Q&A with Audio: In #MeTooUN Case in India Code Blue Calls Out Guterres Gender Parity Dodges As He Bans Press

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR, filing, audio

UNITED NATIONS GATE, August 16 – While the UN's (mis) use of its legal immunity spreads under Secretary General Antonio Guterres from UN peacekeepers' deadly negligence and sexual abuse to sexual harassment from UNAIDS through the IAEA to UNESCO and Ravi Karkara at UN WOMEN, the ghoulish self-investigation of UNFPA's Diego Palacios was highlighted in a press call on August 16, at 6 am New York time. Audio of Q&A on Patreon here. 

Prashanti Tiwari, on whose case Inner City Press has previously repeatedly asked the UN and reported, spoke from India; it emerged she has written a letter to Guterres. Paula Donovan and Sharanya Kanikkannan, both of AIDS-Free World’s Code Blue Campaign (the latter by phone from Mali) answered Inner City Press' question about Guterres' expansion of impunity by pointing out that the full extend is notknown, as the UN has no Freedom of Information Act. Paula Donovan recounted meeting with UNFPA chief Natalia Kanem when Kanen knocked on wood and she said hoped to never have cases like those in UNAIDS under Michel Sidibe - whom Guterres has defended - while she is at UNFPA. Kanem said this when she but not yet Code Blue knew of the Diego Palacios harassment case. We'll have more on this - including on the letter, given our recent experience after being roughed up by UN Security while covering the UN Budget Committee on July 3 and banned for 44 days and counting since, of Guterres' SGcentral e-mail portal refusing to acknowledge receipt of a formal complaint regarding the roles of USG Alison Smale and Spokesman Stephane Dujarric. What will be Guterres' response to Tiwari's troubling case and letter? Inner City Press would like to ask in person at the UN noon briefing, as it was able under Ban Ki-moon (except for three days) and until July 5. But now Guterres has banned it, for a Kafkaesque review that is a classic case of blame the victim (of UN Security brutality). This is a pattern.There is a need for more groups like AIDS-Free World, willing to take the UN to task rather than content to meet and raise money off Antonio "Impunity" Guterres. Donovan ended with a strong point that Guterres claim that gender parity (after he took the Secretary General post) will solve this issues is bunk, as shown by Natalia Kanem's cover up of Diego Palacio's harassment, and actions, some already complained off to Guterres, of Alison Smale. Guterres on May 14 in Vienna, before in July he had Inner City Press roughed up and now banned from the UN for 44 days and counting (Fox News story here, GAP blogs I and II; UK Independent here), told UN staff that sexual exploitation and abuse is not relevant, only sexual harassment is.

This statement was made amid allegations of physical sexual abuse by UNAIDS' Luiz Loures, and the purchase of sex by a D1 UNofficial in Somalia. Are those cases of harassment? One that is, which the UN system keeps trying to cover up, is the case ofPrashanti Tiwari at UNFPA in India. As Inner City Press reported in July, already banned from the UN by Guterres, Tiwaridiscovered that a UN Department of Safety and Security officer named has tried to interfere in her case. She informed UNFPA - more on this soon - and the Indian government, as obtained by Inner City Press: I am writing to you in a state of utter shock and disbelief and want you to look into my complaint seriously. There has been serious flaws and misleads by UNFPA on my complaint against Diego Palacios and Ena Singh on charges of sexual abuse, exploitation, harassment, criminal conspiracy and intimidation. I am afraid if MEA does not act with sternness now, it will be too late and justice will never be given to an Indian citizen, whom our Honourable Minister calls "Bharat ki Beti".
Please note 1. A security officer from UN by the name of Mr Dayanand has been approaching and contacting the Bihar Police Investigation Officer in my F.I.R against Diego Palacios and Ena Singh. Sir why are they contacting the IO.
2. When Bihar police was acting swiftly, MEA asked the Bihar police to approach UN officials through MEA, and I have seen your letter to that effect. If that is the process, how come UN can contact the Bihar Police and that too the Investigation officer directly? Just because they are UN can they do anything against me and
that too in my own country? They are simply influencing the witnesses and evidences and you need to stop this.
3. This security officer was misleading the Bihar Police by saying that the letter (giving permission to interview the UNFPA staff,where only one name is mentioned out of three) is from MEA, Whereas the letter was on the letter head of UNFPA and had the logo of UNFPA. So why was he misleading and misguiding the Bihar
Police? This conversation is recorded.
They have not given permission to interrogate the accused than what is the point in the investigation. Arent they impeding the criminal investigation as well by not giving police the access to the accused. Even the permission given to interview the witness is so protective and controlled that it will not result in fair and an honest disposition. How can MEA be silent on this gross abuse of judicial processes.
4. The letter mentions that the internal investigation is over on 9 May 2018. So where is the report? Why was the UN security officer approaching the IO of Bihar Police directly?
5. I requested the UNFPA investigators to share the statement of the accused with me to offer my counter. UNFPA replied that it is not in their policy to share the statement of the accused with the complainant. I asked them to share the relevant policy. They shared UNFPA Disciplinary Framework where there was no mention of such a clause. I checked with the UNFPA and they replied that yes it is not in their policy but is a practice. Sir, these contradictions and flip flops are alldocumented.
6. The entire approach of UNFPA and the UN system is to witch hunt the complainant and bury the case under the carpet. I have met with so many women who
have faced this trauma in UN and no justice is ever going to come from them as is also evident from their flip flop statements, misinformation and attempts to influence criminal investigation as well.
7. Till date MEA has been unable to support me or stand with me despite the assurances by our Minister. I only went to their internal investigation because my government (MEA) has asked me to that. ...I do not have any trust in UNFPA and I hope after reading this your faith on them will also be shaken. Please act. Thanks
Prashanti Tiwari."

