By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, June 17 -- Sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers under Herve Ladsous in the Central African Republic continues, an internal UN email obtained and exclusively published by Inner City Press shows. Click here.
Now, after UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric not only didn't explain why his Office comments on some leaked emails and not others, but gloried in it, saying "I do whatever I want," Inner City Press is publishing a second email sent to Inner City Press by a UN whisteblower:
"Matthew: MINUSCA is full of corruption and bad practices. The Head of the Electoral Division, Mathieu BILE, raised millions from donors for the elections, and has not been able to justify it. Most of these millions are from the EU. We have documents proving that donors didn’t want to give more money for the elections and about the financial gap for the elections.
MINUSCA was forced to open an investigation because some UN staff issued a complaint. The CDU –Conduct and Discipline Unit- is dedicated to hide corruption and not to make any kind of justice. Since the very beginning they were protecting him. He also faced formal accusations of abuse of authority, gender and racial discrimination, intimidation to his subordinates -we have audios-, and CDU created a lot of difficulties to the complainants.
The audios were not accepted, and CDU in Bangui initially didn’t register the financial reports provided by the complainants and also hid other complaints. The complainants provided a lot of proofs and evidences, but CDU didn’t process most of them. Moreover, the mission and the SRSG were aware about his lack of competence because elections were a complete disaster and they must repeat elections many times. The elections were delayed and annulated because of irregularities, lack of funds, lack of payment to the national staff that caused lot of demonstrations in the country to claim for their payments, exclusions of voters to the registration process, delays and logistic problems.
The legislative elections were totally annulated at the beginning, once they repeated them were annulated in a group of regions, again repeated and annulated in a partial way, so many annulations by the Constitutional Court. The SRSG was quite aware about this and chaired the meetings to face these issues; he also faced the lack of funds with the Security Council. We may prove all of this.
Despite all these issues the SRSG has recently renewed his contract for one year more and to organize the municipal elections for 2017. Moreover, the complainants reported previously about the dominance of the Ivorians -his nationality- in the electoral division, as they are majority and control the main positions -Head of Electoral Division, Officer in Charge, Legal, Field Coordinator-. In the recent renewal of the contracts still there is the same majority of Ivorians and the complainants are out.
Mathie BILE’s superior, the Deputy SRSG and country resident coordinator, Aurelien AGBENONCY, was accused in the national media and during the elections to have seen visiting in his house one of the Presidential candidates, having his wife among his friends in Facebook, and he also rented his house. After this new was published the SRSG maintained him, but he disappeared from the meetings and later on he was nominated minister of foreign affairs in his country –Benin- and left UN. But just before leaving he got money from a US donation for the elections that didn’t justify and we have proofs.
Mathie BILE did just the same disaster organizing elections in other countries before (delays, logistic problems, exclusion of voters in the registration process, irregularities, annulations), and he also appears in wikileaks cables. Even this UN didn’t fire him, he just renewed his contract with his Ivorians as heads of the main areas. He seems to be well protected." What is the policy of Ban Ki-moon's UN and spokesman of providing comment on leaked emails? On answering questions? On not dissembling to evict the critical Press?
The first email among other things recites accusations by the CAR authorities of the UN using prostitutes. Despite the apparently for public consumption treatment of the issue in the email, UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous has said there would be fewer outright rapes if his peacekeepers had more "R&R." Video here.
So Ladsous bears some responsibility and so does Ban Ki-moon, who fired Senegalese Babacar Gaye rather than the person responsible, Herve Ladsous.
Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who selectively refuses to answer about "leaked" documents, which he called a UN "Aide Memoire" to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the eviction of Inner City Press and a report paid for by the UN / global taxpayers, purported on June 16 to give an update on sexual abuse and expoitation in CAR - but he did not disclose this.
