In DR Congo, Kabila Leaves UNSC Waiting, UN Won't Answer But Rwanda FM Mushikiwabo Does

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 4 -- The UN Security Council was in Kinshasa Friday night, planning to head to Eastern Congo on Sunday, but the UN in New York refused to answer basic Press questions such as if they would meet any opposition while in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Video here and embedded below.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, it must be noted, a week ago met with Saudi-sponsored Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba, and ignored a protest under the UN Charter of France sponsoring Jarba in a UN meeting room as the "sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people."

Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky on Friday also refused to answer Inner City Press' request for information about the Security Council's meeting in Brussels with the EU Political and Security Committee, saying "ask Council members."

   That's a neat trick -- Ban's Office "in consultation" with France rejected Inner City Press' requests to accompany and cover the trip on the UN plane, as it did in 2010 and 2008.

  Even thus Banned, Inner City Press mid-day Friday reported that the topic of the International Criminal Court came up in the Brussels meeting and Council members were told that the ICC is controversial in Africa because of its politicization (not unlike Ban's and France's Jarba meetings.)

  For this African trip, France hand picked three media to go along as scribes, including Reuters (whose UN bureau has spied for the UN, click here) and US state media Voice of America. 

  Neither reported anything on the first day of the trip. The third media, a procedural Council reporter, was first to break radio silence -- and said that while Rwanda's president Paul Kagame has committed to meet the Council, a meeting with the DRC's Joseph Kabila was not yet confirmed. Amazing.

  When Inner City Press accompanied the Security Council in the past, it reported on waiting for hours in N'djamena while then French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert promised the Idriss Deby would come meet with Council member. 

  Deby never arrived, and Ripert in anger stopped speaking to the Press. (In fact, Ripert confronted Inner City Press in the Kigali airport, but that's another story.)

  By contrast to Nesirky's refusal to provide basic information, Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo when asked by Inner City Press what the Rwanda government hopes results from the Security Council tripanswered, "@innercitypress #UNSC #Rwanda Good/better understanding of regional reality, and what stakes are."

  So a foreign minister can be responsive, while Ban Ki-moon's Office of the Spokesperson is not? 

  Nesirky said that the function of his Office's staffer on the trip, Jerome Bernard, is only to "support the journalists on the trip" -- that is, those hand-picked by France. It seems M. Bernard himself was hand-picked: he worked for a dozen years for Agence France Presse.

  The Security Council still functions as a neo-colonial, non-transparent institution. This, not just the often cited vetoes, is what has held it back. Ban's Secretariat is too often a plaything of the P3. But we will continue to cover this trip. Watch this site.

   

In DR Congo, Will UNSC Visit Opposition Like Tshisekedi or Bunagana, or "Pull a Ripert"?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 4 -- As the UN Security Council moves from its European meeting to Joseph Kabila, his foreign minister Raymond Tshibanda and others in Kinshasa, the question arises: will they meet with opposition figures like Etienne Tshisekedi of the UDPS?

  As Inner City Press filmed and covered at the UN, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Tshisekedi when it served him (meaning Ban). 

  Last Saturday, Ban met with Saudi-sponsored Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba, who has never won a vote inside Syria. On the democratic legitimacy scale, the countries which met with Jarba a week ago have no basis to avoid Tshisekedi.

  But the point of this trip, to accompany and cover which France was allowed to pick and ban particular media, seems different. Is it really a fact finding trip? Would the Council visit -- would Kabila permit them to visit -- M23 territory in Bunagana and elsewhere?

  Inner City Press has asked and is informed that "the program is still in flux." But when and where will the Council's program be made public?

  On a previous Security Council trip to Eastern Congo, which Inner City Press accompanied after France's attempt to block was opposed by then-UNSC member South Africa, the Council visited an IDP camp outside Goma.

  Inner City Press took and sent out photos of then French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert preening in front of France 24 while a restive crowd of camp residents complained. Finally the Congolese security forces beat up an elderly lady; no one did anything. And this time? 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. We're still waiting. Watch this site.

