By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 26 -- Amid a litany of rape charges against UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, Inner City Press exclusively obtained and on February 12 published UN emails showing another round of sexual abuse of minors in Ouaka prefecture in the Central African Republic by UN Peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Click here to view.
On February 24, with Inner City Press having been thrown out of Ban Ki-moon's UN after this and other scoops and after making complaints of theft or unauthorized use, Ban was in the DRC, with Joseph Kabila. The UN's transcription of Ban at a press conference went like this:
"Question on the repatriation of the DRC contingent serving in the CAR.
We conduct regular assessments of the contingents in our peacekeeping missions.
SG BAN Ki-moon: "Following that assessment, we found that the DRC troops serving in the DRC were not meeting our standards in terms of equipment, preparation and other issues."
Other issues? That would be child rape. This Ban Ki-moon is beyond diplomatic - this is akin to the cover ups by Ban's head of Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous.
On February 26, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, via spokesperson Cecile Pouilly, offered this critique of the DRC:
"Harassment of civil society organizations continues as democratic space shrinks in the DRC, with six members of the LUCHA movement sentenced to two years in prison by the district Court of Goma on Wednesday.
On 16 February, six LUCHA activists were arrested by the ANR (Agence nationale de renseignements) in Goma, in an apparent bid to prevent their participation in and reduce public support for a 'ghost town' day organized across the country by opposition parties and civil society organizations. This “ghost town” day was organized to commemorate the killing of demonstrators by security forces in Kinshasa in 1992.
The six activists were convicted for incitement to revolt against the authorities. All hearings took place within seven days. Violations of fair trial proceedings were reported, as the activists were not afforded appropriate time to prepare their defence, and the court refused to look into evidence submitted by defence lawyers. There were also allegations that the police fabricated evidence.
In total, some 45 arrests were carried out by police and intelligence forces during the 'ghost town' day in Kinshasa, Goma, Uvira, Lubumbashi, mainly targeting members of the opposition parties and the civil society.
We are also concerned at the ongoing detention of another LUCHA member, Fred Bauma, and an IT technician Yves Makwambala. Both were arrested by the ANR during a youth workshop in Kinshasa on 15 March 2015 and are facing trial for attempt against state security. There have been in their case allegations of arbitrary detention; repeated violations of their rights, including lack of access to legal assistance; cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in detention; and having being forced to sign statements without having read their contents."
This is a well-crafted critique: but portions of it apply to the UN itself, from fabricated evidence (saying the Press "hid" in an entirely visible glassed-on booth), to attempt to degrade (UN Security throwing the Press into the street on a cold night without even a coat) to, most clearly, unfair "trials" (USG Cristina Gallach ousting Inner City Press based on a mis-presented incident in which the Pres sought to cover an event in the UN Press Briefing Room without EVER asking Inner City Press about it).
Does the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which spending the public's money on an office in New York which spoonfeeds ASG Simonovic's information only to pliant scribes, not know? Or not care? We'll have more on this.
Back on February 15 after Inner City Press asked about the email its had published - and Reuters' UN bureau chief Louis Charbonneau, notably, tried to dismiss and then stole the story - on February 16 UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq in the noon briefing read out a statement confirming nearly all of the email Inner City Press had published: that there were four new victims, minors, troops from DR Congo.
But Haq did not say that two of the victims had children from the statutory rape. So Inner City Press asked Haq to confirm that, and asked who would pay: the UN or the DRC soldiers? Haq said there are meetings in Ban's office to respond to just such issues, after December's Deschamps report. Video here.
And then Reuters, even while its editor Dan Grebler said the first theft was being looked into, just retyped and stole it again, this time by its UN correspondent, here. The bureau chief / ringleader retweeted the "story," referring to the Democratic Republic of Congo as merely "#Congo," which also applies to the Republic of Congo - Brazzaville. But who's counting?
But as Inner City Press has reported, and Ban's deputy Eliasson said, that response was due in late January. It has now been pushed into March. What about the victims? We'll have more on this.
On February 15, Reuters first tried to claim these were "old" rapes, here -- then when shown otherwise, simply stole the story with no credit.This is apparently policy.
So Inner City Press raised the issue of theft of exclusives (and lack of objectivity, at least at the UN) to Reuters itself. For now, we've received this, cc-ed also not only to the (repeat) offender but also to Reuters' genial seeming Brian Moss and Clive McKeef:
"Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention. The appropriate Reuters staff will look into it and get back to you as soon as feasible.
Regards,
Dan Grebler
Desk Editor, Americas Desk"
By the time of the next day's noon briefing, still no response. It's not that complicated. We'll have more on this too.
The underlying emails, dated February 11, 2016, describe at least four underage victims, two of whom were impregnated by the rapist UN peacekeepers -- "in the locality Ngakobo in the Ouaka prefecture."
On February 15, after emailing questions for two days to UN spokespeople in CAR and New York, Inner City Press at the UN's noon briefing asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about the rapes, and the email it published on February 12. Haq answered, dodging on part of the email but not denying it. Video here.
Then Associated Press asked, what about these new allegations? Video here. Haq answered - and from that, AP wrote its own derivative and belated story -- without credit, and without any mention of the critique of the UN in the emails. This is how it works, or doesn't.
This too - Reuters UN "bureau chief" on Monday evening first reflexively came to the UN's defense saying that "Alleged Central African Republic rapes UN spox talked about today are same ones UN CAR said Feb 4 it was probing," citing (what else) a Reuters story of February 4 -- about a Human Rights Watch report about rapes in Bambari. But read the February 11 emails Inner City Press exclusively published, here:
“Herewith sharing with you a report I have just received from UNICEF indicating four minor girls aged between 16 and 17 years were victims of sexual exploitation and abuse allegedly committed by members of the DRC battalion in the locality Ngakobo in the Ouaka prefecture.”
Up the email chain, Mercedes Gervilla in UN headquarters writes that “it would seem that many among the troops concerned, including Commanding officers were well aware of the abuse to which these children were being subjected. I also regret to inform you that in addition to these new 4 cases, there will likely be two more...”. [We'll have more on this.]
This is called... spinning for the UN. This is a trend at Reuters, even last week, here.
And there is a history: this same Reuters UN Bureau Chief Lou Charbonneau, when challenged, wrote to Stephane Dujarric, UN Spokesman, trying to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, here.
When this was exposed, Charbonneau cited Reuters to get his email to the UN taken out of Google's search, saying he never meant for it to be public and it was somehow copyrighted. (See his filing here, made public by EFF's ChillingEffects.org). That's censorship... by Reuters.
This this case, after being shown this reflexive defense of the UN was wrong, Reuters simply re-wrote the story and stole it, with no credit.
And now we must go back: Charbonneau announced a policy of not crediting Inner City Press, see here.
This was raised at the time to Reuters, including to Stephen J. Adler. What kind of company is this?
