UN Won't Confirm Denmark on Syria Ship or Soldiers; Dane Tweets From S. Sudan, Disappeared

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 8 -- After Denmark's defense minister Nicolai Wammen said his country is contributing a ship to help remove chemical weapons from Syria and soldiers to protect the UN's envoy there, Sigrid Kaag, Inner City Press Friday asked UN spokesperson Farhan Haq to confirm the offer is being accepted. Video here, from Minute 7:01.

  Haq declined to confirm, saying that nothing will be decided until a November 15 meeting of the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. 

 It all depends, Haq said, on the OPCW's acceptance of the plan the Syrian government has submitted.

  But Danish officials' statements make it appear it's a done deal. Development minister Christian Friis Bach told Jyllands-Posten that the chemical weapons will not be brought to Denmark for destruction.

  Defense minister Wammen was quoted, "We will go in with a broad approach from the Danish side and support the mission to destroy the weapons in Syria. We have not confirmed the actual number [of soldiers] yet." How does he know there will be any, before the November 15 meeting, according to the statement of UN spokesperson Farhan Haq?

  Another Dane elsewhere in the UN system -- Mathilde Kaalund-Jørgensen of the UN Mission in South Sudan -- earlier this week tweeted this:

"#breaking Lou Nuer youth are mobilising in big numbers leaving #Akobo town empty heading towards Dengjok #Southsudan"

  Given previous bloodshed between the Lou Nuer and Murle, and UNMISS inaction, this gave rise to concerns. So much so that the Mathilde Kaalund account profile is now gone from Twitter.

  This came after Akobo county commissioner Kuang Rambang accused the UN Peacekeeping mission of unfairness. One way or another, the UN should have responded. But instead, the account simply disappeared.

  The head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous has adopted a "farcical" policy of refusing to answer Press questions -- video here, UK coverage here -- so for now we report only this, the "disappeared" cautionary tweet. With Ladsous' previous history, there are concerns. Watch this site.

   

On South Sudan, Toby Lanzer Answers on Pibor but Not Press Freedom, of CAR & ICC, Free UN Coalition of Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 27 -- When UN humanitarian Toby Lanzer took questions Tuesday by Twitter, it was about South Sudan. He answered one from Inner City Press, ignored another about open government from the Free UN Coalition for Access. 

 But it was hard not to remember when he worked in the Central African Republic, where things have gotten even worse now than when Lanzer was there in 2008.

  On South Sudan, Inner City Press asked Lanzer what has been done since UN Peacekeepers were filmed standing by as a column of Lou Nuer fighters marched by. Lanzerreplied, and Inner City Press re-tweeted, that "We've stepped up UN patrols in Pibor County. Aid operation also reaching more people - 65,000 registered for aid so far."

He did not answer about UN or aid contingency plans if Sudan cuts off the oil flow from South Sudan, as threatened, on September 6. Nor did he answer this, from the Free UN Coalition for Access:

On free press, @TobyLanzer, what does #UN say to new cabinet banning coverage of meetings, incl on aid? #SouthSudanInFocus

  Perhaps press freedom, often in question in South Sudan -- see Herve Ladsous' spokeperson Kieran Dwyer's use of just this issue near the end of this video -- is not seen as an issue related to aid. But it is.

  When Lanzer was in CAR, he offered praise to Bozize, now seen as corrupt, including for inviting in the International Criminal Court.

  On August 27 at the UN, after Lanzer ended his Twitter session with a back and forth with Mia Farrow, Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Farhan Haq if the UN or its envoy Babacar Gaye have any comment on an ICC-indicted Sudanese general Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein visiting the CAR.

  Haq said they had no recent communications from Gaye's BONUCA mission. By the end of the day the UN sent a press release about the violence, but nothing on the ICC, whose invitation into the CAR in 2008 Lanzer praised. Round and round. But always hoping for better. Watch this site.

   

A Tale of Two Sudans: UN Inaction in Jonglei & Abyei, Double Standards on Sudans, Rebels & Media Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 23 -- In the war of separation between Sudan and South Sudan, millions died, and tensions remain. 

  Yet when the two countries ambassador emerged from the UN Security Council to speak to the media on Friday, only two correspondents asked them questions. And both offered answers at the stakeout, unlike what happened at the higher-profile Syria chemical weapons session on August 21. Video here and embedded below.

