After Only 2 Convictions for 130 Minova Rapes by DR Congo Army, UN Associate Spokesperson Stonewalls on Due Diligence

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 6, 2014 -- For months, UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous dodged and refused questions about rapes by the Congolese Army FARDC in Minova. Video compilation here.

   Then on May 5 after other UN officials emphasized that some Congolese soldiers were belatedly being prosecuted, today the verdicts declared not guilty three dozen of the 39 charged, convicting of rape only two of the soldiers, for more than 130 rapes.

  On May 6 at the UN Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's associate spokesperson Vannina Maestracci would would now happen, under the UN's and Ladsous' claimed "Human Rights Due Diligence" Policy. Video here.

    Maestracci insisted, "We said we were disappointed." But is that enough? Is that the due diligence policy? Maestracci said others will be "analyzing" the two convictions.  Inner City Press asked, who will be analyzing, and who would decide on suspending support to the 41st and 391st Battalions?

    "You got my answer," Maestracci said. 

   On May 5 Inner City Press asked deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq if the UN views this low level of conviction "accountability" for the rapes for purposes of continuing Ladsous' support of the 41st and 391st Battalions of the Congolese Army, or views the verdict as an outrage. Video on Inner City Press YouTube channel here and embedded below, followed by weakMONUSCO statement.

  Haq at noon on May 5 had no comment on the verdict, saying that "the mission," MONUSCO under Martin Kobler, will "prepare our response."  But Ban and Ladsous have made much of their supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, under which they said UN support would be suspended for abuses, or for a lack of accountability for abuses.  This, is an abuse. 

    And this may be worse: MONUSCO's weak statement taking note of two convictions for rape after 130 rapes. Human rights due diligence? Hardly.

   Back on April 9, Ladsous appeared for a press conference with High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. Ladsous presented the Minova cases -- no convictions -- as a success for the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy.

  Inner City Press asked Navi Pillay if she thought sixteen months and counting was too long, given that Ladsous' MONUSCO is still working with the implicated FARDC units, the 41st and 391st Battalion.

  Then Inner City Press specifically asked Ladsous about charges of gang rape against peacekeepers in his Mali mission MINUSMA. Have those charged been cleared?

   Pillay said she hadn't presented Minova as a success, and that she is concerned about the delay. Then Ladsous sat silent. The Department of Public Information moderator said, "Mr. Lee, I said this was about the DRC." Video here and embedded below.

  So rapes ascribed to UN Peacekeepers in Mali go UNanswered? There is a pattern:

   On April 7 it was a simple question to Ladsous, which he refused: when will UN Peacekeeping go after or neutralize the Hutu FDLR militia? It was asked by Inner City Press on April 7, the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda in which the FDLR were perpetrators.

But UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous replied, "To you, Mister, you know I never answer your questions, and you know very well why." Video here, and embedded below.

Why, then? Ladsous was France's Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN in 1994 during the Rwanda genocide, and he argued for French policies including the escape of the genocidaires into Eastern Congo. Seesample memo, here.

It is one thing for France to so deny this history that it decided its Justice Minister would not attend the genocide commemoration in Kigali. But for a French UN official to openly refuse to answer a question about his responsibility, to neutralize the Hutu FDLR militia in Eastern Congo?

This happened at the International Peace Institute on First Avenue across from the UN Headquarters. On the panel with Ladsous as he said this were IPI's Francesco Mancini, Italy's Permanent Representative Sebastiano Cardi, Pakistan's Deputy Permanent Representative Khan and Ameerah Haq, Under-Secretary-General for the UN Department of Field Support. The audience, witnesses, were a range of diplomats and UN officials.

  Ladsous, ever since Inner City Press asked him about his history, has resisted questions inside the UN, see video compilation here, UK coverage in the New Statesman here.

But previously Ladsous did answer an Inner City Press question at IPI, and UN officials made much of it to Inner City Press, as if to say, Ladsous is reasonable, he is not engaged in censorship.

But he is. Another example: while UN Peacekeeping spends a lot of money promoting itself on social media, Inner City Press has asked why for example its MINURSO mission in Western Sahara, in which Morocco and France oppose a human rights monitoring mandate, has no social media presence.

