On Flying FDLR Leader in DRC, UN's Herve Ladsous Has Been Silent on Complaint 3 Weeks Now, Rwanda Tells Inner City Press (Video)

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 16, more here -- Amid reports on June 27 that the UN flew a sanctioned militia leader of the FDLR militia on a UN aircraft in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujurric about it at the UN noon briefing on June 27:

Inner City Press: why did MONUSCO [United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo] fly him to Goma to Kisangani and then to Kinshasa when, in fact, I think there’s an arrest warrant for him?

Spokesman Dujarric: I’m not aware of any other services provided to him by MONUSCO.

 But it turns out that UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous flew the sanctioned FDLR leader from Eastern Congo to Kinshasa. Rwanda complained about this, in writing, on June 26.

  On July 16, Inner City Press asked Rwanda's Deputy Permanent Representative what has been Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations' response. 

  There has BEEN no response - in more than three weeks. Video here, and embedded below.

  Little more than an hour later, Ladsous floated into the Security Council to talk about Central African Republic -- without having answered a written complaint from a Security Council member in more than three weeks. We call this: unaccountable. 

 Dujarric on June 27, and in the subsequent times Inner City Press asked, insisted that not only Mary Robinson (who today left her post as the UN's Great Lakes envoy) but also US envoy Russ Feingold requested the waiver, and that the FDLR leader Gaston Iyamuremye a/k/a Rumuli hadnot traveled to Rome, arguing that only that was important.

  Inner City Press disagrees -- why would UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous given his history on Rwanda, representing France in the Security Council in 1994 arguing for the escape of the genocidaires into Eastern Congo, fly a sanctioned FDLR figure linked to the genocide around? 

  On July 15,  Haq said Rumuli  was escorted from Kinshasa back to the east. Video here.

  Inner City Press asked about MONUSCO escorting Rumuli.

  Haq said what he had read did not say MONUSCO did the escorting. So who did? And if not the UN, how does the UN know where Rumuli went? Watch this site.

   

Rwanda Formal Complaint Letter to UN Security Council on Ladsous Travel Waiver Bid for FDLR Leader

By Matthew Russell Lee, Follow up on Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, June 27 -- Rwanda has complained to the UN Security Council that UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous requested and carried out a travel ban waiver for FDLR leader Gaston Iyamuremye / Rumuli Michel. 

  Inner City Press has obtained the complaint letter, on which it first reported yesterday, and puts it online here. 

  The letter recounts irregularities in Ladsous' last-minute request, including that his MONUSCO mission under Martin Kobler effectuated an airlift to Goma and then to Kinshasa on a MONUSCO aircraft even as the request was denied by the 1533 sanctions committee. The accusation is of a "hidden agenda of sanitizing the FDLR genocidaires."

Despite a request to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric yesterday for the UN's explanation, no response has been received.

  When Herve Ladsous was appointed head of UN Peacekeeping by France and UN Peacekeeping, Inner City Press asked him to address his past as French Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN during the Rwanda genocide, arguing for the escape into Eastern Congo of thegenocidaires who would become the FDLR.

  Ladsous refused to answer, and then adopted the policy of trying to block Inner City Press questions, going so far as to have his spokesman grab the UN Television microphone to prevent a question. Video here,compilation here.

  Now -- not surprisingly -- a scandal has arisen, with Rwandan officials exclusively complaining to Inner City Press, citing letters, about Ladsous granting a travel ban waiver for FDLR leader Iyamuremye / Rumuli to fly from the DR Congo to Rome -- to meet with UN envoy Mary Robinson.

  Of course, Robinson could have met the FDLR leader without him breaking the travel ban. But in a UN trend, Robinson has been allowed to remained based in Ireland, just as Romano Prodi was allowed to remain based in Italy and to (over) charge the UN for his travel inside Italy.

  Earlier this year, Ladsous refused to answer Inner City Press' simple question on when UN Peacekeeping under his watch might belatedly go after or “neutralize” the FDLR, video here.

Ladsous (and see Inner City Press video below, Creative Commons)

  Under Ladsous, UN Peacekeeping is involved in other scandals, for example not enforcing Ban Ki-moon's stated “Human Rights Due Diligence Policy” with respect to the 41st and 391st Battalions of the Congolese Army after only two convictions for 130 rapes in Minova in November 2012. 

  The UNAMID mission in Darfur, Sudan, not reporting the killing of civilians has also occurred on Ladsous' watch, but he refuses to answer questions.

We will have yet more on this.

