Fog of War: UN Conceals Winner of Ladsous' Drone Contract & DRC Army Units It Supports

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- Some say for the UN to become a party to the armed conflict in Eastern Congo is a mistake.

But the UN is doing just that: on July 30 it set an August 1 deadline after which it will take offensive military actionagainst anyone who doesn't disarm in what it calls the "Security Zone" between Goma and Sake.

  Some characterize this as "protection of civilians," as UK Ambassador to the UN Mark Lyall Grant did, tweeting that the UK "has supported the UN Intervention Brigade, precisely to help stop murderous activities by M23 (and other armed militia)" and that he didn't think "women suffering sexual violence in DRC would see UN Peacekeepers disarming militia as 'UN going to war.'"

  This ignores that, for example, 135 DRC women and girls were raped in Minova in November by two units of the Congolese Army, the 41st and the (US trained) 391st Battalions -- both of which the UN still supports, despite accountability measures that are shockingly limited, and now undisclosed.

  On July 31 Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky about the 41st Battalion, about which company signed a drones contract with UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, and if the Geneva Conventions apply to the UN. From the UN's transcript:

Inner City Press: There was a MONUSCO [United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo] press conference today in which they described a joint surveillance cells that they had established with the forty-first commando battalion in Sake-Goma, which is the security zone. Since this is one of the two battalions that was implicated in the rapes in Minova, is this support for purposes of the human rights due diligence policy to establish these joint surveillance cells? What’s the current tally of actual arrests or indictments made for those rapes, and is it possible to know which units of the Congolese Army MONUSCO would be providing support to, for purposes of the human rights due diligence policy as part of its newly announced disarmament initiative to begin in 24 hours?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, on the middle question, that’s one for the authorities. On the last part of your question and the first part of your question, for operational reasons with regard to the present circumstances, the Mission is not providing a full list of which units it is operating with and would support. So that’s the first bit. The second is with regard to the broader question you raised a number of times, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations is simply not putting into the public domain that information.

Inner City Press: One follow-up. How could the UN have a policy publicly announced like the human rights due diligence policy, which says they wont support abusive units and then refuse to disclose which units they do support? And when you’re saying it’s up to the Congolese authorities to disclose the arrests, at least as described by Patricia O’Brien, the UN must seek that information in order to make its risk assessment of potentials of abuse arising from its support. Is it an entirely secret policy?

Spokesperson Nesirky: No, no, not at all. Those two parts are not mutually exclusive. It’s for the authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to provide information into the public domain on what arrests have or have not been made, who has been charged, who has been prosecuted. That’s self-evidently for the authorities, the Congolese authorities to do. It is not… that does not mean that it’s not possible for them also to provide that information to the peacekeeping mission there. And with regard to the more general point, this policy is about a process. You don’t decide from one day to the other if a unit has been accused of some kind of infractions — that is investigated under that policy and, of course, by the authorities, and that’s a process.

Inner City Press: Thanks a lot, I just wanted to get this out of the way. I wanted to ask two general things.

Spokesperson Nesirky: Just wait a second. I can see other hands in the room. Okay?

  After cutting away, when Nesirky returned he limited questions, disallowing one about Mali, and declining to name the beneficiary of a drones contract the UN has already signed:

Inner City Press: I have a question on Mali but I wanted to just finish on DRC. This seems to be something that’s right in the UN’s mandate to answer, whether the Geneva Conventions apply to the operation that the Intervention Brigade or MONUSCO has just announced, i.e., would it be making the Intervention Brigade a party to an armed conflict? And the other question, Hervé Ladsous announced during the Bastille Day in France that the drone contract had been signed. I’ve checked various databases that are publicly available. What’s the company that won? And if it’s not yet public, how could the UN be signing a contract declaring a winner and not have it be public? Is it public and what is the name of the company?

Spokesperson: I will check. I don’t believe it is public, firstly. Secondly, there is a very clear procurement process that’s in place, and with regard to the first part of your question, the mandate that the peacekeeping operation has in the DRC is fully compliant with international humanitarian law.

  Then Nesirky took no more questions on the topic, nor from Inner City Press about Mali or anything else. At a ceremony unveiling a new bike rack for the UN, when Herve Ladsous walked by Inner City Press asked him who won the UN drone contract. He did not answer. Video here. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Dutch Bike Racks & Ban Ki-moon's Pedaling Postponed, Drone Deal Undisclosed by Ladsous

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- It was a slow Wednesday at the UN, the last day of July, when a microphone and sound system were set up by the entrance doors and a mostly blond crowd began to assemble. Event video here.

