By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 19 -- While the UN Security Council met Tuesday about Eritrea, one member came out and told Inner City Press that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative in the Congo Roger Meece had been attacked, in South Kivu: “look into it!”
Inner City Press immediately wrote to Ban's top two spokespeople then, getting no response, to the spokesman for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, who has just replied:
Subject: Please deny or confirm and describe to me SRSG Meece of MONUSCO being attacked
From: [DPKO Spokesman] @un.org
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Cc: Martin Nesirky
Date: Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 5:41 PM
Mr. Meece and the team were meeting with a group of representatives of the local authorities and civil society in a meeting area next to the MONUSCO base which was fenced off. While the meeting was going on, a crowd of some 100-150 people, mainly young persons, gathered outside the meeting area.
They appeared to become quite angry and as the delegation was preparing to leave, they blocked the exit to the meeting area. The Police and MONUSCO troops were providing security. While the delegation was sitting in the UN cars waiting to leave, some people in the crowd threw some stones towards the cars for a few seconds. No one was hurt but at least one of the cars was damaged slightly.
Mr. Meece stressed that it had been a minor incident. He said that the South Kivu Governor had received information indicating that the people involved had been mobilized by certain individuals possibly with political motives but that the reasons were unclear. The departure of the delegation was delayed by about two hours because of the incident.
The town where this happened is Shabunda. Recently at the UN in New York, Ban met with a Congolese opposition figure; his spokesperson's office declined to provide any read out of the meeting. DRC's Ambassador tells Inner City Press that the upcoming elections can't be held on time. Now this, which the UN minimizes. We will continue on this: watch this site.