On June 26 Inner City Press, copying the Free UN Coalition for Access, has asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

This is a formal request for the UN's response to allegations, including but not limited to in the letter(s) from the Rwandan government, about a travel ban waiver for FDLR's Gaston Iyamuremye / Rumuli Michel and the involvement of USG Ladsous.

Last Friday Inner City Press' written request and question about legal papers about cholera in Haiti was never answered while it was answered, by email, to other media. That should not be repeated. Please confirm receipt of this request.

  There has still been no answer. Watch this site.

   

While DR Congo Cited "Terrorist Attack" and its Soldiers Reported Looted, UNSC Silent and Ladsous: "I Do Not Answer You, Mister" (Video)

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 30 -- Just after the gunfire in Kinshasa, the spokesperson for Joseph Kabila's government Lambert Mende called it a "terrorist attack." 

  But twelve hours later, the UN Security Council under its French presidency had not issues any press statement, as it routinely does for terrorist attacks and an attempted coup d'etat.

 Inner City Press asked Herve Ladsous, the fourth French head of UN Peacekeeping in a row, if after this attempted coup or terrorist attack it still made since to move a battalion of UN peacekeepers out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  Ladsous, who as France's Deputy Permanent Representative in 1994 argued for the escape of genocidaires from Rwanda into Eastern Congo, replied, "I do not answer you Mister." UN video here from Minute 4:34; Inner City Press YouTube video here.

 And Ladsous never did answer about events in the DRC.  The UN's envoy Martin Kobler belatedly tweeted his deep concern ("2013 has been the year of new hopes... I strongly condemn") -- but he had also re-tweeted photos of a Bangladeshi formed police unit which had signed on to preserve international peace and security in the DRC flying out to South Sudan.

  Later on December 30, even the French government owned France 24 channel reported that DRC soldiers had looted people's houses near the Army headquarters in Kinshasa.

  Inner City Press reported this, citing France 24 -- but Kabila defenders rejected it, blaming Rwanda even for this. Call it, dysfunction. And as to Ladous, call it FrancAfrique.

   The question remains: will France, which holds the UN Security Council "pen" on the DRC and controlled the Council's recent trip there now draft a Council press statement on the chaos?

  While this remains to be seen -- France has been silent in the Council of last on the breakdown in its former colony the Central African Republic, even as eight African peacekeepers have been killed -- it must be noted that the UN has proposed removing a full battalion of peacekeepers from its MONUSCO mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Click here for long form analysis on Beacon Reader.

  For a week since Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that he would move peacekeepers and "assets" including attack helicopters from DRC, Darfur, Abyei, Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire to South Sudan, Inner City Press has asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky about any UN analysis or recognition of the potential impacts on the places the peacekeepers would be removed from.

  Nesirky has not answered the questions. None of them. Another question Inner City Press asked, about tensions between South Korea and Japan including in South Sudan after Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's visit to a shrine for Japan's World War Two dead, Nesirky answered but first to other media on a regional or politicized basis, 13 hours before a more general "Note to Correspondents." These practices are being opposed by the new Free UN Coalition for Access.

  Mende's use of the word "terrorist" has significance: the Security Council routinely issues fast press statements condemning terrorist attacks. (See yesterday's Inner City Press story here.) So will France propose a press statement now on the DRC? And will it address, as the UN Secretariat hasn't, the pull out of a battalion from MONUSCO at this time? Watch this site.

Footnote: Meanwhile for hours after what Mende called the "terrorist attack," nothing has been heard from the UN's envoy to the DRC Martin Kobler. One wag wondered if Kobler was "pulling a Hilde Johnson" -- the UN's envoy in South Sudan said little in the days after the fighting and killing in Juba. Is Kobler now as aligned with Kabila as Johnson is with Salva Kiir?

  Kobler's MONUSCO mission was blithely tweeting out photographs of blue helmets holding hands with Congolese children... in Pinga in North Kivu, far far away. This is the Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous, who "has a policy" of not answering Press questions, video here, UK coverage here. This is the UN of late: no answers, just spin.

   

With DR Congo's Mende Citing "Terrorist Attack," Will France Draft UNSC Statement, As Full Battalion Shifted to South Sudan?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 30 -- Amid the gunfire in Kinshasa, the spokesperson for Joseph Kabila has called it a "terrorist attack." 

   Following minster of information Lambert Mende's statement, and the events, the question arises: will France, which holds the UN Security Council "pen" on the DRC and controlled the Council's recent trip there now draft a Council press statement on the chaos?

