UN Security Chief Links New DRC Brigade With Risks, Syria Rebels' NGO Threat UNanswered

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 23 -- Amid threats by Syria rebels to international aid groups in Jarabulus and with theUN preparing to "go to war" in Eastern Congo, Inner City Press on Friday asked UN Security chief Kevin Kennedy what his Department of Safety and Security is going on these and other issues. Video here and embedded below.

  Although the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' spokesperson Amanda Pitt told Inner City Press that "on northern Syria, UNDSS would be the UN department to comment on security issues," Kennedy did not offer specifics about the threats by the ISIS rebels, acknowledged by the US State Department.

  Kennedy did say that the UN offers security recommendations to NGOs, as "implementing partners" of the UN, through a program grandly called "Saving Lives Together." 

  A UN veteran, Kennedy said this work has long been going on without the catchy name. NGOs, however, do not have to take the recommendations of the UN's designated security official in the 117 countries DSS operates in.

  (As if to prove that, when Inner City Press asked Kennedy about MSF's recent decision to leave Somalia and if the UN had recommended it, the answer along with praise of MSF was essentially, no.)

  On Eastern Congo, Inner City Press asked if the new UN Intervention Brigade with its mandate of neutralizing armed rebel groups changes the way UN Security prepares. Kennedy likened the new posture to the Katanga war in what become Zaire "in 1960, 61 and 62... it's deju vu all over again, a more robust mandate."

  Kennedy said he supports it, if it helps the UN fulfill its mandate. But some wonder, what is the UN's mandate: to support a particular government? Even if it means continuing to work with Army units like the 391st Battalion, implicated in mass rapes like in Minova in November 2012, and corpse desecration since?

  Kennedy's DSS colleague added that "the change of posture will influence decisions of parties to the conflict of using violence against the UN, we acknowledge it may change." He added, "it's only one component.. it changes the variables, we react to it." Video here and below.

  Overall, Kennedy illustrated the shift in UN Security by contrasting the pull out of UN staff from all of Afghanistan in 1998 after the US missile strike on a training camp in Eastern Afghanistan to the current posture of attempting to stay, even if in smaller numbers.

  Afterward by the 27th floor elevators, still with the smell of smoke from a fire last night in the UN's third sub-basement, Inner City Press asked Kennedy more about Somalia and about Louis Maxwell, the UN Security officer murdered after defending a UN guest house in Kabul, for which there has been no accountability.

Kennedy's answer was more heartening than in Inner City Press' previous stories on the topic, consonant with a recent answer from Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson. We hope to have more on this. Watch this site.

Footnote: Kennedy's briefing was set up by the Department of Public Information, as it has for example with Margaret Vogt, the former UN envoy to the Central African Republic. 

  To be fair, these briefings are a DPI improvement, even as working conditions and access at the Security Council andGeneral Assembly are declining, free speech and the right of association are under attack, and questions go answered. 

 The Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info will continue to press for increased access to the UN for the press and public. Watch this site.

   

As Minova Rapists Brag on BBC, UN's Ladsous Must Answer for This, False Complaint Filed by AFP for #LADSOUS2013

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 11 -- Now that the more than 100 rapes by Congolese soldiers in Minova back in November have been more widely exposed last night by the BBC, the commanders who should be held to account include not only those in the Congolese Army, but the UN's Herve Ladsous.

  Ladsous openly refused to answer Press questions about the rapes on November 27, December 7 and December 18, when he went so far as to direct his spokesman to seize the UN Television microphone to try to avoid an Inner City Press question about the Minova rapes. Click here for that.

  Now, BBC Newsnight has run a long form piece about the rapes, narrated by Anne Mawathe. Rapists are interviewed, bragging with their faces obscured, saying their commander or Colonel ordered them to rape and participated in the rapes.

  Yet with only three lower level soldiers arrested, Ladsous waived the supposed April 1 deadline for Congolese action. The two battalions given the deadline have still not been named.

  After Inner City Press asked Ladsous on March 8, as he walked into the Security Council, to name the rape battalions, Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse filed a false complaint with UN Security saying that Inner City Press started shouting and “abusing” Ladsous, and that Ladsous did not respond.

  This was a lie. Inner City Press asked which battalions, and Ladsous responded that he was going to the Council to talk about Syria.

  In any event, it is disgusting that AFP has sunk so low as to file a complaint with UN Security leading off with how another more investigative media asked a question about these rapes of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping.