   

As White "UN" Copters Fly Over M23 Positions in Eastern Congo, How Will Reuters & VOA Report Complaint?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 3 -- As the French-led UN Security Council trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo begins today, the M23 militia have complained of white-painted helicopters flying surveillance flights over territory assigned to them under a deal reached in Kampala.

  M23 has announced that since the UN Mission MONUSCO says these flights are not theirs, M23 will in the future shoot at such helicopters or "engines of death."

  France was allowed to hand-pick the media accompanying the trip on the UN plane. Inner City Press went on such Council trips in 2010 and 2008, but this time France rejected Inner City Press' request -- made through the Office of the Spokesperson of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon since it is, after all, a UN and not French plane.

  Hand-picked by France to cover the trip, dubbed the Genocide Joyride given France's history of supporting the 1994 genocidaires and their escape into Eastern Congo, are Reuters and Voice of America, and a procedural Council reporter.

  So how will VOA and Reuters report what M23 says? Voice of America, just before the trip, ran an interview by DRC spokesperson Mende. VOA's type up of the interview called the FDLR a "Hutu militia group," when Mende said "Rwandese."

  Back in July, VOA's Scott Stearns asked the US State Department -- whose John Kerry is on VOA's Broadcasting Board of Governors -- a planted question about Rwanda supporting M23.

  This came at the same time as the Obama administration was bragging about support it is giving to rebels in Syria -- but VOA did not make this connection. Reuters' coverage of DRC and the UN is even more one-sided; Reuters has seen fit even to spy for the UN, and not explain it. Click here for that.

Now that the trip is been made public not only by MONUSCO but the UN in New York, here is the itinerary (and rejection) they sent out:

Dear Colleagues,

Below is the information regarding the upcoming Security Council trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia at the beginning of October.

If you are interested in participating, please RSVP directly to the Spokesperson's Office of the Secretary-General, Jerome Bernard by NOON, New York time, this Friday, September 20th...

The Security Council plans to visit the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia at the beginning of October.

To help with planning for any such visit, the Spokesperson's Office asks UN correspondents to advise the Office whether they are interested in travelling on such a trip...

As usual, the Spokesperson's Office reserves the right to request pooling or to limit the number of places.

NOTE: The Spokesperson Martin Nesirky subsequently on camera admitted that the decision on who would go was made by the lead mission for the trip: France. 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

  Jerome Bernard, who will be accompanying the trip apparently hand-picked by France (we note that he previously worked at Agence France Presse, on one of the management boards of which Ladsous served) will supposed tell reporters who France did not want on the trip what is happening. Right.

  When Inner City Press began to ask Nesirky about the incongruity of the UN allowing colonial powerhouse France to not only run UN Peacekeeping for more than a dozen years but also to hand-pick which journalists can cover its work, on a UN plane, Nesirky said others were not interested in Inner City Press' "travel arrangements or lack" thereof. Video here

  

We will however be reporting on this Genocide Joyride. The first leg, according to multiple non-UN sources, is Brussels (echoes of Leopold's Ghost?) on October 3 and 4, then to Kinshasa and Goma. But how will it be reported on? Watch this site.

  

France "Reserves" UN Press Briefing Room, Refuses DRC Question, It Own Genocide Joyride Obscured by Syria, Jarbucks

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 24 -- In the run up to French president Francois Hollande's press conference at the UN on Tuesday, a swatch of seats in the UN Press Briefing Room were marked "Reserved" -- in French. Tweeted photo here.

  Since France has once before tried to limit a press conference inside the UN to those with French passports, this time the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_infowent to the UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit and asked. The answer was that the head of MALU had said "oui."

  Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access wrote to four UN Department of Public Information officials, to act before the press conference (and to explain what percentage of the briefing room countries are now allowed to take over). 

  There was no response; one of the officials, Stephane Dujarric, came before the briefing and greeted many members of the French press corps.

   The result was that numerous UN resident correspondents got not only no seats, but more importantly no questions. The picking of questioners (with one exception) was the work of two French staffers.

