FOIA Appeal Shows UNCA Tried to Throw Press Out of UN, So It's Time for FUNCA: the Free UN Coalition for Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 6 -- For four months, Inner City Press has not published one additional word about the United Nations Correspondents Association, even after the organization's treasurer Margaret Besheer had US government Voice of America on behalf of her and so-far unnamed others meet with and ask the UN to "review" Inner City Press' accreditation to enter and cover the UN.

   Documents obtained this week under a Freedom of Information Act appeal prove that Besheer wrote that her Reuters and Agence France Presse colleagues, Lou Charbonneau and Tim Witcher, supported ousting Inner City Press from the UN. 

  Only this week did the overseer of Voice of America, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, finally rule on Inner City Press' FOIA appeal, and release additional documents. 

  The ruling on the appeal, which can be challenged in a Federal District Court, is here; some of the improperly withheld but now released documents are here and here andhere and here.

  The newly released documents show that Voice of America was given a Congressional heads-up that "the work of VOA correspondent on this peer review panel at the UN, it has the potential to kick up a storm up here. For my part, I think it's terrible judgment on the part of your correspondent to participate."  Click here to view that newly released document.

  Even the VoA official who later made the request to the UN to "review" Inner City Press' accreditation stated in writing, it has now been revealed, "Puzzling that Margaret would take up against a reporter who would... be aggressively questioning UN officials and would call on him.to write more positive stories about the UN." 

  But then Voice of America was told that AFP was ready to join the attempt to throw Inner City Press out of the UN and that "I think Reuters is up for sending a letter too."  Click here to view that newly released document.

  When Inner City Press complained to Voice of America, including that it was and is unconstitutional to spend US government money to seek to eject a journalist for what he or she writes, the internal VOA memo was "All: Please disregard and do not reply to any email from Matthew Lee or Inner City Press, no matter how insistent." 

   This is how a US government agency responded to a petition for redress of grievances? It was and is actionable. And in that connection, more documents have been requested and are expected.

  Given these and other anti-press freedom moves by this UNCA Executive Committee, its legitimacy is and will be challenged, including by a new FUNCA: the Free United Nations Coalition for Access, being launched today here.

   To quickly recap: in September 2011, UNCA's outgoing president Giampaolo Piolo threatened that if an article about him was not removed from the Internet, he would get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN. He invoked an archaic provision of the UNCA constitution; the resulting letter of denunciation has remained posted on UNCA's glassed-in bulletin board for six months. What kind of correspondents' association is this?

  Eight month ago, Pioli's handpicked successor Louis Charboneau of Reuters, after telling Inner City Press in an UNCA meeting that it is too critical of the French mission to the UN, filed a stealth complaint with the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit over a merely verbal disagreement. (An UNCA "examiner" then filed a similar specious complaint with UN Security, which was released under FOIA; it was dismissed as frivolous by UN Security. But there was no reason for any similar verbal exchanges.)

  Then on June 20, Besheer had Voice of America formally asked the UN, on behalf of her and "others," to review the accreditation status of the UN of Inner City Press.

  Inner City Press immediately filed a Freedom of Information Act request, including to learn the identity of these unnamed others. Pioli and Charbonneau then asked Inner City Press to withdraw the FOIA request, while threatening to go forward with a Kafka-esque "Board of Examination" report and trial against Inner City Press for what it had said and written.

   The BBG, on which Hillary Clinton has a seat, initially denied and then after appeal granted Inner City Press "expedited treatment" of its FOIA request.

  This came after the New York Civil Liberties Union wrote to the UN citing Voice of America's complaint against Inner City Press and demanding the the UN have content neutral rules for accreditation.

   The first round of documents arrived on August 7, and Inner City Press wrote a short piece that day, linking to some of the documents. Then it appealed the withholdings and redactions, and requested additional documents.

    Then as noted this week the BBG finally ruled on Inner City Press' appeal, and release additional documents. Again, the ruling on the appeal, which can be challenged in a Federal District Court, is here; some of the improperly withheld but now released documents are here and here and here and here.

