UN's Strange Quiet on Its Darfur Catering Contractors, Negotiating For Themselves?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 13 -- When asked why the UN said nothing for more than a week about the taking of three of its catering contractors in Darfur as hostages, UN deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey told Inner City Press "when people are being held, we await the process of negotiation."Video here.

  What's strange here, though, is that there was no policy of not disclosing the hostage taking -- it was just another of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations' games. 

  The downing of the helicopter and taking of the three individuals -- DPKO now stresses to Inner City Press they are NOT staff of the UN, but catering contractors -- would have been disclosed at the August 5 noon briefing if anyone had asked.

  Thus, it's like playing the game of Twenty Questions with the DPKO -- except that 20 opportunities to ask a question are not given. Sometimes, only one.

When Inner City Press asked Herve Ladsous' four DPKO spokespeople, as well as Del Buey, about the hostage taking on the morning on August 13, Del Buey replied to all that

Date: Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 11:39 AM
From: Eduardo Del Buey [at] un.org
Subject: Re: Request for confirmation that a UNAMID helicopter has gone down in Darfur, and again re Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, pls confirm receipt, thank you
To: Kieran Dwyer, Andre-Michel Essoungou, Josephine Guerrero, Farhan Haq
Cc: FUNCA

Colleagues

I will reply using the if Asked of 05 August.

Cheers

Eduardo del Buey
Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General

  Moments later, the If-Asked that would have been read out, that is, disclosed on August 5 if the question had been asked arrived:

On 3 August 2013, the helicopter of a African Union/United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) contractor, tasked with delivering supplies to various UNAMID locations in South Darfur, made an emergency landing due to severe weather conditions.

Upon landing, 50 kilometers southeast of Nyala town, the crew members were detained by members of the Sudan Liberation Army - Mini Manawi (SLA/MM).

Communication is being maintained with all parties and negotiations are underway for the safe release of the crew, as well as the recovery of the helicopter.

  This was belatedly released by UNAMID in Sudan on August 13 -- eight days after it would have been released if-asked. The UN has no policy of not disclosing such information - it just will only do so if-asked, while controlling how many questions can get asked. Something is wrong.

Inner City Press, since publishing a first story on this and asking at the noon briefing, has received from the UN a request to clarify that the hostages are catering contractors. Del Buey at the August 13 noon briefing said "UN people have been taken;" both stories have been updated to specify "catering contractors." Does a separate standard, of disclosure or anything else, apply to them?

Also, apparently "if-asked" (and it was, by Inner City Press), this update has arrived:

"in terms of an update, we have the following information: The catering company has been in negotiations with SLA-Minni Minawi over the release of the helicopter and crew, with UNAMID also calling on Minni Minawi to release the occupants unharmed."

So the catering company is left to negotiate for itself? Watch this site.

   

As UN Stonewalls on Herve Ladsous Meeting with ICC-Indicted Bashir and Failure on Visas, Of "Kept Body" & Spoon-feeding Redux

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 7 -- The UN's Herve Ladsous, whose spokesperson Kieran Dwyer has belatedly admitted the UN Mine Action Services' role in Somalia sharing genetic information with the US FBI, if only to a friendly scribe, hasyet to explain meeting with indicted war criminal Omar al Bashir last month.

  Ladsous doesn't answer Press questions, video here; now he appears to be gone from the UN

On the August 6 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: on the visas for Darfur, I wondered whether Hervé Ladsous, when he met with President Bashir, said that one of the topics was letting in international staff. Did the issue of non-DPKO [Department of Peacekeeping Operations], or i.e., UNHCR staff, come up? And what else was discussed at that meeting, given a lot of interest, in UN officials meeting on a strictly necessary basis with ICC [International Criminal Court] indicted individuals? Thank you.

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: On the meeting that Under-Secretary-General Ladsous had with President Bashir, I will check with my colleagues on whether there is anything further we could say on that.