Now on July 31, Code Blue has written an open letter to UNFPA, including that "The only way to rectify this situation is to immediately and without reservation: Order UNFPA personnel to desist from making any further determinations relating to immunity and taking actions that are outside the stated policies and practices of the United Nations.
Request the Secretary-General exercise his right and duty to make a determination of whether immunity applies for the accused and witnesses in this case and ask that he lift their immunities without delay for the purpose of cooperation with the justice process.
Commit to full cooperation with Indian police investigators under conditions of confidentiality and impartiality as required by law, lifting all restrictions on interviews by Indian authorities.
Promptly investigate and sanction every member of your staff who has taken part in the multiple bad-faith and coercive acts that we have listed above." We'll have more on this - and on the obvious need for immunity to be lift in connection with the roughing up a journalist inside the UN, twice, seemingly with the greenlight by the very person controlling the lifting of immunity, or his spokesman.

Previously, Inner City Press asked the UN to explain, below - and then was informed by sources in Vienna that the #MeTooUN problem there is wider than heretofor reported. An abrupt resignation at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, of Tero Varjoranta, was by some like Reuters linked to Trump's pull out from the Iran JPCOA deal. But Inner City Press is exclusively informed it is more tied to an incident witnessed by many, and inquired into by press pursuing the impunity in the UN system for sexual harassament and abuse. Inner City Press' source, understandably afraid of retaliation in Guterres' UN (which continues to restrict Inner City Press) says, "at a senior management retreat at the start of the year, the Deputy Director General  was seen to publicly 'kiss a female subordinate long and hard' and then was seen retiring to the bed chamber with the female person. Nonetheless, Amano approved a contract extension for the DDG subsequently. An investigative journalist from [a] magazine pursuing the #MeToo syndrome in the UN system visited Vienna and was made aware of this incident along with other previous incidents involving safeguards staff and female subordinates. Why the DG asked for the resignation now remains a mystery. In my view the DG also should resign for his cover up - but he is laying the ground for a fourth term citing DPRK denuclearization." If the Director General urged the exit in order to cover up, is he little more than another Michel Sidebe, the UNAIDS director whose resignation is being sought? And what does Guterres support of Sidibe, and oblivious or worse junket through this UN killing field say about him? On May 17, Inner City Press asked Guerres' deputy spokesman, UN transcript here, Inner City Press: Earlier this year, I asked a number of questions about UNFPA in India and the allegations of sexual harassment and abuse against a Diego Palacios there and there's just been a large press conference of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in India, both saying that the…  asking that the Secretary-General remove immunity from Mr. Diego Palacios and also tying it into the situation at UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme against HIV/AIDS) with Michel Sidibé, but I wanted to know an update from you.  They seem to say at this press conference that Mr. Palacios hasn't really even been interviewed, that there's not…  that the UN hasn't acted in any way on this detailed allegation of sexual harassment.  Are you aware of what UNFPA has done, if the Secretary-General is aware of and may act on this request that immunity be removed, particularly given the inaction by the UNFPA?

Deputy Spokesman:  As far as I'm aware at this stage, it remains in the hands of the UN Population Fund, and they're the ones who are looking into this, and we'll leave it in their hands.

Inner City Press:  Recently, there was an abrupt resignation of a Deputy Director General of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in Geneva, Tero Varjoranta, and we've been hearing various reasons for it, and since the Secretary-General was just in Vienna, is he aware of any quote "#MeToo issues” at IAEA, and if so, what did he do while he's there?