  As to why Ladsous waived the deadline, especially now when BBC reports only three soldiers have been arrested, Inner City Press once again on April 11 asked:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about, again about these rapes in Minova in, in November. There is an article in the Guardian in the United Kingdom today saying that so, that only three individuals have been arrested by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and I know that Mr. Ladsous has said an ultimatum was given by 1 April and that some undisclosed assurances were given, but given that now it is reported in some detail that only three people have been arrested for a 126 rapes, I am asking, what are the assurances that the UN after having publicly set a deadline, dropped the deadline. What assurances are there?

Deputy Spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey: Matthew, I have said everything we are going to say on that subject for the time being. If we have anything else, we’ll let you know.

Inner City Press: my question is Ms. Bangura, who publicly announced that she had signed an agreement with the Government of the DRC, is that agreement public? Can the document be seen?

Deputy Spokesperson: I’ll have to check with her office.

Inner City Press: is it related in any to the dropping of the ultimatum, because, you are saying you have nothing to say, but, yes or no,is it the UN’s understanding that only three people have been arrested, and did they drop their ultimatum on that basis? Is that the position?

Deputy Spokesperson: Matthew, I’ll have to check; I don’t have the number of people who were arrested in that particular case. We’ll have to check and get back to you on that.

  It is unclear if Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office check with Bangura's. By close of business Thursday, Inner City Press had heard nothing back from Ban's spokesperson's office, and nothing was inserted into the transcript.

  Inner City Press reached out to Bangura's office, was directed to a communique that does not mention Minova and finally was told that Ladsous' DPKO would answer. Inner City Press explained that this has not happened, then was told to expect something tomorrow.

  Does that mean via another end-around reach out by Ladsous' office to, say, Agence France Presse which filed a UN Security complaint against Inner City Press for him? Or the reading out of some canned statement at the noon briefing? Watch this site.

Footnote: It is now announced that the next of the Department of Public Information's appreciated brown bag session will involved Bangura. The session are one of the few improvements or reforms by the new DPI: meanwhile, twelve simple reforms proposed by the Free UN Coalition for Access have not been replied to, much less implemented.

Was stopping any reform the goal of DPI's March 18 raid on Inner City Press' office, or of the leaking (via an anonymous “Concerned UN Reporter” e-mail account) to BuzzFeed of photographs taken during the raid? 

 What is the UN coming to? How it deal not only with the rapes, but with Ladsous and those pressed into his service, will be a litmus test. Watch this site.

As UN Lets Herve Ladsous Stonewall on Rapes by His Partners, and Spin to UN Radio, Its DPI Stands By

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 3 -- The UN's communications strategies and deception have been hitting new lows. 

 Take as an example the UN's handling of its recalcitrant chief of Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous and the 126 rapes in Minova from November 20 to 22, 2012 by his partners in the Congolese Army.

  Right on UN Television, managed by the UN Department of Public Information, Ladsous refused to answer Inner City Press' question about the rapes on November 27. 

  While UN TV didn't catch what happened next, Inner City Press with a hand-held camera did. Ladsous took three favored scribes, all of them “leaders” in the United Nations Correspondents Association, out into the hallway for a private briefing. Video here.

The UN and DPI did nothing about that, nor when Ladsous repeated the stonewalling about the rapes on December 7. Video here.

  Is it any wonder, then, that on December 18 Ladsous went further, directing his spokesman to grab the UNTV microphone to try to prevent Inner City Press from even asking the question? Video here.

  After that, Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access wrote a letter of complaint to the head of DPI, which controls UNTV and its microphone.

Without for now getting into the details, what was the outcome? DPI's Stephane Dujarric weeks later told FUNCA that he had spoken privately with Ladsous' spokesman -- not even with Ladsous -- about the microphone grabbing.

  Nothing was said publicly about journalists' rights by DPI, which is also in charge of accrediting reporters to allow them to enter the UN. 

  FUNCA presented the head of DPI with a list of ten proposed amendments and reforms to the Accreditation Rules and Media Access Guidelines, on which DPI has until now only partnered with UNCA, now known as the UN Censorship Alliance.

  Despite numerous assurances, the reforms have yet to be implemented.

