As Congo Sanctions Report Leaks Again, Predictably, Nothing on Suspect Experts, Borello, Herve Ladsous' Past

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 28 -- As yet another UN sanctions report on the Democratic Republic of the Congo was leaked on Friday, what was not reported was as noteworthy as what was.

  Rwanda's opposition to two of the Group of Experts' members, Bernard Leloup and Marie Plamadiala, was not noted. As with Steve Hege (and UN Great Lakes envoy Mary Robinson's new hire Frederico Borello), their positions were made clear even before joining the Group.

  Alluded to is Congolese Army support for and work with the FDLR militia. When Inner City Press published internal emails from the MONUSCO UN Mission on this topic,MONUSCO replied angrily via press release that it was false. Not that the Group says it too, will MONUSCO attack the Group of Experts?

  MONUSCO has not responded to a request by the Free UN Coalition for Access, digging into the UN system's and particularly UN Peacekeeping's one-way social media, to clarify how many FARDC arrests there have been for the 135 rapes in Minova in late November.

  Now what of the UN mission MONUSCO working with Congolese Army units intertwined with the FDLR? After UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, in his previous incarnation representing France in the Security Council, argued in favor of letting the genocidaires escape from Rwanda into Eastern Congo? 

  Ladsous, of course, hands his information to favored scribes(one of which returns the favor to the UN, as recently shown.) And who did this one? Watch this site.

  

In UN Musical Chairs, No Revolving Door Rules for Gambari & Yonis, Tarranco to Iraq for Kobler, Shunned by al-Maliki?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 25 -- Alongside the Middle East and Syria briefing in the UN Security Council Tuesday by Oscar Fernandez Taranco, a game of musical chairs was taking place.

  Fernandez Tarranco, sources tell Inner City Press, is being asked to take over the Iraq envoy post being vacated by Martin Kobler, who is replacing Roger Meece in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  The swirl was set off when Iraq's Al-Maliki stopped meaningfully communicating with Kobler, the sources tell Inner City Press. “You can't be an SRSG like that,” one said, using UN-ese for Special Representative of the Secretary General.

  Meanwhile at Tuesday's UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey if there are any anti-revolving door rules applicable to former UN officials.

  Inner City Press is told that after Ibrahim Gambari lost out to head the Organization for the Islamic Cooperation -- “they summoned the African candidates and told them they were going with a Saudi,” a source said -- he's hooking up as a paid consultant to Qatar. Any rules?

  And, less of a conflict because for his own country, what about Mohamed Yonis going from being Gambari's deputy at UNAMID in Darfur to now being named Somaliland's foreign minister? (Tweeted by the Free UN Coalition for Access, here.)

  Del Buey said he would look into it. But his office has said that before. Inner City Press on June 10 asked for confirmation that Ban's Great Lakes envoy Mary Robinson had hired Frederico Borello. Still there has been no answer, while Rwandan Ambassador Richard Gasana tells Inner City Press that it is true. Watch this site.

To Rwanda, UN's ICTR Won't Return Archives, No Answer on Dublin-based Mary Robinson's Borello

                                                                                                 By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 11 -- Even as the UN's International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda brings its work to a close, with several indictees still at large and the FDLR still active in Eastern Congo, the ICTR will not return the archives back to Rwanda.

  Inner City Press asked ICTR prosecutor Hasan Bubacar Jallow why even the "public" archives will not be returned.Video here, from Minute 20:36.

  Jallow said that the confidential archives cannot be given to "any national jurisdiction," due to "potential risk to witnesses." Video here, from Minute 21:28. 

  He said that some of this becomes public in "ten or fifteen or twenty" years, and that national prosecutors can apply to the Residual Mechanism judges to see if they can access the material.

Meanwhile here is what Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky at noon on June 10:

Inner City Press: it’s been reported that a UN paid adviser to Mary Robinson is one Frederico Borello, he was part of the mapping report, but he was also wrote something called Re-making Rwanda, in which from many people’s point of view he expressed a clear view on the issues between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. So is it possible to know whether Mr. Borello has been hired as an adviser to Mary Robinson, [if so] how the hiring was made and what the response would be to the concerns that some in Rwanda are raising?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I’ll check with my colleagues in Political Affairs on that.

  Twenty four hours later, there had still been no answer to the simple question of whether Borello is now on the UN payroll or not, as an adviser to the Dublin-based Mary Robinson.

  And Nesirky did not call on Inner City Press to ask any question at the June 11 noon briefing, abbreviated for the presentation of ICTR prosecutor Jallow. Inner City Press ran out to try to ask a question of UK ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who did not take it, video here at Minute 5:29, but arrived back in the Press Briefing Room while another was being allowed a second question. Watch this site.

As UN Plays Musical Chairs in the Congo, Anti-Rwanda Experts, Mis-Use of Reports at Human Rights Council, Hege

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 10 -- Sometimes the UN plays musical chairs; sometimes it allows post-holders to abuse the system to try to keep their positions and discredit their critics. 

  Sometimes, as in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN is engaged at cross-purposes in both at the same time.

  Today Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky announced that Martin Kobler, Ban's envoy in Iraq, will be moving to Kinshasa to replace Roger Meece as head of the MONUSCO mission there.

  By any objective measure, Meece has been a failure. The DRC slid back into conflict under his tenure; the UN partners with Congolese army units which then engaged in mass rape in Minova.

  Despite a stated zero tolerance and human rights due diligence policy, the UN has not suspended support to these units, the 391st and 41st Battalions. Nor has the UN provided the Minova rape accountability update Inner City Press asked for on May 29 (video here) and May 30.

  Can Kobler do better? Could he do worse? 

  Meanwhile on June 10 at the UN, Inner City Press asked Nesirky to confirm that Ban's Dublin-based Great Lakes envoy Mary Robinson has taken on as an adviser on Frederico Borello, author of several anti-Rwanda articles similar to those of former sanctions Group of Experts coordinator Steve Hege. 

  Nesirky said he would check with the Department of Political Affairs.

  Hege used his final report to take shots at some of those who criticized his objectivity, even naming them in his report. To many that seemed like an abuse.

Footnote: now Hege's pot-shots have been echoed in Geneva, where the Special Rapporteur on Palestine has in his report, debated today in the Human Rights Council, denounced a

"series of defamatory attacks demeaning his character, repeatedly distorting his views on potentially inflammatory issues. This smear campaign has been carried out in numerous settings, including at the Human Rights Council, as well as university venues where the Special Rapporteur gives lectures in his personal capacity on subjects unrelated to the mandate. The lobby groups’ smears have been sent to diplomats and United Nations officials, including the Secretary-General, who has apparently accepted the allegations at face value, issuing public criticism of the Special Rapporteur."

  Should a UN Special Rapporteur, even if (mis) described as "honorary," or the coordinator of a sanctions Group of Experts, use a UN report to denounce his or her critics, and as here try to get them dis-accredited? The closed-in world of the UN need more, not fewer, voices. Watch this site.