  The entire UNCA Executive Committee has been asked, twice in writing, to respond to and explain earlier documents which already were "evidence of certain wire services' support for and involvement in the request by US agency Voice of America for 'review' of UN accreditation. The documents also state that UNCA is 'now discussing with UN officials (very quietly)' just that."

  Inner City Press submitted to each UNCA Executive Committee members three of the documents obtained under FOIA "for your response" -- but received none.

   UNCA under Pioli, Charbonneau, Besheer and others such as Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse has devolved into a club for self-protection and censorship. Witcher tried to censor Inner City Press' reporting on the French Mission and its last minute nominee for UN Peacekeeping chief, Herve Ladsous.

On September 18, Ladsous who has sought to bootstrap on UNCA's witchhunt to not answer Press questions about UN Peacekeeping, refused to answer Inner City Press' question about his DPKO helping recruit militias in the Congo and turned to Witcher, who said, "Thank you, sir."

  More recently on November 27, when Inner City Press asked Ladsous about raped committed by his MONUSCO's partners in the Congolese Army in Minovia, Ladsous refused to answer and then summoned a handful of hand-picked journalists into the hall, including Besheer, Charbonneau and Witcher. See video here. These are leaders of the UNCA Executive Committee; this is what they have turned UNCA into.

  And now on December 19, their UNCA will celebrate none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Why?

  Because repeated UNCA meetings to demand censorship, even of photographs that Inner City Press ran, came to take up more and more time, Inner City Press sought to put the ugliness into the past by unilaterally ceasing to write about it.

    But now, with UNCA "leadership" sneaking around with Ladsous and the new documents released, action must be taken, including by the new Free United Nations Coalition for Access, being launched today here.

   First up: how can the UN delegate administration of passes to cover the UN General Debate in the North Lawn building to UNCA, an organization which now has demonstrably sought to get Press expelled from the UN and claims it is separate from the UN?

   Relatedly, why is this UNCA given special rights to ask the first question at press conferences, and to be the "pool" at other UN events? In fact, a small group of Western wire services masquerade as UNCA, as took place when Ban Ki-moon met Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. 

  Inner City Press asked the UN MALU, who said Reuters and AFP asked and were given access, in a role that is (wrongly) supposed to be for UNCA. More recently, longtime UN-based photographers were barred.

   The UN and this UNCA cannot have it both ways, and we and FUNCA will be pursuing this. Watch this site.

As Sudan Blocks UN Sanctions Expert Schbley, Bryden Echo, Juba Parallel

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, December 6, updated with letter -- Sudan's relations with the UN and United States do not appear to be improving. The new Expert on Sudan Sanctions appointed last month by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Ghassan Schbley of the United States, was recently "interrogated" and denied entry into Sudan, sources exclusively tell Inner City Press.

  Schbley previously worked on the UN's Somalia and Eritrea sanctions, from which after complaints he and coordinator Matt Bryden were removed. Inner City Presswrote about this back in August 2012, here. 

   The sources tell Inner City Press that this history is one of the reasons Schbley was denied access by Sudan. They question why Ban Ki-moon thought the shift would work smoothly. But others wonder, why was Schbley given a visa if in fact he would be blocked?

Update: Inner City Press has obtained, and has put on its beta Google+ page, here, Sudan's "incident report."

Second Update: Morocco's Permanent Representative Loulichki, the Security Council president for December, told Inner City Press his mandate now is to "demarche" Sudan's Permanent Representative about the case -- and listen to further explanation. Other comments were sought, but seven hours later by press time were not received. Watch this site.

   Khartoum has other complaints about the implementation of Sudan sanctions, saying when the UN expert tried to check if the Justice and Equality Movement carried Gaddafi weapons into South Sudan, they weren't let in but hardly complained.

  Meanwhile, the Thursday morning Security Council session on Sudan and South Sudan, more specifically Abyei, came to very little. 

  The African Union will be briefed by Thabo Mbeki's High Level Implementation Panel on December 14, prior to another UN Security Council session on December 18. The six week "deadline" on Abyei has come and gone.

