Inner City Press Asks Palestine's Mansour of International Protection Force, He Says Israel Violating Fourth Geneva Convention, Cites Responsibility to Protect

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 21 -- When the State of Palestine's Permanent Observer to the UN Riyad Mansour came to the Security Council stakeout on October 21, it was to denounce the exhibit Israel's new Permanent Representative Danny Danon had displayed on an tripod easel outside the Security Council five days earlier on October 16. Inner City Press asked Mansour for a progress report on his proposal for an international protection presence and Mansour gave two answers.

  First, he said, Israel has abrogated its duties under the Fourth Geneva Convention to itself offer protection in the Occupied Territories, quite the contrary. Second, Mansour said, there is the Responsibility to Protect. Video here.

  Four hours later, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was to brief the Security Council by video from Ramallah, but only behind closed doors. As Inner City Press asked Mansour, Ban is next slated to travel to Amman. Will that be about an international protection force? Watch this site.

On October 16 before the emergency Palestine meeting of the UN Security Council, requested by Jordan on behalf of the Arab Group, began, Israel's new Permanent Representative to the UN Danny Danon came to address the press at the stakeout, with a tripod easel like his predecessor Ron Prosor.

   Inner City Press broadcast the easel via Periscope, and asked Danon about what's said in the Security Council about an expanded Quartet helping the situation. Danon replied that the solution is direct negotiations, with no preconditions.

  Before Inner City Press' question, the Israeli Mission called on the New York Post's columnist, but another reporter was able to pose his question, complete with counter-prop, a photo on an i-Pad. (Inner City Press broadcast this too on Periscope.) The Israeli Mission, unlike some others, didn't try to insist that the question had to go to the journalist they'd chosen: the Free UN Coalition for Access favors this allowing of some openness in stakeout, unlike the censoring control asserted by, for example, UN Peacekeeping boss Herve Ladsous and some missions.

   Danon, it emerges, did not speak inside the Security Council; he has yet to hand his credentials to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (who is, once again, traveling, this time in Italy); he said he will do so on Wednesday of next week.

  Outside the Security Council at the stakeout Danon said, “Whoever avoids direct negotiations is looking for an escape hatch, and Abbas’s favorite kind of escape, is to spread slanderous lies about the situation on the Temple Mount, especially about the status quo. However, only 2 weeks ago Prime Minister Netanyahu stood here at the UN and repeated his commitment once again to maintaining the status quo. Let me make it clear. Israel will not agree to any international  presence on the Temple Mount. Any such intervention would violate the decades long status quo.”

   After the speeches in the Council Chamber, Inner City Press asked Palestine's Permanent Observer Riyad Mansour about an international protection presence. He replied that back in 1994 in UNSC Resolution 904, some 37 Scandinavian observers were deployed and remain in Hebron, so why not now? Why not indeed.

  Jordan's Dina Kawar seemed to say that such an international force is not envisioned at this point. Oman's representative, as head of the Arab Group, said work would continue. One wanted to ask her also about Oman's work on the conflict in Yemen, but it was not the time.

  Using the easel that he brought, Danon said, “On Monday, a  Palestinian boy attacked an Israeli boy who was riding his bike, stabbing him no less than 15 times. Let me repeat: 15 times! The victim is still hospitalized in critical condition. Ask yourselves, why would a 13-year-old boy decide to go on a stabbing spree and try to take another boy’s life? The answer is that such acts of terror do not occur in a vacuum. When a Palestinian child turns on a TV, he doesn’t see Barney or Donald Duck, he sees murderers portrayed as heroes. When he opens a textbook, he doesn’t learn about math and science, he’s being taught to hate.”

  Then Danon unveiled a picture or cartoon, knives at a body, widely photographed.

 “This picture you see here is an example of the kind of messages that Palestinian children are being exposed to day in and day out. The picture gives children elaborate instructions on how to stab a Jew. We talk about a lot about incitement- here you see what Palestinian incitement looks like. This picture is what is being taught in middle schools! Instead of educating about peace and tolerance, the Palestinian leadership is brainwashing children with incitement and hate,” Danon continued.

  The UN itself denounced social media, and got asked about its own, or UNRWA staff's, use of social media; UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said the UN reviews even its staff's retweets. Really? We'll have more on this.
   

