In DR Congo, Some Applause for UNSC, But Why? As French Picked Scribes Go Silent, Genocide Joyride

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 5 -- The UN Security Council is in Kinshasa and there is a lot of happy talk. As of Friday night it was unclear if President Joseph Kabila would hold a direct meeting with the Council. By Saturday some Council diplomats were tweeting about Kabila's speech to the closing of the national consultation, and noting that they or the UN received applause.

It's nice. But what does it mean? If the SADC Intervention Brigade had killed more M23, or even just Rwandaphones, the Council members might be applauded. Would that be good?

Inner City Press was on a previous 2010 Security Council trip to Africa -- France banned it from this one -- and saw the Council applauded in South Sudan, and protested in Sudan. Did the cheering in Juba mean that everything was going to work out? Just ask people in Jonglei.

  The Council met with DR Congo foreign minister Raymond Tshibanda, who in the Council in New York in July said that all rebellions in Eastern Congo bear the same "genetic signature." Was this troubling line clarified? Or was the applause too loud?

  In 2013 many of the diplomats are doing their own tweeting, which is all to the good. Shocking is that the journalists that France hand-picked for the trip have send out NOTHING.

For Reuters, the last two tweets were October 2 and 3, both before the trip. The first was about humanitarian aid to Syria, blaming all blockages on the Assad government with no mention, for example, for the ISIS rebels' threats against aid workers in Jarabulus, which the EU's Kristalina Georgieva has acknowledged to the Free UN Coalition for Access@FUNCA_info (by twitter, no less).

The second was about child soldiers, a swipe at Rwanda. Maybe that's why Reuters will finally start reporting: to trash Rwanda and focus only on the M23, nothing on the FDLR. 

  That's how Reuters presented the last Group of Experts report on the DRC, until Inner City Press obtained and exclusively put the full text online, showing DRC Army involvement with the FDLR, in illegal mining and, yes, recruitment of child soldiers.

The Security Council wouldn't get applause in Kinshasa for that part of the report. So should they not have reported it?

Voice of America's last tweets are not even about news - they are about the UN Correspondents Association, through which VOA tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, citing its coverage of Sri Lanka and, yes, France and the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, with his own troubling history in the Great Lakes region, here.

  Could that be why they were hand picked by France for this trip, which some for that reason call France's Genocide Joyride. But report, at least.

Inner City Press has asked the UN if there will be any meetings with opposition in the DRC, and to name the civil society groups to be met with in Goma. The UN won't respond - but Rwanda's foreign minister sent a response, about her countries hope for the trip.

But apparently some in the Council, and UN, measure the success of their trip by what applause they got. That is not the measure. Watch this site.

Ban Ki-moon's Spokesperson Martin Nesirky on camera admitted that the decision on which media would be allowed to go on and cover the UNSC's Africa trip was made "in consultation" with the lead mission for the trip: France. Inner City Press YouTube channel video here:http://youtu.be/N_nn8lToeUU

This was sent to Inner City Press:

From: Jerome Bernard [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 6:46 PM
Subject: Re: Security Council trip to Africa
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] InnerCityPress [dot] com
Cc: Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info

Hi Matthew,

I am sorry but because of the very limited number of seats in the UN plane it won't be possible for you to travel with the Security Council for this trip to the Great Lakes Region of Africa.

I am sure there will be other opportunities for travel in the future.

Best regards,

Jerome Bernard
Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General

Inner City Press was told that Bernard would be providing information from the trip. Then not. Watch this site.

   

UN's CAR Talk Has No Answer on Rules Beyond Bangui, Unlike EU's Georgieva to FUNCA, Virtual Stakeout

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 9 -- About the Central African Republic, too, the UN talks a lot but does not answer questions. Early Tuesday the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs began hyping up a visit to CAR later this week by Baroness Valerie Amos and the EU's humanitarian chief Kristalina Georgieva.

  A recent study by Medecins Sans Frontieres, which the UN also tweeted, says there are no international staff outside of the capital Bangui, due to UN rules. 

  So it seemed, at least to the Free UN Coalition for Accesswhich is assessing the UN's responsiveness that the UN should answer: if it's true they're confined to the capital and if they're thinking of changing the rules.

  These rules, even before the Seleka coup, led to little to no UN service to Haut-Mbomou prefecture and its capital Obo, as Inner City Press has previously covered, here.

  At Tuesday's noon briefing, Inner City Press told Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spokesperson Martin Nesirky, I have questions about the Central African Republic and Haiti, but first one on Syria. But after that, while allowing others multiple questions, he never took the CAR question.

When an answer came to @FUNCA_Questions, it was from the EU's Georgieva, saying she is looking forward to traveling outside of Bangui and that she'll answer at that time, in two days.

