As UN Spins Genocide, Its 1999 Rwanda Review Omitted Herve Ladsous, His July 15, 1994 Memo Here

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 15 -- After two days of Rwanda genocide revisionism at the UN, on the afternoon of January 15 the UN emailed to the Press a copy of its"Independent Inquiry 1999 Report on UN Actions in Rwanda."

  In that review, listed interviewees included survivor and current Rwanda foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo and the former Permanent Representatives of New Zealand (Colin Keating) and Nigeria (Ibrahim Gambari). 

  But for France, neither the former Permanent Representative Jean-Bernard Merimee nor the Deputy Permanant Representative Herve Ladsous -- now the head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

  Ladsous should have been interviewed -- click here for an internal memo reflecting his activity in the Security Council on Rwanda.

  Now that current French Permanent Representative GerardAraud is shouting criticism of the Press publishing documents (after his Mission refused to comment on them, only said that their publication would be a "hostile act"), what of this one? 

   At Tuesday's UN press conference ostensibly about the Rwanda genocide of 1994, no questions were taken around what actually happened then. France's Operation Turquoise, which helped the genocidaires escape into Eastern Congo, was not addressed.

  Nor was the shorter but even more telling Operation Amaryllis, conducted by France in Rwanda during the crucial six days between April 8 and April 14, 1994. 

  French troops swept in from Gabon and Bangui -- ironic, that -- and evacuated not only French nationals but also the close associates of the genocidaires, such as the wife of genocide leading president Habyarimana.

  The French troops used UN vehicles of the UNAMIR mission, echoed just last Friday to some by the participation of UN vehicles for the MONUSCO mission in demonstrations in Eastern Congo celebrating the false rumor of the death of Rwanda's president.

  French Colonel Jean Balch's assessment -- which in fairness we note the French parliamentary report claimed was strictly personal -- was that "there was nothing to hint at a RPF victory at that moment, the FAR [government, pro-genocide] resisted quite reasonable the thrust of the Inkotanyi [RFP]." Assemble Nationale, Enquete Tome 1, Pg. 263.

  This, some say, found an echo as recently as June 12, 2013, when France's current Permanent Representative to the UN Gerard Araud told the Assemble Nationale, "Cette région est le théâtre de jeux géopolitiques complexes propres à l’Afrique et dont souffrent surtout les populations civiles. Le Rwanda – qui est un peu la Prusse de la région – poursuit son avancée face à une RDC totalement incapable et inepte" -- that is, calling Rwanda "the Prussia of the region." Click here for that.

  Despite talk of "lessons learned," with quotes such as this and the current leadership of UN peacekeeping, it is unclear what the UN has learned, no matter how many events on genocides it holds and tightly controls.

  On January 14, the first question was given automatically to the United Nations Correspondents Association, a group whose leadership reported little for example during the slaughter in Sri Lanka in 2009. Then UNCA screened a Sri Lanka government film denying war crimes, and tried to censor critical Press coverage of it. (Under the questioner, Pam Falk of CBS, UNCA has reformed nothing, not even pledging not to try to get journalists thrown out of the UN and to function, in essence, as the UN's Censorship Alliance.)

  In the mere three UN-wide questions before Dallaire's remarks -- Gulf media, AFP and finally Inner City Press -- the question about France once again taking sides, in December 2013 in Central African Republic was deferred until next Monday.

  It can be rightly be concluded, including in light of Ban Ki-moon's post Sri Lanka failure "Rights Up Front" plan, that little has been learned at or about the UN. The censors' circle of self-congratulations continue. For now. Watch this site.

   

From Rwanda, FM Louise Mushikiwabo Replies to Inner City Press on FDLR, "Trust But Verify," France Ignores Questions, Banned Press from Its Genocide Joyride

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 7 -- After the UN Security Council's quick visit to Rwanda, after two days in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Inner City Press asked Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo what did Security Council members say of links between the FDLR militia and the DRC Army (FARDC), even with the UN Peacekeeping mission MONUSCO?

Minister Mushikiwabo replied to Inner City Press that the UNSC had told Rwanda that the FDLR's security threat to Rwanda is a not small matter and that dismantling it is very much an immediate priority.

