With UN Guarding Jails in Central African Republic, Will Those Who Were Forced to Flee Be Able to Cast Votes?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 9, more here -- With UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic guarding prisons, their chief Herve Ladsous on December 9 told the Security Council that "inmates inside the Bangui central prison seized weapons and shot and threw hand grenades at UN peacekeepers providing static guard duty outside the prison. Three UN troops and one UN police officer were injured in the incident."

  But should UN peacekeepers be functioning as prison guards? How many attacks on civilians in CAR are they not reporting? This is what Ladsous' mission in Darfur is accused of: covering up attacks on civilians and even peacekeepers.

  Ladsous on December 9 scarcely mentioned the impact of his country, France, on the CAR, including a recent incident in which Gazelle helicopters it pulled out of CAR were stopped in Nigeria, under suspicion, on their way to Chad.

  Back on December 2, Inner City Press asked Chad's Permanent Representative to the UN Mahamat Zene Cherif about the rights of refugees from the Central African Republic.

  Mahamat Zene Cherif said there are 100,000 in Chad and more in Cameroon. In his national capacity, he said they should be allowed to vote and participate in CAR, that will be a gauge of the process. He mentioned mobile voting places and a role for the UN.

 On December 9, the Council heard about Cameroon: "The National Electoral Authority has also conducted a mission to Cameroun to assess the voter registration modalities for refugees there. Further missions in the sub-region are also planned to ensure the participation of this important constituency in the elections.”  Here's hoping.

  Back on December 2 before the first questions of the press conference, Inner City Press for FUNCA Free UN Coalition for Acce thanked Mahamat Zene Cherif for the briefing. It has been absurdly argued that there is some rule or precedent that the old UNCA, become the UN's Censorship Alliance, gets a set-aside first question. From today, that is no longer the case. (Earlier on December 2, FUNCA asked the UN about censorship in Libya, here.)

  Mahamat Zene Cherif fielded questions on North Korea (that was UNCA's, as second), Libya, Security Council reform, Syria, Ebola and others. He announced that only that morning five soldiers from Chad were injured in Mali by a mine: news, when a Troop Contributing Country holds the Security Council presidency.

  During the month, the Sahel, the African Union, the delayed Kosovo debate and Afghanistan, among others, will be considered, and covered on this site.

  Amid calls for UN Security Council reform of the powers of the permanent five members, there are also slights among the elected ten members.

With Chad set to take over Presidency of the Security Council on December 1, on November 13 it bristled when this month's President, Australia, circulated a “Program of Work” for December, Chad's month.

Chad's protest, which multiple sources exclusively provided to Inner City Press and which it is publishing here in redacted form, tells the Australian Mission's Political Coordinator Michael Bliss that

“Chad is surprised by your email circulating the December POW. The procedure is that the mission assuming the presidency of that month is the one authorized to do so. We think it is a profound lack of responsibility by the Australian Mission. I hope that we will continue to respect ourselves as non permanent members of the Security Council.”

  That is, Chad not only challenged the violation of procedures, but noted that it was one non-permanent member doing it to another.

  The email of Michael Bliss of the Australian Mission angered those who provided it to Inner City Press. In a reference to Bob Geldof's “Do They Even Know It's Christmas,” Bliss wrote that 

“in respect to that question asked long ago by Bob Geldof, and friends of some other Africans, the Chadian mission do know that it is Christmas time in the week of 22/12 but, I am told, has resisted SCAD's strenuous attempts to arrange the program so that scheduled work concludes by 19/12.”

  SCAD is the UN Department of Political Affairs' Security Council Affairs Division. On the one hand this seems to be a problem between member states, elected members of the Security Council from different continents, of different religions and different cultures.  Inner City Press reached out to the Australian mission and understands that the joking reference was to wanting a quiet Christmas, and is now to their credit acknowledged as ill-considered.

  But on the other hand, Inner City Press is informed, others up to the level of Permanent Representative wonder who gave Chad's Program of Work to Australia - whose Bliss said it came from "off the back of a truck." Which truck? We'll have more on all this.

   

Deadly Haiti Prison Riot Highlights Swedish UN Wardens, Mystery Guests, One American

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 18 -- When reports emerged Monday morning about UN peacekeepers in Haiti putting down a prison riot, in which three inmates died, some viewed it as a rare affirmative act by UN Peacekeeping, accused this summer of inaction in the face of mass rapes in the Congo, and the killing of civilians in Darfur.

One aspect of the Haiti prison riot seemed incongruous: that there were five UN personnel, and two “guests,” inside the jail even before the rioting or escape attempt began.

Inner City Press asked acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq what the UN personnel had been doing inside the jail, if the UN was now in the business of running prison systems.

Haq didn't directly answering, saying instead that there were “five UN staff and two guests” and that everything the UN Mission MINUSTAH does is “in support of local authorities.” Video here, from Minute 12:05.

