As UN Report on Congo Is Toned Down, UN Won't Say By Whom, Ban's Role

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 1, 2010 -- Hours after the publication of the UN's “watered down” report on war crimes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky refused to disclose who in the UN, particularly in the Secretariat of Ban Ki-moon, was involved in making the changes from the stronger draft version of the Mapping Report.

Ban delayed publication of the report after President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, criticized in the report, threatened to pull Rwandan troops from UN peacekeeping missions including in Darfur. Ban flew to Kigali and discussed -- or negotiated -- with Kagame.

With the report issued in modified and watered down form, Inner City Press asked Nesirky about the involvement of Ban's legal office, beyond the lawyers of High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, in watering down the report. Here are three initial examples:

an earlier reference to "damning elements" that could be used by a court to conclude that genocide took place has been changed to "inculpatory elements.” Another section elaborates at length — compared with the earlier draft — on a number of "countervailing factors" that could be used to argue that such a crime didn't take place. A draft section that dismissed mitigating arguments was dropped entirely.

I think you've got it backwards, Nesirky replied.

Inner City Press asked, “it wasn't watered down?” Nesirky never answered this, rather emphasizing that the HCHR has experience lawyers. Yes, but what was the involvement of the legal office of Ban, who negotiated with Kagame?

Nesirky denied that Ban negotiated with Kagame, and then was questioned by BBC and Al Jazeera about Ban's failure to now make any recommendations about prosecution, and by CNN about Ban not making himself available for questions on this long anticipated day of publication.

Ban's only listed appointments of the day are with the Ambassador of Pakistan, and hosting a reception about the MDGs. It should be noted that after Ban named Kagame and Spain's Zapatero as the co-chairs of his MDG Advocacy Group, Zapatero refused to meet with Kagame due to war crimes charges pending against him in the Spanish courts. After this Mapping Report, will things only get worse? Watch this site.

As UN Council Prepares Trip to Uganda & Sudan, DRC Report to Raise Peacekeeping Price?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 1, 2010 -- As the modified Mapping Report on war crimes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was issued today, at the UN in New York Ambassadors of the accused countries as well as the DRC scrambled to make their nations' complaints and addenda heard.

On the eve of the Report's release, Uganda's Permanent Representative Rugunda took congratulations from a stream of other Ambassadors for the alphabetically honor of assuming presidency of the UN Security Council of October. There was little to no mention of the UN's charge of war crimes.

Several well wishers noted that for the first time, a president of the Council would be leading a mission of the 15 members to his country, just as his month began. The phrasing was conditional, as Sudan had yet to issue visas for the second part of the already controversial trip.

There is, however, a connection between the Mapping Report and the Uganda leg of the trip, on which Inner City Press has been told it will be included. Ugandan foreign minister Sam Kutesa has in writing urged that the Mapping Report, which accuses UPDF troops of terrorizing civilians in the Congo, not be published at all, and implied that it may lead to a reversal of Uganda's peacekeeping role in Somalia.

This is a odds with a position taken in the closed door meeting at the UN in New York on Somalia, during which multiple sources tell Inner City Press that President Yoweri Museveni said that if he received funding for 40,000 troops in Somalia, he would clean the place up, “African style.”

After the UN's Somalia mini Summit, from which as Inner City Press exclusively reported Eritrea was at the last minute dis-invited, African Union Commission chief Jean Ping took Press questions. Inner City Press asked about complaints that the Ugandan and Burundian troops in Somalia aren't being paid enough.

Jean Ping said that even with a recent increase, the AU troops in Somalia are compensated at the level of $750 a month, rather than the $1080 the UN pays.

This, Ping said, results in a situation in which “all the peacekeepers want to go to Darfur” to receive the higher pay. Of course, it is the troops' country which decide where they go, and which receives the compensation.

The Council, Ambassador Rugunda told Inner City Press on Thursday night, is slated to meet with President Museveni. How will the issue of the mapping report come up? Will commitments be sought or made about additional payments for Somalia peacekeeping? Watch this site.

Footnote: Not only is the Council trip to Uganda and Sudan, slated to begin October 4, still not confirmed as of 9 am on October 1 -- the terms of reference are not even being negotiated by the whole Council, but only the US and UK, the leaders of the Sudan legs of the trip, Inner City Press is told.

Meanwhile, last minute questions were raised about how many journalists, and even which journalists, should be allowed to cover the trip. These should and must be resolved today -- watch this space.