When UN Says DRC Army Has Zero Tolerance for Child Soldier Recruitment, It Doesn't Mean Zero Child Soldiers

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 26 -- During the French-ledUN Security Council trip in October to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a staffer of the UN's MONUSCO mission there "speaking to reporters" expressed 

"surprise at Washington's decision regarding the Democratic Republic of Congo, which last year signed an action plan with the United Nations to stop and prevent recruitment of child soldiers. 'There have been huge results... They don't recruit children any more. There's been zero tolerance,' she said."

  On November 26, Inner City Press asked Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, if she would be surprised if the DRC Army is again found with child soldiers by the UN Group of Experts, as it was in April 2013.

  Zerroughui said she couldn't not say that would not happen. One thing is said in Kinshasa; in the provinces it is different. Then what was MONUSCO talking about, back in October, "they don't recruit children any more"?

  This is called going-local, or even, the Stockholm syndrome. Why would a child protection officer be so effusively praising a host government which the UN's own Group of Experts most recent report of June shows still involved with child soldiers? 

 Inner City Press asked for the transcript - and got something quite different.

  First, here's from the UN's own most recent Group of Experts report, which Inner City Press obtained and thenexclusively put online as credited by, for example, the BBC:

149. The Group is also investigating cases involving the illegal detention and use of children for military purposes by the FARDC. According to FARDC and MONUSCO sources as well as local authorities in the Kisala area of Butembo territory, between February and April 2013, FARDC’s 1032nd Battalion arrested four boys aged between 15 and 17 on charges of belonging to the Nyatura rebel group. An FARDC Major subsequently enlisted three of them as cooks, while assigning the fourth to be a soldier in Mushaki with the 106th Regiment commanded by Col. Civiri.

150. In April, UNICEF separated 19 children from the FARDC 812th Regiment located at Camp Bobozo in Kananga, in Kasai Occidental province. The Regiment had rotated from North Kivu to Kananga in March, and had forcefully recruited the children before their departure from North Kivu. Four soldiers from this Regiment acknowledged to the Group that they had been aware of the presence of the minors (commonly referred to as ‘kadogo’) in their ranks. In April, UNICEF separated two minors (one of them a girl) from the same Regiment; both had been forcefully recruited.

  Since what Reuters -- hand picked by colonial powerhouse France to accompany and document what's become known as France's Genocide Joyride -- quoted MONUSCO staffer Dee Brillenburg Wurth as saying in October contradicts the UN's own Group of Experts report, Inner City Press began asking that a transcript of what she "told reporters" be made public. 

   Inner City Press asked at the UN noon briefing -- not for more spin, but for a transcript of what Dee Brillenburg Wurth said:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about the trip, there seems to have been a briefing by a MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) staffer, Dee Brillenburg Wurth, in which she is quoted as saying that the [Democratic Republic of the Congo], doesn’t recruit children, child soldiers any more. This is contrary to the Group of Experts report, which says in at least two paragraphs that they do. It was "said to reporters," is it possible to get a transcript or some audio file of what was said? And what would you say to a seeming total disparity between what MONUSCO told reporters, if not the Council, and what UN reports actually say about the recruitment of child soldiers by [the Democratic Republic of the Congo]?

Spokesperson: Well, I mean, I wouldn’t say anything at this point until I check into it myself, Matthew.

Two days later on October 9, rather than any transcript, this was sent to Inner City Press:

Subject: Your question on the DRC
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 3:18 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Concerning your question on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and recruitment of child soldiers, we have the following:

“In October 2012, the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United Nations signed an Action Plan to halt and prevent the recruitment and use of children, in addition to sexual violence against children, by the national armed forces and security forces. The Congolese government is currently implementing it. There is consistent progress in the implementation of the action plan.

The FARDC now systematically separates child soldiers from its troops and hands them over to UNICEF, amongst other organizations. Progress has also been made in the facilitation of access for the United Nations to national armed forces battalions and detention centres, resulting in the separation and reunification of approximately 340 children with their families."

  The phrase, "we have the following" is unclear -- who is "we"? It's certainly not the UN Group of Experts, charged with actually investigating these topics. 

  Was this.. from Herve Ladsous, whose non-responsiveness was picked up by the UN New Statesman, here?