So is the UN running prisons or not?Click here for Inner City Press previous coverage of the UN and Haitian prisons. Also, what was the role of UN Peacekeeping in the deaths of three inmates, if any?

We note that, despite a follow up question, the investigation of the death of a young Haitian who did odd jobs for the Nepali formed police unit in Haiti is either still ongoing, or its results covered up. Inner City Press asked first, then a follow up was put in last week.

In this incident, six of the seven inside the jail were from Sweden, one from the UN. It appears that Sweden had contributed police wardens, through the UN, to Haiti. While a training function could be helpful, one wonders what exactly the Swedes were doing in this jail, and who their visitors were. Watch this site.

On Haiti, Why Did UN Conceal Jail Slaughter, Shoot Into University?

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/haiti2press052610.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 26 -- Since the January earthquake in Haiti, the UN has said publicly that it is partnering with the Haitian National Police, and that it is unaware of evidence of HNP abuses of human rights including summary executions.

These statements were made by the head of the UN mission Edmond Mulet, and by deputy Tony "Rape Elates Me" Banbury, in press conferences and video links with the Press at UN Headquarters.

Now comes evidence of a slaughter of prisoners by the Haitian National Police in January, in a semi collapsed jail while UN peacekeepers stood outside. The question is, when did the UN know it, and why did the UN not come clean, but rather wait for the press to disclose it?

At the UN's May 26 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: In Haiti there was this incident where UN peacekeepers reportedly fired teargas and rubber bullets and then chased students into the campus of the university. What, I guess, what are the UN’s policies both on the use of these two non-lethal crowd control measures, and what training is given in terms of not violating local customs of not having armed military — armed, in this case, peacekeepers — going onto college campuses?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, first of all, the UN Mission in Haiti has issued an apology concerning this incident. The troops went inside the university to arrest a student who threw rocks at UN troops. But as you know, and as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative has said, UN troops should not enter university grounds. When it comes to the question of use of teargas and rubber bullets and so on, I would need to ask DPKO for more information on the rules for the use of those kinds of…

Inner City Press: [inaudible] and then on this, and I know that yesterday you made this announcement that the UN is going to conduct a joint investigation with the Government of the prison alleged killings. But what I couldn’t figure out is when did the UN know? It seems to many that this only became public because the New York Times ran an exposé of it. When did the UN become aware of it, that there was an issue of how, that some of the prisoners may have been killed by the Haitian National Police while peacekeepers were immediately outside the jail? And why didn’t the UN go public at that time?

Spokesperson: Well, certainly — a number of things. First of all, the Mission was aware immediately [that] this incident took place. That’s the first point. The second is that they immediately, the Human Rights Section in that town, in Les Cayes, immediately began looking into this. What you have to also remember is precisely when it took place, 19 January, was very close to when the earthquake took place, and therefore MINUSTAH — the Mission — and the rest of the UN presence as well as, of course, the entire population of Haiti were still digging themselves out of the rubble, metaphorically and literally. Therefore I think you could probably understand that that was the immediate first focus. This is taken extremely seriously, and there already has been an investigation within MINUSTAH into what happened in that prison. And there are already preliminary findings. And it’s precisely because there were repeated requests for an investigation by the Haitian National Police — and precisely because that investigation has not yet been forthcoming — that MINUSTAH went ahead with its own investigation and, secondly, has also now, through Mr. [Edmond] Mulet, agreed with President [René] Préval that there should be an independent commission to look into what happened.

Inner City Press [inaudible] because there have been a series of press conferences and video hook-ups with Mr. Mulet where questions of killings by the Haitian National Police have come up. And I think in one of them he said he wasn’t aware of any; then they have described the Haitian National Police as a good partner of MINUSTAH. Were any steps, again, [inaudible] I guess go back over and look at those things, it wasn’t, I mean when you say MINUSTAH was aware, was Mr. Mulet aware of this all the way back to January 19?

Spokesperson: My understanding is that the Acting Head of the Mission at that point, Mr. Mulet, was aware from early on — I don’t know precisely which day. But as I say, there were many other things that needed to be contended with at that point. And he takes it extremely seriously. And I think that it has been pursued consistently and seriously behind the scenes to try to ensure that the Haitian National Police conduct an investigation. And that did not happen, or not to the extent that was necessary, and that’s why both MINUSTAH launched its own investigation with its own resources, and has now additionally agreed with President Préval that there should be an independent commission. And the details of that are still being worked out.

INNER CITY PRESS: And just one last one on this. Were any steps taken to not have MINUSTAH work with a particular unit or units of the Haitian National Police that the UN had reason to believe were engaged in this killing of prisoners?

Spokesperson: I’d have to find that out, I’d have to find that out, but it’s standard practice in other operational areas to take precisely those kinds of measures.

We'll be waiting. Watch this space. And see, www.innercitypress.com/haiti2press052610.html