   South Sudan, too, has it problems with the UN, for having thrown out the UN's human rights expert. This is explained to Inner City Press by other sources as being based on an "attempted coup" in South Sudan, and the coming up of the name of the UN expert. Two were to be thrown out, which was reduced to one. But it is unlikely to be reversed. 

 And what is Hilde Johnson doing? What will the Council's Sudan Sanctions committee do about the blockage of Ghassan Schbley? Watch this site.

UN Peacekeeping in Lebanon "Inspected" By Sri Lanka's Silva, Despite Record

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 6 -- The UN is ostensibly taking seriously its admitted failings during the killings in northern Sri Lanka in 2009, with Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson leading a group to review the damning Petrie report released three weeks ago.

  But Sri Lankan General Shavendra Silva, whose division was depicted engaged in war crimes in the UN's report which estimated 40,000 deaths, is still penetrating the UN, this time visiting and even inspecting the UN Mission in Lebanon UNIFIL from November 28 through December 4, 2012.

  Previously, when Sri Lanka negotiated to get the Asia Group's seat on Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations and then gave the seat to Silva, there was investigative reporting and an outcry, even among senior Asia Group Permanent Representatives.

  While Ban Ki-moon declined to take a position, telling Inner City Press it was a decision on member states, the chair of the SAG ruled that Silva could not participate. Other SAG members bragged to Inner City Press about this decision, saying it showed that the UN works.

  But now, through the so-called UN "Military and Police Advisers Community," MPAC, Silva has gotten even more directly involved in UN Peacekeeping. What standards are there?

Shavandra Silva was also allowed to launder himself at the UN when he appeared in the Dag Hammarskjold Library auditorium to screen the Sri Lankan government's war crimes denial film, "Lies Agreed To," the repercussions of which continue still.

  On December 5, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky about the Petrie report and on "Shavendra Silva, it is now said that he is inspecting the movement of troops in Lebanon, is it true?"

  Nesirky told Inner City Press, "we take that report from Charles Petrie and his team extremely seriously, including the recommendations. The Chef de Cabinet made clear that steps will be taken to set up a group to look at those recommendations. That is being headed by the Deputy Secretary-General, and moves are under way to pull together the team that will look at those recommendations. On the very first point you made, and on the second point, again, I am sure my colleagues from DPKO are listening attentively, and will help me out.

DPKO is headed by Herve Ladsous, who has refused to answer Press questions about Shavendra Silva and other topics. But UNIFIL provided an answer on December 6, through Nesirky's Office:

Subject: Your question on Shavendra Silva
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 10:46 AM
To: Inner City Press

The United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon informs that Major General Shavendra Silva was part of the Military-Police Advisers Community (MPAC) delegation visiting the mission from 28 Nov - 4 Dec 2012. The official MPAC programme included briefings and visits to UN positions. The MPAC is a group comprising permanent missions' military attaches and police advisers.

  When one goes to the UN MPAC's website, it is hard to find out more: page after page says "you are not authorized." Even the "Contact Us" button leads to "Contact not found!"

There is a Pasqual reference to the "Easter" European Group, and FAQS are one letter off.

  But the UN MPAC's Guidelines state that

"There are usually two MPAC field trips each year, preferably one in spring and the other in fall.  Identification of the missions and institutions to be visited and the dates are done in consultation with DPKO. MPAC members are  usually requested to volunteer as coordinators of the visits. They brief the members on the visits and also coordinate the preparation of the final report which is forwarded to DPKO/DFS and to the entire MPAC membership after the visit."

  So while Shavendra Silva's name may or may not be on the SAG report to Ban Ki-moon (the UN has refused to answer), he may play a role in a report to Ladous about UNIFIL.

  Inner City Press has previously been invited to one of the MPAC's events, a farewell for the Nigerian military adviser. The attendees were just that, military advisers, at ranks below that of Silva's Deputy Permanent Representative rank. To some it appears Silva took a demotion in order to launder himself through the MPAC, and ultimately through DPKO.

   Inner City Press previously asked Ladsous what he thought of Shavendra Silva as an adviser, given his record, and how it reflected on UN Peacekeeping. Ladsous refused to answer. But now, someone should answer. Watch this site.

