After Ladsous Covers Up Darfur Rapes, Enough, With UN Censorship Alliance

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 18, more here -- With UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous still providing few to no updates on its UNAMID mission's November 9 covering up of rapes in Darfur, just as Ladsous stonewalled about mass rapes in Minova in the DR Congo, here, and onJune 18 ejected Inner City Press from an open meeting, here, some soft on the UN try to raise the issue without blaming those responsible for the cover-up.

  After a closed door session set for June 19 about Darfur - no mention yet of Tabit - two of the briefers instead of holding a regular press conference in the UN Press Briefing Room as other NGOs do has chosen to partner with the UN Correspondents Association, a group whose board has tried to get investigative Press thrown out of the UN, including for its reporting on Ladsous (and on UNCA's president renting of one of his apartments to Sri Lanka's Palitha Kohona, for whom he then held an UNCA screening of Sri Lanka's war crimes denial film, then tried to censor the Press' report, here.)

  Yet this UN Censorship Alliance, which has done nothing to hold Ladsous accountable, puts behind its closed doors, publicized onto those who pay it money, these speakers:

Abdelrahman Gasim – a lawyer from Sudan
Hawa Abdallah Mohammed Salih – a Sudanese activist, born in North Darfur
Omer Ismail, Advisor for The Enough Project.

 Particularly the last should have done a little research, including UNCA, Ladsous and Tabit. It's not too late to do the press conference in an open fashion, in the UN Press Briefing Room or elsewhere. But with the UN Censorship Alliance? UNreal.

  While some claim that Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping is trying to get back to Tabit, a Sudanese diplomat told Inner City Press he had met with Ladsous on February 9 and "it was nice." How's that, for Ladsous' supposed commitment to get to the bottom of rapes and rights abuses?

 Instead, in order to NOT move against the FDLR militia, Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping is now claiming to care too much for human rights to support the Congolese Army's supposed offensive against the FDLR -- which, the UN belatedly acknowledged to Inner City Press, has not even begun.

  But on the Tabit rapes, that the Sudanese diplomat without irony described his February 9 meeting with Ladsous has "nice" is telling.

  It is easy and appropriate, of course, to blame Sudan, as it was and is to blame the Congolese Army and government for the rapes in Minova. But there is a pattern, and until UN Peacekeeping's senior leadership's cover up of these incidents - and even silence on dead peacekeepers for more than a week -- nothing will improve.

  So why is Human Rights Watch, which alongside its detailed work goes out of its way not to criticize the UN and especially Ladsous, for example on Central African Republic, as Inner City Press reported here, partnering to hold a privatized event on Tabit, not in the UN Press Briefing Room but among friends, as they say?

 Why have HRW and its hosts said nothing about posts in UN Peacekeeping under Ladsous being sold for money, exclusively exposedby Inner City Press on February 7, asked about February 9, and partially answered by the UN on February 10, here? 

  Any country can sponsor such a briefing in the UN Press Briefing Room. But HRW hides behind and in the clubhouse of the UN Censorship Alliance, Board members of which in the past have ordered changes to articles about Ladsous - and about Sri Lanka, more here. Human rights? Hardly.  Look how Human Rights Watch's selectively distributed invitation whitewashes UN Peacekeeping's and Ladsous' role:

"Between October 30 and November 1, 2014, Sudanese government forces entered Tabit, North Darfur, and carried out massive abuses against the town’s residents, including a mass rape of women and girls. Sudan responded by denying the abuses and has refused to allow international peacekeepers and other independent monitors to investigate the crimes."

  This is misleading - Ladsous' UNAMID was in Tabit on November 9, and put out a press release whitewashing the rapes and saying the people there like the government's security forces. This was shameful.

 More publicly, Inner City Press on January 26 asked Security Council ambassadors Mark Lyall Grant of the UK and Raimonda Murmokaite of Lithuania, "what happened with UNAMID going back for real investigation of rapes in Tabit?"

  Lyall Grant replied, "We continue to press DPKO to encourage UNAMID to revert on the Tabit allegations."

   Murmokaite added, "have been raising the issue at consultations, will continue."

 And so Inner City Press at the January 26 UN noon briefing asked Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, video here:

Inner City Press: two of the Security Council ambassadors this morning said they continued to ask DPKO to ensure that the Tabit site of alleged mass rapes is revisited. I want to know has any action been taken on that? Has there been any move by UNAMID?

Spokesman Dujarric: The request to visit Tabit stands. There's nothing to report.