  Was it from Zerroughi? On November 26, when pressed, she did not maintain, as MONUSCO did, that DRC "does not recruit children." So why did MONUSCO say that? 

Footnotes: On November 26, Inner City Press after thanking Zerroughui on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access asked her to also provide an update on Central African Republic, what the UN is doing. We continue to await that.

Meanwhile Third Committee moves said to be against Zerroughui's office and its mandate remain murky, but we continue to pursue that story, too. Watch this site.

   

UN Saying DRC Has No Child Soldiers Is Reiterated, But No Transcript: Stockholm Syndrome?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 9 -- During the French-led UN Security Council trip in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a staffer of the UN's MONUSCO mission there "speaking to reporters" expressed "surprise at Washington's decision regarding the Democratic Republic of Congo, which last year signed an action plan with the United Nations to stop and prevent recruitment of child soldiers. 'There have been huge results... They don't recruit children any more. There's been zero tolerance,' she said."

  This is called going-local, or even, the Stockholm syndrome. Why would a child protection officer be so effusively praising a host government which the UN's own Group of Experts most recent report of June shows still involved with child soldiers? 

 Inner City Press has asked for the transcript - and today got something quite different.

  First, here's from the UN's own Group of Experts report, which Inner City Press obtained and then exclusively put online as credited by, for example, the BBC:

149. The Group is also investigating cases involving the illegal detention and use of children for military purposes by the FARDC. According to FARDC and MONUSCO sources as well as local authorities in the Kisala area of Butembo territory, between February and April 2013, FARDC’s 1032nd Battalion arrested four boys aged between 15 and 17 on charges of belonging to the Nyatura rebel group. An FARDC Major subsequently enlisted three of them as cooks, while assigning the fourth to be a soldier in Mushaki with the 106th Regiment commanded by Col. Civiri.

150. In April, UNICEF separated 19 children from the FARDC 812th Regiment located at Camp Bobozo in Kananga, in Kasai Occidental province. The Regiment had rotated from North Kivu to Kananga in March, and had forcefully recruited the children before their departure from North Kivu. Four soldiers from this Regiment acknowledged to the Group that they had been aware of the presence of the minors (commonly referred to as ‘kadogo’) in their ranks. In April, UNICEF separated two minors (one of them a girl) from the same Regiment; both had been forcefully recruited.

  Since what Reuters -- hand picked by colonial powerhouse France to accompany and document what's become known as France's Genocide Joyride -- quoted Dee Brillenburg Wurth as saying contradicts the UN's own Group of Experts report, Inner City Press began asking that a transcript of what she "told reporters" be made public. 

  Inner City Press asked MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler, who Wednesday gushed about the importance of critical media without answering why France was allowed to hand-pick media for the "UN" trip to DRC. No reply.

   Inner City Press asked at Monday's noon briefing -- not for more spin, but for a transcript of what Dee Brillenburg Wurth said:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about the trip, there seems to have been a briefing by a MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) staffer, Dee Brillenburg Wurth, in which she is quoted as saying that the [Democratic Republic of the Congo], doesn’t recruit children, child soldiers any more. This is contrary to the Group of Experts report, which says in at least two paragraphs that they do. It was "said to reporters," is it possible to get a transcript or some audio file of what was said? And what would you say to a seeming total disparity between what MONUSCO told reporters, if not the Council, and what UN reports actually say about the recruitment of child soldiers by [the Democratic Republic of the Congo]?

Spokesperson: Well, I mean, I wouldn’t say anything at this point until I check into it myself, Matthew.

Two days later on October 9, rather than any transcript -- presumably the reason Jerome Berard of Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office accompanied the trip -- this was sent to Inner City Press:

Subject: Your question on the DRC
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 3:18 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Concerning your question on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and recruitment of child soldiers, we have the following:

“In October 2012, the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United Nations signed an Action Plan to halt and prevent the recruitment and use of children, in addition to sexual violence against children, by the national armed forces and security forces. The Congolese government is currently implementing it. There is consistent progress in the implementation of the action plan.

The FARDC now systematically separates child soldiers from its troops and hands them over to UNICEF, amongst other organizations. Progress has also been made in the facilitation of access for the United Nations to national armed forces battalions and detention centres, resulting in the separation and reunification of approximately 340 children with their families."