  More than 24 hours later, there was no response at all. But Ladsous' spokesperson Kieran Dwyer did answer a question Inner City Press publicly asked Nesirky on June 24, about a whistleblower's complaint Ladsous received. First, on June 26, Inner City Press was told:

Subject: Your questions on Somalia
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Jun 26, 2013 at 9:43 AM
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] innercitypress.com

The Department of Peacekeeping Operations does not discuss internal communications or emails received with media correspondents.

  Still, Inner City Press kept asking, including UN envoy Nicholas Kay (who replied it was a question "for New York") and wrote a five part series. Then Ladsous' spokesperson Dwyer spoon-fed a misleading half-admission to another correspondent.

  After Inner City Press noted it, Ladsous' office belatedly, just as the August 7 noon briefing was to begin, gave an answer to Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Nesirky.

  But no answer on Ladous' meeting with ICC indictee Bashir, what was accomplished on visas. And where IS the body, that Ladsous in Sudan bragged about keeping?

  Another Ladsous spokesman, Andre-Michel Essoungou, known for grabbing the UN TV microphone in December to try to avoid an Inner City Press question about Ladsous covering up the 135 rapes by the Congolese Army in Minova, was floating around on August 7, food related interchange with another Ladsous client.

  It is distasteful, just as Ladsous' meeting with Bashir was found by many to be disgusting. This is leading somewhere. Watch this site.

Footnote: After Andre-Michel Essoungou's December 2012 microphone grab and a complaint from the new Free UN Coalition for Access, the UN's Stephane Dujarric admitted it was wrong. But, he said, he has spoken -- not with Ladsous, but Essoungou. 

  Well, Essoungou interjected himself again recently, to steer a question to Agence France Presse. This is what allows and encourages the spoon-feeding. 

  No answers Wednesday afternoon as FUNCA raised, including in advance, the fact of 15 journalists with three seats at the Security Council stakeout, next to the "Turkish Lounge" with three tables and ten chairs, entirely unused. This lack of response can be called the Ladsousification of the UN. Watch this site.

  

   

As UN Peacekeeping's Ladsous Seeks Friendly Coverage of Mali, Dodges War Crimes Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 10 -- UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous recently traveled to Sudan, where he met with Omar al Bashir who has been indicted for war crimes and genocide. 

  While there, Ladsous bragged that his peacekeepers have become more aggressive, even “kept the body” of an assailant they killed.

  In New York, Inner City Press asked if this complied with the Geneva Conventions, not to say Islamic law. But these questions have not been answered.

  Ladsous went to Mali, where the French government he served for years including at the UN during the 1994 Rwanda genocide has been bragging of its central role in the upcoming July 28 elections.

  In New York, Inner City Press asked repeatedly if Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations supports units of the Congolese Army depicted involved in war crimes, rapes, arming the FDLR militia and even looting UN compounds in the Group of Experts report, the full text of which Inner City Press exclusively put online on June 29.

  That day, 11 days ago, Inner City Press asked Ladsous four spokespeople -- Kieran Dwyer, Andre-Michel Essoungou, Josephine Guerrero and Anayansi Lopez -- for a yes or no answer. Receipt was confirmed, and an answer promised. But no answer has been provided. This is a pattern: video compilation here.

  Now 11 days after that question, and after Ladsous skipped out on a question and answer stakeout he was supposed to hold on July 9, there's this quote in AP: “Herve Ladsous told a group of reporters Wednesday that the new U.N. peacekeeping force in Mali will also be helping to provide security for the election.”

  So rather than answer questions that are asked, including at the UN's noon briefing, Ladsous sneaks around trying to find friendly coverage that will not ask him about war crimes, whether in 1994 or by the Congolese army units he supports in 2012 and 2013.

  The issue is now raised that the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over the situation in the DR Congo - that is, Ladsous' MONUSCO mission - and in Mali, the MISUSMA mission.

  Days ago, MINUSMA answered a question about its role in the election to the new Free UN Coalition for Access, formed to make the UN more transparent and officials like Ladsous answer. But now, as predicted, MINUSMA has stopped answering, a simple question about its mandate and the ICC.

