On Darfur, UN Withholds Answer on Kidnapped Aid Workers, Silent on Jebel Marra as on Haiti Cholera Legal Papers

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 23, 2014 -- The UN stands accused of a cover-up in Darfur. On June 20, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric two questions about Darfur:

Inner City Press: on Darfur, I have two questions in one location.  There seems to be an Irish aid group that says its workers have gone missing and have been taking in Darfur.  I wanted to know if UNAMID (African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur) or you know about this?  And also, there’s a call by civilians in East Jebel Marra saying that they’ve been bombed so much that there’s now unexploded ordnances all over the place, and they’ve put out a public call for these to be dealt with by UNAMID.  What’s UNAMID’s response?

Spokesman Dujarric:  I’ll… we’ll check with UNAMID on both accounts. 

  But three days later on June 23, Dujarric's office had provided no answer at all, including to other questions emailed to Dujarric and his deputy Farhan Haq on June 20.

  So at the June 23 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked again. Dujarric said he thought he had an answer in his office. And after the briefing this was emailed: "Regarding your question from Friday on missing persons in Darfur, we are aware of several missing persons from non-governmental organisations. As it has done in past cases, the United Nations is supporting efforts to locate them."

  There was nothing on ordinance in Jebel Marra. But also: why would Dujarric's office have an answer but withhold it? Why did it not answer Press questions submitted on June 20, while answering others? This last, Inner City Press asked Dujarric on June 23 -- so far without explanation. Watch this site.

Background: After whistleblower Aicha Elbasri further exposed UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous as covering up attacks in Darfur, on June 17 several Security Council members joined International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in calling for an investigation.

  Inner City Press asked UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq if an independent investigation of Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping will be done, and if not, why not? Video here.

  Haq claimed that UN Peacekeeping is already acting on Elbasri's complaints, and that it had been telling the press about it. Inner City Press asked, where have these updates been provided.
 
  Haq cited a read-out given in March, largely generic; then he said the requests made on June 17 would be studies. We'll be waiting.

  So France, which has appointed the last four heads of UN Peacekeeping in a row, did not directly join in the call for an investigation made by such Security Council members as Argentina and Luxembourg, Chile and Australia. 

  Then again, what did France say when Ladsous met with Sudan's Omar al Bashir, indicted for genocide by the International Criminal court, the subject of the June 17 session of the Council?

  As recently as May 29, Ladsous refused Press questions, video here,compilation here.

   Back on April 24 when Darfur as such was the topic of the UN Security Council, three major Darfur rebel groups wrote to the Council to investigate "all reports of the Peace Keeping Mission, including reports presented to the UNSC by [Under] Secretary General for Peace Keeping Mr. Ladous and the reliability of the sources he had relied on."

   But unlike his abortive stakeout on the evening of April 23 about South Sudan, video here, Ladsous did not come out to answer any questions. And at the April 24 UN noon briefing, when Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq for a response to the request for an investigation of Ladsous and his reports, there was none: not one modified or corrected report was cited.

  Instead, from the "holy seat" of the UN Correspondents Association a long time scribe followed up to say that it is not all Ladsous' fault, and to cast blame on the government. (This same dynamic was repeated at the June 17 noon briefing.) This reflexively shifting of blame from the UN to the government, whose new Permanent Representative spoke in the Council on April 24, is in this case particularly absurd: how can the government be responsible for the UN's own reports being inaccurate?

  Those requesting this investigation of DPKO and Ladsous are not the government of Omar al Bashir, which whom Ladsous met in July 2013 without any readout, but rebels Abdel Wahid Mohamed Ahmed Nur, Chairperson, Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M-A/Wahid), Gibriel Ibrahim Mohamed, Chairperson of Justice & Equality Movement Sudan (JEM) and Minni Arko Minnawi, Chairperson Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M-MM).