  Inner City Press was looking for news -- Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson had refused to say if the Geneva Conventions cover the UN's new Intervention Brigade in Eastern Congo, nor which company got the contract for drones signed by UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous (video here) -- and so went to check it out.

  The event was to cut the ribbon on a bike rack, but not just any bike rack. The Netherlands' Permanent Representative Herman Schaper is leaving his post, and the staff of his Mission organized this donation and ceremony, without his knowledge, as a form of going away present.

  But would Ban Ki-moon attend? At 3 pm he and his senior adviser Kim Won-soo arrived in front of the UN in the black Hyundai Equus the South Korean mission gave him last December. But they went into the building. Inner City Press was asked: will Mr. Ban come back?

  If you build it, he will come. An orange bicycle, one of many identical bikes owned by the Dutch mission, was set up on the bike rack. Soon Ban's chief of Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to hold the post, walked by. Inner City Press asked, "Who got the drones contract?" Video here.

  Ladsous slowed and looked back. He did not answer, continuing on into the building. How can the UN sign contracts and spend public money and not say who is being paid?

  Some joked that this ceremony, with the sound sytem and security, cost most than the single eight-bike rack being displayed. But there will be 80 racks -- 640 bikes, as Ambassador Schaper calculated, for the three thousand people working in the building.

At 3:30, Schaper and his entourage went into the lobby. And there like clockwork came Ban Ki-moon, with his larger entourage including a staffer with two pairs of scissors in a basket. Ban gave a speech, citing how he presided over another bike ceremony last May. (Inner City Press was there, and rode the few blocks north to Ambassador Schaper's building overlooking the East River.)

  Ambassador Schaper lauded the CitiBike program (Inner City Press' review is here) and noted that in the Netherlands and Denmark, biking is not a sign of being pure but of being wise, healthwise and for the environment.

  They cut the ribbon and then the moment came: would Ban Ki-moon ride one of the bikes that had been brought for this purpose? He gamely tried, with the orange bike leaning against the model bike rack. (A co-founder of the Free UN Coalition for Access asked, "Where's the helmet?" But this is international territory; such a complaint is "not receivable," as the UN said of cholera in Haiti. Meanwhile there are threats for merely hanging a Free UN Coalition for Access sign on the founders' door, here.) 

  The orange Dutch mission bike was the kind one could step over, between the seat and handlebars. But trying to raise a leg over the seat is something else.

  Come now, SG, Ban Ki-moon was told. You don't need to do that.

  And he did not. 

  Some from the Dutch mission expressed disappointment. But the UN has far greater tasks to attend to -- for example like deciding to disclose which units of the Congolese Army it supports, if the Geneva Conventions apply to its Intervention Brigade, and whether to disclose who it's now paying for drones or if not, why not. Then there could be bike rides, and long ones. Watch this site.

   

"Targeting a Combatant Is No War Crime," UN Expert Tells ICP of MONUSCO, Murky Ladsous' Drones

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- If a member of the UN Intervention Brigade in Eastern Congo is shot at, is it a war crime? A spokesman for the MONUSCO mission under Herve Ladsous said just that on Wednesday.

  But when Inner City Press asked Gabor Rona of the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries about that, he said that to target a combatant is NOT a war crime. Video here.

  The question turns on whether the UN Intervention Brigade is a party to an armed conflict. Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky just that on Wednesday, but he evaded the question. Nesirky merely said the mission and its mandate comply with the law.

  But are they a party to an armed conflict? Because if they are, according to the UN's expert panel, is it NOT a war crime to shoot back at them. It would seem important to resolve this before the shooting starts; Inner City Press has been asking the questions for weeks.

  But Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping, refuses to answer Inner City Press' questions. Ladsous represented France in the Security Council during the Rwanda genocide, arguing for the escape of the genocidaires into Eastern Congo. These are questions he should answer.

  In fact, Ladsous and the UN won't even name the company selected and being paid for drones to fly over the Congo and its borders with Rwanda and Uganda. Inner City Press asked for the name on Wednesday and Nesirky said it is not public. So much for even financial transparency. Call it the Ladsousification of the UN. What's next? 24 hours - the countdown is on. Watch this site.

   

UN Mercenary Panel Asks of DPKO Use in Valencia & Congo, Somalia Still Murky

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- When the UN's Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries held a panel discussion Wednesday morning, listing forty minutes of questions and answers, it was assumed that for example the UN's use of armed guards in Somalia, so far left murky, could be clarified.

