Exclusive: After 50 Rapes by Mai Mai Morgan in DR Congo This Month, Silent UN Slammed to Inner City Press by Whistleblowers

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 28 -- A mass rape in Eastern Congo earlier this month by the Mai Mai Morgan militia group, with links to the Congolese Army, is being covered up the UN Mission MONUSCO, whistleblowers in UN Peacekeeping have exclusively told Inner City Press.

They say that over 50 women were raped over three days around February 8 in the villages of Zalana and Mbango near Mambasa, and that the UN Mission has been aware of it since at latest February 12. Why hasn't the UN spoken out?

Mai Mai Morgan, led by elephant poacher and illegal gold miner Paul Sadala a/k/a Morgan a/k/a Chuck Norris, has links with parts of the Congolese Army FARDC who are also involved in the illegal gold trade. For that reason, they say, Congolese authorities do not arrest or even speak much about Mai Mai Morgan.

And now the UN has gone silent too.

This comes the same week as US Secretary of State John Kerry and his UK counterpart William Hague held a press conference in Washington about sexual violence in conflict; it is a topic on which UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says the UN has "zero tolerance." But the whistleblowers ask, why then the silence about these rapes?

  It is reminiscent of the months-long cover up by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous about the more than 100 rapes in Minova in November 2012 by Congolese Army Battalions 41 and 391, the latter US-trained. Before that, amidmass rapes in Walikale, MONUSCO under then envoy Roger Meece tried to obscure what they knew and when they knew it.

  In the run up to a meeting of UN Special Representatives of the Secretary General, to be attended by Ban Ki-moon himself, the whistleblowers asked when MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler knew about these rapes, if not why not, and if so: why the silence?

  The UN's silence, the whistleblowers say, stands in contrast to how the UN highlighted every alleged abuse by the M23 rebels in the run-up to MONUSCO's "Force Intervention Brigade" attacking and neutralizing them. 

  There, human rights reporting fed into a military strategy. Here, with the Congolese Army linked to Mai Mai Morgan, the UN does not report abuses the whistleblower say the UN is aware of. Watch this site.

   

At DR Congo Hearing, Ben Affleck Pitches Chocolate & Meece, Wants MONUSCO Sunset, Russ Feingold on FDLR

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 26 -- While Ben Affleck and Russ Feingold were the two who before testifying to the Senate about the Congo met with UN Secretary of State John Kerry, former UN envoy Roger Meece testified as well.

  When Meece was in charge of the UN Mission MONUSCO, there were questions including raised by Ambassador Susan Rice about failing to protect the victims of the Walikale mass rapes, following by a failed project Inner City Press dubbed "Meece's mills."

  Affleck on February 26 praised Meece's tenure at MONUSCO, perhaps being diplomatic -- but he also called for MONUSCO to sunset, to at long last finish. It's similar to calls in Haiti that the MINUSTAH mission be dissolved and the funds be devoted to combating the cholera the UN brought to the island.

  Russ Feingold called for MONUSCO's Force Intervention Brigade to "soon" neutralize the Hutu FDLR militia, as it did the M23. Affleck talked up a kind of organic chocolate bar -- for sale at Whole Foods, he added -- calling it the "magic of capitalism." This goes over big in the US Senate; Senator Flake called it bipartisan, and both sides (and Affleck) praised Cindy McCain.

  Back on February 25, "Sexual Violence in Conflict" was the topic of US Secretary of State John Kerry and his UK counterpart William Hague. One hoped for an update on or at least mention of the more than 100 rapes by the Congolese Army in Minova in November 2012.

   Instead the news was Kerry saying that there will be no US visas for those who perpetrate or order sexual violence in conflict zones. 

  OK, here's a place to start: the US-trained 391st Battalion of the Congolese Army FARDC, which took part in the mass rape at Minova.