This is what Ladsous is doing to the UN, and UN Peacekeeping. #LADSOUS2013. Watch this site.

   

UN Talks Much About the Congo But Doesn't Answer on Its Support of Rapist Army Units, Walikale Waste of Meece's Mills

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 9 -- The UN at all levels blathers about how much it cares for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But its communications are a one way street.

  Take just this morning, July 9. The UN mission MONUSCO tweeted about its “quick impact projects.” But in 2012, now gone top envoy Roger Meece was exposed for a dysfunctional grain mill project in Walikale, ostensibly to make up for the UN standing by during the mass rape there. 

  The “quick” impact project was mis-planned and mocked by locals. But the UN keeps bragging.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access has taken an interest in the UN system's social media practices, for example theunexplained mis-tweets by the UN Information Center in Washington DC. So @FUNCA_Questions asked MONUSCO for an update on the Walikale project, dubbed Meece's Mills. But none has been given.

  The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tweeted about unrest in South Kivu -- but the report they attached was from May 2013. 

  The UN in Geneva tweeted a photograph of a French sponsored event about the plight of women in the DRC. Butany update on accountability for the (at least) 135 rape victims in late November in Minova in South Kivu? UN Peacekeeping under its fourth French chief in a row, Herve Ladsous, has continued to support two units implicated in the rapes, the 41st and 391st battalions.

It's been ten days now since Inner City Press asked all four of Ladsous' spokespeople -- Kieran Dwyer, Andre-Michel Essoungou, Josephine Guerrero and Anayansi Lopez -- a simple question.

Inner City Press asked whether Congolese Army units listed in the Group of Experts report the full text of which Inner City Press exclusively put online, as credited by BBC and Bloomberg News, have received support from the UN's (and Ladsous') MONUSCO.

That same day receipt was acknowledged by Anayansi Lopez and a DPKO answer promised. Ten days later, nothing. This is Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping, and its approach to impunity. Watch this site.

   

After Golan Kidnap Allowed by Ladsous Laxity, Belated Half-Answer, UNCA Defense

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 -- More than three hours after a Press request, and after Herve Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations spoon-fed half answers about another kidnapping of peacekeepers under his watch to friendly scribes, this written response was sent:

Subject: Re: Request for all information DPKO has providing about new detention of UN peacekeepers in the Golan, etc
Date: Thu, May 16, 2013 at 11:14 PM
From: Josephine Guerrero [at] un.org
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] InnerCityPress.com
Cc's [many, including]: Kieran Dwyer [at] un.org, Andre-Michel Essoungou [at] un.org, FUNCA

Matthew, On the most recent detention of UN peacekeepers in the Golan:

In the early morning on 15 May, a group of unknown armed men broke into UN Observation Post 52, in the area of separation. Three Observer Group Golan unarmed military observers were taken and held for approximately five hours and were released unharmed. They returned safely to UN Observation Post 52 where they were met by the UNDOF Head of Mission.

  It's appreciated, and Inner City Press immediately publishes it in full - but it doesn't answer Inner City Press' question at the May 16 noon briefing, about "the highest levels of DPKO" being aware of the role of Qatari intelligence and the Syrian opposition "ambassador" in Doha in the previous kidnapping of Filipino UN peacekeepers.

  Nor does it answer when Inner City Press directly requested, more than three hours earlier, "for an explanation of how this information was disseminated on such a limited basis, including in light of DPKO spokesperson Dwyer's statements at UN World Press Freedom Day event." Video here.

  Nevertheless, an anonymous social media account associated with the UN Correspondents Association quickly jumped in, defending Ladsous from the verdict of a Troop Contributing Country, that Ladsous is "a loser." Perhaps Reuters or UNCA should contributed troops: they are certainly willing to be servile. Watch this site.

UN Peacekeeping Kidnapped in Golan and Debased by Herve Ladsous, Troop Contributing Country Calls Him a Loser

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 -- After two weeks in which UN peacekeepers were killed in Abyei and the Congo, and twice kidnapped in the Golan Heights, on Thursday the Deputy Permanent Representative of a Troop Contribution Country told Inner City Press "Ladsous is a loser."

