UN Peacekeeping Committee Rift on Ladsous' Drones, Despite Spin

By Matthew Russell Lee, Scoops

UNITED NATIONS, March 13 -- The UN's use of "unmanned aerial vehicles" is spun as without controversy, for example by having a recent report spoon-fed to Reuters and a few others but never at a question and answer press conference. 

 But on March 13 at the UN's Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations it was clear again that controversy and push-back remain, not least on how UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous would use the information.

 This issue was raised by C-34 members when Ladsous first pitched his drone plan; Ladsous refused to answer Press questions about it. Now Herve "The Drone" Ladsous had gone so far as to try to block the Press' camera, Vine here.

Back on February 24, 2015, Inner City Press asked the UN:

Inner City Press: This has to do with Jane Holl Lute and this report about technology and peacekeeping which some call the “drone report” because it proposes drones.  I’m wondering one, can she do a press conference on it?  How much money was spent on the report and why was it released in this kind of quiet or selective way?

Spokesman Dujarric:  I’ve heard your request and we will pass it on to DPKO.  

  But no response was ever given, nor press conference held. Now maybe some Western countries can trade other issues behind closed doors to clean up or cover up Ladsous' drone mess. But why in secret? Why not answer questions?

  This hypocrisy might help explain it:

When the UN Security Council visited the Central African Republic earlier this week, the issue of the UN underpaying the peacekeepers there was not raised, publicly or at all.

  But back in UN headquarters in the C-34 Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, discontent with DPKO as run by Herve Ladsous was mounting. On CAR, one issue about which C-34 exclusively told Inner City Press was Ladsous' DPKO's refusal to comply with the recommendations of the Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations to pay a risk premium to peacekeepers in the dangerous missions.

   Under Ladsous, DPKO tells Troop Contributing Countries with their soldier in CAR that it is not dangerous there -- while saying quite the opposite elsewhere. Several delegates called this rank hypocrisy. 

   Some thanked Inner City Press for publishing the Office of Internal Oversight Services report, here, on how positions in the UN missions in Haiti and the DR Congo were sold by Cote d'Ivoire's Deputy Permanent Representative Ouattara.

 Now DPR Ouattara has become the charge d'affaires since Permanent Representative Bamba, who was not involved the corruption, has been ousted, alleged due to a speech on his watch calling Western Sahara the last colony in Africa (this was, but is not longer, Cote d'Ivoire's position).

  Ladsous, as shown by multiple videos including this andthis and this Vine, refuses to answer Press questions.

   The UN Security Council creates peacekeeping operations -- so what is their role in ensuring that DPKO pay the peacekeepers fairly, including in accordance with the Special Advisory Group's report and related General Assembly resolution? What is the Security Council's oversight role, for example on the report of demonstrators in Gao in Northern Mali being shot?

  This month's Security Council president, the French Mission, told Inner City Press that whether or not the Security Council will get any information from the Gao report is entirely up to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. How can that be? And what of Ladsous, and ultimately Ban, claiming CAR is not dangerous, in order to underpay the peacekeepers, as described to Inner City Press by C-34 delegates? We'll have more on this.

   In the UN's first sub-basement on March 13, some delegates suggested that the C-34's forthcoming - or not - report would be “the worst ever.” Watch this site.

   

As UN Security Council Hears of His Failures to Protect Civilians, Herve Ladsous Floats Out, Flew FDLR

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 28 -- When the UN Security Council held a day-long debate on UN Peacekeeping on July 28 more than forty countries spoke, from India warning of an unsustainable shift into internal conflicts to the US citing reports of UN Peacekeeping missions failing to protect civilians.

  But during that US speech, the head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous left the debate. Earlier in July he refused to answer about peacekeepers killing civilians in the Central African Republic. Video here.

  Before that for months Ladsous refused to answer on his partners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo committing more than 130 rapes in Minova in the DRC,video compilation here.

  More recently Ladsous has refused to answer the complaint of Rwanda, which organized the July 28 meeting, that his mission in the DRC flew the leader of the Hutu FDLR militia from Eastern Congo to Kinshasa despite him being on the UN's sanctions list, and the rejection by the Security Council's sanctions committee of the request for a waiver from Ladsous - with his own history in the region, here.