  But the Q&A was devoted only to member states, mostly for speeches. From the podium, it was claimed that all of the UN's uses of armed guards must comply with international law. Why then won't the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous answer if the Geneva Conventions apply to its impending offensive in the Eastern Congo?

  Rick Cottom of various UN staff unions said that in his experience, UN Security would rather be the one in the field, not paid outsiders.

  Lou Pingeot of Global Policy Forum asked why the UN Peacekeeping location in Valencia, Spain (the lawless establishment before its General Assembly approval Inner City Press covered at the time) uses outside armed security, and noted UN Peacekeeping's use of Saracen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  Saracen is now repackaged as "Sterling," as noted in the most recently Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group report. In Somalia, as Inner City Press reported, David Bax of the UN Mine Action Service is said to provide information to US intelligence through the shadowy PMSC Bancroft Global. Bax has been photographed tooling around Mogadishu with armed guards.

The UN's Nicholas Kay acknowledged to Inner City Press that "some of our guards are armed." How many? From which company? Denel? Where is the transparency? We will pursue this.

But Wednesday morning the interventions were all from member states. Indonesia spoke of being part of the Syria observer mission killed off by Herve Ladsous. The Free UN Coalition for Access believes minimal transparency requires disclosing who can ask questions, raised here. Watch this site.

   

Amid Layoffs in Greece & Deposit Loss in Cyprus, IMF Upbeat, Jeremic's UNGA to Rate the Credit Rating Agencies, Inner City Press Learns

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 31 -- In the aftermath of International Monetary Fund policies in Greece and Cyprus, the IMF on Wednesday morning pumped out relentless if unrealistic good news.

  Greece is moving to lay off 4000 civil servants this year and 15,000 by the end of 2014. Cyprus has decreed 47/5% losses on some bank accounts; Cypriot finance minister Haris Georgiades said thus "the banking sector is on its way to being stabilized" and "the country remains committed to meeting all bailout targets."

  On the IMF's Cyprus press call, 7 am Eastern time in the US, mission chief Delia Velculescu was asked, if the country's program next goes to the IMF Executive Board September 20 with her report finalized earlier in the month, how will it take into account new data?

  The question arises in the context of the IMF admitting the the "multiplier" of effects it used in Greece was inaccurate. Velculescu quickly said all will go well -- then promised a transcript of the the call, but only tomorrow or even Friday. Some sense of urgency.

  Of the Greek layoffs, an IMF report made public 8 am today says, Public administration reform has lagged far behind and the authorities are beginning to address delays... progress in completing staffing plans and placing public sector employees in the mobility scheme has been very slow."

  At the UN, Inner City Press has learned, outgoing President of the General Assembly Vuk Jeremic of Serbia intends to hold his final debate on a topic that is or should be relevant to the IMF: the credit rating agencies. 

  What has been done to reform them, after their shameful role in the subprime meltdown? It's the General Assembly that will be debating this. Watch this site.

   

UN Still Stonewalling 40 Hours Before Its DR Congo Deadline, UK Cheers, US & France Silent

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 30 -- Forty hours before the deadline the UN has set to begin offensive military action in Eastern Congo, the UN has still not answered basic questions such as whether the Geneva Conventions apply to it, or which units of the Congolese Army it will be supporting.

  The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations has had months to answer these questions. Twenty four days ago, DPKO told Inner City Press it would provide an answer about whether it was supporting Army units depicted engaged in abuses in the UN Group of Experts report the full text of which Inner City Press exclusively put online in June. 

   But no answer. This is what DPKO has become under Herve Ladsous, compilation video here.

  Where is the oversight? At the US State Department's briefing on Tuesday, no question was asked about the Congo, or about the United Nations at all -- despite US Acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Dean Pittman traveling to Kunming, China, to discuss Security Council issues and UN Peacekeeping with other P5 members.

  The UK had an Africa expert tweeting in support of MONUSCO's threats, with no reference to its failure to answer basic questions. French Ambassador Gerard Araud, when Inner City Press asked what law applies to MONUSCO, said he would check with his legal experts and get back. 

  Now he is apparently out of town himself, having missed Monday's Syria session in the General Assembly.

  The French mission has not responded to whether it believes the Geneva Conventions apply to MONUSCO and its Intervention Brigade. Herve Ladsous is the fourth Frenchman in a row to head DPKO, and represented France in the Security Council during the 1994 Rwanda genocide, arguing for the esacpe of genocidaires into Eastern Congo. This will be on them.