  Pending UN answers, again we ask: how can one write about the corruption of a UN Peacekeeping mission, at length, without naming the person in charge? Why would one airbrush that person, in this case Herve Ladsous the UN Under Secretary for Peacekeeping Operations, out?

   The former spokesperson of the UNAMID mission in Darfur quit, spoke out and finally leaked documents. Radio Dabanga as well as Foreign Policy began publishing them on April 7 (FP did not mention Dabanga, and called its back to back  Ladsous-less pieces an exclusive investigation). 

  The last piece focused on the US role, all to the good, but not only doesn't mention that the UN's Ladsous met with International Criminal Court indictee Omar al Bashir in July, without providing any read-out, but also omits France's hosting of Darfur rebels, for example.

 

 Back on March 25, 2013, Inner City Press asked the UN Spokespersonabout how the UN Peacekeeping in Darfur could have let a group of Internally Displaced People be kidnapped while they were ostensibly protected:

Inner City Press: there is this incident where IDPs were taken hostage or kidnapped by people that were in Government army uniforms, and somehow UNAMID is saying that they opposed it and they denounced the kidnapping, but some people are wondering how armed UN peacekeepers could have IDPs under their care and they could all be kidnapped. Can you clarify how it took place and how it is consistent with protection of civilians?

Spokesperson: Well, I have asked the Mission for more details on that, and I think if you were listening carefully you will have heard me read out precisely what you just said to me.

Inner City Press: But what I am asking about specifically about how it could take place?

Spokesperson: I heard what you said, and I’ve said that I’ll see if I can find out more, which is what I have already asked the Mission and Peacekeeping Operations.

  Now Radio Dabanga has published a memo by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, from April 10, 2013, still saying he didn't know how it happened. 

  What is Ladsous doing? Then, and apparently now, he refuses Press questions about topics ranging from Sudan -- why did he meet with International Criminal Court indictee Omar al Bashir in July 2013? -- torapes in the DR Congo by UN Peacekeeping's partners in the Congolese Army.

  Dabanga to its credit says it is reporting the memos along with FP. TheFP story, at least the first one, does not mention Dabanga, nor Ladsous' meeting with Bashir. Previously an explanation was provided for not reporting on Ladsous' extraordinary and public "non-answering," noted from the UK by the New Statesman, here.

  We'll be following this. Watch this site.

   

As UNSC Condemns Ransom, ICP Asks UK If France Pays Them, Of Areva and Wikileaks, UN Censors

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 -- After the UN Security Council adopted a resolution against the paying of ransom to kidnappers, Inner City Press asked UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant if he thinks that France pays or works with companies like Areva to pay ransoms.

  Lyall Grant responded that since France is a member of the G8, it had agreed last year not to. But what about the release of Father Vandenbeusch by Boko Haram? And the release in Niger of Pierre Legrand and Daniel Larribe?

  In the Security Council after the vote, Argentina took the floor to explain its reservations about the resolution and process, including that it should have been dealt with in the General Assembly, and not in the more limited, five-country dominated club of the Security Council. (Inner City Press asked, and Lyall Grant said he had no objection to it being considered in the General Assembly as well.)

  But France didn't speak. (Its Permanent Representative Gerard Araud was present, perhaps mostly for the session to follow on France's former colony Cote d'Ivoire.) Is France agreeing to live by this resolution it, as a Permanent Five member of the Council, is preaching to others, including the provisions about private companies? Or it another case of "Do as I say, not as I do?"

  Also, after Robert Fowler and Louis Guay were kidnapped while working for the UN in Niger -- until then not known -- and then ultimately released, cables released by Wikileaks assert that Canada (and Austria) "pay ransom." What is their response to this UN Security Council resolution? Watch this site.

Footnote: Just by coincidence (?) Pamela Falk of CBS the president of the United Nations Correspondents Association,degenerated into the UN's Censorship Alliance, tried to ask the first question to Lyall Grant, as if this were a precedent or tradition. 