 There are without question many courageous and committed UN peacekeepers. But when the person in charge refuses to answer basic questions, there is a problem.

  These are questions that should be answered. Inner City Press will continue to pursue answers.

  A representative of NATO spoke, without addressing the aftermath of its “peacekeeping” in Libya.

  Egypt, speaking for the Non-Alignment Movement, said the UN Secretariat should not begin “streams of policy” without first getting approval. As Inner City Press reported, Ladsous had push-back, not approval by the C-34 group of states for his proposal to use drones, but proceeded with it anyway.

  When Inner City Press reported this, and Herve “The Drone” Ladsous as a nickname, Ladsous began to refuse to answer any Press questions, saying “I do not respond to you, Mister.”

  Will he respond to the critiques made during the July 28 debate? Watch this site.

   

At UN, Farewell to Mr Coffee, Indians Make French Connection, Diplomats' Immunities Compared

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 25 -- In the blur of UN receptions, in the daze of National Days and farewells to departing Ambassadors, some cannot be missed. So it was this week for India's Republic Day on January 23, and the farewell to Colombia's Nestor Osorio, heading to London to represent his country there.

  When Osorio arrived three years ago to take Colombia's Security Council seat, it took him some time to get his feet under him. But he was unfailingly polite, and when he left the Council he became president of ECOSOC, most recently brokering a compromise on language about Palestine in a resolution. 

  In London, he told Inner City Press on January 24, the issues are more concrete: increasing the number of direct flights to Bogota, talking up and getting support for the process with the FARC.

  On the FARC, Osorio was able to fill in the gaps for the Free UN Coalition for Access of a VICE "Correspondents Confidential" piece about a journalist being briefly taken hostage there. The UN will be a little sleepier without Osorio.

  India is a power rising if not already risen: even late in the liquorless reception there was the President of the General Assembly and his entourage, Iran's newsy Permanent Representative Khazaee, and various Ambassadors talking to UN Department of Field Support's Ameerah Haq, showing off their support to mission in Mali and South Sudan.

  Talk there was not only of the Indian diplomat Khobragade who was arrested, strip seached and indicted, then told if she comes back into the US she will be arrested. Numerous attendees commented to Inner City Press about its contrast with the French diplomat Romain Serman, taken into New York police custody for attempting to purchase cocaine (and not cooperating with the arresting officer).

  But when Serman left the US, unlike Khobragade he was allowed to come back in, as France's consul in San Francisco. Attempts to obfuscate or even censor this storywere panned amid samosas and skewers of vegetables and tofu. The contrast between the censor and Osorio could not be more clear. 

  Colonialism mixed with increasingly unjustifiable P3 status breeds contempt. When will that farewell be? Watch this site.

Footnotes: Inner City Press in early 2011 nicknamed Ambassador Osorio "Mister Coffee," and since then has wondered if it was too harsh. But Osorio never let it stop him from answering questions, or explaining his positions. 

  This is in contrast for example to UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous. After Ladsous proposed in the C-34 committee the UN's use of drones, and Inner City Pressspoke with member states who complained, Inner City Press called him Herve "The Drone" Ladsous. 

  This led to push-back and even threats bordering on censorship. It is to combat this, and the other threats cited above, for which the Free UN Coalition for Access was formed, and offers Osorio a 21 espresso salute.

   

In Dysfunction of Ban Ki-moon's UN, Two Departments Use States to Fight for 12 Budget Posts, Banning Press & Reason

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 1 -- Two departments of the UN are fighting over which gets 12 posts or salaries lines. 

  No one in Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's office has intervened and made a deicsion, and so the two departments offer favors to particular member states to get their support in the Budget Committee.

  Welcome to dysfunction in Ban Ki-moon's UN.

  No less than the UN Journal reported that the Fifth (Budget) Committee would finish its work on May 31. But that morning, when Inner City Press asked the Committee's chairperson Miguel Berger of Germany if that would happen, he candidly said, "No."

