By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/lra2unmis091509.html
UNITED NATIONS, September 15 -- The Lord's Resistance Army rebels have been killing and kidnapping civilians in South Sudan, where the UN has a peacekeeping mission. In late August, the head of the UN's Department of Field Support Susana Malcorra was quoted, quite reasonably, saying that a strengthening of the mandate of that mission, UNMIS, would be necessary to better protect civilians.
But at UN Headquarters in New York, the Office of the Spokesperson announced on August 28 that Malcorra had been misquoted. Inner City Press asked, "she didn’t mention the Security Council mandate?" The Spokesperson said, "No."
On September 15, Inner City Press asked Ms. Malcorra is she had mentioned the Security Council mandate, and she said yes. She recounted that after meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uganda, she was asked about South Sudan and said that for UNMIS to do more, the mandate would have to be changed. Video here, from Minute 39:54.
Inner City Press asked if she thought the mandate should be strengthened. Ms. Malcorra answered that it would also require more resource, more "enablers," to allow mobility to combat the LRA. Alain Le Roy, the head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, added that even before a strengthening of mandate, the UN Missions in South Sudan and the Congo are "sharing information." He said that the Ugandan Army is "active in the Central African Republic," chasing the LRA. But do they go into South Sudan?
Inner City Press also asked Alain Le Roy about the pending investigation of the head of the Congo Mission, Alan Doss, for having written to the UN Development Program asking for "leeway" in the hiring of his daughter. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has, through his Deputy Spokesperson, said he is very concerned, and that he expected to receive a report upon his return to New York last month.
While Le Roy, after praising Doss, referred to a joint UNDP-OIOS report that is still supposedly ongoing, Ban was said to be expecting a report on what had been done on August 18. Nothing's been heard since. Watch this site.
Footnote: Inner City Press also asked Le Roy about a report, from the Daily Nation of Kenya, that a supply of weapons for the UN's Congo Mission MONUC was hijacked and stolen in the Rift Valley of Kenya. Le Roy said he hadn't heard about it, but the report is online right here. When UN weapons fall into unknown hands, it's reported, there should be some follow through...