   That was more than 14 months ago, and yet at today's press conference by the UN Mission in the Congo MONUSCO, it was reported that in the already delayed interview of victims in Minova, interviewers spoke with barely a quarter of the more than 200 listed victims. Still no justice. So will there be visas? This is a test case -- for outcome if any of the Affleck - Kerry - Russ Feingold talks as well.

  Yesterday's Kerry - Hague transcript mentioned "DRC" five times, and "Congo" three, but there was nothing on Minova. Instead, the implication is that all the rapes in Eastern Congo are by the M23 -- not the FDLR, much less the Congolese Army, which the US supports.

  In fact the 391st Battalion, one of two charged with the Minova rapes, was trained by the United States. (Click here for comment the US Mission to the UN provided to Inner City Press, which also first reported that Ambassador Samantha Power raised Minova to Joseph Kabila in October.) 

  So maybe a Minova update next time? Or on February 26, when Kerry meets Great Lakes envoy Russ Feingold as well as Ben Affleck? From the February 25 transcript

Secretary of State Kerry: "In the Great Lakes region, we have just – in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where M23 was active, in the Kampala Accord, which Special Envoy Russ Feingold and Mary Robinson from the United Nations and others were engaged in helping to negotiate, we have a section in there that specifically talks about accountability and prevention of rape as a tool of – and holding people accountable in M23 for these acts."

  Back on January 13, after UN envoy Martin Kobler told the Security Council about "the need to address ill-discipline within the [Congolese Army] FARDC and National Police and to pursue all outstanding cases of misconduct," Inner City Press asked him about the FARDC's mass rapes at Minova in November 2012. 

  Kobler acknowledged that the most recent hearing in the Minova case had been postponed, that witness statements have still not been taken. Video here, from Minute 6:32. 

  Given that the UN says it has a Human Rights Due Diligence Policy of not supporting army units engaged in abuses, how much longer will the UN accept this? Thirteen months and counting.

  Perhaps relatedly, after rumors of the death of Rwanda's Paul Kagame were shot down, across the border in the Eastern Congo, a time-stamped photograph was tweeted of a UN truck full of people on the back, captioned "MONUSCO in Goma celebrating the death of Pres Paul Kagame."

  It seemed worth asking the UN mission chief Martin Kobler to comment on or explain the photograph, and Inner City Press sent this, to Kobler and three MONUSCO spokespeople:

"Please comment on / explain this time-stamped photo, which is being described as a UN truck participating in "celebrations" of the rumor of the Rwandan president's death. Do you dispute that the photo was taken on January 10? To whom is the UN giving a ride in this truck / photo? In what context?"

   After a time, UN envoy Kobler replied:

"@innercitypress Ceci apparait de toute évidence comme une utilisation frauduleuse d'un véhicule de la #Monusco. C'est inacceptable"

  Translated: "This appears clearly as a fraudulent use of a vehicle of the #Monusco. This is unacceptable."

(Translation not by Google, not only because of NSA spying issues but also acquiescence in Digital Millennium Copyright Act abuse by Reuters UN bureau, click here for that.)

  The question became, now what does Kobler, or those above him in New York, do?  

  Inner City Press on January 10 went to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's press conference, 11 am in New York, to ask this question: "in the DRC this morning, after false rumors of Paul Kagame being dead, a MONUSCO truck was photographed in what some call celebrations and Martin Kobler told me is "unacceptable." What do you think your UN should do about this, in terms of the perception of impartiality or bias by the UN?"

  But Ban's acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq did not call on Inner City Press, instead automatically giving the first question to the United Nations Correspondents Association(a/k/a UN's Censorship Alliance), then mostly questions soft on the UN about Syria.

  Next came spin from MONUSCO, e-mailed to the Press:

Fraudulent use of MONUSCO truck in Goma

Kinshasa, 10 January 2014 - MONUSCO is aware of a photo being circulated on the internet showing a MONUSCO truck in Goma during a demonstration.