UN Lists to Inner City Press Palestine's 13 Letters, Mansour Says Geneva Convention Immediate, Of US Power

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 2 -- Amid worldwide news of Palestine signing 15 "UN" treaties, Inner City Press on April 2 asked UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq to confirm that documents of accession had been filed with the UN.

Haq replied that, yes, 13 such documents had been given to UN envoy Robert Serry, who will meet with (and pass them on to) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Brussels tomorrow.

  For the Fourth Geneva Convention, Palestine filed with Switzerland, and for "The Hague Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land," Palestine filed with the Dutch. The full list is now here.

After that came an e-mail from the Observer State of Palestine's Mission to the UN, that Permanent Observer Riyad Mansour was handing copies of the letters to Ban's chief of staff Susana Malcorra and would take questions at the Security Council stakeout afterward.

But there, no UN Television camera awaited, as noted here by the Free UN Coalition for Access. A solution was found (and videoed) -- to move the event into the UN Press Briefing Room. After a five minute delay, it began.

In the Q&A, Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Mansour for what was his first (but surely not last) briefing in PBR Room 237, and asked of the impact of acceding to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations.

Mansour replied that while Palestine has diplomatic presence all over the world, now these conventions apply. He said that while the other accessions become effective in 30 days, the Fourth Geneva Convention provides for immediate joining by those under occupation. He said now all High Contracting Parties must respect and ensure respect of Palestinians' rights.

Earlier in the day US Ambassador Samantha Power while briefing Congress about the Obama Administration's budget for international organization also spoke of Palestine's moves and said they would be opposed. But how? Mansour said this is the first batch, Palestine has the right to do more. Can you say, International Criminal Court? Watch this site.

   

In DR Congo, UN's Intervention Brigade Practices Violating Geneva Conventions, Raiding Clinics on Video

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 13 -- While UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous has repeatedly refused to acknowledge that the Geneva Conventions apply to its Force Intervention Brigade and perhaps whole Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the FIB is training as if they do not.

Even while being filmed, the Tanzanian component of the Intervention Brigade, led by Tanzanian general James Mwakibolwa couldn't help using a tent clearly marked as a medical facility, with a large red cross, as a site to be raided with guns drawn. Video here, from Minute 1:07.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was asked about this and opined that "parties involved in conflict must spare health-care workers & facilities. Attacks on health care are illegal" under International Humanitarian Law.

Why is the UN practicing violating international humanitarian law?

After the Ladsous' UN Peaceekeeping was exposed for inaction on the 135 rapes in Minova by its partners in the Congolese Army, they tried to make up for it by violating the privacy rights of victims, getting their medical records without their consent. This has yet to be addressed.

Meanwhile under Ladsous, the UN continues to support the 391st Battalion, which after being confirmed as one of two units involved in the Minova rapes was further implicated in the desecration of corpses.

French Permanent Representative to the UN Gerard Araud told Inner City Press candidly that it is difficult because the 391st Battalion is one of the "best" units in the Congolese Army. Best in what since? Practice makes perfect. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Dutch Bike Racks & Ban Ki-moon's Pedaling Postponed, Drone Deal Undisclosed by Ladsous

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- It was a slow Wednesday at the UN, the last day of July, when a microphone and sound system were set up by the entrance doors and a mostly blond crowd began to assemble. Event video here.

  Inner City Press was looking for news -- Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson had refused to say if the Geneva Conventions cover the UN's new Intervention Brigade in Eastern Congo, nor which company got the contract for drones signed by UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous (video here) -- and so went to check it out.

  The event was to cut the ribbon on a bike rack, but not just any bike rack. The Netherlands' Permanent Representative Herman Schaper is leaving his post, and the staff of his Mission organized this donation and ceremony, without his knowledge, as a form of going away present.

  But would Ban Ki-moon attend? At 3 pm he and his senior adviser Kim Won-soo arrived in front of the UN in the black Hyundai Equus the South Korean mission gave him last December. But they went into the building. Inner City Press was asked: will Mr. Ban come back?

  If you build it, he will come. An orange bicycle, one of many identical bikes owned by the Dutch mission, was set up on the bike rack. Soon Ban's chief of Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to hold the post, walked by. Inner City Press asked, "Who got the drones contract?" Video here.

  Ladsous slowed and looked back. He did not answer, continuing on into the building. How can the UN sign contracts and spend public money and not say who is being paid?