   The exception was the first question, predictably on Syria, going to the president of the UN Correspondents Association, Pamela Falk of CBS. UNCA said nothing about the banning from seats of resident correspondents they ostensibly represent.

  French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, with a reserved seat next to Falk's or "UNCA's" seat, greeted her. Falk's UNCA is set to host a faux UN briefing by Saudi-sponsored (and French-recognized) Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba. As with the French "reserved" seats, the UN won't explain the use of its, or all 193 states', premises in this partisan way.

   For Francois Hollande the French staffers called on Agence France Presse, sure. One staffer whispered with a member of the UNCA Executive Committee and then decided to give him a question -- it was about the "Syrian regime."

  A traveling French media asked Hollande a softball question about Central African Republic, and Hollande spoke about how much he and France cared. But as Inner City Press reported, there was no UN Security Council resolution on CAR in August because France's UN diplomats were on vacation, and France "has the pen" on the issue.

  France also "has the pen" on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a region in which France and its highest UN official Herve Ladsous stand accused of supporting and assisting genocidaires, click here for some of that.

  As the press conference began to end, Inner City Press several times asked, "A question on the DRC?" The staffer, flanked by a French Mission to the UN diplomat, said no; the last question, like the first, was about Syria.

  France has so corrupted the UN that the French mission has been allowed to hand-pick which journalists can go and cover the Security Council's trip to DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia in early October.

  Inner City Press, which went on the Council's similar trip in 2010, applied but received this:

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 inquired and learned, from multiple sources, that France had been allowed to choose which journalists will go. That same day Inner City Press asked the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General for a list of those journalists who France has selected. Four days later, the list has not been provided.

  Jerome Bernard, who will be accompanying the trip apparently hand-picked by France (we note that he previously worked at Agence France Presse, on one of the management boards of which Ladsous served) will supposed tell reporters who France did not want on the trip what is happening.

   Pardonez nous that we are skeptical, and raise this question after the UN let France take over even the UN briefing room.

We will be reporting on this Genocide Joyride. Watch this site.

    

France Chooses Scribes for its Genocide Joyride To DRCongo & Rwanda, UN Won't Disclose List

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 21 -- How can a country with a long history of colonialism like France be allowed to decide which correspondents accompany and transcribe a trip through Africa on a UN plane?

  This is what has happened for the upcoming Security Council trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia which Inner City Press first reported on ten days ago.

  Inner City Press has been told by multiple sources that France was allowed to choose which journalists would go; its request seventeen hours ago for disclosure of those journalists selected for free travel in the UN plane has not complied with. But isn't it public money?

  If the French government of Francois Hollande and Laurent Fabius wants to run a propaganda trip through Africa, they should use a French government plane, not the UN. 

 In fact, France used UN Peacekeeping, from Cote d'Ivoire through Mali through the Great Lakes, where it supported the Hutu government which led the killing of a million people in Rwanda.

  Call this the Genocide Joyride, then. But who has France chosen to ride in the UN plane?

  The fix was in from the beginning. Rather than tell all correspondents at once about the opportunity to accompany the trip -- Inner City Press accompanied just such a trip in 2010 -- this time the notice was sent out through the email of Pamela Falk the 2013 president of the UN Correspondents Association only to those which pay it money: less than ten percent of the journalists covering the UN General Assembly.

  The UNCA Executive Committee allowed its member fromAgence France Presse, Tim Witcher, to initiate a proceeding against Inner City Press for its reporting on Herve Ladsous,the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping.

  They then tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, including UNCA first vice president Louis Charbonneau handing an internal UNCA document to the UN's chief of accreditation Stephane Dujarric.

(Charbonneau and Witcher were linked last week in MediaBistro to imposter Inner City Press social media accounts, the culmination of nine months of anonymous trolling link to UNCA, the UN's Censorship Alliance. Their anonymous comments complained Inner City Press is "pro-Rwanda" - explaining the trip decisions, and why Inner City Press will write rather than appeal.)