In reality, the truck was taken over by demonstrators while on a regular mission. The driver was alone and unarmed when the incident happened. MONUSCO condemns this agressivity against its assets.

MONUSCO has launched a full investigation to ascertain the circumstances and the context surrounding the incident. 

  But how does the UN explain, then, this UN jeep or Four by Four in this longer video of the anti-Kagame protests, from Minute 1:04 to 1:54? http://youtu.be/L9EPcUOpT1M

 On January 13, Inner City Press asked Kobler about the two vehicles. He said that both had been taken over, which now seems to mean that the UN drivers remained in the vehicles, carrying the protesters, on the single road from Sake to Munigi, through Goma.

  Kobler said the drivers were unarmed, but even if armed would not have tried to get the demonstrators off, at least not be using force. He said the protesters got off or disappeared out by the Uruguayan peacekeepers' base by the airport. There is more than a little skepticism. But that is what Kobler said: video here, from Minute 6:32.

   Watch this site.
   

France's Araud Mocks as a "Detail" UN Peacekeeping's 11 Hr Communication Delay in Akobo, South Sudan, Says He's into "Substantial Questions"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 20 -- After the UN belatedly confirmed the death of two peacekeepers in Akobo, South Sudan, 11 hours after India's Permanent Representative to the UN Asoke Mukerji told Inner City Press about them, Inner City Press asked the Security Council's president for December, Gerard Araud, about it. 

   The UN only confirming the deaths after "aerial" observation, on top of the UN's statement the day before that it had fallen out of contact with its Akobo base, raises serious questions about the quality of UN Peacekeeping's communications.

   This in turn could put both peacekeepers and the civilians they are supposed to protect at risk.

  But Araud cut into the question and called it "a detail... when or not when." He said, "ask somebody," adding "I'm in substantial questions, not details." Video here, from Minute 19:47.

  Ask who -- Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row atop UN Peacekeeping? Particularly because France seized control of UN Peacekeeping (in exchange for not vetoing Kofi Annan as Secretary General), France is more responsible for failures in DPKO communications than other members.

  But in fact, on the question of communications, it was US Ambassador Susan Rice who raised the need for DPKO improvements, in an answer to Inner City Press in August 2010, video here --

Inner City Press: On DRC, what does the U.S. think that MONUSCO could do in terms of communicating with civilians? People talked about satellite phones, flares, what are the ideas you have?

Ambassador Rice: Focused on Congo. We did discuss, and I myself raised in the form of brainstorming, some possible ideas for how to enhance communication between remote villages where there's no cell phone coverage and you know, a company forwarding operating bases of MONUSCO. And I don't want to put any of them out as considered proposals, but certainly radios and satellite phones are among the tools out there that could conceivably be utilized. How feasible they are, whether the radio coverage in dense bush is feasible, at what distance, whether the costs of cell phone-or satellite phone-usage are prohibited, I don't have the answers to those. But those are the kinds of ideas certainly that members of the Council are starting to generate. We expect further insights and ideas from MONUSCO and we're going to come back to this and insist that there be both a greater understanding than I frankly feel exists in the Council as to the extent and the limitations of MONUSCO's ability to communicate with outlying villages and then some very specific steps that can be taken to enhance that communication.

   Has it happened? What exactly were the communications by the UN with its Akobo base, communications that the Indian Battalion was able to have?

  The Security Council president for December, Gerard Araud, not only refused to answer this question - he called it a mere detail, saying he is "in substantial questions."

  And if flaws in his / France's Department of Peacekeeping Operations lead to more failures and deaths - then what? Still a detail?

   Araud's last such answer, also to Inner City Press but on the danger to peacekeepers in Mali, the French Mission simply omitted from its purported transcription of Araud's stakeout. And this time?

Background: on December 19, Indian Ambassador Mukerji asked Inner City Press if there had been any accountability for the previous killing of Indian peacekeepers in South Sudan, and called for that in this case.