As UN Raises Minova Rapes to 70, Ladsous Hasn't Answered, on Regiments 802 or 1001

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 5, updated with video -- First the UN said there were 21 rapes in Minova while the Congolese Army FARDC was there in late November.

 But UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous refused repeatedly to answer Press questions, about which FADRC regiments were in Minova at the time, and if his MONUSCO mission works with them, under the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy.

  Click here for video of Ladsous refusing Press questions on the Minova rapes, then taking chosen correspondents into the hall.

  On December 3, the UN told Inner City Press that it had not been able to access Minova to get this information. But as noted, UNICEF was able to deliver medical supplies soon after the rapes, and journalists traveled there.

  From such eye witnesses, Inner City Press knows of at least two FARDC regiments present during the rape spree. But shouldn't it be UN Peacekeeping which discloses what it knows, if its supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy is to have any meaning?

   On December 5, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky read out a statement that an inter agency assessment team had gotten to Minova, and upped the number of rapes to 70, saying that the 70 survivors are receiving treatment. (Actually, Inner City Press is informed that at least one of the rape victims died.)

   So Inner City Press asked again, which units of the FARDC, which with the UN works, were present in Minova during the 70 rapes? Video here, from Minute 14:39.

   Nesirky said the statement is all he had, but that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations was listening to the questions.

   Inner City Press then asked, yes or no, whether FARDC regiments 802 and 1001 were in Minova during the time at issue, and whether the UN works with either regiment. Three hours later and counting, there has been no answer. Nor to the previous questions about which FARDC units have re-entered Goma, and which units the UN is working. Here was Ladsous on Nov 27:

  At the Security Council stakeout later on Wednesday, December 5, Inner City Press asked French Ambassador Gerard Araud about the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy. (Unlike Ladsous (here, on Abyei and Sudan), Araud now answers Press questions, click here for Mali coverage.)

  On DRC Araud said that if the UN find units or personnel which engaged in abuse, "the UN should cease supporting these units, that is I think the rules in DRC." Video here, from Minute 11:50. We'll see, in this test case. Watch this site.

On Mali, Some See DPA for US and DPKO for France, Rights in Resolution?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 5 -- After the West African group ECOWAS "deplored" the recommendations by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that a mission to Mali be paid for by voluntary contribution and not through the UN budget, representatives of ECOWAS, the African Union and Mali addressed the Security Council on Wednesday.

  Many close observers noted that Mali's representative Traore Rokiatou Guikine seemed to say that the Tuaregs cannot be negotiated with, and asked Inner City Press, what sort of message does this send? Answer: not one likely to avoid military action.

  After the open meeting, Inner City Press asked each of them, and France's Ambassador Gerard Araud, about the mission that has been named AFISMA. 

  The African Union representative Tete Antonio said that voluntary contributions had not worked for the AU missions in Darfur, AMIS, and AMISOM in Somalia, at first.

  Inner City Press asked Antonio if the resistance of the US to fast military action in Mali, made public recently by General Carter Ham, wasn't similar to France dismissing the position of the regional group ICGLR that the M23 mutineers should be negotiated with -- both representing a Permanent Five member dissing an African regional grouping.

  Antonio said, let's keep this to Mali, and keep an open mind.

   Other well placed UN sources told Inner City Press this was a case of the UN Department of Political Affairs, led by American Jeffrey Feltman, issuing recommendations similar to the US position, while the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, led by its fourth Frenchman in a row Herve Ladsous, pushes the French line. 

  There are many who say that: but Ladsous find such questions so insulting, he refuses to take any more Press questions in the UN.

   Not so French Ambassador Araud. He took Inner City Press' question, after the closed door consultations, about how the UN's Huamn Rights Due Diligence Policy would apply to this AFISMA mission with the Malian military. Training, he said, to be conducted by ECOWAS and the European Union.

  Inner City Press asked Araud, Is France comfortable with Mali's post-coup military? He said it is not a question of being comfortable. He also took a Press question about how the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy is being, orshould be, implemented in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Watch this site.