 Nothing to report? Back on January 8 Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, video here:

Inner City Press: what has the UN system done in order to get access again to Thabit in Darfur, where there were allegedly 200 rapes, and then the Government didn’t allow any inspectors. What have you done since we last spoke on it? 

SG Ban: As for the first part of the question, as you know, we tried to have a thorough investigation. This report might not have been sufficient because of the lack of full cooperation of the authorities on the ground. That has really hampered our authorities to go into the field and get a thorough investigation. It is important that we have to have a thorough investigation and as a matter of principle, there should be a clear accountability process and justice. I am firm about this matter. And we will, in the course of time, have better information on this matter. 

  While appreciated, it is widely recognized that the more time goes by, the more difficult a credible rape investigation becomes. So why did UNAMID issue a cover-up November 9 press release? 
   

With No Convictions for Minova Rapes, UN Praises DR Congo, US Samantha Power on Bilateral Training, But Minova's 391st Battalion was US Trained

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 7 -- Fifteen months after two units of the Congolese Army committed over 100 rapes at Minova, "Sexual Violence in Conflict" was the topic of a panel discussion at the UN on March 6.  

   The UN's envoy on the topic, Zainab Bangura, praised Congolese president Joseph Kabila for his new focus on rape. But have there been any convictions at all for the 100 rapes 15 months ago?

  US Ambassador Samantha Power spoke movingly, also citing the US' bilateral training. But one of the two units involved in the rapes, the 391st Battalion, was trained by the US. 

  To her credit, and as Inner City Press first reported, Power raised the Minova rapes to Kabila during the Security Council's French-led trip on October. But what progress if any has been made since then?

  The Enough Project, which ran the event, promised that questions like this one, submitted on paper in the room and on Twitter, will be answered. We'll see.

  The head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous dodged Press questions about the Minova rapes for months, even directing his spokesperson to seize the microphone so the questions couldn't be asked. Click here for that video.

  On March 6 Ladsous was at it again, refusing to answer a Press question about allowing a UN-listed child soldier recruiter into "his" mission on Mali and prospectively in the Central African Republic. At the UN, grandiose speeches are given, but too often there is little follow through and no accountability.

 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 a February 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. 

  Again: 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.) 

  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? Fifteen months and counting.

   Watch this site.
   

DRC Conflict Minerals Asked About at NYC Bar Association by Inner City Press as French Led UNSC Trip Stops in Belgium, Samantha Power Q

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 3 -- The Democratic Republic of the Congo conflict mineral disclosure provisions of the US Dodd-Frank Act were debated Thursday night in New York. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council and scribes hand-picked by France headed to the DRC, by way of former colonial power Belgium.

  The law and 100-page SEC rule are being challenged by the US Chamber of Commerce in the DC Court of Appeal. Tom Quaadman of the Chamber, a former chief of staff for Rep Vito Fossella, mocked the law as having no "de minimus" exception; he said it would cost business from $6 to $8 billion. 

  He said gold is now being sold through Uganda; he referred off-handedly to "the M23 coming out of Rwanda."

  Julie Murray, representing Amnesty International, called the SEC's rule well reasoned. She regretted that Sasha Lezhnev of the Enough Project had not been able to make it up to New York from DC.

  Inner City Press asked the panel about UN Security Council sanctions, and the impact of the UN peacekeeping mission(s) there. Julie Murray said the case is only about administrative law and the First Amendment. Quaadman said the Chamber is pointing to a lack of clarity in cost / benefit analysis (something the UN rarely engaged in.) Video here and embedded below.

  A representative of Friends of the Congo pointed out that UN Peacekeepers in the Congo had, for example, sold guns for gold; he raised questions about the roles of the UK and the US (he specifically named Susan Rice.) We'll have more on this.

  Inner City Press, which applied through UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Office of the Spokesman to go on and cover the Security Council trip, as it did in 2010 and 2008. But this time it was denied. Ban's Spokesperson Martin Nesirky told Inner City Press, on camera, that the decision was made "in consultation" with France, the lead mission on the entire trip.

  Why does the UN let a colonial powerhouse, alone, pick which media get to cover Central Africa and the DR Congo, where the UN has a billion dollar peacekeeping mission ultimately run by former French diplomat Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping?

  France, whose Permanent Representative Gerard Araud ended up not even going on the trip, chose Reuters, along with a procedural Council reporter and, ironically, Voice of America. John Kerry is on VOA's Broadcasting Board of Governors; a State Department official gushed about the VOA correspondent heading to Africa. For what?

  And while waiting for answer to those, and what information goes from the trip, we ask if for example US Ambassador Samantha Power will be checking on this issue while on the trip? Will the Security Council visit Minova, site of 135 rapes by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army in November 2012? Watch this site.