  The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, whose Herve Ladsous' spokesperson stood to the side while Mukerji spoke to the press, never issued anything publicly on December 19. One of his or Ladsous' favored scribes re-reported what Mukerji had said, along with a notation from DPKO to take the information with caution.

   Eleven hours later, the UN Mission in South Sudan via itsjust started Twitter account said its helicopter flights had confirmed the death of two Indian Battalion soldiers, and as Mukerji had told the Press, the wounding of another.

  The question arises: how could the Indian Mission in New York get this information 11 hours before DPKO? The UN said its communication with its Akobo base were down. Obviously, India's communications weren't down. What is wrong with Ladsous' DPKO, and the UN more generally?

  Mukerji reminded Inner City Press of the ruling of the previous UN Legal Counsel Patricia O'Brien that with the Force Intervention Brigade on the Democratic Republic of the Congo - and now with peacekeepers in Mali shooting at civilians and co-housing with France's Serval force -- UN peacekeepers are becoming combatants, parties to armed conflict.

  Murkerji said that troop contributing countries should be told this. This would seem to be the job of Ladsous (who says he "has a policy" of not answering Press questions) and of the President of the Security Council.

  This month that is France's Gerard Araud, who left a December 19 Peacekeeping seminar before the moment of silence, tweeted by Inner City Press, for the Indian peacekeepers. Most recently he refused to answer specific questions about intermingling with Serval making UN peacekeepers combatants, calling it micro-management andchiding the question.

  Then the French Mission to the UN deleted the question and Araud's answer from its "transcript" of Araud's stakeout.

We are still endeavoring to find out more about the killings in South Sudan, and for accountability. So far, without any assistance or transparency from Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping. Watch this site.

Update: Forty minutes after publication of the above, DPKO through the UN Spokesperson's Office belated e-mailed out that "aerial assessment" confirmed death of two peacekeepers. What -- UN has no communications like India does? Watch this site.

Here's from the UK Mission's trancript:

Inner City Press: Do you think there's a communication problem with the base in Akobo, because you were in the meeting yesterday where the Indian Ambassador already knew the Peacekeepers had been killed, and then the UN said it could only confirm it with aerial surveillance? Is there some radio issue or how does the UN communicate with its base?

Amb Lyall Grant: Not that I am aware of but obviously all of these questions will come out in the briefing this morning.

Before UN Base in Akobo, South Sudan Went Incommunicado, US Susan Rice Told Inner City Press DPKO Should Improve - Has It?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 20 -- After the UN belatedly confirmed the death of two peacekeepers in Akobo, South Sudan, 11 hours after India's Permanent Representative to the UN Asoke Mukerji told Inner City Press about them, the Security Council convened on Friday morning.

   Inner City Press asked UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant if he thinks there may have been a communications problem for the UN and its Akobo base, given that India knew about the deaths 11 hours before the UN. 

  Lyall Grant said that in the closed door consultations, questions will come up.

  Here's one: back in August 2010, when it was exposed that the UN did nothing amid mass rape in Walikale in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- foreshadowing the UN's Herve Ladsous' cover-up of the DRC army's mass rapes at Minova in November 2012 -- then US Ambassador Susan Rice told Inner City Press the UN should improve its communications.

From the US Mission's 2010 transcript, video here --

Inner City Press: On DRC, what does the U.S. think that MONUSCO could do in terms of communicating with civilians? People talked about satellite phones, flares, what are the ideas you have?

Ambassador Rice: Focused on Congo. We did discuss, and I myself raised in the form of brainstorming, some possible ideas for how to enhance communication between remote villages where there's no cell phone coverage and you know, a company forwarding operating bases of MONUSCO. And I don't want to put any of them out as considered proposals, but certainly radios and satellite phones are among the tools out there that could conceivably be utilized. How feasible they are, whether the radio coverage in dense bush is feasible, at what distance, whether the costs of cell phone-or satellite phone-usage are prohibited, I don't have the answers to those. But those are the kinds of ideas certainly that members of the Council are starting to generate. We expect further insights and ideas from MONUSCO and we're going to come back to this and insist that there be both a greater understanding than I frankly feel exists in the Council as to the extent and the limitations of MONUSCO's ability to communicate with outlying villages and then some very specific steps that can be taken to enhance that communication.