  Ladsous is Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping. Ever since Inner City Press raised the issue of Ladsous' record during the Rwanda genocide, as France's Deputy Permanent Representative who argued for and enabled the escape of genocidaires into Eastern Congo, Ladsous has refused to answer Press questions. Video here.

  Later on Thursday, when stories and tweets appeared showing that Ladsous had run to friendly scribes about the most recently kidnapping of peacekeepers, rather even that having the UN send out an e-mail to all correspondents, Inner City Press wrote to Ladsous' three - yes, three - spokespeople, as well as to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's top three spokespeople, and the Free UN Coalition for Access:

"This is a formal request for all information DPKO or the UN has providing about new detention of UN peacekeepers in the Golan, and for an explanation of how this information was disseminated on such a limited basis, including in light of DPKO spokesperson Dwyer's statements at UN World Press Freedom Day event. On deadline."

From Ladsous' main spokesman, Kieran Dwyer, came this:

"I am out of the office until 22/05/2013. I will be travelling on official business, and only intermittently checking emails. In my absence please contact Ms Anayansi Lopez, officer-in-charge of the Public Affairs Section of DPKO-DFS: mobile [REDACTED] landline 917-367-9050; lopez12 [at] un.org. For media inquiries please contact Ms Josephine Guerrero, mobile 

[REDACTED]

 landline +1-212-963-1964; guerreroj [at] un.org; or Mr Andre-Michel Essoungou, mobile 

[REDACTED],

 landline: +1-917-9400-685; essoungou [at] un.org"

But from the other five spokespeople written to on deadline, there was no response except one of Ban Ki-moon's spokespeople referring it back to the above-referenced Josephine Guerrero, or "Jo" -

"Jo: This one is yours!"

But nothing came from Jo -- who, a nice person, was forced by Ladsous to scurry at a stakeout to find another reporter, any other reporter, to ask about Abyei. She couldn't find one, and Ladsous was left pretending that Inner City Press wasn't asking a question.

The other, Andre-Michel Essoungou, was debased into seizing the UN Television microphone on December 18, 2012, to try to protect Ladsous from a Press question about then 126 (now 135) rapes by Ladsous' partners in the Congolese Army in Minova.

Ladsous has debased DPKO, and now the wider UN. As a major TCC has put it, he's "a loser." So when is he leaving? Watch this site.

On Minova, DPKO Gets ICP Question, Gives Statement to Reuters Scribe Michelle Nichols

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 16 -- Reporting on the 126 rapes in Minova in November by the Congolese Army, Inner City Press before 10 am on Tuesday asked UN sexual violence in conflict envoy Zainab Bangura if the UN was still supporting the two Army units it had said it would suspend.

  Bangura replied to Inner City Press that support had been suspended, but to ask DPKO, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

  Inner City Press immediately asked DPKO and Ban Ki-moon's three top spokespeople, and asked at the noon briefing until cut off by Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky, 

  He said DPKO would answer “quite shortly,” video here from Minute 11:25. But now a responsive statement has been given at least to Reuters, increasingly Herve Ladsous' DPKO's go-to scribe or lapdog, but NOT to Inner City Press. An objection has been filed.

  At 10:14 am on April 16 Inner City Press e-mailed three questions to DPKO spokespeople Kieran Dwyer and Andre-Michel Essoungou, copying Ban Ki-moon's top three spokespeople Martin Nesirky, Eduardo Del Buey and Farhan Haq. On Minova:

At a briefing by Zainab Bangura just now, when I asked her about the Minova rapes she said, among other things,

1) that DPKO has suspended support to the two unit. She then told me to ask DPKO, so I am. Please confirm or deny.

2) that the general of one unit told her they have identified 33 suspected rapists. Please state if that is DPKO's understanding, and if so why the suspension of 12 (and arrest of 3) is considered sufficient by DPKO.