The answer given at IPI -- not by Ladsous, who refuses Inner City Press questions -- is that for some missions, countries do no give permission for certain equipment or, apparently, Twitter accounts. But who could it be, banning MINURSO in Western Sahara from social media?

  Ladsous tries to spoonfeed information to friendly scribes; in his favorfirst the UN Correspondents Association (requested by Agence France Presse) then the current spokesperson of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have made threats to discourage coverage. There's more on this - but this is today's video, here; this is today's UN. Watch this site.

   

On Rapes by DRC Army, Belkacem Said “Time Is Enemy" - A Year Ago. With No Convictions Since, Now What?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 7 -- When French minister on the rights of women Najat Vallaud-Belkacem came to the UN last March for the Commission on the Status of Women, Inner City Press asked her about the 135 rapes in Minova by two battalions of the Congolese Army which UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous supports.

  Then, Vallaud-Belkacem said that "time is the enemy" in rape investigations. In June 2013, when Inner City Pressasked again, she acknowledged that there had not "yet" been enough arrests.

   Now it is March 2014 and there have been no convictions for the Minova rapes but Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to run UN Peacekeeping, continues to support the 41st and 391st Battalions of the Congolese Army, while refusing to answer Press questions.

  This is what France's domination of UN Peacekeeping and now more at the UN has come to: impunity, lack of accountability, statements like that of Ambassador Gerard Araud last week that "there is no Navi Pillay report" that France's disarming of ex Seleka in Central African Republic put Muslim communities at risk, but click here for that.

  What does Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a spokesperson for the government of Francois Hollande, now say one year later?

 Fifteen months after two units of the Congolese Army committed over 130 rapes at Minova, "Sexual Violence in Conflict" was the topic of a panel discussion at the UN on March 6.  

   The UN's envoy on the topic, Zainab Bangura, praised Congolese president Joseph Kabila for his new focus on rape. But have there been any convictions at all for the 135 rapes 15 months ago?

  The Enough Project, which ran the event, promised that questions like this one, submitted on paper in the room and on Twitter, will be answered. We'll see.

  The head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous dodged Press questions about the Minova rapes for months, evendirecting his spokesperson to seize the microphone so the questions couldn't be asked. Click here for that video.

  On March 6 Ladsous was at it again, refusing to answer a Press question about allowing a UN-listed child soldier recruiter into "his" mission on Mali and prospectively in the Central African Republic. At the UN, grandiose speeches are given, but too often there is little follow through and no accountability.

 Here's a place to start: the US-trained 391st Battalion of the Congolese Army FARDC, which took part in the mass rape at Minova.

   That was more than 14 months ago, and yet at a February press conference by the UN Mission in the Congo MONUSCO, it was reported that in the already delayed interview of victims in Minova, interviewers spoke with barely a quarter of the more than 200 listed victims. Still no justice. 

  Again: the 391st Battalion, one of two charged with the Minova rapes, was trained by the United States. (Click here for comment the US Mission to the UN provided to Inner City Press, which also first reported that Ambassador Samantha Power raised Minova to Joseph Kabila in October.) 

  Kobler acknowledged that the most recent hearing in the Minova case had been postponed, that witness statements have still not been taken. Video here, from Minute 6:32. 

  Given that the UN says it has a Human Rights Due Diligence Policy of not supporting army units engaged in abuses, how much longer will the UN accept this? Fifteen months and counting.

   Watch this site.
   

Mali Police UN Works With Killed Protester in Kidal, Ladsous Says in Rare Answer to Inner City Press; Policy Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 13 -- The Malian police in Kidal shot protesters after UN peacekeepers and French Serval forces told the crowd to disperse. Last weekend one of those shot died.

  Inner City Press on Friday asked UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous about the incident, and also how France obtained a non-public Letter of Assist payment from the UN for airfield services in northern Mali, how much it is for and why it is not more transparent.

  Ladsous replied that "I make it a policy not to respond to you, Mister," but then provided something of an answer to the first but not second, financial, question. Video here, from Minute 15:45.

  He said, "I will respond on Kidal, because indeed that was a very unfelicitous occurrence. Our UN Police and Serval, the French troops, ordered the crowd to disperse. It appears Malian police did shoot, and yes, three civilians were injured, one of whom died over the weekend."