  After Inner City Press and the new Free UN Coalition for Access (@FUNCA_info) complained, the notice of the trip was sent out to a larger group by the Office of the Spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. But the fix was in.

  After close of business on Friday, after twice confirming its desire to accompany the Security Council trip as it did in 2010, this following arrived:

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 less than an hour later asked the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General for a list of those journalists who France has selected. The list has not been provided.

  Jerome Bernard, who will be accompanying the trip will supposedly tell reporters who France did not want on the trip what is happening. Right.

We will be reporting on this Genocide Joyride. Watch this site.

   

On Minova Rapes, UN's HerveLadsous Launders Self-Exoneration Through Reuters Lapdog

By Matthew Russell Lee, UN/Media Critique

UNITED NATIONS, April 11 -- This is how it's done at the UN: the media that openly push for answers are stonewalled, those that sit and wait are used as pass-throughs for non-critical stories. So it happened on April 11 with Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, and Kieran Dwyer the spokesman for Herve Ladsous.

Charbonneau has written a story which entirely ignores Ladsous' stonewalling, much less UN Peacekeeping's inaction during the mass rape spree where it has its largest presence.

Ladsous on camera refused questions about the 126 rapes in Minova on November 27. He took Charbonneau, Tim Witcher of AFP and Margaret Besheer of Voice of America into the hallway for a private briefing -- none wrote about the rapes. Video here.

On December 7, Ladsous again refused Press questions on the rapes. On December 18, he went so far as to direct his spokesman to seize the UN Television microphone to try to avoid Inner City Press' questions on the rapes. Video here.

Flash forward to April 11: at the day's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked why Ladsous waived his supposed April 1 deadline to act on the rapes. Transcript here.

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Eduardo Del Buey said he would check and get back. But he didn't.

  So Inner City Press contact the office of Zainab Bangura, Ban's expert on sexual violence and conflict. Mattias Sundholm of that Office, copying Jerome Bernard, responded that “I understand that DPKO has promised to come back to you regarding Minova, so I will refer you to them.”

  Inner City Press replied that Ladsous and his DPKO refuse to answer Press question, preferring to dole the answers out to friendlier media.

  Sundholm answered, “I am fairly certain that you will hear back from DPKO by tomorrow.”

  Inner City Press wrote a story, predicting half in jest it thought that Ladsous might hand the answer to Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, who on March 8 filed a UN Security complaint leading with the mis-statement that on that day outside the Security Council Inner City Press started shouting and “abusing” Ladsous, and that Ladsous did not respond.

That was a lie. Inner City Press asked which battalions Ladsous had given his ultimatum to, and Ladsous responded that he was going to the Council to talk about Syria.

  In any event, it is disgusting that AFP has sunk so low as to file a complaint with UN Security leading off with how another more investigative media asked a question about these rapes of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping.

  But first out of the box -- but surely not the only once -- is Alpha Lapdog Louis Charbonneau, who as noted went so far as to threaten that if the UN did not throw Inner City Press out, for articles particularly media critique that it published, he would have no choice but to ask about transferring out of the UN to another beat at Reuters.

Lou "He's Still Here" Charbonneau, courtesy UNTV

  This threat obviously implicates Reuters and the role it has come to play for the UN, like UN Peacekeeping, and some Permanent Missions like those of the UK and France. 

   But did Charbonneau tell his boss about the threat and do they stand behind it? They have been urged to inquire into their UN bureau's anti-Press moves, in their own names and as anonymous trolls. (This has continued.)

Those asked include, so far, Stephen J. Adler, Editor in Chief, Paul Ingrassia, Deputy Editor in Chief, Walden Siew, Top News Editor, Greg McCune, “Ethics,” and one other. But despite the issues raised, twice now, this mega corporation will not respond or more importantly reform.

   The problem, we say and have every right to say, with “articles” like Charbonneau's is they let the UN off the hook -- for doing nothing during the rapes, for stonewalling for months afterward. They ensure that this will happen again and again. They are... part of the problem. Watch this site.