   Has it happened? What exactly were the communications by the UN with its Akobo base, communications that the Indian Battalion was able to have? Will the US or another mission follow up on this?

  On December 19, Indian Ambassador Mukerji asked Inner City Press if there had been any accountability for the previous killing of Indian peacekeepers in South Sudan, and called for that in this case.

  The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, whose Herve Ladsous' spokesperson stood to the side while Mukerji spoke to the press, never issued anything publicly on December 19. One of his or Ladsous' favored scribes re-reported what Mukerji had said, along with a notation from DPKO to take the information with caution.

   Eleven hours later, the UN Mission in South Sudan via its just started Twitter account said its helicopter flights had confirmed the death of two Indian Battalion soldiers, and as Mukerji had told the Press, the wounding of another.

  The question arises: how could the Indian Mission in New York get this information 11 hours before DPKO? The UN said its communication with its Akobo base were down. Obviously, India's communications weren't down. What is wrong with Ladsous' DPKO, and the UN more generally?

  Mukerji reminded Inner City Press of the ruling of the previous UN Legal Counsel Patricia O'Brien that with the Force Intervention Brigade on the Democratic Republic of the Congo - and now with peacekeepers in Mali shooting at civilians and co-housing with France's Serval force -- UN peacekeepers are becoming combatants, parties to armed conflict.

  Murkerji said that troop contributing countries should be told this. This would seem to be the job of Ladsous (who says he "has a policy" of not answering Press questions) and of the President of the Security Council.

  This month that is France's Gerard Araud, who left a December 19 Peacekeeping seminar before the moment of silence, tweeted by Inner City Press, for the Indian peacekeepers. Most recently he refused to answer specific questions about intermingling with Serval making UN peacekeepers combatants, calling it micro-management andchiding the question.

  Then the French Mission to the UN deleted the question and Araud's answer from its "transcript" of Araud's stakeout.

We are still endeavoring to find out more about the killings in South Sudan, and for accountability. So far, without any assistance or transparency from Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping. Watch this site.

Update: Forty minutes after publication of the above, DPKO through the UN Spokesperson's Office belated e-mailed out that "aerial assessment" confirmed death of two peacekeepers. What -- UN has no communications like India does? Watch this site.

   

In Goma, UNSC Hears of Rapist Cheka, Any Follow-Up on Minova Rapes by DRC Army, Mayele?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 5 -- It's all coming together. Or is it? Now the UN announces that its envoy on Sexual Violence and Conflict, Zainab Bangura, will be in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the same time as the Security Council.

  So will answers belatedly be given, publicly, about the 135 rapes in Minova in November by units of the Congolese Army to which UN Peacekeeping continues to provide support?

  Inner City Press asked Bangura, and UK foreign secretary William Hague, about accountability for the Minova rapes back on September 24 at the UN General Debate. Video here, from Minute 7:22.

  Hague referred the question to Bangura, since it had to do with the UN. (This seems strange, since it is member states, particularly the Permanent Five with which Secretary General Ban Ki-moon now almost exclusive deals on the matters he deems important, which oversee the UN.)

  Bangura first answered about sexual exploitation, meaning abuse by UN Peacekeepers themselves: the Sri Lankan peacekeeper in Haiti (no update), the Chad MINUSMA soldiers accused of rape in Gao (natch).

  Then she told Inner City Press that the best place to ask about the Minova rapes is "DPKO." But Department of Peacekeeping Operations chief Herve Ladsous has repeatedly refused to answer Inner City Press questions about Minova and other abuses. Video compilation here.