 When Inner City Press noted doubts due to UN's robot-like support for the DRC Army, after not only showing of links with FDLR but even 135 rapes in Minova, Minister Mushikiwabo replied "@InnerCityPress Trust but verify!"

  Her responsiveness stands in contrast not only to this from the French Mission to the UN, which rejected Inner City Press' timely request to accompany and cover the Council's Africa trip as it did in 2010 and 2008, but other Council Missions on the trip, some of whom only tweet out, but answer no questions at all. (We're hoping to see that change with time and training, Commonwealth to Commonwealth cooperation except on Sri Lanka, with Alistair Burt moving on - but that's another story for now.)

  The UK's Lyall Grant is an exception, responding on logistics and even on having raised the FARDC's 135 rapes at Minova. US Ambassador Power, as Inner City Press reported from other sources more than 24 hours beforeReuters copied the story, also raised the Minova rapes. But as we've noted, Ambassador Power did not tweet during this Great Lakes trip (unlike, for example, Ambassador Susan Rice during a previous Council Africa trip. More on this, more nuanced, another day.)

  UN Spokesperson Martin Nesirky, when Inner City Press last week asked questions about the trip, told Inner City Press to "ask Council members." 

  For those who don't tweet, and whose mission like the US have not responded to e-mail questions including about Minova, that is no substitute, and it is another reason that allowing France to decide alone which media could go on the UN plane was a colonial outrage, a new low.

  Those who France hand-picked to cover the trip, Reuters and Voice of America, have rewarded it with one-sided stories accusing Rwanda but not DRC of recruiting child soldiers, and promoting their connection with selfies with Western Ambassadors from Australia and France.

 Inner City Press has co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info to counter-act this climate, enshrined in the Executive Committee of the UN Correspondents Association which first circulated the invitation for the Great Lakes trip to be decided on by France only to those who pay it money, and who have tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, even by spying FOR the UN (click here for that.)

 One UNCA board member, Tim Witcher of AFP, filed a complaint with UN Security leading with how Inner City Press asked a question to (French) UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous. Trust and verify?

On Monday, Inner City Press asked Nesirky some new questions generated by the Council's French-led trip on which it will be following up:

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?

We'll have more on all this. Watch this site.

In DR Congo, Kabila Leaves UNSC Waiting, UN Won't Answer But Rwanda FM Mushikiwabo Does

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 4 -- The UN Security Council was in Kinshasa Friday night, planning to head to Eastern Congo on Sunday, but the UN in New York refused to answer basic Press questions such as if they would meet any opposition while in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Video here and embedded below.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, it must be noted, a week ago met with Saudi-sponsored Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba, and ignored a protest under the UN Charter of France sponsoring Jarba in a UN meeting room as the "sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people."

Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky on Friday also refused to answer Inner City Press' request for information about the Security Council's meeting in Brussels with the EU Political and Security Committee, saying "ask Council members."

   That's a neat trick -- Ban's Office "in consultation" with France rejected Inner City Press' requests to accompany and cover the trip on the UN plane, as it did in 2010 and 2008.

  Even thus Banned, Inner City Press mid-day Friday reported that the topic of the International Criminal Court came up in the Brussels meeting and Council members were told that the ICC is controversial in Africa because of its politicization (not unlike Ban's and France's Jarba meetings.)

  For this African trip, France hand picked three media to go along as scribes, including Reuters (whose UN bureau has spied for the UN, click here) and US state media Voice of America. 

  Neither reported anything on the first day of the trip. The third media, a procedural Council reporter, was first to break radio silence -- and said that while Rwanda's president Paul Kagame has committed to meet the Council, a meeting with the DRC's Joseph Kabila was not yet confirmed. Amazing.

  When Inner City Press accompanied the Security Council in the past, it reported on waiting for hours in N'djamena while then French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert promised the Idriss Deby would come meet with Council member. 

  Deby never arrived, and Ripert in anger stopped speaking to the Press. (In fact, Ripert confronted Inner City Press in the Kigali airport, but that's another story.)

  By contrast to Nesirky's refusal to provide basic information, Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo when asked by Inner City Press what the Rwanda government hopes results from the Security Council tripanswered, "@innercitypress #UNSC #Rwanda Good/better understanding of regional reality, and what stakes are."

  So a foreign minister can be responsive, while Ban Ki-moon's Office of the Spokesperson is not? 