  The phrase, "we have the following" is unclear -- who is "we"? It's certainly not the UN Group of Experts, charged with actually investigating these topics. Is it Leila Zerroughi's Office on Children and Armed Conflict? Is this was Dee Brillenburg Wurth told reporters, according to Reuters? 

  Is this.. from Herve Ladsous, whose non-responsiveness was picked up by the UN New Statesman yesterday, here?

  And so Inner City Press again asks and will ask: why would the UN -- whoever this "we" is -- be so effusively praising a host government which the UN's own Group of Experts most recent report of June shows still involved with child soldiers? Watch this site.

   

As UN Spin in DR Congo Resumes, UNSC in Addis Ababa Downplays ICC At End of French-Led Trip

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 8 -- Now the UN Security Council's trip through Africa is over, with the Ambassadors and the French-picked scribes flying back to New York from their last stop, Addis Ababa.

As at each previous stop on the tour, the UN itself provided little to no information, and from diplomats there were two or more versions.

In Addis, some played up how much more businesslike the meet was than two years ago, when the African Union was "fiery because of Libya." (This quote is from a tweet by UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who at least sent some replies during the trip. Some other Permanent Representative either only tweeted one-way, like Australia, or didn't tweet at all, like US Ambassador Samantha Power -- despite the NYT doing a profile of her based largely on tweets.)

  But if Libya and regime change were the fire last time, this time the elephant in the room was the International Criminal Court. And although even Lyall Grant did not (yet?) acknowledge it, it was raised by AU Commission chair Dlamini-Zuma. Expect more on October 18.

  Back in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the Council longest stayed, MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler had gone or reverted into full propaganda mode, gushing from Bukavu while saying nothing about the two DRC Army officials implicated in human abuse who escaped, clearly with assistance, from the jail there.

  We're open to this turning around, but for now it seems that while Kobler was under the Department of Political Affairs he showed some accountability, now under French UN Peacekeeping boss Herve Ladsous, he has taken on the bad habit of refusing to answer questions, and taking sides. 

  Ladsous, it is noted, argued for the escape of genocidairesinto Eastern Congo. France was allowed to alone pick the media that could go on this trip in a UN, not French-paid, plane. It is an outrage - and a farce.

(On that, click here for a New Statesman (UK) story today by Martin Plaut which calls Ladsous' refusing to answer Inner City Press questions "farcical" and links to this video compilation.)

At the UN's noon briefing in New York on Monday, Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about the trip, there seems to have been a briefing by a MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) staffer, Dee Brillenburg Wurth, in which she is quoted as saying that the [Democratic Republic of the Congo], doesn’t recruit children, child soldiers any more. This is contrary to the Group of Experts report, which says in at least two paragraphs that they do. It was "said to reporters," is it possible to get a transcript or some audio file of what was said? And what would you say to a seeming total disparity between what MONUSCO told reporters, if not the Council, and what UN reports actually say about the recruitment of child soldiers by [the Democratic Republic of the Congo]?

Spokesperson: Well, I mean, I wouldn’t say anything at this point until I check into it myself, Matthew.

Question: Okay, if you don’t mind, one more on the trip. I wanted to get an answer from you from the Secretariat side. It seems, on one hand in Syria you are calling that [Bashar al-]Assad should meet with any and all opposition, that this is the way to have a meeting. And, meanwhile the Council, with the Secretariat and MONUSCO accompaniment, attend a national dialogue in Kinshasa which the legally-elected opposition chose to boycott, and therefore legitimated or gave its blessing to an extremely limited dialogue. And so, how would you square these two? How can the UN, on the one hand, be calling for a broad dialogue in Syria, and in the Congobe giving its blessing to an extremely narrow one boycotted by the opposition?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, as you will be aware, there is a framework for peace and reconciliation in the Great Lakes region, and specifically in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that is a broad-based framework that includes the need for national reconciliation. And the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on this, Mary Robinson, has been working very closely to ensure that that framework in its entirety is properly implemented. And, I think it is in that context that the Security Council members were there. So, I think you’d have to ask the Council members themselves why they went to certain events. That is not for me to speak on their behalf, but simply to put the bigger picture there, that there is an overall framework, and that it was in that context that they were visiting the region. This will be last question, okay?