  In many countries, if an unarmed civilian is shot and killed by police the officer is suspended and charges are brought or put before a grand jury or other tribunal. What is happening here?

  Ladsous said, "We are looking further into the matter. Of course we have to say if indeed it is established beyond any doubt that the Malian police did shoot, that is not a way to behave, this is absolutely unacceptable."

  But to whom must it be established beyond a doubt? In the case of the 135 rapes in Minova by the 391st and 41st Battalions of the Congolese Army, the UN has continued to provide material support to those two units for the eleventh months before any trial started.

  Ladsous did not say anything in response to Inner City Press' question about how France got the Letter of Assist, how much it is for and why it is not more public. 

 The history of Ladsous and the policy he adopted in May 2012 of not answering any of Inner City Press' questions, including about the Minova rapes except once at the International Peace Institute across First Avenue from the UN, is long; since there was at least this plausible interim answer on the Kidal shootings to report, we leave it here for now.

  But even on this there are questions of policy -- to use Ladsous' word -- which should obviously be answered or responded to. Does Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy apply to this case of Malian police shooting at unarmed protesters? 

  Is the UN's MINUSMA mission still working with these Malian police? These questions should be answered. Watch this site.

   

On DR Congo, UN Peacekeeping Report on Impunity for Electoral Violence "Did Not Come Up" in UNSC When Briefed by UN Peacekeeping's Ladsous, Minova Case Rape Spin

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- After the UN itself issued a report calling on the "the international community to urge Congolese authorities to combat impunity and prosecute those suspected of human rights violations committed during the election process," Inner City Press asked French Ambassador Gerard Araud about it, at the conclusion of the UN Security Council's DRC session on Wednesday.

  Araud replied that the issue had not come up during the more than two hour meeting just concluded. One must ask, why not? The report was issued by MONUSCO, the UN Peacekeeping mission. Herve Ladsous, the chief of UN Peacekeeping, was in the meeting (though he did not speak to the press afterward).

  The head of MONUSCO, Martin Kobler, did come and speak to the press. Inner City Press asked him two accountability questions: about the above-quoted report, and also about the Minova rapes by the 391st and 41st Battalions of the Congolese Army, and when the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy might be applied to them.

  Kobler answered about Minova, that a trial has begun but so far only the 40 (or 41) charged soldiers have been interviewed. He said that the HRDDP is implemented, but it is still unclear: why did MONUSCO continue working with the 391st and 41st Battalions after their mass rape, for a full year before any kind of trial began? Are the commanders being held accountable?

Araud also spoke about the Minova rapes, after saying that the MONUSCO report on electoral violence, here, had not come up. He made much of the trials, not mentioning the limitation on interviews that Kobler had mentioned. 

  But Araud is coming to take questions after many sessions this month - it is Ladsous, of the three briefers on Wednesday, who did not come to the stakeout. There are many questions that he should answer his next time. But will he? Watch this site.

   

UN Peacekeepers for Syria Floated by Ladsous in Moscow, Copters from Cote d'Ivoire to Mali, Stonewalling on Rapes

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 14 -- The murky capture of UN Peacekeeping by France through Herve Ladsous is on display this week, from Mali through Eastern Congo and now even to Russia, on Syria.

  While refusing to answer Press questions at the UN in New York, including about alleged gang rape by his peacekeepers in Mali and partners in the Congolese Army, UK coverage here, Ladsous today in Moscow let drop that the UN might send peacekeepers to Syria. Click here, and here.

  But how? Under what mandate? Back in mid-2012 it wasLadsous who pulled the plug on the UN mission led by Robert Mood. Now he'd go back in for what?

  Speaking to Radio France International, where else, on November 4 Ladsous bragged that he was moving attack helicopters from former French colony Cote d'Ivoire over to another former French colony, Mali, while waiting to bring in troops from, where else, Burkina Faso. Ladsous alluded to new copters coming from... Central America.

  But he has refused to answer whether Mauritania's demand to only serve in the MISUSMA mission along its own border complies with UN rules. Ladsous has ignored or even destroyed the UN's stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, by continuing to support the 41 and 391 Battalions of the Congolese Army implicated in 135 rapes in Minova.