Jump-cut to Tuesday's UN noon briefing, video here, after the MONUSCO mission had announced its ultimatum. Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about what you’d announced of MONUSCO, this announcement they’ve made. Essentially, it seems to say that if groups don’t disarm in 48 hours, they’re fair game to be attacked, so I wanted to ask you some questions that have kind of built up, that haven’t been answered. One is: which of the units of the Congolese army MONUSCO will be supporting, since they have this human rights due diligence policy and a number of units are named in the Group of Experts report? 24 days ago, I asked DPKO [Department of Peacekeeping Operations] which units, now I want to ask before in this 48-hour period, which are the units they’d support, whether it includes the 391st battalion, which did the Minova rapes and desecration, and also whether MONUSCO itself is covered by the Geneva Convention, as it now, basically, declares war... says in advance that they will undertake offensive actions.

Deputy Spokesperson: I’ll have to check on those two questions for you, Matthew.

Inner City Press: Given that it was 24 days ago that it was asked, is it possible to get an answer in the next 48 hours?

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, all we can do is try. We’ll try.

Inner City Press: Right. Do you think… does the Secretary-General think, given this unprecedented change in approach by UN peacekeeping, that to have the policy of due diligence mean anything, they have to say which units they support? That’s the question.

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, we have, I believe, not said anything about that yet and when we have something, we will.

Inner City Press: Right, but I mean, not said which units you support. That’s what I’m asking. It’s like you’re just saying…

Deputy Spokesperson: When we have something, we’ll let you know, Matthew.

Inner City Press: Do you think it will be before they start shooting guns?

Deputy Spokesperson: I can’t predict what’s going to happen. My crystal ball is covered in smoke. [Video here]

Seven hours after that briefing, the UN and its Department of Peacekeeping Operations had not answered any of the questions. Watch this site.

   

In Kerry's Nine Months, of Israeli Settlements & Palestine Membership Moves, ICP Asks CFR

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 30 -- At Tuesday's US State Department briefing, while the Israel - Palestine talks about nine months of talks dominated, whether settlements or Palestinian moves for recognition will continue in this time was not really addressed.

  On a Council on Foreign Relations call later Tuesday afternoon, Inner City Press asked CFR expert Robert Danin if he thought settlements would stop. Danin noted that Israel's housing minister is a settler and likely will push forward. But would the Minister of Defense approve such moves?

  Danin said that Israel, in exchange for releasing prisoners, sought Palestine foregoing "isolating Israel" in international forums. That's something different.

  At the UN Tuesday morning, the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People met in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. It accredited five non-governmental organizations and turned three others down. Palestine wants to host the FIFA Congress in 2017 - how does that "further isolate Israel"?

  On the CFR call -- and in the day's US State Department briefing -- there was surprisingly little talk of Syria, as impacts Israel - Palestine and generally. Some link Syria to Turkey's reported decision to pull out of the UNIFIL mission in southern Lebanon, which Inner City Press asked the UN about at Tuesday's noon briefing. In the afternoon, just before the CFR call, the following came back:

Subject: Your question on UNIFIL
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 3:09 PM
To: Matthew.Lee@innercitypress.com

Regarding your question on whether Turkey would withdraw its troops from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the Department of Peacekeeping Operations has not received any official notification from Turkey on this issue.

  How much to trust the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations under its fourth Frenchman in a row, Herve Ladsous? He refuses to answer questions -- video here -- and his four spokespeople have left unanswered for 24 days a question about Ladsous' non-implementation of the UN's supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy. 

  Nor, we note, did the State Department briefing address theUN essentially declaring war in Eastern Congo in 48 hours. This is the big one. Watch this site.

UN To Start Shooting in DR Congo in 48 Hours, But Still Won't Name Which Units It Supports, If Geneva Conventions Apply

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 30 -- The UN today said it will start shooting in Eastern Congo at any person who has not turned in their weapons in 48 hours, thereby effectively declaring war.

  Since this is something quite new for the UN, Inner City Press at the July 30 noon briefing asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey a series of questions -- none of which he answered. Video here.

  Inner City Press asked if the UN acknowledges that the Geneva Conventions will apply to it, as a party to an armed conflict. Del Buey said he would have to check -- but Inner City Press asked this question weeks ago.

  Twenty four days ago, Inner City Press asked the four spokespeople of UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous which units of the Congolese Army the UN provides support to. Under Ban's supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, the UN is not supposed to support units engaged in abuses.