  Inner City Press asked South Sudan's representative about taking sides in the conflict between the Murle and Lou Nuer in Jonglei state, and what ever happened with theinvestigation the UN promised back in May into the killing of the Paramount Chief in Abyei.

  On the latter he replied that there was nothing to report. We note that UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, now away on a long vacation, refused even while in New York to answer Press questions about the killings.

  To the side of the stakeout Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman indicated that he would not be coming to the microphone to speak. After Inner City Press asked South Sudan about the referendum in Abyei, and the flow of South Sudan oil through Sudan, he did in fact come to the microphone.

  He was critical of the proposals of some "equating" the rebels and government on the issue of humanitarian access to Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states. (Inner City Press asked August's Council president, Argentina's Permanent Representative Perceval, about the fought over difference on aid between the adopted "to expedite" and the rejected "to allow;" she did not answer on camera but later joked about the "philosophical" question.)

  In further philosophy or lack thereof, the loudest Security Council members adopt entirely different approaches to government, rebels and outside supporters in Syria and in, say, Sudan, or the Democratic Republic of Congo. But more on that to come. For now we simply note, on another double standard, that Inner City Press coined a word while waiting at the stakeout with an eye on Egypt: "Cou-volution."

  Inner City Press asked Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman about the peacekeeping "catering" helicopter and crew taken hostage in early August by the Minnawi rebels in Darfur. "That is a UNAMID helicopter," he replied, "you should ask them."

  But the UN refuses to answer, beyond an "If-Asked" they would have been prepared to read out on August 5 if anyone had asked. They read it out only later, after Inner City Press inquired. Why is the UN staying quiet about an attack in one place, while declaring that any attack on its brigade in Eastern Congo would be a war crimes, even if the Brigade shoots first?

  There are other contradictions. This week US President Barack Obama and other Western leaders are demanding a UN investigation of chemical weapons in Syria. But look at the UN -- it hasn't finished the Abyei killing investigation it promised in May.

  And there are double standards in the UN itself. Last time Sudan and Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman were at the stakeout they witnessed one of Ladsous' spokespeople demanding that the first question, which UNAMID's chief was directing to Inner City Press, instead go to Agence France Presse, on one of whose management board Ladsous used to serve.

  On August 23 after the Security Council meeting on Sudan and South Sudan, Inner City Press was greeted by one of the concerned diplomats and told to come speak with him at the entrance of the so called Turkish Lounge.

  Inner City Press was conversing with the diplomat when UN Security ordered Inner City Press back into the penned-in stakeout. This is supposedly not the rule; the rule according to the Department of Public Information has supposedly not changed. The Free UN Coalition for Access put the question to UN DPI official Stephane Dujarric and the Media Accreditation unit he supervises.

  Moments later, when a former and a current Reuters reporter both went to talk outside the pen with the UK Deputy Permanent Representative, UN Security said nothing. Double standards, much?

  In fairness we praised DPI earlier today, for a briefing by UN Security chief Kevin Kennedy. But clearly DPI needs to explain its (new?) rules, to all reporters at the UN and to UN Security. And double standards, and further reductions, will be opposed by the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Herve Ladsous Covered Up in Jonglei, on Sri Lanka, Proposed Drones, DR Congo Echoing His Rwanda Role: Ladsous' Online Life Part 2

By Matthew Russell Lee, 2d in Series

UNITED NATIONS, August 11 -- There were bodies to be hidden or covered up in South Sudan by Herve Ladsous in January 2012. 

  His Department of Peacekeeping Operations did nothing amid mass murder of members of the Murle tribe in Pibor in Jonglei State. 

  Ladsous' response? To downplay the numbers, call them false, then refuse to answer questions.

  Inevitably this echoed Ladsous' role as France's Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN during the Rwanda genocide, when he argued for the escape of the genocidaires into Eastern Congo.

  And that's where he headed later in January 2012, meeting "la classe politique" and, it now seems clear, beginning planning the colonial military approach coming to a head in August 2013: a French high commander of an all-African Intervention Brigade charged with "neutralizing" other Africans.

  How else to explain Ladsous' interventions at a "Responsibility to Protect" conference that month in New York, where one observer had him calling France's air drop of weapons into Libya "humanitarian goods"? More reported him denying the death figures in Jonglei state, but offering none of his own.

  Inner City Press asked Ladsous for his figure, when Ladsous held a press conference on February 7, 2012. (At that time, Ladsous answered Inner City Press questions. When and why he stopped will be addressed later in this series.)