Deputy Spokesman:  I don't really have any comment to share on this.  As far as I'm aware, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that he had stepped down for personal reasons, and so that is the information we have on that." After that exchange, UNFPA in India said its investigation is over; the victim learned of this by reading the newspaper. On May 18 Inner City Press asked the UN's Haq, video here, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: on sexual harassment, I wanted to ask you this.  I had asked you yesterday about the case at UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) in India and since then there's been a development that I was not aware of at the time.  The case of Prashanti Tiwari and what she said and Diego Palacios, who's the UN official, and since your answer yesterday, it's reported that the UNFPA office in India says that the probe is over and the findings are awaited, and so the complainant had been told that she would be told and finds…  and is pretty surprised by that, given how little she's been spoken to.  So I wanted to know, one, is it true?  Is it your understanding that the probe is over?  Two, is the probe only by UNFPA or by OIOS (Office of Internal Oversight Services)?  And two, how is this a kind of victim-centred approach if the victim reads about it in a newspaper?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, first of all, as I had mentioned yesterday, the matter is in the hands of the UN Population Fund.  We'll await and inform you of any information that we get from them about this, but the matter is in their hands and it will be up to them to inform you about what stage they are at in this.

Inner City Press: Is there some minimum standard for what victim-centred means?  I'm asking because the Secretary-General has made a big deal about this saying how he's talking to all of his heads of agencies so here's an agency that announced to a newspaper that the probe is over.  Is this consistent with his approach?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, my UNFPA colleagues have assured me they were looking into this and they've been doing this for some time now." Really. Guterres' statement was made at a staff Town Hall meeting for which he was 45 minutes late. After he said it, a staff member complained that her application to set up a #MeToo club had been denied and would Guterres help? He did not say yes. So on May 15 in New York, Inner City Press asked Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: At yesterday's town-hall meeting in Vienna, one of the questions from the floor was from a self-described victim of sexual harassment within the UN system, and she asked Secretary-General whether he supported the idea of a "me too" club, I guess, within the UN in Vienna.  He didn't seem to say yes.  He seemed to say, well, if I understand it better.  She said, do you support it, and they just moved on.  Can you say now does the Secretary-General support the idea?  She was apparently rejected by the UN in Vienna to set up this, such a club.  Does he support that idea, and will he follow up with the staff member who asked him this explicitly in the town-hall meeting?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, first, we are trying to get input from all staff about what needs to happen in order to deal more effectively with sexual harassment, including through a survey of staff, and so we will try to evaluate what staff broadly say and see what steps need to be taken." Oh. 

UN's Peacekeeper Rape Response Inadequate, From Ladsous' R and R Link to Code Blue

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 8 -- Amid a litany of rape charges against UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, Inner City Press exclusively obtained and on February 12 published UN emails showing another round of sexual abuse of minors in Ouaka prefecture in the Central African Republic by UN Peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Click here to view.

 On March 4 at 11 am Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's report on "Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse" came out from under embargo and Inner City Press immediately published its review. And now Code Blue has chimed in, with data, below.

Ban's response is inadequate; tellingly, it is not the boss of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous, who has on camera linked the rapes to R&R, who was presenting or pitching the response, but lower profile Atul Khare.

  On March 8, AIDS Free World's project Code Blue issued this critique, and Inner City Press then asked Ban's spokesman about it (below)
The United Nations’ damage control team must be celebrating its close call last week: headlines about the UN’s peacekeeper sex abuse crisis were bad, but they could have been much, much worse. The tried-and-true tactic of waiting until midday Friday, New York time, to release the Secretary-General’s annual progress report on “zero tolerance” for sexual abuse by UN personnel worked again. As predicted, most journalists only had time to skim the report before filing, and they relied heavily on the UN’s press release. That heat-and-serve lede went out nearly verbatim: “Total allegations rose to 69 in 2015 from 52 the year before.”

In fact, that was last year’s news. We looked at the more expansive UN data that is now posted online and found the devil in this year’s details. During January and February of 2016 alone, there have been 25 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation. If that rate keeps up, last year’s allegations against peacekeeping personnel will more than double, to an annual total of 150 allegations in 2016.

Even that is a lowball estimate, since an “allegation” is a unique UN unit of measurement that doesn’t represent one perpetrator or one victim. The UN groups as many as ten sex crimes together and counts them as a single “allegation”—a statistical maneuver described in a New York press briefing by a top peacekeeping official last month as a "science and art.”  

In straightforward language, the 25 allegations recorded in January and February of this year alone actually represent a minimum of 31 victims and 47 perpetrators. At this rate, 2016 will end with some 256 peacekeeping personnel accused of sexual offenses by at least 186 women and children; 18 women and girls will have been impregnated.

Another stunner in the newly released data went unnoticed. Last year, after the Code Bluecampaign exposed the UN’s callous mishandling and subsequent cover-up of peacekeeper rapes in the Central African Republic, the Secretary-General took an unprecedented step: he called for the resignation of that country’s top UN official, on whose 11-month watch a total of 16 UN peacekeepers had been accused of sexual offenses against 16 victims. A new Special Representative of the Secretary-General was appointed. In the half-year since he took over last September, the numbers have skyrocketed: 46 perpetrators reported by 34 victims. No further resignations have been demanded. The Secretary-General’s “zero tolerance” for any leader who isn’t up to the job was short-lived.