  Flash forward to this past month. After Ladsous' stonewalling on the rapes for four months, after Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon about the rapes on March 5, Ladsous' DPKO gave a half answer to his favored hallway scribes, from Reuters and AFP, Tim “Hallway” Witcher.

But after follow-ups (and a spurious complaint by AFP and Reuters for being called, accurately, Ladsous' lapdogs), more was needed.

On March 18, DPI led a raid on Inner City Press' office, without notice or consent; UNCA's president Pamela Falk took photographs and it now appears that other non-UN persons were allowed in. 

  Despite repeated requests, DPI has refused to disclose who it let into Inner City Press' office. Why not?

After the raid, one reform agreed to by DPI -- a non-UNCA bulletin board -- had all of the fliers taken down, including fliers which questioned DPI's performance. Meanwhile all of UNCA's material is left up on the UNCA-only bulletin board.

  On the Minova rapes, Ladsous went even more in-house, or in-grown: he gave an interview to UN Radio thence to the UN's Radio Okapi. Ladsous' microphone grabbing spokesman repacked a noon briefing answer; Reuters Louis Charbonneau typed it up. 

  Finally (for now) on April 2 the deal the UN sold out the Minova victims for was reported on the UN's own UN News Service, like UN Radio, under the command of DPI.

Should it now be known as the UN Department of Propaganda Information?

Footnote: in fairness, under DPI's current chief some “brown-bag” sessions with UN envoys and others have been held; some have been newsworthy and it's appreciated. 

  But it does not make up for Ladsous' outrageous stonewalling, which DPI has enabled (for example following the December 18 microphone grab) and now by having Ladsous while he refuses independent Press questions to spin on UN Radio. What does DPI stand for?

UN Won't Explain Its Rules or Its Complaint to ICP, As Reuters Ascribes Its Fear-mongering to Unnamed Diplomats

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, March 2 – When the UN falsely accuses an investigative journalist of using quotes, from a session the journalist said openly and loudly was “on the record,” what should happen?

  One might expect the UN official who sent the false allegation in writing, and was immediately asked for an explanation including of the purpose of the letter and the procedures for rebutting and striking it, to explain.

  But in this case the sender, the boss of UN Media Accreditation Stephane Dujarric, has not responded in more than two days.

  The UN maintains and favors a so-called United Nations Correspondents Association, all the way back to the time of the League of Nations, which it claims represents and even defends the interests of journalists.

  But in this case, the apparently embarrassing quotes the UN's Dujarric was complaining were used were from UNCA President Pamela Falk of CBS (who yelled that Inner City Press is a “mugger” and bellowed, “you call yourself a journalist”) and UNCA First Vice President Louis Charbonneau of Reuters.

Click here for audio where Inner City Press tells them “you are on the record.”

  UNCA is the source of the attack on lawful reporting, not the solution. This was the case in 2012 as well, when as reflected by documents obtained from Voice of America under the US Freedom of Information Act UNCA met with the UN “very quietly” to move to get Inner City Press thrown out.

  Inner City Press has asked Dujarric several times, including in response to his false February 27 letter, to describe his knowledge and role in the referenced meeting with UNCA -- without response.

  At the reported-on February 22 meeting, Inner City Press yet again directly asked Charbonneau to describe his knowledge of and role in the meetings with the UN to get Inner City Press thrown out. Charbonneau refused to answer.

   Instead, Charbonneau along with saying to Inner City Press “the fundamental problem is your website” also told Dujarric and others present that unnamed diplomats asked him, given Inner City Press' reporting, if he is not concerned for his “personal safety.” Audio here.

  Inner City Press immediately assured Charbonneau that he had absolutely no basis for concern, if his concern / complaint to Dujarric was genuine -- a big if.

  Since seeing the VOA documents showing that Reuters among other things was moving toward the same route of throwing Inner City Press out of the UN, Inner City Press has not spoken with Charbonneau for six months.

  By contrast to Charbonneau's unnamed diplomats -- one wonders which of the two Security Council spokespeople who follow the UNCA leaders' counterfeit social media account it might be -- Inner City Press recounted the use of another of the UNCA leaders' anonymous social media accounts to malign Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access to a specific Security Council mission's spokesperson.

  Inner City Press said the name of the mission, then added that the name would continue to go unreported, to protect a woman who while there alleged past sexual harassment (and was mocked by UNCA leaders then, and later in a flyer they posted on Inner City Press' UN cubicle door).

