Amid Speeches Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, Months of Inaction by UN's Ladsous on Minova Rapes by DRC Army

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 17 -- During the day-long UN Security Council debate on sexual violence in conflict there was a lot of talk about accountability, but none for Herve Ladous, the UN Peacekeeping chief who stonewalled on the 126 rapes in Minova for at least four months.

  German Permanent Representative Peter Wittig, for example, said that perpetrators have to be held accountable, and that journalists who report on sexual violence in conflict are at risk.

  Well, the UN's Ladsous refused Press questions on the Minova rapes on November 27, December 7 and December 18 (when he had the UN Television microphone grabbed by his spokesman).

  Still, France's statement (so far only in French) blathered that

“En République démocratique du Congo, les violences sexuelles, en dépit de la mobilisation de la communauté internationale, restent omniprésentes. Commises par toutes les parties, elles se perpétuent aussi au sein des forces armées congolaises, notamment en raison des lacunes du processus de filtrage, de sélection et de formation des ex-milices intégrées aux forces congolaises. La réponse au drame de Minova doit être exemplaire. Les autorités congolaises doivent faire plus et plus vite pour punir les coupables.”

  Vite? (Fast?) Ladsous did nothing for months. And it is France who put Ladsous in place. He is the fourth Frenchman in a row to head up UN Peacekeeping. Even if France wants to “own” the Department, it could and still should send someone else, including on this issue.

  A well placed Secretariat staffer told Inner City Press this was just a precursor for June; there were a lot of calls for women protection advisers but none yet in the field.

  The final speaker was Syria -- not Permanent Representative Ja'afari, with whom Inner City Press spoke about the draft General Assembly resolution, here -- accusing Qatar and Turkey of providing Syrian rebels with “media support.” 

  And thus the stage was set for the next two days of Syria meetings in the Security Council. Watch this site.

Wittig Won't Say If His Committee Used Info Obtained by Torture, But Answers

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, December 14 -- When Germany's Permanent Representative to the UN Peter Wittig spoke Friday on the end of his two year term on the Security Council, he mentioned as one of the highlights having chaired the Council's Taliban and Al Qaeda sanctions committees.

  Inner City Press asked Wittig if during these two years, he or the Committees used information obtained by torture. This was recently charged by UN Special Rapporteur Ban Emmerson, at a session held at the Germany mission ten days ago (story here.)

  Even Ombudsperson Kim Prost, purporting to rebut Emmerson, said that torture was "plausibly raised" in at least two of the 22 sanctions cases she reviewed. So Inner City Press asked Wittig on Friday, have you or the Committee handled information plausibly related to torture? Video here, from Minute 25.

  To this, Wittig said that the proceedings of the Committee are confidential, so he "could not speak about the contents." He said that the Committee "itself has not been seized" of the question of torture. One might ask, why not?

  (In fairness, some argue the no Security Council member, even a Committee chair, can speak for other members, even to answer a question about using information obtained by torture. Whether this reticence is wise or an excuse is another question.)

  Inner City Press also thanked Wittig and his spokesman Alex Eberl, on behalf of the beta Free UN Coalition for Access, FUNCA, for the time they took, monthly or more frequently, to explain Germany's views if only on a background or off the record basis. The views, especially from the top floors of the German Mission on 49th Street, were illuminating.

   Wittig's deputy Miguel Berger continues past January 1 as chairperson of the UN's Fifth (Budget) Committee, now facing issues ranging from re-costing of the budget to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's mobility plan, on which questions raised by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Affairs have yet to be answered.

   Unlike some at the UN, Wittig on Friday at least purported to answer the questions raised. We wish him well.

As US Wins Re-Election to UN Human Rights Council, Susan Rice Tells ICP Drones to be Looked at on Substance

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 12 -- The United States, along with Germany and Ireland, won in the only contested race for the UN Human Rights Council Monday, beating out Sweden and debt-plagued Greece.

  Perhaps because of the relative lack of competitive races, when Inner City Press arrived to cover the voting session, there was no UN Television camera set up, and for a time only one other journalist. Soon a push began to put up a camera; then US Ambassador Rice arrived as the ballot were being counted.

  Before the vote, a slew of Permanent Representative speculated to Inner City Press that the US might well lose. "Under the secret ballot," one African Perm Rep told Inner City Press, "people vote how they really feel." But it seems that the US felt it would win re-election, correctly as it turned out.

  Last month, Inner City Press asked US State Department official Harold Koh about the human rights issues raised by drone strike executions. Koh insisted they are entirely legal. But the issue does not appear resolved, to say the least.

  After the Permanent Representative of Palau read out the results, Germany's Permanent Representative Peter Wittig came out to the UNTV camera. Given Germany's statements about Syria, Inner City Press asked him how his country would use the seat on the Syria issue.

  Wittig praised the Commission of Inquiry -- whose chairman told Inner City Press that no dossier or evidence is being kept on, for example, the Al Nusra Front -- while also saying Germany aims to be cooperative with other Human Rights Council members.