  While this remains to be seen -- France has been silent in the Council of last on the breakdown in its former colony the Central African Republic, even as eight African peacekeepers have been killed -- it must be noted that the UN has proposed removing a full battalion of peacekeepers from its MONUSCO mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Click here for long form analysis on Beacon Reader.

  For a week since Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that he would move peacekeepers and "assets" including attack helicopters from DRC, Darfur, Abyei, Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire to South Sudan, Inner City Press has asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky about any UN analysis or recognition of the potential impacts on the places the peacekeepers would be removed from.

  Nesirky has not answered the questions. None of them. Another question Inner City Press asked, about tensions between South Korea and Japan including in South Sudan after Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's visit to a shrine for Japan's World War Two dead, Nesirky answered but first to other media on a regional or politicized basis, 13 hours before a more general "Note to Correspondents." These practices are being opposed by the new Free UN Coalition for Access.

  Mende's use of the word "terrorist" has significance: the Security Council routinely issues fast press statements condemning terrorist attacks. (See yesterday's Inner City Press story here.) So will France propose a press statement now on the DRC? And will it address, as the UN Secretariat hasn't, the pull out of a battalion from MONUSCO at this time? Watch this site.

Footnote: Meanwhile for hours after what Mende called the "terrorist attack," nothing has been heard from the UN's envoy to the DRC Martin Kobler. One wag wondered if Kobler was "pulling a Hilde Johnson" -- the UN's envoy in South Sudan said little in the days after the fighting and killing in Juba. Is Kobler now as aligned with Kabila as Johnson is with Salva Kiir?

  Kobler's MONUSCO mission was blithely tweeting out photographs of blue helmets holding hands with Congolese children... in Pinga in North Kivu, far far away. This is the Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous, who "has a policy" of not answering Press questions, video here, UK coverage here. This is the UN of late: no answers, just spin.

   

In DR Congo, UN's Radio Okapi Asks French Deputy Alexis Lamek Why Not Sanction Rwanda, Media Controlled

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 5 -- The UN has its own radio stations, as well as allowing colonial powerhouses (or veto-holders) like France to choose which correspondents get to cover UN trips.

  And so today, this: French Deputy Permanent Representative Alexis Lamek gave an "exclusive" interview to the UN's Radio Okapi. The Okapi questioner asked in essence since the UN and everybody knows Rwanda is behind the M23 rebels, why doesn't the Security Council sanction Rwanda?

  Lamek's answer to this question wasn't that the UN doesn't know this, but rather to brag about the UN/SADC Intervention Brigade, which so far has only attacked the M23.

  One might think that a UN radio station would also focus on the acts of the UN's own partners, for example the two Congolese Army units which, while given logistical support by the UN, committed 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012. But this was not asked; the place of this issue in the trip is unclear.

  How can the UN get better if it refuses to examine itself?

  In the spirit of propaganda, the UN Mission MONUSCO announced that it took the three French-picked scribes to see some of its good works: a "CPAD Quick Impact Project, Training of 50 Women in Kinshasa."

  While we wait to see any actual coverage of that, it must be noted that MONUSCO -- under Roger Meece, not new envoy Martin Kobler -- had a "Quick Impact Project" scandal involving badly planned grain mills rusting in the jungle, a failed attempt to make up for peacekeepers doing nothing as Congolese women were mass raped in Walikale.

  In a belated first tweet from among the French picked scribes, US state media Voice of America thank MONUSCO's "Laure" for helping "one woman at a time." Fine. But at that rate, how to make up for the 135 women raped by the UN's partners in Minova last November?

  Certainly there is some good MONUSCO news too. But to censor coverage or analysis of things that don't go as well is one of the reasons the UN does not improve. It has been on the DRC for more than a decade, and its results are decidedly mixed.

Both sides of the debate agreed on this point at a session at the New York City Bar Association on conflict minerals held Thursday night, as the Security Council mission and its scribes flew off toward Brussels. ("Leopold's Ghost" even came up at the session.) Click here for Inner City Press'story about the conflict minerals session.

Will conflict minerals be an issue during this trip? Who will the Security Council met with in Goma? This has been asked, but not yet answered. Watch this site.

On DRC Trip of UNSC, Despite UN & French Blackout, ICC Debated, Politicized as Child Soldiers & Chad, Opposition Ignored

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 4 -- With the UN Security Council delegation in Kinshasa dining tonight with that city's diplomatic community and officials of the UN Mission MONUSCO, at UN Headquarters a vague summary of their first meeting was given.

  Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky for more, to say what topics were discussed with the EU's Political and Security Committee. Nesirky, whose Office and France "in consultation" rejected Inner City Press to accompany the trip, now twice advising Inner City Press to "ask Council delegations."

  Well, we have. And while some have yet to explain why, it appears that unlike on Syria the Security Council will not meet with any opposition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  Back in Brussels with the EUPSC, Inner City Press is informed that the discussion was almost entirely about the DRC, that the Kampala Talks with the M23 should be concluded and PSC Framework implemented, that Security Sector Reform should be pursued in other to allow development projects.

  One would think this vaunted Security Sector Reform would include action on the 41st and 391st Battalions implicated in 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012, with the US-trained 391st being implicated since in the desecration of corpses. We'll wait to hear from Security Council members on that.

  While it is sometimes true that a picture is worth a thousand words, tweeted photos of the UN Security Council's meeting with the EUPSC don't show that the International Criminal Court came up, and that it was counter-explained that the ICC is increasingly controversial in Africa. 

   This was clear from speeches (and no-shows) at the UN General Debate in New York last week. But it seems some int the EUPSC didn't understand it.

  To many, the ICC is viewed as politicized, not only because of its over-focus on Africa but also because it dispenses victor's justice. Were are the prosecutions of the supporters of Ouattara in Cote d'Ivoire? Of extremists among those who overthrew Gaddafi?

  Similarly politicized, in many's view, was the US announcement just as the trip began of child soldier recruitment penalties on Rwanda. These are denied, as to the Rwandan military. 

  Meanwhile for example Chad's Army is on the UN's list of child soldier recruiters -- and was accepted by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous into the UN's Mali mission MINUSMA. Did HRW speak out against that, and Ladsous? We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

On Report of DR Congo Army Rape & Torture, UN Stonewalls Inner City Press 3 Days & Counting: #Ladsous2013

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 2 -- Does the UN probe abuses by its partners in the Congolese Army or try to cover them up?

  More than three days have passed since Inner City Pressexclusively published the full text of the new Group of Experts report, including details of Congolese Army involvement in rape, torture, child soldier recruitment andtrade of conflict gold.

  On June 29, Inner City Press asked four spokespeople of UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous to answer a simple question: does Ladsous' DPKO provide support to the units links to these abuses.

  Several of the spokespeople had “out of office” auto-responders. Kieran Dwyer's said he is gone until July 16, but for media inquiries to contact Andre-Michel Essoungou.

  But Andre-Michel Essoungou's e-mail said he was out of the office, too. In any event, it was he who seized the UN Television microphone at Ladsous' orders to try to avoid a question about the 135 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, video here.

  The spokesperson who did on June 29 acknowledge receipt, when asked again on July 1 replied, “We are looking into your questions... We'll add the new [FARDC units] and get back to you as soon as possible.”

  But since then, nothing. At the July 2 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey:

Inner City Press: a couple of questions about the Democratic Republic of Congo. One, there is South African article today saying that the South African troops that are part of MONUSCO would become part of the intervention brigade, but there is some memorandum of understanding that is yet to be signed. I’d heard that it was all systems go with the intervention brigade, are there documents that were meant to be signed and what are the issues that are holding it up?

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, we’ll have to check on that for you, Matthew.

Inner City Press: And I wanted to ask you whether DPKO has provided you any answers to the various battalions and regiments that I asked them about Saturday, I asked you about yesterday, just to know, yes or no, whether MONUSCO works with those units.

Deputy Spokesperson: No, I have got no reply on that.

  Why not? How can DPKO have a conditionality policy without knowing -- and disclosing -- which units it works with?

  Meanwhile Radio Okapi, which has many committed workers but which is controlled by the UN misison MONUSCO, has confined the Group of Experts report to its “Media Review.”

    Bloomberg News in Kinshasa credits Inner City Press for the exclusive publication of the full text report, here. The new Free UN Coalition for Access, interested in the responsiveness and objectivity of UN (social) media, hastwice asked Radio Okapi when it itself will dig into the Group of Experts report. So far, no answer.

  And with Roger Meece gone, and Martin Kobler not coming until August, @FUNCA_info's questions to MONUSCO have gone unanswered. 

   What a bad time to leave a mission without a chief.Then again, see what Ladsous has done with DPKO, video here. Watch this site.