  It is not, and should not be allowed to be, given UNCA's and its "leaders'" repeated descent into censorship, for example about Sri Lanka, also for France and officials it places on the UN payroll, and even by blocking access to leaked documents by Google's Search, abusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. There should be no sacred cows, no "Holy Seats." 

 And we'll wait to see Falk's and CBS' story on the anti-ransom resolution. Watch this site.

   

Syria's Ja'afari Says Ladsous Did Not Probe Qatar on Kidnaps, Jibes Voice of America

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 25 -- After Syria's Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari gave UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous information on involvement from Qatar in the kidnapping in Golan of Filipino peacekeepers, Inner City Press asked what happened.

The UN told Inner City Press on June 7 that “Regarding your question on Qatar earlier today, below is the response from DSS and DPKO: The United Nations has no evidence of any involvement by Member States or state actors in the abduction or detention of UN personnel in Syria. To our knowledge, the peacekeepers were detained by individual groups operating in Syria.”

  On June 25 Inner City Press asked Syria's Ja'afari about his request, and that above-quoted response. Ja'afari said he also asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, but neither Ban nor Ladsous had even given a written response. He concluded, they didn't even investigate, adding that the UN is awash in Saudi and Qatari petro-dollars.

  Later in his stakeout, Voice of America's Margaret Besheer asked Ja'afari if he viewed Hezbollah as among the foreign terrorists coming in from Lebanon.

  “Are you a new journalist or an old journalist?” Ja'afari asked Besheer.

  You've seen me around, she answered.

  “If you were a professional journalist, you would not ask me that,” Ja'afari said.

  There was some kerfuffle at the stakeout, perhaps merited -- but from many who said nothing when UN official Ladsous, paid with public taxpayer funds, told Inner City Press, “You know I do not respond to you" -- on questions about mass rape by the UN's partners in the Congo. And so it goes at the UN.

Exclusive: Syria Complains of Golan Cover Up by UN's Serry and Ladsous, Gets Summoned by Malcorra, Ban Ki-moon's Chief of Staff

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 30 -- On Syria, while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is in New York it is his chief of staff Susana Malcorra who has summoned Syrian ambassador Bashar Ja'afari to meet this morning, topics undisclosed.

Inner City Press was exclusively informed about that meeting, and also that Ja'afari has written to Ban and to the Security Council to complain about the recent briefing by Ban's Middle East envoy Robert Serry. The complaint is that Serry didn't address the Golan, nor the repeated kidnapping of UN peacekeeper there by the Martyrs of Yarmouk Brigade and, Syria says, Qatar.

Last week, Inner City Press published a portion of the Syrian mission's May 22 letter to Herve Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

As noted, and complained about by the Free UN Coalition for Access, Ladsous only disclosed the most recent kidnapping in a "conversation" with friendly journalists.

Ban's Office of the Spokesperson has refused Press requests to know Ladsous' response; on May 29, Ladsous openly refused to answer any Inner City Press question, video here.

So what is Malcorra's topic? Watch this site.

Exclusive: On Third Golan Kidnapping, Syria PR Ja'afari Told Ladsous He Must Investigate, Secretariat "Is Involved," Stonewalling

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 -- After more peacekeepers were kidnapped in the Golan Heights but before the UN announced it Friday morning, UN official Herve Ladsous on Thursday had a "conversation" not only with hand-picked non-critical journalists, but also with Syrian Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari.

Inner City Press spoke with Ja'afari exclusively on Friday morning and got his read-out of his meeting with Ladsous. 

  But before publishing this story, Inner City Press asked Ladsous's Department of Peacekeeping Operations twice for its side, and asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey, who refused to answer.Video here.

  While Ladsous is almost pathologically adverse to answering Press questions -- video here -- the defensiveness of the UN Secretariat, according to Ja'afari, springs from the fact that in the kidnappings, "some people are involved in the Secretariat... it's a big scandal."