  Venezuela's Permanent Representative Jorge Valero came out next. Inner City Press asked him of the criticism levied against his country's candidacy and he answered, in Spanish then repeated it when asked in English, his view that some of the criticizing groups are paid by countries to bring about regime change.

 Leaving that aside, there are some which when they meet and lobby should give read-outs.

  After some delay, and missing the UN's noon briefing, US Ambassador Susan Rice came out. Her spokesperson permitted three media to question, the crowd having grown. Inner City Press asked Ambassador Rice about the two HRC Special Rapporteurs, Heyns and Emmerson, who've said they want to investigate and report on US drones.

  Rice replied "we have questions about the appropriateness of
that approach. But we will look at it on its merits, and as we do with all the work of the rapporteurs, we'll judge their work on the substance of their products." She went on to say the US engagement has improved the HRC, including on Sudan.

   Some have pointed at Sudan last week winning election to the UN's Economic and Social Council with 176 votes as a breakdown in standard setting; others says "you have to pick your battles."

  Monday one wanted to ask Ambassador Rice about this and US follow up on the March 2012 resolution on Sri Lanka and accountability, but time did not permit.

   After Ambassador Rice left, UN Television shut down its camera. There were still winning countries inside the General Assembly.

Other winners Monday included incoming Security Council members Argentina and South Korea, UN peacekeeping mission hosts Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone, the UN's second largest individual financial contributor Japan, the world's seventh largest country by land mass Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Montenegro, Brazil, Gabon, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates.

   When Pakistan's Permanent Representative Masood Khan came to the microphone where Inner City Press was waiting, the cameras were not on.

   After some delay they restarted. Inner City Press asked Masood Khan about the criticism of his country (as well as Kazakhstan and Venezuela), and about the balance between civil and political on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other hand.

  Masood Khan said people are free to have their opinions, and that these two sets are rights are indivisible. Then he too was gone, and the GA Hall and entrance went quiet.

  Of the losers, what to say? Greece is embroiled in economic trouble; one wonders how this might bode for Spain's candidacy for the Security Council.

 Sweden is a more complicated story, including its insistence on Internet freedom, even when Russia says it is violating UN Security Council sanctions by hosting the website of the Kazkhaz Center. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

As Wittig Takes Abyei Question Ladsous Refused, DPKO Tries to Force Edit of UNTV Webcast

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, September 28 -- The dispute between Sudan and South Sudan about Abyei has been the subject of UN talk and spending at least since the time of the defunct Peacekeeping mission UNMIS.

  But on September 27, when Inner City Press asked "on Abyei, what is the UN's role?" the chief of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous refused to answer.

   On September 28, after belatedly obtaining a response to the same question from outgoing Security Council president Peter Wittig, Inner City Press learned that Ladsous' DPKO had hit a new low.

   DPKO asked to get even Inner City Press' question about Abyei removed from the UN webcast archived video.  That is the strategy: to censor or modify the UN's video production to make it appear that no question was even asked. A new low.

   But here, even if this new low for the UN is achieved by Ladsous and (at least) three spokespeople he has debased is successful, is YouTube video of that Abyei question stakeout. Video here.

  And German Ambassador Wittig, while seeking to focus on the congratulatory aspect of the UNSC Press Statement he read out, said that the Security Council will meet again about Sudan and South Sudan, and Abyei, and get a briefing from envoy Haile Menkerios. Apparently, the bi-weekly meetings on the Sudans will continue.

  But what of Ladsous and his refusal to answer Press questions about his job, and then attempts to get even the questions censored or edited out of the UN's webcast video? Who is hurting the UN's credibility?

  On Thursday evening, Ladsous' spokeswoman told the UNTV boom microphone operator not to give the mic to Inner City Press, and tried to convince the two other correspondents present to ask questions. But there were no other questions. Ladsous walked away from the microphone as Inner City Press asked the Abyei question. Now DPKO has asked to have the question edited out.

  Ladsous is hitting a new low. Beginning in late May, after Inner City Press ran an exclusive article about Ladsous' proposal behind closed doors that DPKO use drones, Ladsous had refused to answer any Inner City Press questions, no matter how simple.

Inner City Press asked Ladsous why his Department flew Congolese military officials to a meeting to recruit the Mai Mai militia to fight another group, the M23. Ladsous refused to answer.

 

But on Sudan and South Sudan, on which the member states which pay Ladsous' tax-free salary have spent billions, after millions of people have been killed, Ladsous' refusal to answer the basic question -- "on Abyei, what is the UN's role?" -- is particularly troubling.

By contrast, at the very same stakeout area earlier on the same day, Inner City Press questions were taken and answered by the foreign ministers of Jordan and Italy, Australia and the Netherlands. But Ladsous, ostensibly an international public servant, won't answer.

 
  A fish rots from the head, as the old saw goes. And this old saw, more than one diplomat has said, should go. Watch this site.

Guinea Bissau Coup Gaining UN Acceptance by Attrition, Sanctions Violations

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, September 18 -- While Mali after the coup gets its own mini summit meeting next week at the UN, from Guinea-Bissau the interim president brought in by the coup, Manuel Serifo Mhanadjo, is poised to meet with the UN Secretariat of Ban Ki-moon and thus be legitimated.