  

As UN Plays Musical Chairs in the Congo, Anti-Rwanda Experts, Mis-Use of Reports at Human Rights Council, Hege

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 10 -- Sometimes the UN plays musical chairs; sometimes it allows post-holders to abuse the system to try to keep their positions and discredit their critics. 

  Sometimes, as in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN is engaged at cross-purposes in both at the same time.

  Today Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky announced that Martin Kobler, Ban's envoy in Iraq, will be moving to Kinshasa to replace Roger Meece as head of the MONUSCO mission there.

  By any objective measure, Meece has been a failure. The DRC slid back into conflict under his tenure; the UN partners with Congolese army units which then engaged in mass rape in Minova.

  Despite a stated zero tolerance and human rights due diligence policy, the UN has not suspended support to these units, the 391st and 41st Battalions. Nor has the UN provided the Minova rape accountability update Inner City Press asked for on May 29 (video here) and May 30.

  Can Kobler do better? Could he do worse? 

  Meanwhile on June 10 at the UN, Inner City Press asked Nesirky to confirm that Ban's Dublin-based Great Lakes envoy Mary Robinson has taken on as an adviser on Frederico Borello, author of several anti-Rwanda articles similar to those of former sanctions Group of Experts coordinator Steve Hege. 

  Nesirky said he would check with the Department of Political Affairs.

  Hege used his final report to take shots at some of those who criticized his objectivity, even naming them in his report. To many that seemed like an abuse.

Footnote: now Hege's pot-shots have been echoed in Geneva, where the Special Rapporteur on Palestine has in his report, debated today in the Human Rights Council, denounced a

"series of defamatory attacks demeaning his character, repeatedly distorting his views on potentially inflammatory issues. This smear campaign has been carried out in numerous settings, including at the Human Rights Council, as well as university venues where the Special Rapporteur gives lectures in his personal capacity on subjects unrelated to the mandate. The lobby groups’ smears have been sent to diplomats and United Nations officials, including the Secretary-General, who has apparently accepted the allegations at face value, issuing public criticism of the Special Rapporteur."

  Should a UN Special Rapporteur, even if (mis) described as "honorary," or the coordinator of a sanctions Group of Experts, use a UN report to denounce his or her critics, and as here try to get them dis-accredited? The closed-in world of the UN need more, not fewer, voices. Watch this site.

UN Won't Answer of Failures of Protection in Darfur, of Cholera, Haiti & Nepal Training

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- The UN's or at least its Secretariat's lack of seriousness about Africa, for which it receives most of its funds, is exemplified by the lack of answers, even days later, to questions asked about the UN in Africa.

  The worst culprit is the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous.

On March 25 Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky why Ladsous' peacekeepers in Darfur had allowed 31 internally displaced people they were ostensibly protecting to be kidnapped. Neskiry said he would check on that with DPKO.

Inner City Press also asked if the UN's refugee agency UNHCR had transported deposed Central African Republic president Bozize's family inside the Democratic Republic of Congo, and if Bozize himself was in Cameroon.

On March 26, Nesirky had no answer back from DPKO about its failure to protect the IDPs, but he did have an answer from UNHCR: that they had not transported Bozize. 

  It didn't seem to answer the question, but at least unlike DPKO it was a response. Inner City Press has followed up: did Ladsous' MONUSCO fly a Bozize family entourage from Zongo to Kinshasa?

  On another of DPKO's major failures, the introduction of cholera to Haiti along with un-screened peacekeepers from Nepal and DPKO dumping raw sewage into the drinking water, Inner City Press asked about a reported training of over 800 troops from 23 countries for UN Peacekeeping missions -- being held in Nepal.

Any safeguards, to not spread deadly cholera again? Nesirky said he would check with DPKO.

  But by noon on March 27, there were no answers. Inner City Press reiterated the Darfur and Nepal questions; Nesirky said that he had asked DPKO and when he got something from them, he would pass it on.

  But that is the problem. On for example the 126 rapes in Minova, DRC, from November 20 to 22 by the Congolese Army, which Ladsous' DPKO supports, Inner City Press asked again and again. Ladsous refused to answer, directing his spokesman on December 18 to seize the UNTV microphone to avoid the question.Video here.

  The Department of Public Information tells Inner City Press it spoke to Ladsous' spokesman, but nothing has been said publicly about it, and Ladsous still refuses Inner City Press' questions about the deadline he supposedly set for suspending support to two unidentified rapist units. But when?

  So Inner City Press on March 27 asked Nesirky, when is the deadline, has any support of the units been suspended? Nesirky said he would check with DPKO. Right. Watch this site.