  Ja'afari told Inner City Press that when he met with Ladsous on May 16, Ladsous "tried not to give the impression he is aware of what I said, but he is."

  What Ja'afari said, in the General Assembly on May 15, was that e-mail shows that the UN was aware of the involvement of Doha, Qatar in the kidnappings, including a planning role of the Syrian opposition "ambassador" to whom Qatar has given Syria's embassy.

Ja'afari told Inner City Press that this went up to the "high level of DPKO." Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Del Buey about this at the May 16 noon briefing, but has yet to get an answer.

Inner City Press asked DPKO in writing one last time, after Del Buey refused on camera, here, to provide its own read out of Ladsous' meeting with Ja'afari. DPKO replied, "Regarding the read-out of USG Ladsous’ meeting with Syria’s Permanent Representative, DPKO does not provide read outs of the USGs meetings."

Ja'afari told Inner City Press that at his May 16 meeting with Ladsous, "I insisted on him to investigate, I told him, the ball is in your court, go and investigate, otherwise it will keep on going on."

  But if the past is any guide, Ladsous DPKO does NOT investigate. It never investigated its own role in the killing in Cote d'Ivoire of internally displaced people perceived as Gbagbo supporters in the Nahibly camp.

 It has yet to investigate its role in the killings, including of a peacekeeper, in Abyei. DPKO was asking this again on Friday, and has yet to provide answers, insteading wishing a good weekend. Watch this site.

Kidnapping of UN Peacekeepers "Came Out in Conversation" of Ladsous, Ban Ki-moon Office Won't Say When It Knew, Or Its Duty: FUNCA Protests

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 -- Now the UN says that the news of Golan Heights peacekeepers being taken hostage "came out in a conversation" between UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous "with a few journalists."

This is what Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey told Inner City Press after the Press asked when Ban's Office became aware of the kidnapping.

  Serious questions have been raised about Ladsous' knowledge of involvement from Qatar in the kidnappings; a Permanent Representative on Friday told Inner City Press that is why Ladsous and Ban's Office downplayed or tried to pre-spin news of the kidnapping by spoon-feeding only scribes.

  "I don't... I'm not going to discuss that with you," Del Buey answered, adding that after Ladsous' "conversation," his Office put out a Note to Correspondents "last night."

  Actually, Ban's Office only put that out after 8 am on Friday. Del Buey, when Inner City Press emailed him and three of Ladsous' spokespeople at 7:30 pm on Thursday replied to all that "Jo, this one is yours!"

  But "Jo" - Josephine Guerrero -- didn't send Inner City Press even the canned paragraph until after 11 pm; it was even more belatedly sent out by Ban's Office after 8 am the next day.

  Del Buey cut off Inner City Press' follow up question, then said only one more question. Inner City Press asked Del Buey, as it has asked Guerrero and Ladsous' other spokespeople, for their comment or read-out on Syrian ambassador Bashar Ja'afari's meeting on Thursday with Ladsous. Del Buey refused that, as well.

Another journalist asked Del Buey to whom Ladsous gave this information, and how they were selected. Del Buey said, you have to ask Mr... you have to ask DPKO. But doesn't Ban's Office have some duty?

So the Free UN Coalition for Access has protested and will continue to protest this travesty, in which news of attacks on peacekeepers is withheld and spoon-fed to Ladsous-friendly journalists "in conversation."

  Pamela Falk of CBS News, the president of UNCA, was present during the interchange and said nothing. UNCA's "leadership" is apparently fine with Ladsous excluding even most of UNCA's dues paying membership who cover Syria or peacekeeping, because these leaders benefit from this insiders' game. Some correspondents association. Actually, since they use anonymous social media accounts to defend Ladsous, they're now the UN Cowardice Association. Watch this site.

Of Peacekeepers Kidnapped in Golan, Ban Ki-moon's Office Belatedly Announces After Ladsous Withheld News: #LADSOUS2013

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 -- Is Herve Ladsous as head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations defending or even representing UN peacekeepers? Has Ban Ki-moon given over not only UN Peacekeeping but also the rest of the UN's credibility and communications strategy to Ladsous? Video here.

