By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 17 -- Is Herve Ladsous as head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations defending or even representing UN peacekeepers? Has Ban Ki-moon given over not only UN Peacekeeping but also the rest of the UN's credibility and communications strategy to Ladsous? Video here.
When peacekeepers are attacked, Ladsous withholds information, including about his own knowledge of who attacked or kidnapped them.
Ladsous has refused to answer questions about the death of peacekeepers in Abyei and the Congo, and about his knowledge of the role of Qatar and self-declared ambassadors there in the kidnapping of UN peacekeepers in the Golan.
Then when four more peacekeepers were taken hostage on May 15, even this information was not simply announced by the UN, as took place under Ladsous' predecessors Alain Le Roy and Jean-Marie Guehenno.
Ladsous, either from fear of the press or to try to promote himself, or both, summoned a few friendly scribes and spoon-fed this news to them. Nothing about his knowledge of the role of Qatar and self-declared ambassadors there in the kidnapping of UN peacekeepers in the Golan.
Inner City Press, which closely covers UN Peacekeeping including these Golan kidnappings, wrote to Ladsous' three - yes, three - spokespeople with a request for the information he had so strangely spoon-fed to scribes and"for an explanation of how this information was disseminated on such a limited basis, including in light of DPKO spokesperson Dwyer's statements at UN World Press Freedom Day event. On deadline."
A spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (who simply accepted France's last minute replacement to fill the UN peacekeeping post, Ladsous) referred the question to Ladsous' three person team.
More than three hours after that, a Ladsous spokesperson -- his lead spokesman Dwyer says he is traveling, where is unclear -- sent a canned statement, but no "explanation of how this information was disseminated on such a limited basis." It was requested again, but was not provided.
Rather on Friday morning -- long after Ladsous' strange spoon-feeding of scribes, and his spokesperson's hours-later e-mail -- finally Ban's UN Spokesperson's Office sent out the exact same paragraph as a Note to Correspondents.
Is this any way for the UN to distribute or announce news? Particularly about the kidnapping of and threats to peacekeepers? Has Ban Ki-moon given over not only UN Peacekeeping but also the rest of the UN's credibility and communications strategy to Ladsous? Watch this site.
Footnote: Typically, Ladsous was defended by anonymous -- no one would do it on the record -- social media posts by accounts associated with the UN Correspondents Association, UNCA, now known as the UN Cowards' Association. We'll have more on this.