You can’t end violence against women and girls with empty promises. On this International Women’s Day, the world’s women deserve more.

  Here, here. When Inner City Press, about the links above to the UN's own data, Dujarric repeated that the UN stands behind Khare's data; he did not respond on Ladsous. Vine here. From the UN's transcript:

Inner City Press: Code Blue, a group I'm sure you know, their critique of the report at least officially launched here on Friday by Atul Khare was that it radically understates the level of sexual abuse.  They say that… that, in the first two months of this year, given that there have been 25 allegations, if you annualize that, the number would be 150, which would be a massive increase over 2015.  And I just wonder… they also critique the UN's kind of spin of that report of withholding it, putting it out on a Friday, not… I'm going to add this.  I'll say not having Mr. Ladsous here.  So, what… I would assume you've seen this, and you've previously responded to Code Blue.  What do you think of what they're saying?

Spokesman Dujarric:  Look, you know, Code Blue, I think, does a very important advocacy work in fighting against sexual abuse.  We are going by the numbers that we have, that are reported.  It is important that people feel… that victims feel safe enough to report the crimes and the abuse.  We have, as the Secretary-General has said, increased our outreach through local… local NGOs.  We obviously stand by… stand by the numbers.

Inner City Press:  They're going by the numbers actually on the website.  They're saying that the numbers that were presented by Mr. Khare didn't take into account new numbers that the UN has…

Spokesman Dujarric:  We're going by the numbers that were provided by peacekeeping.

  At the 11:15 am March 4 press conference -- tellingly, the UN Correspondents Association wasn't present - Inner City Press asked Khare why it wasn't Ladsous presenting, why Ban Ki-moon noted without criticism a mere nine day suspension for sexual exploitation, why sexual abuse of a 14 year old was classified by the UN as "transactional"?

 Khare did not explain Ladsous' absence, nor answer if Ladsous was the unnamed UN official who pre-spun Reuters and a few others.

He did not directly say that Reuters broke the embargo - he said to ask DPI about that , which is funny in that DPI threw Inner City Press out of the UN for trying to cover an event in this same UN Press Briefing Room, while collaborating with Reuters - but added he was surprised to see the advance story. Video here.

There is no accountability at the top - or in the field. The March 4 report in Paragraph 20 presents as legitimate a nine day suspension for sexual exploitation, and undefined "administrative sanctions" for sexual exploitation that led to a "Peacekeeper baby." This is shameful.

  Zeid firing whistleblower Kompass was asking about by France 24 - but not Ladsous.

 As to the Central African Republic, where the UN covered up French Sangaris troops child rapes and then fired the whistleblower -- not mentioned in the report -- the UN blamed the victims, saying the country is poor, women and girls are for sale: a more diplomatic entree into what Ladsous came out and said on September 11, 2015, linking rapes to R&R.

 Combine this with an Inner City Press question Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric refused to answer - how could the UN log in sexual abuse of a 14 year old, statutory rape, as "transactional" sex -- and the scam of Ban's response becomes clear.

 Perhaps because the product is so worthless, the attempt to sell and spin it was extensive.

  Since December Inner City Press has asked at noon briefings when Ban Ki-moon's response to the Deschamps report would be released, including asking about member state dissatisfaction with the response, and Ladsous.  "March," Ban's two spokesman said.

 On Wednesday Inner City Press learned that not the official responsible for the rapes, Herve Ladsous, but lower profile Atul Khare had shot a UN TV "interview" about the response. Now, in similar propaganda fashion, an UNnamed UN official has poured the spin on Reuters and the old "small group of reporters" -- that is, those who never reported that Ladsous, on camera, linked the rapes to R&R. This is the UN Corruption Association.

  Inner City Press on March 3 asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, video here, UN transcript here.

  But, even as to the report which the UN insisted was under embargo until 11 am on March 4, when Reuters nevertheless published a weak story about it on March 3, with no mention of Ladsous, the UN did nothing.

  Given the UN's no due process move to on February 19 expel Inner City Press from the UN for merely trying to cover an event in the UN Press Briefing Room on January 29, petition here, Inner City Press strictly complied with the embargo although obtaining the report through other channels was easy.

 Reuters doesn't have to worry about the UN throwing it out - it does (some in) the UN's dirty work. We'll have more on this as well.

  Even from within DPKO there is disgust at the response, as dodging or not implement many of the recommendations. More on that when the UN belatedly comes out from behind its self-pleasuring curtain of its own media, and insider scribes. One final note: the Reuters bureau chief at the March 1 press conference by Angola on its Program of work loudly cut off another reporter - not this one -- as if owning the UN.
  After Inner City Press on February 15 asked about the email its had published - and Reuters' UN bureau chief Louis Charbonneau, notably,tried to dismiss and then stole the story - on February 16 UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq in the noon briefing read out a statement confirming nearly all of the email Inner City Press had published: that there were four new victims, minors, troops from DR Congo.