   

As UN's Strategy Fails in Eastern Congo, No Accountability for Alan Doss or UK Mining Firm, "Enough Already"

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/doss7boot112609.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 26 -- On its enabling of rape and murder in the Congo, the UN is either in denial or doesn't care, close observers increasingly conclude. On November 25 the UN's Congo sanctions experts leaked their report which concludes among other things that the UN Mission in the Congo is adding to the humanitarian catastrophe in the Kivus and is a failure.

Long after news and extensive quotes from the report were disseminated all over the world, Inner City Press asked UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq for the response of Ban Ki-moon and his scandal plagued Congo envoy Alan Doss.

Haq replied that the report is not yet official and so there will be no comment. He went on to say that the UN will continue with the military operation Kimia II, even moving into an undefined "new phase" in December. Video here, from Minute 13:48.

Inner City Press asked a simple yes or no litmus test question: is MONUC still supporting the Congolese army unit led by Colonel Zimulinda, named by UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston as responsible for murder and at least 10, but probably 40 or more, rapes?

Haq said he didn't know, but claimed that Alain Le Roy's -- and he emphasized, Alan Doss' -- November 1 unrelated suspension of assistance to some units of the 213th Brigade made it clear the UN's hands are clean, in essence. Apparently, after Alston's detailed report on Zimulinda, nothing has been done.

The Security Council had a meeting on November 25 about Congo Sanctions. But members said they did not discuss the report, only the "regime" of sanctions.

Sources tell Inner City Press that it is because the report accuses not only the UN Secretariat but also member states of complicity in death in Congo that the report is being delayed, and the experts saw fit to selectively leak it. Only at the UN.

Combined with Alan Doss' nepotism scandal and mis-management of MONUC, this report would an most credible organization lead to the dismissal or removal of the manager at issue.

But Alan Doss is British, and the UK is a Permanent Member of the Security Council. If the past is any guide, a new UK post of similar power would have to be arranged and even delivered before the clearly needed change at MONUC could be made.

Beyond the lack of accountability within the UN system, there is a lack of corporate responsibility. As highlighted, Malaysian Smelting Corporation and Thailand Smelting and Refining Company, which is part of the UK metals group AMC, are among the companies again identified by the Group of Experts as sourcing minerals from suppliers who have links with killers and rapists.

The report among other things concludes that the CNDP, even after purported integration into the Congolese army, still maintains a network which now uses the army and UN to take mines over from the FDLR. That is, the UN has allowed itself to get sucked into favoring one criminal enterprise over another, and the denying this to the world. The UN experts group cut through the veil, but are so far being ignored. Watch this site.

Footnote: Days after the coordinated leak of the report, U.S. television network CBS' 60 Minutes show of November 29 will show the Enough Project's John Prendergast in the DRC tracking conflict minerals, relating them to cell phones and mp3 players. While we intend to watch, one wonder why the Enough Project, not unlike its response to the mass killing in Sri Lanka, has been retiscent to make the needed criticism of the compromised leadership of the UN Mission MONUC. Even those who are supposed to bring accountability don't, for their own reasons. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/doss7boot112609.html

As Sudan's Bashir is Indicted, Spin and Real Wars Begin at UN and Beyond

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1bashir030409.html

UNITED NATIONS, March 4, updated -- On the day of indictment of Omar al-Bashir, a day so long expected, mis-predicted by the New York Times, the Ambassador of Liechtenstein booked the UN's briefing room for a victory press conference. Sudan's Mission to the UN responded with a counter-booking, the same room three hours later. As early at 9 a.m., an hour after the announcement, the DC-based Enough Project scheduled a conference call. [These are reviewed below on this page, as live-blog.]

Inner City Press last month called out the Enough Project, for fetishizing the tail end of death in Darfur but doing nothing about the hot war in Sri Lanka. The Project's director responded online, explaining they follow their expertise.

Sudan's Ambassador to the UN had pre-booked TV appearances. While he often walks alone, outside the Trusteeship Council chamber, on the day of his president's indictment he is a man in much demand. Inner City Press joked with him, today would be the day to sell advertising space on his national dress suit. "Coca-Cola," he said. How about... PetroChina?

At 8:31 a.m., it began, a press release emailed out by Human Rights Watch. At 9 a.m., the Enough Project's call began, in full self-congratulatory mode. Everyone who's been to Darfur knows that the government at the highest level was behind the attacks, said the first speaker. The noose around Bashir was described as including the president of Egypt, concerned about Islamism. Bashir's sins were enumerated to include supporting Saddam Hussein in both Gulf Wars. Finally one reporter asked, isn't this just Western justice?