  But, for example, after the 391st Battalion was implicated in 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012 (and Ladsous tried to months to cover this up, video here), the UN is still supporting the unit. This month the 391st Battalion was implicated in the desecration of corpses.

  On July 30 Inner City Press asked Del Buey to state if the UN is STILL supporting the 391st Battalion -- French Ambassador Gerard Araud told Inner City Press it is the "best unit" in the Congolese Army, full story here -- and to at least answer the question before MONUSCO starts shooting in support of the Congolese Army, in 48 hours.

  I'll have to check, Del Buey said. When Inner City Press asked if this would happen in the next 48 hours, he said his "crystal ball is covered and smoky." Video here. And so it goes at the UN.

   

UN and Alexander Downer Flick Away Conflict of Interest on Cyprus, Stakeout Subverted, Spies?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 30 -- This UN is lawless and unresponsive. Arrogance can be added, as least in the case of UN envoy on Cyprus Alexander Downer. 

  On July 16, after publishing a story on the question, Inner City Press asked the UN in New York how Downer could run to head the South Australian Liberal Party while still ostensibly being a UN official.

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky said, "the principle is well taken in the question that you are posing, and I will see if my colleagues have anything." But the UN Department of Political Affairs, which ostensibly oversees Downer, has provided no answer for two weeks.

And so today after he met Greek Cypriot Leader Nicos Anastasiades, and before the UN Security Council extended its Cyprus mission's mandate over Azerbaijan's abstention, Downer misrepresented the question and said he was "flicking it away." From the transcript:

Question: If and when the talks resume in October, will you be around, because of certain information…?

Alexander Downer: I really enjoy the job and I haven’t any intention to give it up. I have seen speculation, which is some speculation, let’s confront it, as you all want to ask, speculation that I might be the ambassador in Washington. I am not sure I ever want to be an ambassador. I was the Foreign Minister for a long time, and to be an ambassador you have to live permanently out of your own country. That’s not so much something I’ve been particularly enthusiastic about. No one who is in a position to appoint me as ambassador to Washington has ever raised this with me ever. It is just a speculative piece in one newspaper. And I congratulate people here on picking up something in one newspaper. It’s Google alert, I suppose. It was just a speculative piece written by a journalist that if the Liberals won the next elections in Australia, the Liberal Party won the next elections in Australia that I would be the logical person to make the Ambassador in Washington. I am not sure about that and I am not sure whether I would want to do it. Nobody has ever mentioned it to me who would be in a position to decide. So, I can just flick that one straight away.

   But the question is not whether Downer could be Ambassador to the US and a UN envoy at the same time -- though with the way things are going under Ban Ki-moon, who let his Sahel envoy Romano Prodi run for office in Italy while still a UN official, who knows?

    Rather, the question is whether being in the running to head a political party is in conflict with being a UN official, under the UN Charter. Here's what Inner City Press asked on July 16, after publishing this on July 15:

Inner City Press: Downer is the good offices envoy on Cyprus, but he’s announced, and I haven’t seen it retracted, that he is going to be running to be the President of the South Australian Liberal Party. This came up for a moment, regarding Mr. Prodi, but I wonder, what are the rules applicable to running, particularly if he were to win, the presidency of a political party in a country, and at the same time being admittedly a part-time when actually employed UN envoy?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, I mean, I think the caveats that you have provided in your own question partly answer it. And, if I have anything further from the Department of Political Affairs, I will let you know. But, I don’t have anything further on that at the moment.

Correspondent: It seems like if it’s a conflict if he wins, this may be a conflict running, because he’d have the same…

Spokesperson: …the principle is well taken in the question that you are posing, and I will see if my colleagues have anything.

  Two weeks later, nothing except Downer misrepresenting the question and flicking it away.

  Alongside the Cyprus vote, Pakistan did an explanation of vote on Cote d'Ivoire (as predicted last night by Inner City Press, here), concerned about drawing down too quickly, and the Darfur mission was extended.

Afterward UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant approached the stakeout microphone, with prepared notes. But he never spoke on camera -- he ended up speaking to a wire service reporter Tim Witcher of AFP who notably is on the Executive Committee on the UN Correspondents Association - no request that Lyall Grant speak in a more accessible way.

  This is the problem, one of many being pointed out by the Free UN Coalition for Access, with an ostensibly pro-correspondents' association being dominated by big media wires services - they have no incentive to promote access. In fact, they hold private briefings only publicized to those who pay them money. Oh, and in the case of UNCA and its first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, they spy for the UN - click here for story, here for audio, here for document. Watch this site.