 But Haq did not say that two of the victims had children from the statutory rape. So Inner City Press asked Haq to confirm that, and asked who would pay: the UN or the DRC soldiers? Haq said there are meetings in Ban's office to respond to just such issues, after December's Deschamps report. Video here.

 And then Reuters, even while its editor Dan Grebler said the first theft was being looked into, just retyped and stole it again, this time by its UN correspondent Michelle Nichols, here.

  It was this same Nichols who, at the UN Security Council stakeout on February 18 while Inner City Press was live-streaming after asking about a draft statement on Palestine, cut in loudly with "I see you Periscoping!"  And? So what? UN missions and the UN itself are broadcasting inside the UN on Periscope. Why would one media try to censor others?

  On February 15, Reuters first tried to claim these were "old" rapes, here -- then when shown otherwise, simply stole the story with no credit.This is apparently policy.

  So Inner City Press raised the issue of theft of exclusives (and lack of objectivity, at least at the UN) to Reuters itself. For now, we've received this, cc-ed also not only to the (repeat) offender but also to Reuters' genial seeming Brian Moss and Clive McKeef:

"Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention. The appropriate Reuters staff will look into it and get back to you as soon as feasible.

Regards,
Dan Grebler
Desk Editor, Americas Desk"

  But but February 18, still no response. It's not that complicated.  Or was the Reuters correspondent's "intervention" the response? We'll have more on this too.

 The underlying emails, dated February 11, 2016, describe at least four underage victims, two of whom were impregnated by the rapist UN peacekeepers -- "in the locality Ngakobo in the Ouaka prefecture."

  On February 15, after emailing questions for two days to UN spokespeople in CAR and New York, Inner City Press at the UN's noon briefing asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about the rapes, and the email it published on February 12. Haq answered, dodging on part of the email but not denying it. Video here.

 Then Associated Press asked, what about these new allegations? Video here. Haq answered - and from that, AP wrote its own derivative and belated story -- without credit, and without any mention of the critique of the UN in the emails. This is how it works, or doesn't.

 This too - Reuters UN "bureau chief" on Monday evening first reflexively came to the UN's defense saying that "Alleged Central African Republic rapes UN spox talked about today are same ones UN CAR said Feb 4 it was probing," citing (what else) a Reuters story of February 4 -- about a Human Rights Watch report about rapes in Bambari. But read the February 11 emails Inner City Press exclusively published, here:

“Herewith sharing with you a report I have just received from UNICEF indicating four minor girls aged between 16 and 17 years were victims of sexual exploitation and abuse allegedly committed by members of the DRC battalion in the locality Ngakobo in the Ouaka prefecture.”

  Up the email chain, Mercedes Gervilla in UN headquarters writes that “it would seem that many among the troops concerned, including Commanding officers were well aware of the abuse to which these children were being subjected. I also regret to inform you that in addition to these new 4 cases, there will likely be two more...”.  [We'll have more on this.]

  This is called... spinning for the UN. This is a trend at Reuters, even last week, here.



And there is a history: this same Reuters UN Bureau Chief Lou Charbonneau, when challenged, wrote to Stephane Dujarric, UN Spokesman, trying to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, here.

  When this was exposed, Charbonneau cited Reuters to get his email to the UN taken out of Google's search, saying he never meant for it to be public and it was somehow copyrighted. (See his filing here, made public by EFF's ChillingEffects.org). That's censorship... by Reuters.

  This this case, after being shown this reflexive defense of the UN was wrong, Reuters simply re-wrote the story and stole it, with no credit.

 And now we must go back: Charbonneau announced a policy of not crediting Inner City Press, see here.

 This was raised at the time to Reuters, including to Stephen J. Adler. What kind of company is this?

  (Inner City Press previously asked the decaying UN Correspondents Association, while it tried to censor Press coverage of its boss, to promulgate a best practice for media at the UN to credit others' exclusives; it never happened. AP at the UN speaks for this UNCA, and apparently it for AP.)

  In the email chain Inner City Press exclusively published, middle management at the UN noted that the majority of sexual abuse in CAR has been committed by the battalions from the DRC and the Republic of Congo. And so Inner City Press posed these questions to UN spokespeople in both New York and the CAR:

"This is a request for your comment on, and any update on, the sexual abuse and exploitation cases in the Feb 11, 2016 emails now here

Also, what will be done with the Republic of Congo and DR Congo contingents? We are interested in if the UN and DPKO can, as currently be configured, be reformed.What is the status of the sexual abuse and exploitation cases that have been listed, including in the UN Press Briefing Room?"

  The response received by Inner City Press on Saturday afternoon in New York was from Bangui-based MINUSCA spokesman Vladimir Monteiro:

"Regarding your questions on DRC and Congo, here is Minusca's position:

"On DRC contingent, a decision to repatriate them has already been taken. It will be completed without delay by the end of the month. It is just a matter of planning it properly.