The Enough Project's legal expert puffed up the Sierra Leone court, in which he was involved, and even mentioned the just-starting Hariri Tribunal. He did not mention the corruption-plagued Cambodia genocide tribunal. The continuing and even increased rampages of ICC indictee Joseph Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army were not mentioned, nor the effect on future UN peacekeeping. Inner City Press asked about each, and will add a link later in the day. We will update this, endeavoring to live-blog reaction from the UN. Watch this space.

Update of 11:05 a.m. -- the Human Rights Watch press conference featured not only the ubuiquitous Dick Dicker of HRW, but also Niemat Ahmadi, whose CICC-distributed bio cites her award from President Bush. Inner City Press asked her if the leaders of JEM, acnkowledged by the UN as recruiting child soldiers, should be indicted. She said that "all Darfurian agree" that all wrongdoers should face justice. Somehow we doubt that. In response to Inner City Press' question by the ICC hasn't done anything for example in Asia, Dicker said that North Korea, Myanmar and Sri Lanka haven't joined the ICC. But is HRW urging the Security Council to refer any of these cases?

When Inner City Press asked if this won't have the effect of making it less likely that countries like Sudan will consent to UN Peacekeeping missions, since information can be shared with the ICC -- even confidential information withheld from defendants, as in the Lubanga case from the Congo -- Dicker said to asked the ICC Prosecutor and DPKO. The former has rebuffed questions, and DPKO has said to "ask OLA," the UN Office of Legal Affairs. But OLA chief Patricia O'Brien on March 3, in a rare press availability, said she would not answer any questions beyond the Hariri Tribunal, nor would she commit to any future media availability...

Update of 11:26 a.m. -- in the hallway outside the Security Council, Sudan's Ambassador walked by to be filmed by BBC. "That's a lot of cell phones you've got there," Inner City Press remarked, pointing at the two that he was holding. "Abdul Wahid in Paris, he has more phones," he replied. His deputy told Inner City Press that angry crowds are afoot in Khartoum and it's not clear what will happen. He could neither confirm nor deny that Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders is being thrown out of Sudan.

Update of 11:55 a.m. -- HRW's Dick Dicker, asked about Gaza, cited a figure of 3000 people killed. Less than an hour later in the same seat, Khouloud Daibes, Palestinian Minister for Women Affairs, told Inner City Press the figure is 1300 killed. The figure in Sri Lanka, just so far this year, is over 2000. It is not clear what the figure is in Darfur so far this year. With a UN mission in the region, perhaps a number should be expected?

Update of 1:01 p.m. -- chaos at the UN's noon briefing. Ban's spokesperson Michele Montas declines to say Ban calls on Sudan to turn over al-Bashir to the ICC. Reporters ask "why is Ban scared" to do what he has in other ICC cases, to call on governments to turn in indictees. Because Sudan did not sign the Rome Statute, Montas says. But in Resolution 1593, the UN Security Council called on Sudan to cooperate and comply with ICC rulings. A shaved-headed UN lawyer, David Hutchinson, takes the podium, dropping references to Cicero and serpentine. Now Montas says you could read Ban's statement as calling for Sudan's compliance. But she "will not go beyond the statement." And here comes Sudan's Ambassador....

Update of 1:25 p.m. -- Sudan's Ambassador says, "We are not going to be bound by" the decision, it's "not worth the ink it was printed with." He adds, about Human Rights Watch's earlier press conference, that he asked the Ambassador of Liechtenstein if he had, as reported, sponsored it, and says that the Ambassador of Liechtenstein said "no." When Inner City Press asks if the Government of Sudan would like JEM to be indicted, and if it thinks the UN peacekeeping missions shared information with the ICC. No, and "they deny it," he replies.

Update of 1:33 p.m. -- a correspondent / columnist from the New York Post asks, slyly, if indictment for war crimes will make Bashir more popular in the Arab and African world. Oh yes, Sudan's Ambassador says, it is a big opportunity for us.

Update of 1:47 p.m. -- Inner City Press asked how Sudan will use its chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China to address the indictment, and if the President of the General Assembly should be expected to weigh in on the matter. Sudan's Ambassador said "the PGA is expected in Sudan soon," and that the "vast majority" of member states support Sudan. When Inner City Press asked twice for the status of indictees Harun and Kushayb, he answered that they will not be turned over, that France tried to bargain, turn those two over and Bashir can walk. To be continued.

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate esp. here on Darfur

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1bashir030409.html