  Nesirky said that the function of his Office's staffer on the trip, Jerome Bernard, is only to "support the journalists on the trip" -- that is, those hand-picked by France. It seems M. Bernard himself was hand-picked: he worked for a dozen years for Agence France Presse.

  The Security Council still functions as a neo-colonial, non-transparent institution. This, not just the often cited vetoes, is what has held it back. Ban's Secretariat is too often a plaything of the P3. But we will continue to cover this trip. Watch this site.

   

After UN Slips 3 Minute Noon Briefing In During Rwanda FM Speech, FUNCA Fights, Re-Opens, Some Flexibility Shown

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 25 -- The UN, it seems, does not want to answer or even take questions. Thursday it started its noon briefing right as Rwanda's foreign minister was criticizing UN Peacekeeping in a Security Council speech.

  When Inner City Press nevertheless ran to the briefing room at 12:03 pm, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey was still in the room but said, "It's over."

  To address the decrease in information, and the UN partnering with Gulf & Western media like Reuters' UN bureau and AFP trying to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, Inner City Press co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access for just this.

  And so on behalf of FUNCA, Inner City Press asked Del Buey and then his Associate Farhan Haq to re-start the briefing and take questions, it being only 12:05 pm.

  We started and it's over, was the answer.

  But Ban's Spokesperson's Office has delayed its "noon" briefing up to twenty minutes to accommodate some countries, for example then US Ambassador Susan Rice. They couldn't wait three minutes while the foreign minister of a country the UN failed -- Rwanda -- delivered a detailed critique?

  The next answer was that there was a lack of UN Television channels. The UN Department of Public Information recently spent a lot of money for a supposed upgrade, now listing a dozen channels. So it seems one would have been available.

  There was no answer on this -- the person in charge is away -- but to their credit Del Buey and Haq took up position behind the Spokesperson's Office's front counter, like in a fast food restaurant, and said "fire away."

  After thanking them for FUNCA, Inner City Press asked about reported and photographed gunship helicopter attacks by the Congolese Army on Rumangabo and Kavodo but there was still no answer. Did the UN Mission under Herve Ladsous even go there? No answer.

  Again to be fair, when Inner City Press asked if the EU resolution on Hezbollah changes anything for the UNIFIL mission, they answered by citing an answer from UN envoy Derek Plumbly. They had only one copy, and Inner City Press -- or was it FUNCA? -- let another journalist have it, with the promise by the Spokesperson's Office that another would be e-mailed. But it was an answer.

  On the possible naming as deputy chief of the UN pension fund of a person named by the UN's own Office of Internal Oversight Services as engaged in financial irregularities, it was said that language is being put together.

  On South Sudan they admitted that the UN no longer speaks with the ministers fired by Salva Kiir, but seemed to claim that services were not impacted. How could that be? Watch this site.

   

UN's Ban Ki-moon Asks Rwanda for Evidence His Sanctions Group of Experts Has, Captured Tanzanian UNknown by MONUSCO?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 19 -- With UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous not answering questions, either in Security Council consultations from Council member Rwanda or from the Press outside the Council, information about Eastern Congo and the Ladsous' controversial Intervention Brigade comes through the UN's noon briefing, on a delay.

  On July 8, Rwanda's foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo wrote to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about among other things “ongoing patterns of enhanced collaboration between the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC) and FDLR, often with the knowledge and/or support of certain Force Intervention Brigade contingents.”

  When Inner City Press at the July 19 noon briefing asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky two questions about the Eastern DRC, his reply included that Ban has replied to Rwanda, saying his inquiries with the UN mission MONUSCO have not verified statements in Minister Mushikiwabo's letter and asking for evidence. Video herefrom Minute 11:13.

(Rwanda's Mission to the UN tells Inner City Press that “We indeed received that letter on Wednesday. The SG was responding to a letter by our MoFA informing that GoR has credible information and concrete evidence on the collaboration between the FDRL and the FARDC, as well as MONUSCO-FIB. He basically requested our Minister to provide evidence mentioned in the letter. We sent it to Kigali and a appropriate response will be provided.”)

  For some of this evidence, Ban should be asking the UN's own Group of Experts. Inner City Press exclusively put online the full text of their report, which details FARDC arming the FDLR.