"On the 120 troops from Congo, they have been cantoned in Berberati to permit investigations by national investigators before their repatriation to their country  which will occur on 20 February 2016. For further details on this matter please contact HQ."

  But of course Inner City Press has already contacted "HQ" or UN Headquarters, including for example Ismini Palla of Ladsous' DPKO, who gave Agence France Presse the response to questions Inner City Press has publicly posed to UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, to the DPKO spokesman Nick Birnback, also cc-ed.

  So where ARE the updates on the cases the UN's Diane Corner listed in the UN Briefing Room? Why was it reported in early January that the DRC contingent had "been dismissed" when, in mid February, they are still in place? What is the status of the Burundian contingent in CAR? Follow up questions have been submitted to UN officials and spokespeople in CAR and headquarters in New York.

  Well placed sources tell Inner City Press these two countries' soldiers have been in the UN MINUSCA mission nearly entirely due to Ladsous and, more outrageously, the / his French government due to its political relations with the Republic of Congo and DRC.

  Ladsous, as Inner City Press has reported, told Burundi's Vice President that he is "pragmatic" about human rights; even on camera, Ladsous linked the rapes to "R&R," click here for video.

  While Ladsous' DPKO and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Office of the Spokesperson announced that the DRC contingent would be pulled out of Bambari and CAR in late Janaury, Inner City Press is informed this never happened: they are still there.

  Ladsous' DPKO, and now the UN Spokesperson's Office, are engaged in misleading the press and public, and doling out what information they provide to only the friendliest media.

 For recent example, Inner City Press for week has reported on and asked about the repatriation from CAR of Burundian troops charged with abuse during the crackdown on opponents of Pierre Nkurunziza's third term. Even after Inner City Press obtained and published on February 9 proof of three repatriations, all UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told Inner City Press is that he would seek an update.

  Simarily, Ladsous' lead spokesman Nick Birnback told Inner City Press DPKO would have something to say about the particular Burundian officers in CAR Inner City Press asked him about.

  Then Ladsous' spokespeople including Ismini Palla gave their limited confirmations to Reuters and Agence France Presse, who published it without credit or context. (Neither media reported on Ladsous linking rape to R&R - nor did AP.)

 In a February email by UN official Anthony Banbury, soon to leave the UN after some heartfelt tears of outrage at peacekeepers' rapes, it is said:

"We have a pack of predatory criminals and rapists, preying on young girls,
under the banner of the United Nations. How can we stand by? In my view that battalion should be ordered to cease operations today, same with the RoC battalion, and be confined to camp and guarded full time so they cannot continue to abuse children. While we would pay a short-term price in terms of operations, we would gain so much in terms of the integrity and reputation of the UN, in the CAR and internationally, and we would almost certainly prevent more rapes of minor girls. We simply cannot sustain the argument that the benefit these troops are bringing to the UN and PoC is greater than the harm they are doing."

  What will the UN do? What will France, with new foreign minister Jean Marc Ayrault, do? How long can Ladsous - and the Congolese contingents - remain in place?

Exclusive: UN Emails Show New Rapes in CAR, Ladsous' Contingents by Matthew Russell Lee

Having been told by sources of more rapes by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, Inner City Press on January 26 reported them and on January 27 asked the UN's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric to confirm them - but he wouldn't. UN transcript here. Video here.




  So what is the protocol of UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, who linked the rapes to "R&R," here? How many more do they know about?

The UN report on rapes in the Central African Republic, released on December 17, found that UN Peacekeeping's Under Secretary General Herve Ladsous “illustrate[s] the UN's failure to respond to allegations of serious human rights violations in the meaningful way.”

 Ladsous has yet to take any questions about the report...

  When the Panel's three members held their December press conference, Inner City Press asked about Ladsous' failure to vet and his linking of rapes to “R&R.” Video here.  Marie Deschamps said pointedly she wouldn't comment on Ladsous' remarks; Yasmin Sooka said these are crimes for punishment, not recreation.

  As the last question, Inner City Press asked what it had wanted to ask Ban, and tried to ask Dujarric: what does this say about Ban's management? Video of Q&A here. Didn't Ban's chief of staff Malcorra, criticized in the report, do it for Ban? Didn't the “senior official” who ostensibly let the rape information die on the vine in the 38th floor work in an atmosphere created by Ban's nine years? We will pursue this.

  In December 2015, Ban allowed those who cover him, at least the UN Correspondents Association, to sell seats with him for $6,000. And it is these same who have airbrushed out Ladsous and others. We'll have more on this.