  Apparently Dujarric -- and / or UNCA -- latched onto this one segment being without name to try to claim that nothing from the meeting should be quoted.

   It's ludicrous and could easily have been disproved had Dujarric simply asked, for example at the “brown bag lunch” session he and Inner City Press both attended, hours before he sent his complaint letter.

  But Dujarric said nothing.

  Now others in the UN say that the letter “is not innocent” and Dujarric's goal is to “build a case” against Inner City Press. There has been no retraction or amplification, not even any response.

  This shows ever more clearly the need for rules of due process for journalists at the UN, as the New York Civil Liberties Union asked the UN Department of Public Information about in mid-2012, referring to Voice of America's request to Dujarric to “review” Inner City Press' accreditation, which Dujarric thanked VOA for but never told Inner City Press about.

  When we he going to tell Inner City Press? In the absence of any written answer or rules, we can only reply on the oral answer given, yes, on the record.

 That answer was that only AFTER dis-accredition and ouster from the UN would the underlying complaint be shown. That is a travesty, as is the February 27 letter and failure for two days and counting to explain, amplify and rescind it. Watch this site.

At UN, Few Answers by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Meningitis Vaccination Sickening 38 Chadian Children

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 28 – Earlier this year, following an investigation into 38 Chadian children harmed by a meningitis vaccination campaign done wrong, questions were raised about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that were, at that time, not answered.

  Chad's Health Minister Mamouth Nahor NGawara said diplomatically that “during the last phase of the vaccination campaign organized at Gouro on December 11 to 15, 2012, unusual reactions were noted.” 

  Unusual to say the least: seven children were taken out of the country for treatment in Tunisia.

  The question was raised: “What part does the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) play within the campaign? Who is responsible for administering the funds provided by the BMGF?”

  With no answered, when the UN Department of Public Information sent out invitations to a February 28 briefing by Dr. Chris Elias, President of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations’ Global Development Program, Inner City Press signed up.

 Even though subsequently a UN Security Council meeting about Mali got scheduled at the same time, Inner City Press left covering it and went up to a glassed-in conference room in the UN's renovated headquarters building.

A number of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation staffers accompanied Chris Elias, who spoke for example about an upcoming event in the United Arab Emirates which he said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will attend, to praise donations from the UAE.

(Earlier this week when Ban was in the UAE, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman if Ban was aware of the UAE blocking entry by an academic to speak at a London School of Economics sponsored conference about Bahrain, because of the professor's views. 

  The spokesman said Ban was aware of it, but there is no indication that Ban raised it in his meetings with the UAE ruling family.)

When UN Department of Public Information official Stephane Dujarric called on Inner City Press to ask a question at this on the record briefing, Inner City Press asked about the vaccination problems in Chad.

  BMGF's Dr. Elias replied that he was aware of the meningitis vaccination campaign in Chad (and twenty other countries in the Meningitis Belt), but said he was not aware of this case. Video here.

  Off camera a staffer said he was aware, that some “government” action led to illness and promised to send more information to Inner City Press, which gave the staffer all the contact information.

  Fifteen hours later, no information has been provided. From Mr. Dujarric came a letter complaining about Inner City Press' reporting - click here for more on that.

   The UN's recent dismissal of the legal claim it brought cholera into Haiti, killing 8000 people, leaves the UN with little credibility as a defender of any people made sick. In this situation, which side do you think the UN is on?

  An honest UN official, John Ging, this week told Inner City Press that the claim dismissal harms the UN's "corporate reputation." This is a small example of how. There will be many more.

  BMGF's Dr. Elias mentioned the “Path” program. But among the questions raised has been whether “Is the way in which PATH Intl. still promotes the campaign to solicit funds without reflecting on the recent happenings still helpful?”

 These questions should be answered. This is called reporting. Watch this site.

Footnote: Recently UN DPI has set up on the record "brown bag" sessions with, for example, the UN's expert on the prevention of genocide (about Syria), the now gone head of UN Security, a UNHCR official (about Syria, all on the record and helpful.)

  The February 27 session felt different, perhaps because a non-UN entity flush with cash was allowed, essentially, to advertise. On February 22, UNCA (a/k/a the UN's Censorship Alliance) similarly ran a "press conference" which devolved into an advertisement for the German car company BMW. There, questions about environmental impact were referred to BMW. Will these questions be answered? Watch this site.