  When peacekeepers are attacked, Ladsous withholds information, including about his own knowledge of who attacked or kidnapped them.

  Ladsous has refused to answer questions about the death of peacekeepers in Abyei and the Congo, and about his knowledge of the role of Qatar and self-declared ambassadors there in the kidnapping of UN peacekeepers in the Golan.

  Then when four more peacekeepers were taken hostage on May 15, even this information was not simply announced by the UN, as took place under Ladsous' predecessors Alain Le Roy and Jean-Marie Guehenno.

  Ladsous, either from fear of the press or to try to promote himself, or both, summoned a few friendly scribes and spoon-fed this news to them. Nothing about his knowledge of the role of Qatar and self-declared ambassadors there in the kidnapping of UN peacekeepers in the Golan.

  Inner City Press, which closely covers UN Peacekeeping including these Golan kidnappings, wrote to Ladsous' three - yes, three - spokespeople with a request for the information he had so strangely spoon-fed to scribes and"for an explanation of how this information was disseminated on such a limited basis, including in light of DPKO spokesperson Dwyer's statements at UN World Press Freedom Day event. On deadline."

  A spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (who simply accepted France's last minute replacement to fill the UN peacekeeping post, Ladsous) referred the question to Ladsous' three person team.

  More than three hours after that, a Ladsous spokesperson -- his lead spokesman Dwyer says he is traveling, where is unclear -- sent a canned statement, but no "explanation of how this information was disseminated on such a limited basis." It was requested again, but was not provided.

  Rather on Friday morning -- long after Ladsous' strange spoon-feeding of scribes, and his spokesperson's hours-later e-mail -- finally Ban's UN Spokesperson's Office sent out the exact same paragraph as a Note to Correspondents.

  Is this any way for the UN to distribute or announce news? Particularly about the kidnapping of and threats to peacekeepers? Has Ban Ki-moon given over not only UN Peacekeeping but also the rest of the UN's credibility and communications strategy to Ladsous? Watch this site.

Footnote: Typically, Ladsous was defended by anonymous -- no one would do it on the record -- social media posts by accounts associated with the UN Correspondents Association, UNCA, now known as the UN Cowards' Association. We'll have more on this.

Syria Says Email Shows Opposition in Qatar Led Yarmouk's Kidnapping of UN Peacekeepers

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 14 -- Just before the Syria session of the UN General Assembly, Syrian Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari stopped and told Inner City Press that at end of his speech he would make an unexpected move.

And after Qatar's ambassador spoke in favor of the resolution his country drafted (and re-drafted several time), Ja'afari did deliver on his pledge. 

 At the end of his speech he said that there an e-mail, from the representative of the Syrian opposition given Syria's embassy in Qatar, showing their involvement in the kidnapping of UN peacekeepers by the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade. He read out a phone number from the e-mail.

Outside the GA, Inner City Press asked UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant about Ja'afari on the e-mail. Lyall Grant called it confused. Another Permanent Representative, from a Troop Contributing Country, said that if true, it's very problematic.

When Secretary General Ban Ki-moon thanked Qatar for its role in the release of the UN Peacekeepers, is this what he meant? Inner City Press asked then, and will ask again. Watch this site.

Why Ban Ki-moon Thanked Qatar for Freeing of Peacekeepers Is Left UNexplained, "Others" Left UNnamed

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 13 -- On Sunday when the release of UN Peacekeepers by the Yarmouk Martys Brigade was credited to Qatar "and others" by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the obvious question raised was and is what are Qatar's relations with the kidnappers and the kidnapping?

On Monday May 13, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky just that: why was Qatar in particular thanked, and is it Ban's understanding that Qatar has some special connection with the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade? Video here, from Minute 13:43.