  These rapes will belatedly be mentioned in today's Security Council Presidential Statement, as Inner City Press reported yesterday. But the policy has already been defanged by Ladsous.

  As noted, while leaving all this murky, Ladsous is slated for a "panel discussion" near but outside of the UN next week, for dues-payers. Watch this site.

   

Amid Reports DR Congo Army Shelled Rwanda & Shot Woman, 58, UN's Herve Ladsous Laughs, Scribes Spin, Tensions Mount

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 25 -- Amid reports of the shelling of Rwanda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and for example the shooting of 58 year old Catherine Gahombo by the UN's partners the DRC Army, questions were asked inside the Security Council and at the day's noon briefing.

On the obvious question of WHO shelled Rwanda, Inner City Press is told that UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said he didn't know. This stands in contrast to previous cases where his UN Peacekeeping has immediately ascribed shelling to the M23 rebels.

Since the UN has gone so far in the Congo as to become a combatant, it cannot be viewed as an impartial reporter.

Inner City Press at noon asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky about the DRC Army shooting of Ms. Gahombo. Nesirky said he would look into it. Inner City Press asked if the UN's MONUSCO mission is supposed to protect civilians, what about protecting them FROM the DRC Army where necessary?

Nesirky said that in conflicts, civilians get hurt. But protection of civilians is the UN's rationale for using helicopter gunships against the M23. But the UN still works with the DRC Army units, the 41st and the US-trained 391st Battalions, which raped 135 Congolese women in Minova.

While Ladsous was inside purporting to briefing the Council, a member not from Africa negatively reviewed Ladsous' performance to Inner City Press. The reality is, Ladsous has previously argued for the escape of the Rwanda genocidaires into Eastern Congo. Click here for one of the memos on that. 

 How can Ladsous be the one briefing on the shelling of Rwanda?

Ladsous left without a word -- laughing, in fact. Any previous head of UN Peacekeeping would have spoken at the stakeout and taken questions. But Ladsous refuses Press questions. Video here, UK coverage here.

  A scribe who has twice acted for Ladsous, seeking to censor coverage and even questioning of Ladsous, arrived at the stakeout, seemingly summoned to tell (t)his story. The scribe did not remain when the Security Council's president for October, the Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan, read out a statement.

  Inner City Press asked if there had been discussion of WHO shelled Rwanda. No, apparently.

  Afterward, Rwandan Ambassador Gasana told the press that Rwanda has soldiers on the border who can act. This statement may be twisted by the scribes; after that, Gasana told Inner City Press that they, including Ladsous, didn't even care about the shooting of Catherine Gahombo.

  It seemed clear: diplomats who simply go along with the French flow on DRC did want to make sure that Gasana, personally, was OK. He is genial, but he is not only speaking for himself. On DRC, UN Peacekeeping is increasingly irresponsible. Watch this site.

   

US Mission Confirms to Inner City Press That Samantha Power Raised Minova Rapes In DR Congo, But What of UN "Rights Diligence" Policy?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 22 -- As UN Peacekeeping continues to provide military support to two Congolese Army units implicated in 135 rapes in Minova last November, despite a lack of any prosecutions, who will hold the UN accountable to its own "Human Rights Due Diligence Policy"?

  Under that policy, the UN should not provide support to national or regional security forces engaged in human rights abuses - of which mass rape must be considered.

  After running into stonewalling by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous (video here, UK coverage here), continued on Monday by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky, Inner City Press asked the US Mission to the UN for the position of Ambassador Samantha Power on what would or should for the UN to actually suspend aid to an army unit?

  Inner City Press also requested a summary of the response, if any, of President Joseph Kabila (or DRC ministers) to questions on the Minova rapes -- as Inner City Press first reported Ambassador Power had to her credit raised.

  Late on Monday, a UN Mission official provided this answer to Inner City Press:

"The United States continues to take very seriously reports that Congolese armed forces (FARDC) committed mass rapes and other human rights abuses in and around Minova in eastern DRC following the fall of Goma in November 2012. We condemn these crimes unequivocally and have called for a full and credible investigation. The United States continues to stress to the DRC government the importance of thoroughly investigating and bringing to a swift resolution the prosecution of the grievous crimes alleged to have occurred in Minova. As you know, Ambassador Power and raised this issue during the Security Council visit to Congo earlier this month, and other senior U.S. officials continue to raise this as well."