  Inner City Press also asked Nesirky on July 19 about a claim by the M23 that they captured a Tanzanian fighter. After 5 pm on Friday, the UN replied:

Subject: Your question on the DRC
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Jul 19, 2013 at 5:25 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

On the Democratic Republic of the Congo, MONUSCO has no information confirming the capture of a Tanzanian soldier.

  We appreciate the answer, of the type of question that not only Ladsous but his four spokespeople for the last 20 days have refused to provide. To move this issue forward, we note that M23 buttressed their claim with the serial number on the fighter's AK47 (1372) and later a photograph of his passport, as Christopher George Yohana, born on the Fourth of July, 1990.

  If authentic, it would appear that a Tanzanian mercenary was fighting with the FDLR. Already, a well placed UN Security Council tells Inner City Press there are major problems with the national make-up of the Intervention Brigade. This would seem to confirm / complicate that. Watch this site.

   

Before Norwegian Refugee Council & Minova Rapes, Jan Egeland Said US Training Would Avoid Congo Army Abuses

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 7 -- Jan Egeland is moving from Human Rights Watch to the Norwegian Refugee Council. It's probably a good move: at HRW, Egeland was roped into Ken Roth's positions on Rwanda (Egeland mis-identified the country's foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo as its UN Ambassador, Richard Gasana: they're hard to mistake for one another).

  Perhaps the most false note, at least to Inner City Press, involved Egeland's appearance at the UN speaking about the hunt for the Lords Resistance Army. Inner City Press asked Egeland how this hunt could avoid the involvement of Congolese Army units involved in human rights abuses.  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."

This is now highly ironic, or troubling, in that the US-trained 391st Battalion was one of two units involved in 135 rapes in Minova in late November 2012. Saying "selfish" is not enough - there has to be follow-through. We wish Egeland well at NRC. Watch this site.

On Western Sahara, Debate of Who's AU, As HRW's Bungles Help Morocco

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 22 -- The politics of this year's renewal of the Western Sahara UN mission MINURSO is complicated by an unexpected factor: Rwanda's understandable mistrust of Human Rights Watch and what it has come to stand for.

  Rwanda is not only this month's Security Council president, but is also the African Union member on the Security Council which would be expected to advocate for the position of the Frente POLISARIO.

  In recent years this advocacy was done by Uganda then South Africa, while Francophone African members like Gabon and now Togo do not take that line.

  But Rwanda, which openly questioned the credibility of Human Rights Watch during its campaign for the Security Council last year, with foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo memorably saying HRW holds fundraising dinners and uses exotic African names but has neither knowledge nor respect, is adverse to HRW and its positions.

  So who, really, did Human Rights Watch serve with its open letter urging the Council “to extend the mandate to incorporate human rights monitoring in Western Sahara.”

  In fact, this served Morocco. Now the natural advocate for AU positions is against “non state actor” HRW's call to extend the mandate. 

 Ever Afro-centric, Rwanda wants there to be the promised referendum in Western Sahara. But to impose outside, HRW-style human rights “B.S.” on another African country, at HRW's request? They say no.

  So Morocco, in a sense, is lucky. Their position is that the African Union letter is “really just Zuma, that is, South Africa.” They point out that the AU under Jean Ping never wrote such a letter. But wasn't that... just Ping, and the Francophonie?

  Morocco will come off the Council at the end of 2013, which should increase the odds of a human rights mandate being added to MINURSO. But Morocco points out that Nigeria would probably be coming on, and “doesn't share the view of South Africa” on Western Sahara.

 On HRW, it's worth noting that their Ken Roth has repeatedly refused to provide even a summary of the issues he raised to Ban Ki-moon (one assumes HRW shares this with donors, at least big donors). HRW won't even send out its statements even-handedly.

  Meanwhile, we have added the full text of POLISARIO's letter to Rwandan Ambassador Gasana, as Security Council President, to our story from earlier today, here.

  There is more and more talk about the US gambit to finally include human rights in MINURSO's mission: who was behind it and how it will play out. Watch this site.

On DR Congo Intervention Brigade, Rwanda FM Mushikiwabo's Reply to Inner City Press Spun by UN's Okapi, Via Lurking AFP

By Matthew Russell Lee, Media Circus

UNITED NATIONS, April 16 -- When Rwandan foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo was about to leave the UN Security Council stakeout on April 15 after answering an Inner City Press question about the International Criminal Court, she paused and Inner City Press asked her one more question.Video here, from Minute 8:10.