  Some joked that this ceremony, with the sound sytem and security, cost most than the single eight-bike rack being displayed. But there will be 80 racks -- 640 bikes, as Ambassador Schaper calculated, for the three thousand people working in the building.

At 3:30, Schaper and his entourage went into the lobby. And there like clockwork came Ban Ki-moon, with his larger entourage including a staffer with two pairs of scissors in a basket. Ban gave a speech, citing how he presided over another bike ceremony last May. (Inner City Press was there, and rode the few blocks north to Ambassador Schaper's building overlooking the East River.)

  Ambassador Schaper lauded the CitiBike program (Inner City Press' review is here) and noted that in the Netherlands and Denmark, biking is not a sign of being pure but of being wise, healthwise and for the environment.

  They cut the ribbon and then the moment came: would Ban Ki-moon ride one of the bikes that had been brought for this purpose? He gamely tried, with the orange bike leaning against the model bike rack. (A co-founder of the Free UN Coalition for Access asked, "Where's the helmet?" But this is international territory; such a complaint is "not receivable," as the UN said of cholera in Haiti. Meanwhile there are threats for merely hanging a Free UN Coalition for Access sign on the founders' door, here.) 

  The orange Dutch mission bike was the kind one could step over, between the seat and handlebars. But trying to raise a leg over the seat is something else.

  Come now, SG, Ban Ki-moon was told. You don't need to do that.

  And he did not. 

  Some from the Dutch mission expressed disappointment. But the UN has far greater tasks to attend to -- for example like deciding to disclose which units of the Congolese Army it supports, if the Geneva Conventions apply to its Intervention Brigade, and whether to disclose who it's now paying for drones or if not, why not. Then there could be bike rides, and long ones. Watch this site.

   

"Targeting a Combatant Is No War Crime," UN Expert Tells ICP of MONUSCO, Murky Ladsous' Drones

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- If a member of the UN Intervention Brigade in Eastern Congo is shot at, is it a war crime? A spokesman for the MONUSCO mission under Herve Ladsous said just that on Wednesday.

  But when Inner City Press asked Gabor Rona of the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries about that, he said that to target a combatant is NOT a war crime. Video here.

  The question turns on whether the UN Intervention Brigade is a party to an armed conflict. Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky just that on Wednesday, but he evaded the question. Nesirky merely said the mission and its mandate comply with the law.

  But are they a party to an armed conflict? Because if they are, according to the UN's expert panel, is it NOT a war crime to shoot back at them. It would seem important to resolve this before the shooting starts; Inner City Press has been asking the questions for weeks.

  But Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping, refuses to answer Inner City Press' questions. Ladsous represented France in the Security Council during the Rwanda genocide, arguing for the escape of the genocidaires into Eastern Congo. These are questions he should answer.

  In fact, Ladsous and the UN won't even name the company selected and being paid for drones to fly over the Congo and its borders with Rwanda and Uganda. Inner City Press asked for the name on Wednesday and Nesirky said it is not public. So much for even financial transparency. Call it the Ladsousification of the UN. What's next? 24 hours - the countdown is on. Watch this site.

   

UN To Start Shooting in DR Congo in 48 Hours, But Still Won't Name Which Units It Supports, If Geneva Conventions Apply

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 30 -- The UN today said it will start shooting in Eastern Congo at any person who has not turned in their weapons in 48 hours, thereby effectively declaring war.

  Since this is something quite new for the UN, Inner City Press at the July 30 noon briefing asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey a series of questions -- none of which he answered. Video here.

  Inner City Press asked if the UN acknowledges that the Geneva Conventions will apply to it, as a party to an armed conflict. Del Buey said he would have to check -- but Inner City Press asked this question weeks ago.

  Twenty four days ago, Inner City Press asked the four spokespeople of UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous which units of the Congolese Army the UN provides support to. Under Ban's supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, the UN is not supposed to support units engaged in abuses.

  But, for example, after the 391st Battalion was implicated in 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012 (and Ladsous tried to months to cover this up, video here), the UN is still supporting the unit. This month the 391st Battalion was implicated in the desecration of corpses.

  On July 30 Inner City Press asked Del Buey to state if the UN is STILL supporting the 391st Battalion -- French Ambassador Gerard Araud told Inner City Press it is the "best unit" in the Congolese Army, full story here -- and to at least answer the question before MONUSCO starts shooting in support of the Congolese Army, in 48 hours.