3) that one of the two units was trained by the United States. Is that DPKO's understanding? Please confirm or deny.

  Dwyer confirmed receipt, “I will need to communicate with the mission on the matters related to MONUSCO, and other colleagues on the other matters. I will get back to you. You will understand that this will take a little time. It's not clear to me what you mean by "on deadline" given the nature of your website publishing, but I will get back to you as soon as I can.”

  Inner City Press explained to all addressees, “Last Thursday, April 11 I asked at the noon briefing about the Minova rapes, and you were quoted giving the answer to the question to Reuters (but not Inner City Press) later that same day, which was then later given at the Friday, April 12 noon briefing. Inner City Press complained about that on April 12; the Free UN Coalition for Access is formally objecting. On this, note that Inner City Press has asked you these questions at 10:14 am, April 16.”

  Because the UN should have been able to immediately answer Inner City Press' question about having suspended or not having suspended support, Inner City Press went to the day's UN noon briefing and began asking.

  Nesirky cut the question off, saying that DPKO would be answering “quite shortly.”

  Then, without any response to Inner City Press from DPKO or Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office, Reuters via its scribe who has done this (and more) before reported:

“The United Nations said in a statement on Tuesday it was still supporting the two battalions 'in view of a number of recent and appropriate actions being taken by the authorities.'”

  The most recent press release on MONUSCO's web site is from March 24.  Inner City Press immediately wrote to Dwyer, Essoungou, Nesirky, Del Buey and Haq:

I put in Inner City Press' questions at 10:14 am, and was asking at the noon briefing before being cut off and told that DPKO would be giving me answers "quite shortly." ... Now I have just read in Reuters: "The United Nations said in a statement on Tuesday it was still supporting the two battalions 'in view of a number of recent and appropriate actions being taken by the authorities.'"

This is a formal request -- where IS that statement? When and to whom was it given? Why was it not given to Inner City Press? How is this, along with USG Ladsous and spokesman microphone grab of December 18, 2012 and refusing to take questions, in any way acceptable?

  Of Michelle Nichols, Inner City Press has shown, including to Reuters big wigs Stephen J. Adler, Greg McCune, Paul Ingrassia and Walden Siew  and even the company “social media editor,” the filing of a manifestly false complaint with UN Security (in it claiming that when DPKO spoon-feeds information to Reuters, including answers to the questions Inner City Press has asked, it is a “Reuters scoop”). 

  There's more, but the focus is on DPKO's -- and now Ban's Spokesperson's office -- new low. Watch this site.

Day Late on Minova, Anti-Press VOA Uses Mic Grabbing Ladsous Spox, FUNCA Objects

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 12 -- After the UN admittedly gave its answer to Inner City Press' April 11 question about the 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army to Reuters and AFP before responding to Inner City Press a full day later, Inner City Press formally objected. Transcript here, and below.

  And after that, the most derivative of state media, Voice of America, chugged in with the same story, no critique of the UN, just a different Ladsous spokesman.

  Ironically Ladsous took all three scribes -- VOA's Margaret Besheer, Reuters' Louis Charbonneau and AFP's Tim Witcher -- out into the hallway with him on November 27, after refusing on camera to answer Inner City Press'questions about the Minova rapes. Video here.

  Then on December 18, the spokesman today quoted by VOA's Besheer, Andre-Michel Essoungou, followed Ladsous' direction to seize the UN Television microphone to try to avoid Inner City Press' questions about the rapes. Video here.

Supposedly, UN official Stephane Dujarric spoke to Essoungou about the seizure of the mic of UNTV, which Dujarric is supposed to oversee. But nothing was ever said publicly, further emboldening Ladsous.

  It was to Dujarric that at Besheer's urging Voice of America's Steve Redisch wrote on June 20, 2012 asking that Inner City Press' accreditation be “reviewed.” Besheer wrote that her colleagues at Reuters and AFP were included to go the same route, with the same "tenor."

