In DRC, MSF Says Kitchanga Hospital Was Shelled, UN Says It Wasn't Targeted

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 7 -- When Doctors Without Borders says a hospital was shelled, killing two people, and then the UN denies it, who are you going to believe?

  In the town of Kitchanga in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, “shelling hit one hospital, killing two people and another eight wounded," said Hugues Robert, MSF's head of mission for North Kivu province, earlier this month.

  On Thursday Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky who had shelled the hospital, and about the presence of particular units of the Congolese Army, which the UN supports, ostensibly subject to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's “Human Rights Due Diligence” policy.

  Beyond the 126 rapes in Minova committed by the Congolese Army, still unacted on by the UN, the shelling of a hospital is a war crime and would trigger the Policy. So, Inner City Press asked, who did it?

  Here is the UN's answer, provided four hours after the noon briefing:

Subject: Question on DRC
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 4:43 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Regarding your question on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, here is our answer:

"A MONUSCO team has just returned from the area and was able to establish that the hospital has not been the target of any attack, contrary to previous reports."

 So either MONUSCO is denying the report of Doctors Without Borders, which works in the hospital, or the UN is trying to distinguish between the hospital being hit (“shelled”) and being targeted.

  This is the same UN which, in Sri Lanka in 2009, withheld casualty figures and then satellite photographs of what's called the “Bloodbath on the Beach.”

  Inner City Press is making its own inquiries into which units of the Congolese Army FARDC were in Kitchanga fighting the APCLS. 

  So far responses are that in the first clashes it was the 812 Regiment, later with support from the 810 under the command of Bisengo, to be replaced by the 806 Regiment.

  We'll have more on the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy. Watch this site.

In Haiti, China's 8 Dead Include 4 Diplomats Meeting with UN's Annabi, Mission Staffer Tells Inner City Press

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un4quakehaiti011310.html

UNITED NATIONS, January 13 -- With the UN still vague about its top envoy in Haiti Hedi Annabi, in front of the UN Security Council on Wednesday morning Inner City Press asked a diplomat from China about reports of eight dead Chinese.

The diplomat confirmed the figure, but also told Inner City Press that four of the eight were members of a Chinese delegation to Haiti. They were meeting with Mr. Annabi at the time of the earthquake, the diplomat said, adding "they are dead."

If Chinese officials know that their diplomats meeting with Mr. Annabi have been killed, it is more than that Annabi is "missing" or unaccounted for.

For the UN to be cautious before releasing death figures is one thing. But to lag so far behind its member states, particularly regarding it top leader in Haiti, is subject to question.

On a media conference call by Doctors without Border / MSF on Wednesday morning, Inner City Press asked it MSF has any information about the UN headquarters in the Hotel Christopher.

MSF' Paul McPhun replied that the UN has been badly damaged, MSF does not expect much help from the UN as they will have to face their internal challenges. MSF says, unprompted, that it cannot confirm how the top leadership of the UN in Haiti has been impacted. But China says it has the information.

We hope it is somehow not true. But this source is well positioned and has been impeccable in the past. Watch this site.

Footnotes: Some in Haiti have noted to Inner City Press that the Chinese "riot squad" unit with MINUSTAH was also active in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, to which the previous contingent flew back (see above). Also, in the UN Security Council, China in the past threatened to veto or shorten the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Mission MINUSTAH due to Haiti recognizing Taiwan. This recognition, like many in the Caribbean, was revoked.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un4quakehaiti011310.html

UN Accused of Inaction As LRA Kills in Congo, Denies But Without Specifics, No Bosco

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/drc1msf020409.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 4 -- Following the deaths of hundreds of people in Northern Congo, and a report by Doctors without Borders (MSF) blaming the UN for failing to protect civilians there, the UN on Wednesday denounced the MSF report as "totally unfounded." UN Peacekeeping officials have admitted to Inner City Press that they pulled forces out of Northern Congo to focus on another part of the Congo, the Kivus. So Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe if her categorical denial of the MSF report meant that the UN takes issue with MSF's report that UN peacekeepers stayed inside their base near Dungu during the attack by Lord's Resistance Army on November 1, 2008. Video here, at Minute 13:58.

"I don't have anything specific on that," said Ms. Okabe, who had just denied the whole MSF report as "totally unfounded."

Since the UN has used a figure near 600 for the civilians killed in the area, Inner City Press asked if the UN disagrees with MSF's figure of 900. "I don't have the number killed," Ms. Okabe said. As part of her scripted denial, she had said that UN Peacekeepers support the Congolese army by providing "casualty evacuation." Video here, from Minute 12.

MSF specifically faults the UN for not taking injured civilians out of the area, as the UN does even in Sri Lanka. Inner City Press asked Okabe about this. She replied that her statement had said that "casualty evacuation" is part of the UN Mission's mandate. But are civilians being taken out? MSF says no.

The UN's main news on Congo for Wednesday was to brag about Hutu rebels it is repatriating from the Kivus, including the surprising news that Mai Mai fighters, some of the most vicious and disorganized, are being integrated into the Congolese Army, which the UN has chosen to support. Not mentioned by the UN was that Bosco Ntaganda, indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, appears also to be on the verge of integration into the Congolese Army. We'll have more on this.

News analysis: since the UN knows it should be doing more to protect civilians in Northern Congo, why do its spokespeople call a report to that effect by a respected humanitarian group "totally unfounded"? Why not admit that more could be done, and put at least some of the ball and blame back in the court of the Security Council? But like the worst of corporate Public Relations, the UN mechanically defends even the indefensible.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/drc1msf020409.html