  At 5 pm on Friday Inner City Press checked in with several members of the Committee. Some were derisive of the UAV plan of UN Peacekeeping chief Herve "The Drone" Ladsous for Cote d'Ivoire. 

  But a big fight concerned a proposed power-grab by UN Controller Maria Eugenia Casar "and her peacekeeping budget director."

  The Department of Field Support and the Department of Management, of which the Controller's office is part, were tasked with finding a new way to draft peacekeeping budgets.

  This, multiple sources told Inner City Press, was turned into a "power grab" by Casar, who "made DFS give up twelve posts," and transferred them to her office.

  DFS understandably pushed back; in typically dysfunctional UN fashion the two Departments are now using different member states - in exchange for favor, of course - to press forward their position in the Fifth Committee. Is this any way to run an Organization?

  Meanwhile, apparently to try to avoid detailed press coverage, one thing the UN says it will stand firm on is eliminating media workspace that has existed for years in front of the Security Council. Both before and during the $2 billion renovation (after which there is STILL bad wiring), there was a media table in front of the Security Council. 

But now, despite being shown as recently as May 31 by the Free UN Coalition for Access exactly where one could go, the UN is saying no. Or is letting the move of the Security Council, today, happen without maintaining previous media access. This is Ban's UN.

After UN's Congo Failure, Ladsous Re-Floats His Drone Plan, Exposed by ICP in March

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, November 23, updated -- As the M23 mutineers advance past Goma to Bukavu in Eastern Congo, UN Peacekeeping is trying to erase it failure with a technological fix: drones.

  Back in March 2012, Inner City Press exclusively reported that Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in row atop the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, had proposed in a closed-door session of the C-34 the use of drones.

  Several delegations criticized it to Inner City Press, questioning not only "who would get the information," but also Ladsous' motives.

  The representative of a Francophone African country told Inner City Press that Ladsous already had a French company, Thales, in mind.

  Inner City Press after its exclusive report got the Office of the Spokesperson of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on March 27, 2012 to confirm the proposal, click here for the UN's e-mail to Inner City Press.

  Then on May 1, 2012 Inner City Press was able to ask Ladsous himself about his drone proposal. From DPKO's own online transcript:

 

Matthew Lee, Inner City Press: You should set up a time, I think, to take questions on Sudan and Haiti. But here is on Syria, on air assets. I know you proposed in the C34 committee the use by the UN of surveillance drones. Now I wanted to know if that is something that you would consider in this instance and if not, why not? Given the need to monitor a ceasefire. Also, there is a talk about freedom of movement. Can you say what the restrictions have been to date and also how they would compare for example with restrictions that DPKO accepts in MINURSO?

 

USG Ladsous: As far as drones, I think the issue is not here and now. We are conducting a study on the issue because there are numbers of aspects, technical, financial and others. And of course one very strong parameter of any deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles would be to secure the consent of the government concerned. So we are not there yet.

  After that, even more delegations complained to Inner City Press, noting that Ladsous has no approval at all to even proceed and ask "the government concerned" about flying UN drones.

  Inner City Press paraphrased one of the complaints and coined the nickname, Herve "The Drone" Ladsous, which a diplomat said also referred to Ladsous' speaking style.

By late May, Ladsous openly refused to answer any questions from Inner City Press. In this, he was emboldened by other attacks on press freedom in Ban Ki-moon's UN, on which we will have more.

  On drones on June 20, 2012, Inner City Press asked Ladsous about safeguards; Ladsous replied, "I don't talk to you, Mister." Click here for that, and more on Ladsous' DPKO and drones.

  Also on June 20, Inner City Press asked one of Ladsous' DPKO's force commanders Major General Moses Obi about drones; at first he said he didn't get the question. Video here, by Minute 35:22. Then Obi said of course he'd like drones, and any kind of surveilance.

 But, Inner City Press asked, who would get the information? Only the Mission? Troop Contributing Countries? All Security Council members? Only the P-5? Only France?

 Obi said the policy would be made "by the UN" -- Ladsous? Ban Ki-moon? -- and that if he got these resources, he'd be given limitations and guidance. By Ladsous? Ladsous doesn't answer.