On UN CAR Rapes Report, Proposal for Oversight Board, Inner City Press Asks of Ladsous, Retaliation

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 26 -- The UN report on rapes in the Central African Republic, released on December 17, found that UN Peacekeeping's Under Secretary General Herve Ladsous “illustrate[s] the UN's failure to respond to allegations of serious human rights violations in the meaningful way.”

 Ladsous has yet to take any questions about the report -- this as Inner City Press exclusively hears from sources of yet more sexual abuse cases in CAR, involving DR Congo AND Republic of Congo, and changes of abuses will in detention.

 On January 26, a new proposal on the systemic problem of UN peacekeeper sexual abuse was made by Code Blue: to take the UN’s "oversight of every aspect of peacekeeper sexual exploitation and abuse out of the hands of the UN Secretariat and place it under an external, independent management board," as Stephen Lewis put it.

  Inner City Press asked Lewis' co-founder Paula Donovan about retaliation against whistleblowers, and about Ladsous having on camera linked the rapes to "R&R," here.  Donovan replied that the board would decide how to have eyes and ears on the ground; she called the linking of rapes to recreation "appalling." It's the type of thing an oversight board would act on, she said.

 Following up about the UN merely handing a victim of sexual abuse in one of its camps in South Sudan the contact information of the alleged abuses, Inner City Press asked if that would be coverd by the proposal. Donovan said it would or should cover every single instance where any part of the UN system was implicated in alleged sexual abuse.

  Inner City Press then went to the day's UN noon briefing and asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the proposal, and when Ban's response to the Deschamps report will be out. Video here
, transcript here:

Inner City Press: the Code Blue campaign of AIDS-Free World, they say in the run-up to the Secretary-General responding to the [Marie] Deschamps report, that an external independent management board be established to deal with all allegations of sexual abuse concerning any part of the UN system.  One, do you have any response to such an idea?  And, two, when is the Secretary-General's response to the Deschamps report actually going to come out?

Spokesman:  It should be coming out in the not-too-distant future.  I think, whether it's us and Code Blue, I think we all have the same aim, and that is to see an end to any abuses committed by peacekeepers, whether they are under UN command or not, and that, if they do occur, if they, unfortunately, are committed, that there is full accountability for the victims of such crimes.  I haven't seen the details of what they're proposing, but what is clear is that the fight against sexual abuse by peacekeepers is not one that the Secretariat can do alone.  I think we have stressed… the Secretary-General has made it clear that there will be no tolerance for any such acts.  He has made this the highest priority for the Secretariat.  But the fight demands the full involvement and support of Member States and troop-contributing-countries.  The Secretary-General has been delivering that message, I think, very directly and forcefully to those groups.  They are also… same as… can be… same is being done by heads of DPKO (Department of Peacekeeping Operations) and DFS (Department of Field Support).  We're engaging with Member States and with troop contributors.  It's something that we all need to work through at the same time.  And, in the meantime, you know, even… we have continuously been strengthening our procedures to either prevent but also to allow victims to come forward in full confidence.

 We'll see. 

On January 5, Ladsous mission in CAR issued a press release about yet more allegation of sexual abuse of minors by its peacekeepers, below.

 On January 18, Inner City Press managed to ask UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson about the report -- the UN Deputy Spokesperson appeared intent on not allowing the question, but Eliasson to his credit took it. Video here, UN transcript here:

Inner City Press: The UK Ambassador mentioned sexual abuse.

DSG: Yes.

Inner City Press: He did. And so I wanted to know…

DSG: I did also.

Inner City Press: So, since that report came out about the Central African Republic, what has the Secretariat or the 38th floor done to ensure that in the future if a UN staffer becomes aware of child rape, that it goes to the right people?

DSG Eliasson: This is very serious. As you know, the Special Representative in Central African Republic resigned, was asked to resign. One of the others who were named by the Deschamps group, panel, was considered to have abused authority has left the United Nations, retired.  And we have a group set up right now, led by the Chef de Cabinet - Edmond Mulet - that is going to work very, very quickly on following up the recommendations of the panel. Mr. Mulet and his group will report to the Secretary-General by the end of this month.

We will look into both issues of individual responsibility, but also primarily on the systemic problems. This reminded me of my reaction to the Sri Lanka tragedy back in 2009. The panel came to the conclusion that it was systemic failure, so we drew the [conclusion] to that – we need to have a systemic response. That was the origin of Human Rights Up Front.  This time also the Deschamps report talks about, almost in the same language – systemic reactions. I also expect, or we also expect, Member States again to draw the conclusions from this.  In so many cases we have passed on to the Member States very damning reports, but very little sometimes has been done by Troop Contributing or Police Contributing countries. So we need to have nation states following up these [inaudible].

  We will have more, too, on DSG Eliasson's reference to the UN's failure in Sri Lanka. At the January 19 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq if Mulet's report at the end of January will be made public. Video here.  We'll see.

Earlier in the month,  Inner City Press asked the Permanent Representative of New Zealand and of Uruguay, President of the Security Council for January, about the report(s). Video here.

Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen of New Zealand expressed concern. Ambassador Rosselli of Uruguay said in his national capacity that allegations should be dealt with has his country had, apparently a reference to Haiti. It appears the Security Council will take up this matter.

  Earlier at the January 5 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric if now Ladsous, in the Security Council right then on CAR, would belatedly answer questions, since the firing / scapegoating of former mission chief Babacar Gaye clearly didn't end the rapes. From the transcript:

 I wanted to ask but CAR, since you have this new report.  One, I guess I’d like to… since Mr. [Hervé] Ladsous is briefing the Security Council today about CAR and has yet to answer any questions on the CAR sexual abuse allegations report… I guess it’s a timely request… can he do a stakeout, take questions on it?  Because it seems like Babacar Gaye was fired, but the problems go on.  So this is a request.  It seems like a reasonable one

 But as noted (and Vined, here), Ladsous did not answer.

 Back in December, once the report came out from under embargo at the noon briefing Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric what Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will do about the findings against Ladsous, and that he escaped the “abuse of authority” moniker only because “the mandate of the Panel is to assess whether an abuse of authority has occurred in connection with the Allegations.”

 Since the abusers Ladsous let into MINUSCA were not the French troops who are accused of rape -- these troops are not in MINUSCA -- Ladsous' malfeasance is not “in connection” with the Allegations. But is it acceptable?

  Dujarric seems unfamiliar with the report; he implied that the third person found to have abused authority was the Ethics Officer, when it was a lower level official in CAR. Inner City Press asked what this all says about Ban Ki-moon's management, along with the John Ashe / Ng Lap Seng and Bernardino Leon scandal, a question Dujarric did not allow Inner City Press to asked Ban himself on December 16. “Those are your words,” Dujarric replied. Yes, they are.

  When the Panel's three members held their press conference, Inner City Press asked about Ladsous' failure to vet and his linking of rapes to “R&R.” Video here.  Marie Deschamps said pointedly she wouldn't comment on Ladsous' remarks; Yasmin Sooka said these are crimes for punishment, not recreation.

  As the last question, Inner City Press asked what it had wanted to ask Ban, and tried to ask Dujarric: what does this say about Ban's management? Video of Q&A here. Didn't Ban's chief of staff Malcorra, criticized in the report, do it for Ban? Didn't the “senior official” who ostensibly let the rape information die on the vine in the 38th floor work in an atmosphere created by Ban's nine years? We will pursue this.

And this: if OIOS' Lapointe was wrong, isn't James Finness, who continues the OIOS campaign? While the UK has spoken, where is France, given Sangaris and Ladsous?

  As to Ladsous, the finding was made even though the three authors of the report do not mention, and apparently have not yet seen, the notes from Ladsous' October 1, 2015 meeting about the CAR mission withBurundi's Vice President, in which Ladsous said he is “pragmatic” on human rights, in Burundi and by extension elsewhere, nor Ladsous' September 11, 2015 on-camera comments linking the rapes to “R&R,”video here.

  But Ladsous still as of December 17 holds the senior UN position into which France, which has chosen the last four heads of UN Peacekeeping, put him in September 2011. How much longer?

By contrast, the former head of OIOS Carman Lapointe, of whom the panel finds an abuse of authority, is conveniently gone, as is Babacar Gaye, who worked for Ladsous at the CAR mission.

  Perhaps it was easier for the panel to make the formal finding against people who had already left the UN by the time the report was released.

  One wonders: if responses like Ladsous' legalistic (and largely false) November 2 letter were received so long ago  by the panel, why did they withhold the report all the way until December 17, the day AFTER Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's rare (and last of the year) press conference?

  High Commission Zeid, of whom it is said he was slammed in the report, in fact gets the same treatment -- critical, but no formal abuse of authority -- as Ladsous, who is airbrushed out and conditions access to information and answers about Peacekeeping on positive / false coverage.

 The same finding is made with regard to former Chief of Staff Susana Malcorra. Will the critical language hurt what chance she has, as a non Eastern European, to try to follow Ban Ki-moon as Secretary General?

 More generally, how does all this criticism reflect on the tenure of Ban Ki-moon? The report does not mention the concurrent scandals regarding UN Secretariat documents purchased by now indicted Ng Lap Seng through former President of the General Assembly John Ashe, nor Ban Libya envoy taking instruction and a cushy job with the UAE while representing Ban on and in Libya.

  In December 2015, Ban allowed those who cover him, at least the UN Correspondents Association, to sell seats with him for $6,000. And it is these same who have airbrushed out Ladsous and others.

  The Panelists -- Marie Deschamps, Hassan Jallow and Yasmin Sooka -- leave unnamed a senior officer in Ban Ki-moon's office (finding that he misspoke when he said he had informed Deputy Jan Eliasson), without saying if the officer remains in the same position. We'll have more on this.