda (Egeland mis-identified the country's foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo as its UN Ambassador, Richard Gasana: they're hard to mistake for one another).
Perhaps the most false note, at least to Inner City Press, involved Egeland's appearance at the UN speaking about the hunt for the Lords Resistance Army. Inner City Press asked Egeland how this hunt could avoid the involvement of Congolese Army units involved in human rights abuses. Video here, from Minute 39:55.
Egeland replied that "the US" are doing training and "vetting" to "avoid that one is creating human rights violations."
This is now highly ironic, or troubling, in that the US-trained 391st Battalion was one of two units involved in 135 rapes in Minova in late November 2012. Saying "selfish" is not enough - there has to be follow-through. We wish Egeland well at NRC. Watch this site.