   Most recently on November 21, after Goma fell to M23 with no fight back from Ladsous' peacekeepers, giving rise to protests and threats against UN personnel in Bunia, Kisangani and Bukavu, Inner City Press sought to ask Ladsous if UN Peacekeeping would even try to defend Bukavu, and for Ladsous' response to the protests and threats in Bunia, Kisangani and Bukavu. Video here, at Minute 10:13, 13:25 and especially 11:50.

  Ladsous refused to answer; his spokesman Kieran Dwyer told staff to not give Inner City Press the microphone, while "une question en Francais" was sought out.

  Since then UN personnel have been attacked and UN buildings burned down; several Congolese protesters have been shot dead, at least three in Kisangani, click here. In Bunia, at least six were killed, four of them students, click here (all in French, a la Ladsous).

  Now the drone('s) proposal has taken flight again, spun by none other than Kieran Dwyer, Ladsous' censorer in chief. Inner City Press has posed a number of questions to the UN and will be reporting them and all responses (or, if up to Ladsous, non-responses) here.

Update: Inner City Press asked the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General, "How would such [drone] use be consistent with USG Ladsous' statements to the C34, which were never approved or acted on, and USG's Ladsous' statements since?"

 Ladsous' spokesman Kieran Dwyer, saying the questions were referred to him, on this emailed back: "the consideration on utilising unarmed aerial vehicles in eastern DR Congo is one of a set of measures which DPKO is considering in response to the Security Council request for proposals on how to strengthen MONUSCO's capabilities to fulfil its mandate to protect civilians."

  So does Ban Ki-moon's UN believe that only the Security Council would need to approve drones? Or the member states of the General Assembly? Watch this site.

UN's Ladsous Refuses Press Questions on His DPKO's Congo Killings & Spain Cuts in Lebanon

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 17 -- When UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous came to take media questions along with Lebanon envoy Derek Plumbly on Tuesday at noon, Ladsous' spokesman first peeped out of the Security Council to see which journalists were present.

  Finally he led Ladsous and Plumbly to the television camera and said they would take a few questions. But after one question from Agence France Presse, there was a silence. Inner City Press said it had a question on UNIFIL, the UN mission in Lebanon.

  Ladsous looked away. 

  His spokesman said that "DPKO is on the record" as not taking any questions from Inner City Press. Nevertheless, including since there were no other questions on Lebanon and given issues in the Congo, Inner City Press asked about Spain cutting its troop contribution in half, and of reports that DPKO's Mission in the Congo MONUSCO had in fact killed civilians.

   Ladsous looked at this spokesman Kieran Dwyer, as if for guidance or support. One wonders, does Dwyer as an ostensible communications professional agree with Ladsous' strategy? Did he counsel it? Finally Ladsous walked away from the microphone, one of his few "question and answer" sessions. Video here, from Minute 6:50.

   Inner City Press ran to the UN's noon briefing and re-asked the questions to Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey, who did not have or even attempt answers to either question, beyond saying the Congo's "terrain is difficult."

   Since Ladsous began this strategy of explicitly conditioning answering or even taking question on getting positive -- and we and others posit, as yet unmerited -- coverage on May 29 in a televised press conference, and hascontinued it off camera since, Inner City Press asked Del Buey if Ban Ki-moon agrees with an Under Secretary General of his refusing to answer questions due to critical, investigative coverage.

   (Inner City Press has quoted sources from closed door meetings of the Committee of 34 that Ladsous proposes that the UN uses drones, and several delegations think he already has the French firm Thales in mind.)

 Del Buey said, "you're here, we answer you, that's where we'll leave it." Video here, from Minute 8:20.

   Still, Ladsous' approach is at odds with Ban Ki-moon's claims about his administration's approach to the media. 

  We'll pursue this -- and, we hope, answers to the questions Ladsous refused to answer or even take, on top of the unanswered questions about DPKO introducing cholera into Haiti, and Ban and Ladsous having as a Senior Adviser on Peacekeeping Operations an alleged war criminal, Sri Lankan general Shavendra Silva. Watch this site.