   Ladsous had denied "thousands;" the UN had counter-bid "dozens." Now Ladsous said "hundreds." Was it a cover up? What was the figure?

  Since a Sri Lankan military figure depicted in Ban Ki-moon's own report as engaged in war crimes had become a senior adviser on Peacekeeping Operations, Inner City Press asked Ladsous about that. But he wouldn't give a substantive response.

  Ladsous' spokesperson Kieran Dwyer told Inner City Press to "ask the Senior Advisory Group" - which had no spokesperson.

  By February 23, Ladsous refused to comment at all on the de facto banning of military figure, after extensive reporting by Inner City Press. UN official Margot Wallstrom, by contrast, called it "important." She is no longer with the UN.

  One of the few other media tweets about Ladsous, from his press conference, was his bragging about cutting DPKO's budget - it was by Voice of America, run by the US State Department. The US wanted and wants to be seen to be saving money, but does not yet oversee Ladsous: A Problem from Hell.

  Jump-cut to March 23, something of a watershed: Inner City Press exclusively reported that Ladsous proposed to the C-34 Committee on Peacekeeping the use of drones. While many diplomats in the meeting panned the proposal to Inner City Press, Ladsous refused to explain it. (Now he's selected, for 10 million Euros, the Selex ES Falco, which has previously crashed in Pakistan and Wales.)

  On March 27, Inner City Press for the first time referred to Herve "Drone" Ladsous. The rest is history, of a sort -- or at least, is the next installment in this series. Watch this site.

   

In South Sudan, UN Gassed Up SPLA, Humanitarian Toby Lanzer Defends Peacekeepers' Inaction as Fighters Walked on By

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 22 -- Amid questions about whyUN Peacekeepers just stood by this month as a column of Lou Nuer fighters marched by, and allegations that the UN Mission in South Sudan provides gasoline and other support to SPLA units which are perceived to take sides against the Murle, Inner City Press is asking questions. And getting some answers, if only on a delay.

  Last week Inner City Press asked about UNMISS providing gas to SPLA units and how the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, already in tatters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo under Herve Ladsous,would apply.

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office replied, but as if to a hypothetical question:

Subject: Your question on South Sudan.
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Jul 19, 2013 at 12:00 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

A request for aviation fuel to aircraft of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army would be viewed as a request for “support” and would be subject to a risk assessment on the basis of the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy.

In the event that such a request was approved, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) would take steps to monitor how the fuel is used in order to ensure that it not be diverted for other purposes.

In publishing the response, Inner City Press asked: was such a request made? Was it approved? Which units of the SPLA does UNMISS support? Because Ladsous is not credible in implementing or enforcing the stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy.

  On Monday July 22, Inner City Press thanked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky for Friday's written answer, but asked if such a request for gasoline had been submitted, and if so, approved. Now this has come in:

Subject: Your question on South Sudan
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 3:15 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Regarding your question today about any request for aviation fuel by South Sudan, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has the following information:

UNMISS received such a request from the SPLA in late 2012. On the basis of the human rights due diligence policy, a task force reviewed the request for aviation fuel, which was premised on the SPLA's need to reach isolated groups of civilians at a time of escalating military operations by armed elements loyal to David Yau Yau. The request was granted and the fuel was delivered in November and December of last year to help the SPLA carry out its protection-of-civilians mandate and deter violence.

  What has happened since? The Free UN Coalition for Access, ever interested in the (lack of) responsiveness of UN social media, has asked South Sudan humanitarian Toby Lanzer about this assistance, so far without response. Lanzer has been defensive, saying "36 peacekeepers can secure a landing site for an UNHAS chopper to evacuate the wounded; but 36 cannot engage with thousands of armed youth." 

  But couldn't and shouldn't they have sounded the alarm about the armed march? 

  As we've said of late, OCHA seems to be losing its way, in the Ladsousification of the UN. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

   

UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy Killed by Ladsous & DRC Army's 391st Battalion, Now Mocked in South Sudan

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 21 -- The UN's stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy has effectively been killed, by the 391st Battalion of the Congolese Army and really by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous.

  After the 391st Battalion was implicated in 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012, Ladsous stonewalled then decided to continue support to them, after only two soldiers were arrested, and a dozen officers "suspended."