  I'll have to check, Del Buey said. When Inner City Press asked if this would happen in the next 48 hours, he said his "crystal ball is covered and smoky." Video here. And so it goes at the UN.

   

DRC Army Unit Desecrating Corpses Continued To Be Aided by UN After 135 Minova Rapes, Was US Trained

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 20 -- The unit of the Congolese Army implicated this week in the desecration of corpses, the 391st Battalion is the same one the the UN continued to support after its involvement in 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012, and was trained by the United States in Kisangani.

After UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous refused Inner City Press questions for months about which units committed the Minova rapes, video here, the 391st and 41stBattalion were finally named.

   Ladsous however decided to continue supporting them after the suspension of a dozen officers and arrest of only two soldiers for rape.

   On July 16 at the UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked about Congolese Army mistreatment of prisoners and desecration of corpses, shown by photographic evidence, asking if these complied with the Geneva Conventions. (Ladsous' DPKO refuses to answer if its MONUSCO mission in the Congo is now covered by the Geneva Convention. The answer must be yes, as its Intervention Brigade is a party to an armed conflict.)

  Nesirky said he hadn't seen the photograph, would check, with DPKO. Nothing was said that day, but the next day the UN expressed concern.

    Then DR Congo's Information Minister Lambert Mende announced there had been an arrest, naming the officer as Lt Solomo Bangala “who had been fighting on the frontline in the 391st Battalion... He was transferred into the hands of military judicial officials for the desecration of enemy corpses," Mende said.

   Nothing was said or reported that this is the same 391st Battalion that Ladsous' UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations decided to continue supporting after the Minova rapes. 

  So what is the responsibility of Ladsous, who recently bragged in Sudan about keeping the corpse of a slain assailant, in what the 391st Battalion has done since?

  What is the responsibility or at least lessons learned of the United States, which trained the 391st Battalion and, this coming week, will hold a Security Council debate about DR Congo and the Great Lakes, chairs by Secretary of State John Kerry? Is this the type of issue on which new US envoy Russ Feingold should have something to say? Watch this site.

Footnote: Beyond the desecration of corpses, the Group of Experts report the full text of which Inner City Press exclusively put online in June names other FARDC units involved in rape, looting, arming of the FDLR and recruitment of child soldiers.

  For three weeks now Ladsous' four spokespeople have refused to say which of these units the MONUSCO mission supports. Ladsous' DPKO should be required to disclose this information, particularly now that it's shown that his failure to implement the UN's statement Human Rights Due Diligence Policy led to continued UN support to a unit which they desecrated corpses.

   

After ICP Asked 3 Days, Ban Comments on Desecration of M23 Bodies, Ladsous Stonewalls

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 17 -- What is wrong with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous? 

 For eighteen days they have refused to answer a simple Inner City Press question about whether the units of the Congolese Army they support include those depicted in the new Group of Experts report engaged in rape, looting, arming the FDLR and child soldier recruitment.

  They acknowledged receipt of the question in June when Inner City Press exclusive put online the full text of the GoE report, and said they would answer. But since then: nothing.

  On Monday July 15 Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky about Congolese authorities bragging they would display captured and dead M23 fighters. He said he would ask DPKO. Nothing.

  On Tuesday July 16, Inner City Press asked Nesirky about a photograph online of Congolese Army soldiers desecrating a killed fighter, and asked if it complies with Geneva Conventions. (Ladsous' DPKO refuses to answer if its MONUSCO mission in the Congo is now covered by the Geneva Convention. The answer must be yes, as its Intervention Brigade is a party to an armed conflict.)

  Nesirky said he hadn't seen the photograph, would check, with DPKO. Nothing that day.

On Wednesday July 17, again at noon, Inner City Press asked for an update on the fighting aroung Goma, and a UN response to M23's allegation that Ladsous' UN mission lets the Congolese Army uses its position to attack. Nesikry said he would ask DPKO. Nothing by close of business.

Past 8 pm in New York, Nesirky's office emailed out to all correspondents a statement on behalf of the Secretary General about the desecration of bodies, citing the Human Rights Due Diligence that Ladsous has refused to answer questions about.

Frankly, why hasn't the head of DPKO said anything on all this? In fact, while in Sudan meeting ICC indictee Omar al Bashir, Ladsous bragged that “we kept the body” of a killed fighter, also problematic under the Geneva Conventions and, as Nesirky said July 16, basic decency.