As Inner City Press reported yesterday, while the French picked scribes on the trip either trashed Rwanda (Reuters) or wrote a UN fluff piece (VOA), US Ambassador Samantha Power raised the issue to DRC President Joseph Kabila, and UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant raised it to three ministers.

  But what was the response? Inner City Press has asked the US Mission to the UN, including because one of the Minova rape units, the 391st Battalion, was US trained, and others. The answers should be public.

Meanwhile of the commander of a previous mass rape at Wakikale, Mai Mai Cheka a/k/a Ntabo Ntaberi, MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler tweeted, en francais bien sure, "Le chef de bureau de Goma nous informe sur les negociations en cours a #Pinga entre #Cheka et Janvier (#APCLS)."

  That is, the Head of MONUSCO's Goma office gave then an update on the negotiations taking place at Pinga between Janvier of APCLS and Cheka.

  Does MONUSCO so blandly give updates on talks involving mass rapists? And what is the reaction? Inner City Press has asked.

  In 2010 Bangura's predecessor Margot Wallstrom bragged of the arrest of ‘Lieutenant Colonel’ Mayele. But what ever happened with him? 

  What has happened with the two Congolese Army officers, jailed for human rights abuses, who recently escape with help from the prison at Bukavu? Inner City Press twice asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky, and neither time did he answer. Where is the follow-through? Watch this site.

UN Denies DRC Attack on Vodacom Tower, Accuses M23 of Firing into Rwanda: False False Flag

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 22 -- There is renewed fighting outside Goma between the Congolese Army and the M23 rebels. But what does the UN say about it?

At Thursday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked outgoing deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey about reports that the Congolese Army shelled a Vodacom telephone tower, and shot into Rwanda. Del Buey said he did not have that information and invited Inner City Press to "call MONUSCO." Video here, from Minute 9:25.

Just after the noon briefing, Inner City Press asked the UN Peacekeeping officials who gave an unscheduled briefing to the Security Council. Officer in Charge Edmond Mulet told Inner City Press M23 was attacking the MONUSCO force. Jack Christofides said his information was that it was M23 that fired into Rwanda.

This last seemed so strange that Inner City Press waited for the Security Council's 3 pm meeting to ask Mulet about it, on the record, as DPKO's acting chief while Herve Ladsous is on ongoing vacation. Mulet repeated the statement: that the UN believes M23 shot into Rwanda and then blamed it on FARDC, the Congolese Army.

"False flag?" Inner City Press asked. Mulet nodded. He again said he had no information about a telephone tower.

The tower is important, in part because the UN said a lot about using telecommunications to protect women from abuse, after the UN stood by and allowed the rapes in Walikale. US Ambassador Rice, now National Security Adviser in Washington, was critical of the UN's inaction.

So if a telecom tower has been destroyed, isn't it of interest?

Also on communications and Del Buey's advice to "call MONUSCO," it was for precisely that the the Free UN Coalition for Access has insisted with the UN Department of Public Information that it comply with what it promised: UN system telephones in the so-called "focus booths," on which you can call the Peacekeeping missions as a local call.

But DPI says it must give out the focus booths to media - while it gives three rooms to its UNCA Alliance. What about helping journalists cover the UN? What about DPKO coming forward with information about its claims about M23? Or is this just an information campaign in the run up to the Intervention Brigade? Watch this site.

Update of 3:35 pm - Inner City Press has been told there will be ANOTHER "Any Other Business" session on MONUSCO later this afternoon, and that a "Congolese minister called Ladsous or Mulet today."  Again we ask: run-up to Intervention Brigade?

Footnote: One observer joked that a breathless, error-filled press release from Human Rights Watch should be expected about now. Then again, they are busy issuing (and withholding) a study on Liberia, and promoting a story about Syria which mistakenly calls what was not adopted Wednesday a "resolution," when it was only a draft press statement. But who needs facts, right?

   

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.