  Nesirky replied by twice re-reading the statement, emphasizing that not only Qatar but unnamed "others" were thanked. Some wondered: Saudi Arabia? And why the others were left unnamed, but Qatar wanted or got credit?

  More generally, Inner City Press asked, isn't it a contradiction to say that Ban doesn't want countries arming the rebels in Syria, then thanking one of the arms and funding providers, Qatar, for its connection with the rebels who kidnapped UN peacekeepers?

  Nesirky said what was important was the release. Yes. But since this same group previously kidnapped 21 UN peacekeepers, have they this time made a commitment, if only to Qatar, not to do it again?

  Other wonder if the situation can't be described as one involving ransom: if a group that Qatar funds can thereby be convinced to release hostages, isn't that a ransom?

  Tellingly, when ostensibly independent Agence France Presse got around to typing up Ban's thanks to Qatar, it did not ask the obvious question either. Instead, with a UN dateline, and as is typical using anonymous diplomatic -- read, French -- sources, AFP reported

"'This time the rebels felt under pressure and took more convincing to free the soldiers,' said a UN diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. 'Qatar's role was important.'"

  What was Qatar's role IN the kidnapping? AFP didn't ask. Instead it runs a quote from a spokesperson for Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping, on whose behalf AFP's Tim Witcher has filed complaints against Inner City Press, first within the UN Correspondents Association (which Inner City Press left, to co-found the Free UN Coalition for Access), then on March 8, 2013 with the UN.

  Witcher claimed that by asking a question, Inner City Press "abused" Ladsous, who is the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping. Once this and Ladsous' role in the Rwanda genocide as France Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN arguing for the escape of the genocidaires into Eastern Congo were noted, Ladsous began refusing to answer any Inner City Press questions, video here.

  Now when peacekeepers are killed, as in the past week in Abyei and Congo, Ladsous does not even like his predecessor Alain Le Roy hold any question and answer stakeout. His spokespeople issue selective information, here, to AFP.

And Ladsous goes gallivanting, spreading France's policies, now in Lebanon. Watch this site.

As Ban Ki-moon Thanks Qatar For Role In Freeing UN Peacekeepers, Kidnapper Connections?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 11 -- At 3:30 in the morning Sunday in New York, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement about the UN peacekeepers kidnapped in the Golan, crediting the undefined assistance of Qatar:

"The Secretary-General welcomes the release of the four United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) peacekeepers who had been detained on 7 May in the vicinity of Al Jamlah in the area of limitation. He appreciates the assistance of Qatar and of others involved in securing their safe release."

  The release is of course welcome. Whether it will change the recommendation by the Philippines government to pull their over 300 troops from the UN's UNDOF mission is not known.

  But what was and is the role of Qatar, with the Yarmouk Martyr's Brigade and the kidnapping?

At the UN's noon briefing on Friday, May 10 Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky:

Inner City Press: The announcement by the Philippines Foreign Minister that he is proposing to the President to pull out their 342 people that are in UNDOF [United Nations Disengagement Observer Force], would the Mission still... what’s the UN’s response to that? He has said that publicly.

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, we have not received any official communication from the authorities in Manila about their troop contingent.

  And now?

  Ban has let France put in charge of UN Peacekeeping one Herve Ladsous, who repeatedly refuses to answer Press questions, on topics ranging from rapes in the Congo by the UN's partners to the Ladsous' push to use drones in former French colony Cote d'Ivoire before having any approval towho will disarm the MNLA in Mali.

  Even as UN Peacekeepers have been killed in the last week in Abyei and, again, the Congo, Ladsous has stonewalled on issues as simple as Inner City Press' yes or no question, was notification given of the travel in Abyei, into an ambush.

  So will Ladsous answer about the role of Qatar, which is trying to pay to move the UN system's International Civil Aviation Organization from Montreal to Doha, in the kidnapping of the UN peacekeepers he is supposed to protect? Watch this site.