   And past 11 am the next day, still no answer on the first (transcript) question, including from Kobler who's been asked. Yes, we'll have more on all this. Watch this site.

   

From Rwanda, French-Picked Media Now Speed Up & Mystify Re-Typing, Singing for Supper: Genocide Joyride

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 6 -- When the three mediahand-picked by France to accompany the Security Council's Africa trip were silent for the entire first day, some wondered why they had been taken, how they would reciprocate for their selection.

  Now we know. They type up, without any critical analysis or even using documents they have claimed to have and report on, whatever the UN and the Western P3 Security Council members say.

  Reuters, for example, types up that the UN will now belatedly turn on the FDLR. But not only hasn't it done that yet -- it arranged a meeting Sunday with an ally of Joseph Kabila who has sought to form alliances with the FDLR. 

   Reporting or even looking into this is not, of course, what these Reuters stories are about. As so often within the UN, they are re-typing jobs.

  It's actually more devious: in some cases, what ever on the record quote to "reporters" -- which must include the three French picked reporters -- are turned into anonymous background quotes in order, paradoxically, to give them more weight, or at least make them less refutable.

  Reuters reported that the UN's Dee Brillenburg Wurth "speaking to reporters," said that one third of child soldiers in the M23 militia were recruited in and trained by Rwanda, and expressed "surprise at Washington's decision regarding the Democratic Republic of Congo, which last year signed an action plan with the United Nations to stop and prevent recruitment of child soldiers. 'There have been huge results... They don't recruit children any more. There's been zero tolerance,' she said."

  This is contrary to the UN Group of Experts report which Inner City Press obtained and then exclusive put online. It is an official UN document. But another of the French picked media, which presumably attended the on the record spin-fest by Dee Brillenburg Wurth, now reports that "While in Kinshasa, it seems MONUSCO provided Council members with information indicating a pattern of child recruitment by the M23 in both the territories of the DRC and Rwanda."

But it was an on the record quote. By dressing it up this way, it seems like evidence. And where is the comparison to theUN's own Group of Experts report, which states:

149. The Group is also investigating cases involving the illegal detention and use of children for military purposes by the FARDC. According to FARDC and MONUSCO sources as well as local authorities in the Kisala area of Butembo territory, between February and April 2013, FARDC’s 1032nd Battalion arrested four boys aged between 15 and 17 on charges of belonging to the Nyatura rebel group. An FARDC Major subsequently enlisted three of them as cooks, while assigning the fourth to be a soldier in Mushaki with the 106th Regiment commanded by Col. Civiri.

150. In April, UNICEF separated 19 children from the FARDC 812th Regiment located at Camp Bobozo in Kananga, in Kasai Occidental province. The Regiment had rotated from North Kivu to Kananga in March, and had forcefully recruited the children before their departure from North Kivu. Four soldiers from this Regiment acknowledged to the Group that they had been aware of the presence of the minors (commonly referred to as ‘kadogo’) in their ranks. In April, UNICEF separated two minors (one of them a girl) from the same Regiment; both had been forcefully recruited.

  Since what Reuters quotes Dee Brillenburg Wurth as saying contradicts the UN's own Group of Experts report, Inner City Press has repeatedly asked that a transcript of what she "told reporters" be made public, thus far without response. Your tax money (not) at work.

  Voice of America is still reporting only fluff, and re-tweeting Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky's e-mails about Syria. (At least there are no monarch. Yet.) This is the re-typing that made them useful to France, which made the selection, and to others which looked the other way and accepted a non-transparent, colonial process.

  Now - in Rwanda, will the Security Council as Nesirky said be visiting the Gizosi Genocide Memorial? Inner City Press has asked. Watch this site.

   

DR Congo Army Linked to Child Soldiers By UN Own Group of Experts, But Reuters Ignores, MONUSCO Stonewalls, VOA Fluff

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 6 -- What did Reuters write so far on the French-led UN Security Council through Africa?

It quoted a UN MONUSCO mission staffer Dee Brillenburg Wurth, who expressed "surprise at Washington's decision regarding the Democratic Republic of Congo, which last year signed an action plan with the United Nations to stop and prevent recruitment of child soldiers. 'There have been huge results... They don't recruit children any more. There's been zero tolerance,' she said." 