  Meanwhile despite a Security Council travel ban imposed on coup leaders including General Antonio Njai, he has reportedly been traveling through / with the assistance of such countries as Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire.

  This month's Security Council president Peter Wittig was asked about this and said it is still being considered by the Council sanctions committee chaired by Morocco.

   Inner City Press notes that the UN Office on West Africa head by Algerian diplomat Said Djinnit is based in Senegal; the UN has a large and now often silent mission in Cote d'Ivoire. Are some violations of sanctions taken seriously and others not?

  Security Council member India has cut back on its imports of cashews from Guinea Bissau; the country is trying to renegotiate its Angolan bauxite deal.

  But, as one Council member told Inner City Press offhandedly as he left the Council, as least violence on the ground has decreased. Some coups, apparently, are okay. Watch this site.

On Embassy Attacks, Wittig Won't Answer on Denigration of Religion, Araud

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, September 14 -- After two days of protests of an anti-Islamic YouTube video at embassies not only of the US but also the UK and, notably, Germany in Sudan, this month's UN Security Council president Peter Wittig of Germany came to the Council stakeout at 8:30 pm on Friday to read a Council statement. Video here.

  When Wittig finished reading, Inner City Press asked him about what several other Council members had told it earlier in the afternoon: that the September 12 statement on the killing of US diplomats in Libya had initially included a condemnation of the denigration of the religion -- that is, of the murky film -- but that France's Ambassador Gerard Araud blocked it, saying he was proud to have the freedom to denigrate religion.

Wittig answered, you certain don't expect me to speak about internal and confidential deliberations of the Council." Then, brushing off Inner City Press' follow up, he said that Germany's position is reflected in the Council statement. Video here.

  But what several other Security Council members raised to Inner City Press is that France and other European countries -- including Germany -- now cite freedom of speech as a basis for not condemning the YouTube video, but have laws against other forms of speech.

  It gets divisive, and could be distinguished, but the comparison is inevitable. Dodging it may not be the best approach.

  Also on September 14, the US had its Vice President Joe Biden make the call to his Sudanese counterpart, Vice President Taha.

  Since President Barack Obama himself called Egypt's Morsi and then Yemen's Hadi, it seemed clear that Obama wanted to avoid any talk with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide.

  But while the US seemed to excuse Libya for the attack, even as anti-aircraft guns roared in Benghazi, in Sudan as it would be in Iran, protests were blamed on the government, even as it killed protesters. On the other hand, Sudan did bus protesters to the embassies. Watch this site.

At UN, Churkin Critiques Expulsion of Syria Diplomats, Ladsous Blames Shabiha, Doesn't Have "All the Tools"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 29 -- After the UN Security Council heard from Syria envoy Kofi Annan's deputy Jean-Marie Guehenno and his second successor atop UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous on Wednesday, Inner City Press asked Russian Permanent Representative Vitaly Churkin about Ladsous' comments that there is a "strong rumor" that the killings in Houla were started by pro-government Shabiha militia.

  Tuesday during Ladsous' press conference he was already pronouncing on his "strong suspicions" that the Shabiha did it. But he flatly refused to answer any questions from the Press, saying "Well, Mister, I will start answering your questions when you stop insulting me and making malicious and insulting insinuations." Video here, at Minute 28:10.
 
  Wednesday Churkin answered Inner City Press that the investigation of Houla is not finished, and that as an investigator Ladsous does not have "all the tools."  It may be that truer words have not recently been spoken at the UN.

  Inner City Press also asked Churkin about the trend of countries expelling Syrian diplomats. He replied that while this is a bilateral matter, it had come up in the Council's consultations. He said that such moves could be "misinterpreted" as presaging a military intervention.

  Churkin took questions without a spokesman mediating. By contrast when French Deputy Permanent Representative Martin Briens spoke, his Mission's spokesman Brieuc Pont took full control of who could ask questions. After the series, as Inner City Press asked "what about expelling diplomats," Briens shrugged and walked away from the microphone.

  German Ambassador Peter Wittig, also mediated by spokesman, did much the same thing, walking away as the Press started asking the "expelling diplomats" question. The previous day Wittig bragged on the record at the stakeout about his foreign minister expelling Syria's representative from Berlin. It would be good to take the question: watch this site.

Footnotes: When a representative of Agence France Presse asked Churkin if Russian weapons were being used to kill civilians in Syria, Churkin responded that the sales were in the past and had complied with law. Not asked was France's more recent air-dropping of weapons into the Nafusa Mountain in Libya: how many of those weapons are in today's Mali / Azawad?


  In an interesting aside, Ja'afari slammed Germany, saying it controls the maritime portion of the UNIFIL mission and did not stop a ship of weapons from Libya meant for non-governmental forces in Syria. Inner City Press' more recent reporting on Germany and military operations has been its new initiative, through the EU's Operation ATALANTA, to strike up to two kilometers inside Somalia. Choices, choices.