Amid Spin of DR Congo, Still Lord's Resistance Army In Orientale, Low Rank Trials for Minova, No Deal

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 20 -- With Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army being discussed Wednesday in the UN Security Council in New York, and in passing by US Ambassador Samantha Power at a Politico function, here is aparagraph from the UN's most recent report on the LRA:

"In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the majority of the attacks continued to occur in the Haut-Uélé and Bas-Uélé districts of Orientale Province... During the third quarter of 2013, a total of 29 presumed attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army, including 2 deaths and 21 abductions, were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Water, health, protection and food remain the priority needs in these areas. During the third quarter of 2013, attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army and related deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo declined by 3 per cent, but the number of reported abductions increased. An estimated 256,000 people remain displaced in Orientale Province."

  This comes amid major UN military support to the DRC Kabila government, through its Force Intervention Brigade, to "neutralize" the M23 militia, and staged celebration of Kabila's assertion of governance and sovereignty.

  What may be another shadow-play: a full year after 135 rapes in Minova, today in Goma in a military court 41 lower-level soldiers were put on trial. The higher ups are not named, and after the case has been put back to December 4. But as we have all year, we will cover and pursue it. What does the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy mean, under Herve Ladsous?

  The UN is a run-around. At Wednesday's UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq what the UN is doing to try to ensure that the Kabila government actually inks an agreement with the M23. Haq deflected the question by telling Inner City Press that UN official Abou Moussa had addressed it in his statement. 

  But there, it's only half a sentence: "un accord de paix n'a toujours pas ete signe," an accord of peace has still not been signed. Very helpful. Watch this site.

   

On LRA, HRW's Egeland Dismisses Rwanda "Ambassador," US Vets for Rights?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 26 -- Jan Egeland, now deputy executive director of Human Rights Watch, spoke at the UN about the Lord's Resistance Army on June 26, the day after Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said HRW puts people in Eastern Congo at risk with inaccurate reports.

  Inner City Press asked Egeland to respond to the Rwandan Foreign Minister's critique, since HRW director Ken Roth has not responded at all. Video here from Minute 16:47.

  Egeland said categorically that HRW stands behind all of its reports, given the "rigorous scrutiny... before we publish anything," regardless of what the "Rwandan Ambassador" says. Video here, from Minute 21. 


  Mushikiwabo is, of course, the foreign minister. 


  On a second round of questions Inner City Press asked Egeland, since HRW stands behind all of its reports, what safeguards are in place in the fight against the LRA to not include and involve the elements of the Congolese Army which HRW itself has said are human rights abusers. 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." 
 
   Inner City Press asked if it would be fair to say that this African Union high minded endeavor is outsourcing or delegating all of its human rights vetting to a single member state, the US. No, Egeland said, before the African Union's Francisco Madeira jumped in to describe dedicated human rights officers at the "RTF," and to picking soldiers "one by one," including based on "health."


  This would certainly be different than UN Peacekeeping's deployment of cholera-infected troops to Haiti, a question DPKO chief Herve Ladsous has refused to answer, like why he accepts as a senior adviser the alleged war criminal Sri Lanka General Shavendra Silva.


    The purpose of the June 26 press conference, it seems, was to beat the drum for more money to equip and supply the 5000 troops to be deployed against the LRA. Mention was made not only of the US but also of Germany, which recently authorized its forces to bomb up to two kilometers inside Somalia.

At the tail end of the press conference, Angelique Namaika of the NGO Mama Bongisa told Inner City Press that there are now two kinds of FARDC Congolese soldiers: those who are underpaid and those who are "well paid by the Americans." Who knew? As with Voice of America, US taxpayer dollars at work. Watch this site.

UN Leaps Palestine to Syria, Mood Looks Like a Go, Saudi Snark on Abu Musa

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 23 -- Syria was the subtext in the UN Security Council throughout Monday's Middle East debate. Speaker after speaker began with Palestine, but ended with Syria, nearly all of them offering support for Kofi Annan and his six point plan.

 

  Norway offered support -- and offers its General Robert Mood as Force Commander or SRSG, no longer opposed by Russia as it appeared from Ambassador Churkin's stakeout ten days ago.

  Toward the end of the debate, Iran and members of the Latin Grupo ALBA took their terms, opposing regime change but tellingly also praising Kofi Annan. Is this good diplomacy or sloppy thinking?

  Saudi Arabia's Permanent Representative took a swipe at Iran about Abu Moussa island, then intoned that "repression... no longer has a place in the modern world."

One imagined that Syria's Bashar Ja'afari would snark back about the plight of women in Saudi Arabia. But instead his approach was to chide Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his Political Affairs director Lynn Pascoe for not mentioning the Golan Heights.

Afterward Ja'afari told Inner City Press that the Middle East agenda item of the Security Council is supposed to be about Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and the Occupied Golan, but has been switched into talk about his country. He didn't respond to two Iranian journalists' question about Abu Musa.

Iran, in the chamber, called Abu Musa an "eternal" part of the Iranian territory, and alluded to its "brotherly" relations with the Gulf States. Which ones? Maybe the majority in Bahrain? Watch this site.