On Sri Lanka, UN Tells ICP Deputy SG Eliasson to Head Petrie Review, Silva in Lebanon?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 5 -- Three weeks after the UN released a redacted version of the delayed report into the UN's actions and inactions in Sri Lanka in 2009, Inner City Press on Wednesday asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman if any movement has been made on the commitment to set up another senior group to review the findings of this Charles Petrie report.

   In the intervening three weeks, Inner City Press has asked this without answer. But on Wednesday, Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky had an answer: the review group is being set up under Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson. One hopes it might be a credible review and lead to accountability.

   Inner City Press also asked about reports on Sri Lanka General Shavendra Silva, who appears in Ban's first Sri Lanka report on the killing of civilians, and is depicted in connection with war crimes like the shelling of hospitals.

   (Silva also appears in UK Channel Four's Sri Lanka documentaries, and was allowed to present the government's "Lies Agreed To" in the UN Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium, with repercussions that continue still.)

   Now Silva despite his past, is reported to be inspecting the troops in Lebanon, in the UN peacekeeping mission. Inner City Press asked for confirmation and comment, given Silva's controversial and then limited service on Ban's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations, and where the SAG report is.

   Nesirky referred both of these questions to the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, whose chief Herve Ladsous has at least three times on UN TV since Silva repercussions in May refused to answer any Press questions, including about Silva's role as a Senior Advisor on UN peacekeeping. So we'll see. Watch this site.

Footnote: for the "Ask State" Department session Wednesday morning with Under Secretary Tara Sonenshine, Inner City Press asked, "What will US do after the Sri Lanka Petrie report to ensure the UN doesn't again withhold info as 40,000 are killed?" But there's been no answer from #AskState. Yet.

UN Disclaims But Aware Of Vanity License Plate UN SEC G, Moved Ban Ki-moon's Car Before Sandy

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 3 -- Who would pay extra to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles for a vanity license plate reading "UN SEC G"?

   Inner City Press saw this plate Monday morning on a black Cadillac Escalade parked half a block from the UN on 42nd Street, photographed and tweeted it. Click here to view. & below.

  Later after the day's UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about the license plate, providing the picture. Less than three hours later this reply:

Inner City Press: I'd like to know if this is a vehicle used by the S-G or UN, or if someone got a vanity plate to impersonate the S-G.

A. The Security and Safety Service is aware of this vehicle. It has nothing to do with the Secretary-General or the United Nations. Vehicles used by the Secretary-General have diplomatic plates. Local plates are of course a matter for the host country, so you may wish to take it up with the relevant authorities.

  New York State charges extra for such a vanity license plate, and made special arrangements for such plates during the even-and-odd gas rationing after Hurricane Sandy. See it:

Photo, 42d Street, 1-2 Avenue, Dec. 3, 2012, (c) MRLee

  Inner City Press also asked the UN spokesman:

Q. Separately but perhaps relatedly, I'd heard that among the vehicles damaged in the garage during Super Storm Sandy were some EOSG vehicles. Can you say if that was the case?

A. No vehicles from the Secretary-General's detail were damaged during the storm. They were moved beforehand.

  While this showed forethought, there are still angry diplomats complaining that they had been told to move their cars from the first basement to lower in the UN garage, just before Sandy's arrival. There was damage, some of it raised during a public session of the UN's Fifth (Budget) Committee.

   But who is it, that paid to have a UN SEC G license plate on a black Escalade? Watch this site.

UN's Zerrougui Cites 29 Child Soldiers with NYATURA, Obama Waiver in Yemen

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 3 -- When the new Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Leila Zerrougui came Monday to take questions from the press, the initial topic was Yemen, which she visited for three days in late November.

 But since Zerrougui before she replaced Radhika Coomaraswamy on child soldiers was the deputy chief of the UN's MONUSCO mission in the Congo, Inner City Press asked her about that mission as well.

 Specifically, what does MONUSCO do to ensure that the militias now working with the Congolese Army -- parts of which the UN supports, ostensibly in compliance with the UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy -- are not recruiting children?

