By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 5 -- UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous has repeatedly refused to answer Press questions about war crimes, from the 135 rapes in Minova by hispartners in the Congolese Army last November to accepting as an adviser a Sri Lanka military figure depicting in the UN's own report as shelling hospitals.
Now Ladsous has met with Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide as well as war crimes.
While the Department of Peacekeeping Operations has previously offered free air flights to another ICC indictee Ahmed Harun, since then the UN has claimed to have strict rules about when to meet with indictees.
Was this encounter necessary or desirable? DPKO has refused to answer basic Inner City Press questions of which they acknowledged receipt six days ago. Will the UN be posting photos of Ladsous' meeting with Bashir, after having issued whole galleries and videos of Ladsous in Mali, posing with French soldiers for example?
While in Sudan, Ladsous said that after a skirmish in Darfur that injured three peacekeepers from Nigeria, his DPKO has “kept the body” of one of the attackers for analysis. Is that legal?
In the Eastern DRC, the International Organization for Migration announces it is helping IDPs, with $3 million from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance of the US government, which as Security Council president is convening a debate on the DRC and Great Lakes later this month.
Late in the IOM press release there's reference to a “biometric” pilot. The Free UN Coalition for Access has asked for an explanation. Watch this site.