  Now the 391st Battalion is implicated in the desecration of corpses, another war crime. This after Ladsous declined to continue to support them.

  Here is Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's supposed“human rights due diligence policy," as articulated by hisoutgoing chief lawyer Patricia O'Brien at a July 9, 2013 meeting on which Inner City Press exclusively reported:

"First, the UN cannot provide support to non-UN security forces where there are substantial grounds for believing there is a real risk of those forces committing grave violations of international humanitarian, human rights or refugee law. Secondly, where grave violations are committed by non-UN security forces that are receiving support from the UN, the UN must intercede with a view to bringing those violations to an end. And thirdly, if, despite such intercession, the situation persists, the UN must suspend support to the offending forces."

  At latest since the November 2012 mass rapes, there have been "substantial grounds for believing there is a real risk of those forces committing grave violations of international humanitarian, human rights or refugee law."

  Ladsous tried to cover these grounds up, by refusing to disclose which FARDC units his MONUSCO mission was supporting, and which units were in Minova. Ladsous openly refused Inner City Press questions on this topic at stakeout after stakeout, video here.

  But when it came out, he claimed to "intercede with a view to bringing those violations to an end." This resulted in only two arrests, for 135 rapes, and the cited dozen "suspension."

  It could have been foreseen that this low level of accountability would not bring violations to an end. And it did not: the same 391st Battalion, in July 2013, was involved in abuses including the desecration of corpses, which Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky about on July 16.

  Clearly stage three of the Policy has been reached: despite intercession, the situation has persisted. So the UN "must suspend support to the offending forces" -- but has not. 

  The Policy has been killed by Ladsous and the 391st Battalion. Immediately, DPKO must be made to disclosure which units it supports, not only in the DRC but at least the two other countries the Security Council has applied the Policy to, South Sudan and Somalia.

  Similarly in South Sudan, when Inner City Press asked about video evidence of Ladsous' UNMISS mission standing by as thousands of Lou Nuer fighters marched by from killing Murle, and asking about the Policy, the written response has been as if to a hypothetical:

Subject: Your question on South Sudan.
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Jul 19, 2013 at 12:00 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

A request for aviation fuel to aircraft of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army would be viewed as a request for “support” and would be subject to a risk assessment on the basis of the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy.

In the event that such a request was approved, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) would take steps to monitor how the fuel is used in order to ensure that it not be diverted for other purposes.

So: was such a request made? Was it approved? Which units of the SPLA does UNMISS support? Because Ladsous is not credible in implementing or enforcing the stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy. Watch this site.

   

UN Peacekeeping Inaction on Video of S. Sudan Militia With Stolen Cattle: Now What?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 17 -- The UN and its Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous claim to be doing a lot to protect civilians and bring accountability. The claim is wearing thin, now in South Sudan as well.

There were the incidents in Pibor, and the UN's long silence about how many were killed. 

  Now, just as Inner City Press twice this week asked the UN about photographic evidence of its Congolese Army partners mutilating bodies, today we highlight a video depicting UNMISS peacekeepers in “Manyabol, Jonglei on July 14, 2013 narrating as 'thousands and thousands' of members of a government supported militia thought to be returning home from ethnic violence in Jonglei state marching past them and government troops with stolen cattle after violent clashes which have already led to hundreds of wounded. No action was taken to stop them or even to make this sighting public.”

  While further inquiry proceeds, what will UN Peacekeeping do?  Its and Ladsous' claims are belied by the MONUSCO mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where after 135 rapes by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army, the UN continues to support the two units, the 41st and 391stBattalions. 

 Ladsous sought to cover up the rapes for months, repeatedly refusing Press questions about them. Video compilation here.

  Now for nineteen days they have refused to answer a simple Inner City Press question about whether the units of the Congolese Army they support include those depicted in the new Group of Experts report engaged in rape, looting, arming the FDLR and child soldier recruitment.

  They acknowledged receipt of the question in June when Inner City Press exclusive put online the full text of the Group of Experts report, and said they would answer. But since then: nothing. Given what Ladsous is turning DPKO and the UN into -- a stonewalling duo which refuses questions on the implications of its own Group of Experts report, responding only to visual evidence, we run the video above.Watch this site.

   

Amid Fighting in Jonglei & SPLA Inaction, US Speaks, UN Barely Audible

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 11 -- Amid renewed clashes in South Sudan's Jonglei state between Lou Nuer and Murle fighters, South Sudan Army spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said the Army had not received orders to intervene in the ethnic clashes that he said were a "communal" issue to be handled by the civilian authorities.

