When UN Says DRC Army Has Zero Tolerance for Child Soldier Recruitment, It Doesn't Mean Zero Child Soldiers

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 26 -- During the French-ledUN Security Council trip in October to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a staffer of the UN's MONUSCO mission there "speaking to reporters" expressed 

"surprise at Washington's decision regarding the Democratic Republic of Congo, which last year signed an action plan with the United Nations to stop and prevent recruitment of child soldiers. 'There have been huge results... They don't recruit children any more. There's been zero tolerance,' she said."

  On November 26, Inner City Press asked Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, if she would be surprised if the DRC Army is again found with child soldiers by the UN Group of Experts, as it was in April 2013.

  Zerroughui said she couldn't not say that would not happen. One thing is said in Kinshasa; in the provinces it is different. Then what was MONUSCO talking about, back in October, "they don't recruit children any more"?

  This is called going-local, or even, the Stockholm syndrome. Why would a child protection officer be so effusively praising a host government which the UN's own Group of Experts most recent report of June shows still involved with child soldiers? 

 Inner City Press asked for the transcript - and got something quite different.

  First, here's from the UN's own most recent Group of Experts report, which Inner City Press obtained and thenexclusively put online as credited by, for example, the BBC:

149. The Group is also investigating cases involving the illegal detention and use of children for military purposes by the FARDC. According to FARDC and MONUSCO sources as well as local authorities in the Kisala area of Butembo territory, between February and April 2013, FARDC’s 1032nd Battalion arrested four boys aged between 15 and 17 on charges of belonging to the Nyatura rebel group. An FARDC Major subsequently enlisted three of them as cooks, while assigning the fourth to be a soldier in Mushaki with the 106th Regiment commanded by Col. Civiri.

150. In April, UNICEF separated 19 children from the FARDC 812th Regiment located at Camp Bobozo in Kananga, in Kasai Occidental province. The Regiment had rotated from North Kivu to Kananga in March, and had forcefully recruited the children before their departure from North Kivu. Four soldiers from this Regiment acknowledged to the Group that they had been aware of the presence of the minors (commonly referred to as ‘kadogo’) in their ranks. In April, UNICEF separated two minors (one of them a girl) from the same Regiment; both had been forcefully recruited.

  Since what Reuters -- hand picked by colonial powerhouse France to accompany and document what's become known as France's Genocide Joyride -- quoted MONUSCO staffer Dee Brillenburg Wurth as saying in October contradicts the UN's own Group of Experts report, Inner City Press began asking that a transcript of what she "told reporters" be made public. 

   Inner City Press asked at the UN noon briefing -- not for more spin, but for a transcript of what Dee Brillenburg Wurth said:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about the trip, there seems to have been a briefing by a MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) staffer, Dee Brillenburg Wurth, in which she is quoted as saying that the [Democratic Republic of the Congo], doesn’t recruit children, child soldiers any more. This is contrary to the Group of Experts report, which says in at least two paragraphs that they do. It was "said to reporters," is it possible to get a transcript or some audio file of what was said? And what would you say to a seeming total disparity between what MONUSCO told reporters, if not the Council, and what UN reports actually say about the recruitment of child soldiers by [the Democratic Republic of the Congo]?

Spokesperson: Well, I mean, I wouldn’t say anything at this point until I check into it myself, Matthew.

Two days later on October 9, rather than any transcript, this was sent to Inner City Press:

Subject: Your question on the DRC
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 3:18 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Concerning your question on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and recruitment of child soldiers, we have the following:

“In October 2012, the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United Nations signed an Action Plan to halt and prevent the recruitment and use of children, in addition to sexual violence against children, by the national armed forces and security forces. The Congolese government is currently implementing it. There is consistent progress in the implementation of the action plan.

The FARDC now systematically separates child soldiers from its troops and hands them over to UNICEF, amongst other organizations. Progress has also been made in the facilitation of access for the United Nations to national armed forces battalions and detention centres, resulting in the separation and reunification of approximately 340 children with their families."

  The phrase, "we have the following" is unclear -- who is "we"? It's certainly not the UN Group of Experts, charged with actually investigating these topics. 

  Was this.. from Herve Ladsous, whose non-responsiveness was picked up by the UN New Statesman, here?

  Was it from Zerroughi? On November 26, when pressed, she did not maintain, as MONUSCO did, that DRC "does not recruit children." So why did MONUSCO say that? 

Footnotes: On November 26, Inner City Press after thanking Zerroughui on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access asked her to also provide an update on Central African Republic, what the UN is doing. We continue to await that.

Meanwhile Third Committee moves said to be against Zerroughui's office and its mandate remain murky, but we continue to pursue that story, too. Watch this site.