This second question concerned the so-called intervention brigade being added to the UN mission in the Congo, MONUSCO.

Inner City Press asked if its mandate should focus on the FDLR militia or the M23 rebels. Mushikiwabo's answer, which Inner City Press immediately reported, was that the brigade should only be a deterrent, that military force alone cannot solve the Congo's problems. Click here for Inner City Press' story of Monday afternoon.

Now, on Tuesday, MONUSCO's station Radio Okapi has re-reported Mushikiwabo's response, saying it was delivered “to the press” after a meeting in which it emphasizes seven countries wanted to include a reference to the ICC in the Rwanda-drafted Presidential Statement.

Among the ironies here is that MONUSCO earlier this year denounced Inner City Press for publishing a leaked memo recounting the mission's knowledge of Congolese army support for the FDLR.

In a press release put on its website, MONUSCO criticized Inner City Press for not checking with it before publication. But the Media page of MONUSCO's web site had, as contacts, no e-mail address.

  And when Inner City Press asked the Office of the Spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the response was that they do not comment on leaked documents.

   Soon after MONUSCO's denunciation of Inner City Press, the UN conducted a non-consensual raid on Inner City Press' office, rifling through papers and taking photographs of its desk and bookshelf, which it later leaked to BuzzFeed after Ban's spokesman received a question from that media about the raid.

Given all this it is, yes, ironic that MONUSCO would publish Minister Mushikiwabo's response to Inner City Press' question about what will be, at the direction of the questionable Herve Ladsous, a part of MONUSCO. Should we expect another raid?

Footnote: a further irony is the MONUSCO names a middleman for the quote: Agence France Presse. 

  At the Security Council stakeout on April 15, AFP's Tim Witcher arrived but stood in the back, never stepping forward to ask a question. But apparently he or his more Francophone collaborator upstairs scribbled down Mushikiwabo's response, and package it for sale.

As we've noted, most recently Witcher filed a false complaintagainst Inner City Press leading with its supposedly too aggressive question to Herve Ladsous about the 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, Ladsous' partners. 

AFP's Witcher looks on, false complaint for Ladsous brewing? (c) UNTV

  AFP's Witcher's complaint should have been dismissed out of hand but wasn't, due to the UN's ongoing lack of rules, as raised by the Free UN Coalition for Access.  It is not for AFP to tell Inner City Press, much less complaint to UN Security, about questioning methodology. Especially from what is now exposed as a lurking troll. Watch this (para) site.

UN Cut Off Rwanda Genocide Survivor's Story So Ban Ki-Moon Could Leave For Another Event

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- At the UN's annual commemoration of the Rwanda genocide on Monday night at the UN, survivor Virginie Ingabire was telling the story of how most of her relatives were killed with machetes one night in Kitarama. She was left walking to Goma with the one month old baby her killed mother left behind.

  But right then, in the middle of her story, a UN functionary whispered to the master of ceremonies Stephane Dujarric, who went and whispered on the podium with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Then the functionary crossed to where Ms. Ingabire was speaking and whispered in her ear.

Video here, at Minute 55:50.

  I've been told I have only one minute left, Ms. Ingabire stopped and said. I can't tell you, then, how I got to Goma, or what happened there. She rushed to a close.

  The moment she finished, Dujarric announced that Ban Ki-moon and President of the General Assembly Vuk Jeremic had another event to go to, to remain seated while they left.

  One wondered: couldn't Ban (and Jeremic, though he was not whispered to) have gotten up and left while Ms. Ingabire continued her stories? Was it somehow classier to have the genocide survivor's story cut short?

  Rwandan foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo in her speech said that the then-Hutu government of Rwanda mis-used its seat on the Security Council in 1994 “with allies.” 

  That would be France -- click here to see a 1994 memo by then French Deputy Permanent Representative Representative to the UN Herve Ladsous, who shockingly (or tellingly) is now Ban's chief of UN Peacekeeping.

  Ladsous was not seen at Monday night's commemoration, but French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud was there, in the front row. Earlier in the day, he circulated a draft resolution authorizing France to use “all necessary means” in Mali. Watch this site.