  In the recent fighting with the M23 mutineers, the Congolese Army worked with, among others, the NYATURA. And in August, Inner City Press questioned the UN about MONUSCO flying Congolese authorities to meet with the Mai Mai APCLS. (The UN claimed it didn't know what the meeting was about).

  These seem like holes in the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy -- other holes include Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous refusing to say, even now, which Congolese Army units were in Minova when well upwards of the UN reported 22 rapes took place.

  But Zerrougui focused on the positive side, recounting that when NYATURA elements were integrated into the Congolese Army, the UN conducted a physical inspection and removed or segregated some 29 child soldiers. But what about APCLS? And what about Minova?

  On Yemen, Inner City Press asked Zerrougui if the Obama administration having in late September waived the US Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 with respect to Yemen (as well as Libya, South Sudan and partially the DRC) was helpful to her mandate or not, for example during her trip to and discussions with Yemen.

  The answer would clearly seem to be no, but instead Zerrougui recounting telling the Yemeni authorities that although the US had given the waiver, it was only temporary and that "the ICC could be referred."

  The mention of ICC in Yemen would seem to apply most directly to Ali Saleh, but he made sure to obtain an immunity agreement before stepping back (and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told Inner City Press that in his phone conversation with Saleh, immunity just didn't come up.)

Zerrougui visited the Houthis; it seems to have been an active first field visit. Watch this site.

Footnote: as a final question, Inner City Press asked Zerrougui for her view of a pending law in the Philippines which would penalize the parents of child soldiers. Zerrougui replied that it would depend on the context. But to many, the proposed law would allow the government to go after families perceived to be in the opposition, not to say Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF...

In Cote d'Ivoire Like DRC, UN Airbrushes DPKO Out, In Niambly As Minova

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, December 1 -- Who will hold the UN accountable when its personnel stand by during murder or rape?

  When top UN Peacekeeper Herve Ladsous took questions on November 30 across First Avenue from the UN, he wouldn't answer Inner City Press' follow-up if his Department of Peacekeeping Operations will ever disclose which battalions of the Congolese Army, which the UN supports, were present in Minova in connection with dozens of rapes.

   In Cote d'Ivoire, Ladsous' DPKO has twice committed to investigating its peacekeepers' inaction or complicity during the murder of perceived Gbagbo supporters in the Niambly Internally Displaced Persons camp in July. Click here for July 21 story by Inner City Press; here for next-day follow up story with UN email to Inner City Press that DPKO was "conducting a full investigation of the incident."

   After this first promise, UN envoy Bert Koenders immediately undercut it by saying his peacekeepers did nothing wrong. He "dismissed allegations that peacekeepers failed in their mandate to protect civilians." Click here for July 27 story by Inner City Press.

   Then after the discovery of more and more bodies in wells around the camp, the UN's Ivan Simonovic today issued a press release calling for an investigation -- by the Ouattara government. He did not advance the questions about the UN's role, and where the two promised UN investigations are.

  Inner City Press asked the UN's special rapporteur on IDPs Chaloka Beyani about Niambly, and he said the UN peacekeepers' rules of engagement were implemented so as to not fire on non-state aggressors. Click here for October 21 story by Inner City Press.

  Beyond describing UN peacekeepers in Niambly standing by just as they would in November in Goma in the DRC, Beyani told Inner City Press the "rules of engagement of UN peacekeeping forces do not allow them open fire civilians if civilians are attacking other civilians." He told Inner City Press he'd heard the same of DPKO missions in South Sudan and Afghanistan.

   DPKO denied it -- but some ask, whom to believe? An independent human rights special rapporteur, or Ladsous' DPKO given its current record?

The UN cites immunity, for example for peacekeepers introducing cholera to Haiti. But the UN, at least Ladsous' DPKO, won't credibly investigate itself.

   While the Congolese Army's role in the rapes at Minova becomes more and more clear, Ladsous insisted on Friday that the raped happened during a "fluid" situation. Then he wouldn't answer if he will ever disclose which FADRC battalions were there, such that the UN's supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy can be assessed.

  And where is the UN's investigation of Niambly?

  Maybe Simonovic and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights should get more involved and answer. Watch this site.