  Dujarric and those above him in the Department of Public Information have yet to institute any rules of due process for such complaints, thereby encouraging frivolous stealth complaints like those filed March 8, 2103 by AFP's Witcher and Charbonneau's underling at Reuters, Michelle Nichols.

  Witcher went so far as to complaint to UN Security about how Inner City Press asked Ladsous a question about the Minova rapes. Something is deeply wrong in the UN and this part of its press corps, and their enablers and wannabe friends.

Footnote: at the Broadcast Board of Governors, which purports to oversee VOA, Dana Perino is leaving, and Matthew C. Armstrong is nominated to take her seat. 

Records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from BBG showed Perino to at least be asking questions about Redisch and David Ensor's censorship moves. But will she now speak out? Will Armstrong?

BBG has been sitting more months on a FOIA request it (or Besheer, intentionally) mishandled. Now another request has been made. Watch this site.

From the UN's April 12 noon briefing transcript:

Inner City Press: Eduardo, I wanted to ask you about your statement on the Minova rapes.

Deputy Spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey: Yes?

Inner City Press: I asked yesterday, you said you would get back, and here you are at the next noon briefing with it. So, I wanted to ask you two questions about it and something about process. One, when you say several have been arrested, yesterday I asked you whether that means three, and the way it is reported, a sub-lieutenant, a corporal and a soldier of no rank. So does it remain the fact that only three people have been arrested for 126 rapes? And I also wanted to ask you to name, finally name the battalions. There has been a lot of back and forth, or DPKO [Department of Peacekeeping Operations] wouldn’t name the battalions until… now, it seems like it has reached a stage, so I wanted to know if you could give the numbers. And on process, I wanted to ask you, although I appreciate you reading out the statement today, I obviously saw last night and today stories on Reuters and AFP [Agence France-Presse] where Kieran Dwyer of DPKO chose to, in fact, give precisely this answer, maybe a little less, to favored media, and I wonder, what does it say? I want to know, I guess, how is it acceptable…

Deputy Spokesperson Del Buey: Matthew, Matthew, let me stop you right there.

Inner City Press: Please. Okay.

Deputy Spokesperson: There is no question of favored media. The media…

Inner City Press: What happened?

Deputy Spokesperson: The media involved telephoned DPKO yesterday afternoon. We had just received this information on an if-asked basis, and DPKO gave it to them in response to their questions.

Inner City Press: And not to the person who asked the question here? That’s what I don’t understand.

Deputy Spokesperson: Well…

Inner City Press: This happened about three or four times, so that’s why I am using the phrase. And I want to say to you, if I asked a question here and you have an answer to it, please give it to me at least at the same time that you give it to others. Otherwise, it looks like an attempt to favor media that didn’t ask the question, or who write very favouable stories. For example, is this issue, Mr. Ladsous for four months didn’t answer any questions on these rapes. Now, belatedly after a BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] exposé, there is this announcement, and the question is, what follow-up is there going to be? Is Ban Ki-moon comfortable with Mr. Ladsous’ addressing of these 126 rapes?

Deputy Spokesperson: Matthew, the answer we gave you over the past few months was that, while an investigation was in progress we were not going to be commenting on the aspects of the investigation. As I said here, the investigation has been launched, over 400 testimonies have been received, several arrests have been made, and a number of those officers allegedly involved have been suspended and put at the disposal of the military prosecutor. So, the investigations continue apace, they are in the hands of the military prosecutor. You may want to contact the military prosecutor’s office in Kinshasa to find out what they are doing about it and what more information they have.

Inner City Press: Which battalions?

Deputy Spokesperson: I cannot give you that information.

Inner City Press: Why not?

Deputy Spokesperson: I don’t have it.

Inner City Press: What I am really emphasizing to you, you’re the Spokesman’s Office. If a question is asked here, now that you said that you had the answer, I would really encourage you to give the answer to the people that ask the questions. It just seems like a set-up, and this happened literally three or four times in a row. I can see exactly what is happening and I object to it.

Deputy Spokesperson: We’ve heard you, Matthew.

Inner City Press: Thank you very much.