Ladsous' refusal to answer, and the way this three day old question was answer by Ban's spokesperson's office, raises questions again about Ladsous actually implementing this supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy. Which units of the Congolese Army DOES the MONUSCO mission of Ladsous support? This list should be provided. Watch this site.

   

As Congolese Army Defiles Bodies, UN's Ladsous Brags of Keeping One, Stonewalls

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 16 – The UN claims that while it supports the Congolese Army generally it will suspend support to units engaged in abuses.

UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous has refused for many months Press questions on how this applies to 135 rapes at Minova by the 41st and 391st Battalions, despite only two arrests for rape.

Now there are photographs of the Congolese Army defiling the corpses of killed combatants, in violation of the Geneva Conventions and, as a spokesperson for the UN said Tuesday, “basic decency.” But Ladsous' DPKO says nothing.

At the July 15 noon briefing Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: in this recent fighting that you gave the readout on, between the FARDC [Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo] and M23, the spokesman for the FARDC or the Congolese Government has said that they are going to display captured M23 rebels in a press conference in Goma. Since it seems that the intervention brigade is subject to Geneva Convention rules and since MONUSCO works closely with the Government, does it comply with existing international humanitarian law to parade and display captured combatants in an armed conflict?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: I haven’t seen those reports, Matthew. I’d need to check into them first.

Twenty four hours later when Inner City Press asked again, this time with reference to photographs, Nesirky still had no answer from DPKO. He said generally that defiling a body would violate basic decency – there is an outstanding question about Herve Ladsous bragging about “keeping the body” of a slain assailant in Darfur – but said he did not yet have an answer from DPKO.

Now, with for example this photograph, will Ladsous' DPKO finally answer which Congolese Army units it supports, and if this list intersects with those units in the recent abuses or those depicted engaged in abuses in the Group of Experts report the full text of which Inner City Press exclusively put online in June.

That question was received by DPKO seventeen days ago but has yet to be answered. This is the Ladsousification of the UN. Watch this site.

   

UN's Gaza Report Favors EU Cases on Geneva Conventions, Sri Lanka Raised, Pascoe Waits

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/gaza1goldstone091509.html

UNITED NATIONS, September 15 -- The UN's report on the Gaza conflict, released on Tuesday, notes that the UN "Mission supports the reliance on universal jurisdiction as an avenue for States to investigate violations of grave breach provisions of the Geneva Convention of 1949." It refers to Gaza related cases against Israel pending in the Netherlands and Norway, where an arrest warrant against Ehud Olmert is being sought. Report here, see pages 514-15.

At the news conference announcing the report, Inner City Press asked the Mission's leader, Justice Richard Goldstone of South Africa, what he thinks of indicting Olmert, and if his investigation identified war crimes by any nationals of a state which is a member of the International Criminal Court, which would give the ICC jurisdiction even absent a referral from the UN Security Council. Video here, from Minute 59:59.

Goldstone answered that for "grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions," all countries have jurisdiction and even a duty to investigate and apprehend those responsible. He said that all member states of the UN are parties to the Geneva Conventions. While he said that grave breaches of the Conventions are just a "narrow ambit of the matters we reported," one wonders why for example this theory could not be applied to the Sri Lanka conflict which continued to escalate after the "hot" conflict in Gaza ended in January 2009.

On September 14, the head of the UN's Department of Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe was asked if the UN Secretariat would support Goldstone's report when it was released. Let's wait and see, Pascoe said. Some concluded that the UN Secretariat would have its finger in the wind, and wait and see whether to support the report based on reactions to it. Now, let's wait and see.

Footnote: Goldstone's press conference was moderated by the UN's Ahmad Fawzi, who took over from the Spokesperson's Office during the conflict between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, and who traveled with Ban Ki-moon to Gaza after the conflict. His presence marked how important the UN Secretariat thought this press conference would be. While it was surely difficult to try to get all questions in, two minutes from the end of the briefing Fawzi loudly claimed he wasn't sure if Inner Press wanted to ask a question. Video here, from Minute 58:46.

Only after another correspondent ceded his question was the question above permitted to be asked. Meanwhile, Fawzi called on two separate members of the same news organization. Whether this was due to being out of practice in or touch with Room 226 is not known, but may become clear during the upcoming General Assembly and its parade of heads of state. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/gaza1goldstone091509.html