  That's how the Reuters article ends.

   But this is directly contradicted by the UN's own Group of Experts report, which Inner City Press obtained and thenexclusively put online, as credited not only by BBC and Bloomberg but also Congolese publications like Le Potentiel.

Here, to be compared to the statement of MONUSCO's Dee Brillenburg Wurth run unquestioned by Reuters, are two sample paragraphs from the UN's own Group of Experts report:

149. The Group is also investigating cases involving the illegal detention and use of children for military purposes by the FARDC. According to FARDC and MONUSCO sources as well as local authorities in the Kisala area of Butembo territory, between February and April 2013, FARDC’s 1032nd Battalion arrested four boys aged between 15 and 17 on charges of belonging to the Nyatura rebel group. An FARDC Major subsequently enlisted three of them as cooks, while assigning the fourth to be a soldier in Mushaki with the 106th Regiment commanded by Col. Civiri.

150. In April, UNICEF separated 19 children from the FARDC 812th Regiment located at Camp Bobozo in Kananga, in Kasai Occidental province. The Regiment had rotated from North Kivu to Kananga in March, and had forcefully recruited the children before their departure from North Kivu. Four soldiers from this Regiment acknowledged to the Group that they had been aware of the presence of the minors (commonly referred to as ‘kadogo’) in their ranks. In April, UNICEF separated two minors (one of them a girl) from the same Regiment; both had been forcefully recruited.

  So why is MONUSCO, through Reuters, defending the DRC Army (which, incidentally, commited at least 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012)?

  Inner City Press has asked MONUSCO and its leader Martin Kobler to make public a transcript of what Dee Brillenburg Wurth (and Goma office chief Ray Torres) "told reporters" -- so far, without response. Your tax dollars at work.

  Meanwhile another media hand-picked by France, Voice of America, published a story praising a UN "Quick Impact Project," and now tweets a photograph of peacekeepers, captioned -- just as MONUSCO or Ladsous' DPKO would do it -- "20,000 UN Peacekeepers working to make civilians safer in eastern DRC." 

 She'd surely say the same thing, on cue, about peacekeepers in Haiti, where the UN brought cholera. For this type of fluff coverage, just have the UN (or the French mission, which refuses questions) do it. Watch this site.

UN Peacekeeping in DR Congo, Kobler Under Ladsous, Won't Explain French Colonial Domination, FrancAfrique

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 6 -- If the UN Security Council had gone on a trip to Iraq to visit "its" UNAMI peacekeeping mission, would the United States have been allowed to alone hand-pick which media could go on the UN plane and cover the trip?

That is what was allowed to happen on the Security Council's current trip to Africa. The UN has admitted, on camera, that France was allowed to pick which media would fly in the UN plane, from Kinshasa to Goma to Kigali to Entebbe to Addis Ababa.

  Thus the UN (and its Security Council) have enshrined FranceAfrique, and colonialism. How can it be justified?

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky cut off the question, telling Inner City Press that the other correspondents in the room didn't care to hear about Inner City Press' travel arrangements, or lack thereof. Video here. 

  So Inner City Press has put the question to Martin Kobler, the UN's top envoy in the Council trip's first stop, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As luck would have it, Kobler was previously the top envoy in Iraq. Would he have accepted a "Security Council" trip with media hand picked only by the US?

  But Kobler hasn't answered. Nor has his MONUSCO provided any transcript of what its Dee Brillenburg Wurth "told reporters," about M23 child soldiers coming from and being trained by Rwanda, and the DRC being blameless. (See hand-picked Reuters piece here.)

   Kobler tweeted that his head of office in Goma Ray Torres was updating the Council about negotiations involving Mai Mai Cheka, sanctioned for mass rape. No clarification, or transcript, has been provided. Will it now, that France's Genocide Joyride has moved to to Rwanda?

  A press conference was held at the Goma airport; Kobler tweeted a photograph but hasn't answered why France was allowed to pick the journalists to cover the trip. The UN's Radio Okapi, during the Goma press conference, was broadcasting... sports. Call it bread and circuses.

  So is the UN, or at least UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head DPKO, a vehicle for neo-colonialism? Is this, as some now say, just France's Genocide Joyride? It seems these questions should be answered. Watch this site.