  This appreciated answer is published in full, and one wonders of these "other senior U.S. officials" include former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, now US Special Envoy on the Great Lakes.

  But it is not (only) a bilateral issue between the US and DRC, even though the fact that the 391st Battalion, implicated in the rapes, was U.S. trained makes it that as well.

  Rather, the US should be willing to hold UN Peacekeeping to its own stated principles. As asked, If 135 rapes and no convictions after 11 months is not enough for the UN to suspend aid to these two Congolese Army units, what is?

While UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Navi Pillay's spokesperson Rupert Colville earlier this year sent Inner City Press a summary of the policy, despite a direct request to Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky at noon on Monday, by midnight no copy of the policy had been provided. But Nesirky insists the (withheld) policy is being adhered to. Video here.

This is not the transparency which should be expected, and demanded, from the UN. We'll have more on this. For now for a longer form analysis, on Beacon Press, click here. Watch this site.

   

Minova Rapes by DRC Army, Covered Up by UN's Ladsous, Belatedly Cited by Kobler for Council and Kampala

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 20 -- Eleven months ago, Congolese soldiers from the 41st and 391st Battalions committed at least 135 rapes in Minova. 

 The head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous repeatedly refused to answer Press questions about the rapes. Video here; UK New Statesman coverage here.

  Now Ladsous' man in Kinshasa Martin Kobler has belatedly criticized the Congolese authorities which he has supported with attack helicopters for not bringing anyone to account for the mass rapes.

  Why only now? Well, it was convenient for Kobler not to speak about this while helping these same DRC Army rape units in their operations in the field. Kobler was too busy threatening to "punish" the M23 rebels, and drinking in the cheers of some after attacks that left these rebels "licking their wounds" as Ladsous ghoulishly put it in New York while taking only friendly questions. 

 Ladsous has refused to address his own history in the Great Lakes, arguing for the escape of genocidaires from Rwanda into Eastern Congo, click here for that.

Now there is another inconvenient question: how can the UN hypocritically preach "no impunity" at the M23 negotiations in Kampala if it has remains silent on, even through Ladsous helped the cover-up of, the DRC Army's Minova rapes? And so a belated statement by Kobler, here on Google Docs.

During the UN General Debate on September 23, Inner City Press asked UN Great Lakes envoy Mary Robinson why the UN kept supporting the DRC Army rape Battalions 41 and 391. Robinson's answer cited the UN's supposed "zero tolerance." But some now call it the UN's "zero truthfulness" policy.

Kobler's head of human rights Scott Campbell has said "it is clear" that UN cannot support Army units involved in such crimes unless their leaders are brought to justice. 

  But this is false: it is not at all clear, since Ladsous decided, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon despite being asked by the Press did not overturn the decision, to keep supporting these rape units.

  Ban had announced, in his usual quiet way, a supported Human Rights Due Diligence Policy that would ban UN support to Army units engaged in human rights violations. 

 Then on this Minova test, the policy was found to be meaningless, just like his UN's calls for accountability and rule of law while dismissing all claims it brought cholera to Haiti, and withholding even its watered down report of the UN's inaction in Sri Lanka while 40,000 civilians were killed.

  Robinson was at the talks in Kampala, then reportedly left. In the US, Ambassador Samantha Power who as Inner City Press first reported raised at least the words Minova rapes to DRC president Joseph Kabila during the Security Council's recent French-led trip through the region, was tweeting Saturday night about the Red Sox' win over the Detroit Tigers. The 391st Battalion was US-trained.

  The US Mission to the UN never answered on what, if anything, Kabila or the Congolese ministers also asked by UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, said in response about Minova.

  On Monday in the Security Council it is time for Ladsous and Kobler to report on the DRC. Kobler's and Campbell's eleventh hour -- no , eleventh month -- statements come too late. 

  But that's not how their scribes, for example Reuters and Voice of America handpicked by France to fly free on the UN plane and sing MONUSCO's praises, will report it. Zero truthfulness, indeed.