By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 7, more here -- That the FDLR militia continues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was cited by speaker after speaker in the UN Security Council on August 7. But why has this happened?
UN envoy Martin Kobler told the Council that the SADC and ICGLR meeting “on the 2nd of July in Luanda extended this timeline from 22 days to six months started on July 2.” Not surprisingly, the FDLR then cancelled meetings.
Even before that, Kobler's and Herve Ladsous' MONUSCO flew the FDLR leader to Kinshasa, despite him being on the UN's sanctions list. To Press questions, and to a formal complaint to the 1533 sanctions committee, there has been no response.
Rwanda diplomats tell Inner City Press that the six month delay for FDLR, from July 2, lines up exactly with their remaining time on the Security Council. UN Peacekeeping is run by a man with this history, see memo.
And so, the hype, the hand-wringing, the speeches. We'll have more on this.
Amid reports on June 27 that the UN flew a sanctioned militia leader of the FDLR militia on a UN aircraft in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujurric about it at the UN noon briefing on June 27:
Inner City Press: why did MONUSCO [United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo] fly him to Goma to Kisangani and then to Kinshasa when, in fact, I think there’s an arrest warrant for him?
Spokesman Dujarric: I’m not aware of any other services provided to him by MONUSCO.
But it turns out that UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous flew the sanctioned FDLR leader from Eastern Congo to Kinshasa. Rwanda complained about this, in writing, on June 26.
On July 16, Inner City Press asked Rwanda's Deputy Permanent Representative what has been Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations' response.
There has BEEN no response - in more than three weeks. Video here, and embedded below.
Little more than an hour later, Ladsous floated into the Security Council to talk about Central African Republic -- without having answered a written complaint from a Security Council member in more than three weeks. We call this: unaccountable.
Dujarric on June 27, and in the subsequent times Inner City Press asked, insisted that not only Mary Robinson (who today left her post as the UN's Great Lakes envoy) but also US envoy Russ Feingold requested the waiver, and that the FDLR leader Gaston Iyamuremye a/k/a Rumuli hadnot traveled to Rome, arguing that only that was important.
Inner City Press disagrees -- why would UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous given his history on Rwanda, representing France in the Security Council in 1994 arguing for the escape of the genocidaires into Eastern Congo, fly a sanctioned FDLR figure linked to the genocide around?
On July 15, Haq said Rumuli was escorted from Kinshasa back to the east. Video here.
Inner City Press asked about MONUSCO escorting Rumuli.
Haq said what he had read did not say MONUSCO did the escorting. So who did? And if not the UN, how does the UN know where Rumuli went? Watch this site.