  "If there are two communities fighting how do you separate them with firearms?" Aguer asked. "Since these are civilians fighting civilians we think it is the (civilian) authority that should come up with a decision."

  At the UN in New York, Inner City Press asked US Acting Permanent Representative Rosemary DiCarlo, this month's Council president, about Jonglei. From the USUN transcript:

Inner City Press: there's reports of renewed fighting in Jonglei state today, and the South Sudan government said it is not sending its army, that it's a civilian matter (inaudible) by civilian authorities. I am wondering, well, does the U.S. think that the army should do more, and what is the UN's role in trying to stop this deadly violence in Jonglei state?

Ambassador DiCarlo: First of all, we are deeply concerned about the violence-the intra-communal violence-that is going on in Jonglei state. We have called on the government of South Sudan to protect civilians. We have said it is the responsibility of the government to protect civilians. We have been very clear on that. The UN, obviously UNMISS, has a mandate to protect civilians as well-Chapter VII-but it is the primary responsibility of the government.

  Later on Thursday after the Security Council extended the mandate of UN Mission in South Sudan for another year, the country's Permanent Representative Francis Deng gave a nice sounding speech about freedom of expression. But, at least at first listen live, it did not explain Aguer's statement.

  Three hours after the short meeting which included Deng's speech was over, the UN had still not put the video of the session on its website. The Free UN Coalition for Access, through @FUNCA_info, asked why, without UN explanation. 

  This is the latest in a series of snafus including the cutting of the sound during South Sudan envoy Hilde Johnson's speech, a lack of translation on the UN Webcast, and bad sound quality. The UN recently gave an outside contractor TeamPeople total control, including over labor rights: many long time employees were let go. This is the result. What will the UN do?

  And bigger picture, in South Sudan what will the UNMISS mission, ultimately run by Herve Ladsous, do? Ladsous refused Press questions both Thursday morning (about the Geneva Conventions) and Thursday afternoon (about being criticized in Council consultations.) In this context, how can UN Peacekeeping be effective? Watch this site.

   

In South Sudan, UN under Hilde Johnson Seen As Too Tied to Government, Herve Ladsous AWOL?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 9 -- How does the UN explain being targeted in Jonglei, South Sudan, seemingly by Yau Yau rebels from the Murle group?

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issues a statement that attacks on peacekeepers are subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. 

  UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous is nowhere to be found, but his spokesman Kieran Dwyer says the peacekeepers were targeted.

  But why?

  Could it be that, under envoy Hilde Johnson who wrote a fawning book about the South Sudan government, the UN Mission is viewed by rebels as entirely aligned with the government?

  That in Jonglei this was fortified when Lou Nuer tribesmen killed hundreds of Murle in Pibor, and the UN was very slow to arrive, and then to admit the extent of the casualties?

  Is anyone reporting on this? Or simple taking the line of the DPKO of Ladsous, who refuses to answer critical questions?

(It was Dwyer's colleague who went so far as to seize the UN Television microphone on December 18 to try to avoid an Inner City Press question to Ladsous about rapes by the Congolese Army, which Ladsous supports. But it was Dwyer who, leaving the role of honest spokesman, announced that Inner City Press' questions would only be answered under conditions set by Ladsous.)

  At Tuesday's UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked some questions about the attack. Later this came in:

Date: Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 2:58 PM
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Subject: Your question on UNMISS
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress [dot]com

Regarding your question at noon today about whether any Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) forces were nearby when UNMISS peacekeepers were attacked, we can say that the attack hit a civilian convoy escorted by peacekeepers, who were not accompanying any SPLA forces.

  While Ban Ki-moon's statement condoled with the government of South Sudan, the Security Council's statement only did so with the government of India, from where the five killed peacekeepers came.

  The Security Council statement was drafted, by the US, to call “on all parties to cooperate with the mission.” After a response -- from Russia, Inner City Press' sources say -- it was specified to “all parties in South Sudan to cooperate with the mission.”

  Russia had four of its pilots killed BY South Sudan in December 2012, after Johnson and the UN blamed it for their lack of planning in the run-up to the killings in Pibor. 

  Now Russia has been openly calling for oversight of Johnson and UNMISS -- and, it now seems clear and necessary, this incident. Watch this site.