Inner City Press previously asked Georgieva about aid workers in Syria and gotten an even-handed answer, of something not being black and white. Increasingly this UN is not even handed. But shouldn't they at least take and answer questions?

Georgieva's response Tuesday was immediately repeated on @FUNCA_info, like a virtual quick stakeout for anyone to see; this is how the UN and its allies should be but aren't. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

   

On Syria, Araud Disses Churkin's "Conspiracy Theory," Ladsous Floats Away

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 2 -- When the Syria meeting of the UN Security Council broke up late Thursday afternoon, it was Russian Permanent Representative Vitaly Churkin who made it first to the UN TV microphone. 

 He said that inside the meeting, the Western countries had not explained to his satisfaction why they want the UN observer mission to end on August 19.

   During the meeting, another Security Council member told Inner City Press it would be a matter of "saving face," after the (mostly) UK drafted July 20 resolution used the term "final" extension.

  Inner City Press asked Churkin if it would be possible to maintain after August 19 a UN presence in Syria, for example with personnel of the UN Department of Safety and Security, without passing a new resolution. Churkin said no, then said Russia would be willing to "re-name" the mission.

   French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud, August's Council president, began by chiding Churkin for speaking first. Inner City Press asked him about the EU's Kristalina Georgieva's statement that humanitarian aid delivery in Syria is helped by the UNSMIS mission, even now.

   This, Araud did not answer. Rather, he focused with rhetorical flourish on Inner City Press' second question, about Churkin's surprise that Kofi Annan's deputy Jean Marie Guehenno had been called by to Paris for a job with the French government.

   Araud said this was a "conspiracy theory," and that Churkin had spend too long on the Middle East. He emphasized that it was the new, Francois Hollande, government which offered Guehenno the post. But it is only to write a white paper. 

  To some it seems that if the Annan mission were going better, at least from France's point of view, Guehenno might not have been "called home."

   When he was asked how Russia inside the meeting had argued for UNSMIS to stay in Syria, Araud took another pot-shot, saying, you should ask Churkin and Ja'afari, Syria's Ambassador. There were smiles in Araud's entourage, and in truth it was more entertaining that most Council president's stakeouts. Will Churkin or Ja'afari fire back?

   Next up was Guehenno's successor, with fellow Frenchman Alain Le Roy in the middle, as head of UN Peacekeeping: Herve Ladsous. His spokeswoman -- lead spokesman Kieran Dwyer is said to be away on business travel -- announced from the beginning Ladsous would take only two or three questions, fewer than Churkin or Araud.

   Even so, Ladsous barely answered, and as more detailed questions began -- like why he took half of UNSMIS out despite what the EU's Georgieva said -- Ladsous floated away from the microphone, taking no Press questions (as he vowed, not liking or being able to handle critical coverage), saying only "We are working." 

  Working on what? Dismantling the UN Mission and its credibility?

   The comparison to the UN's flight from Rwanda in the face of the Hutu government's genocide, which Ladsous as Deputy Permanent Representative of France at the UN in 1994 in essence defended, grows more pointed every day. At some point the questions will have to be answered. Watch this site.

On Syria, EU's Georgieva Says Delay of Int'l Staff "Not Black & White"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 1 -- When the European Union's Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva took media questions on Tuesday, her focus was on Syria. Inner City Press asked her to confirm what it had already reported on July 23, that international aid staff from five countries -- two of them in the EU -- have been blocked.

  Georgieva said there have been delays, yes, but called it "not black and white." Other Inner City Press sources said the same, that while international staff from France, the UK, US, Canada and Australia have been blocked or delays, others from these countries have gotten in.

  While sources told Inner City Press the number of international staff, two weeks ago, was 62, Georgieva said there are 80 international aid staff in Syria. She said she disfavors the use of so-called "humanitarian corridors," wondering if these might be used to bring in weapons.

  Some point to Yemen, where Ali Saleh at least ostensibly stepped down, as a model for "resolving" Syria. Georgieva told a story of visiting armed Houthi leaders with UNHCR chief Gutteres, staring down AK-47s and convincing them of the Geneva conventions. Can this be done with the Free Syrian Army?

  Georgieva said, there are areas Assad does not control, we need to go in and say, you cannot shoot at ambulance or pull people out of them. Yes, that would be good.

Meanwhile after as Inner City Press reported Tuesday morning, France could not yet come through on its statement it would convene a ministerial meeting on Syria as soon as possible after it took over presidency of the Council, it is dialing up a briefing by Herve Ladsous. He is the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping so he is always ready.

  Does Ladsous share Georgieva's views on humanitarian corridors?

  Georgieva also answered an Inner City Press' question on the Congo, where Ladsous' DPKO despite spending $1.3 billion a year cannot even access much less protect civilians in portions of North Kivu -- watch this site.