On DRC Trip of UNSC, Despite UN & French Blackout, ICC Debated, Politicized as Child Soldiers & Chad, Opposition Ignored

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 4 -- With the UN Security Council delegation in Kinshasa dining tonight with that city's diplomatic community and officials of the UN Mission MONUSCO, at UN Headquarters a vague summary of their first meeting was given.

  Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky for more, to say what topics were discussed with the EU's Political and Security Committee. Nesirky, whose Office and France "in consultation" rejected Inner City Press to accompany the trip, now twice advising Inner City Press to "ask Council delegations."

  Well, we have. And while some have yet to explain why, it appears that unlike on Syria the Security Council will not meet with any opposition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  Back in Brussels with the EUPSC, Inner City Press is informed that the discussion was almost entirely about the DRC, that the Kampala Talks with the M23 should be concluded and PSC Framework implemented, that Security Sector Reform should be pursued in other to allow development projects.

  One would think this vaunted Security Sector Reform would include action on the 41st and 391st Battalions implicated in 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012, with the US-trained 391st being implicated since in the desecration of corpses. We'll wait to hear from Security Council members on that.

  While it is sometimes true that a picture is worth a thousand words, tweeted photos of the UN Security Council's meeting with the EUPSC don't show that the International Criminal Court came up, and that it was counter-explained that the ICC is increasingly controversial in Africa. 

   This was clear from speeches (and no-shows) at the UN General Debate in New York last week. But it seems some int the EUPSC didn't understand it.

  To many, the ICC is viewed as politicized, not only because of its over-focus on Africa but also because it dispenses victor's justice. Were are the prosecutions of the supporters of Ouattara in Cote d'Ivoire? Of extremists among those who overthrew Gaddafi?

  Similarly politicized, in many's view, was the US announcement just as the trip began of child soldier recruitment penalties on Rwanda. These are denied, as to the Rwandan military. 

  Meanwhile for example Chad's Army is on the UN's list of child soldier recruiters -- and was accepted by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous into the UN's Mali mission MINUSMA. Did HRW speak out against that, and Ladsous? We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

In DR Congo, UN Deploys Attack Helicopters, One Tanzanian in UN Brigade Killed

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 28 -- Now the UN in the Congo is using attack helicopters and "delivering" mortar and artillery fire, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq announced at Wednesday's UN noon briefing.

  Inner City Press asked if the UN was doing this in support of the Congolese Army, and if so in support of which units of that Army -- since two units, the 391st and 41st Battalion, were implicated in mass rapes in Minova and the former in corpse desecration.

  Haq refused to say which units of the Congolese Army FARDC the UN is supporting, but said that the so-called Human Rights Due Diligence Policy is being implemented. How could anyone know? If the UN is hiding which units it supports?

  The problem goes beyond the 391st and 41st Battalions - other FARDC units are named in the most recent UN Group of Experts report, the full text of which Inner City Press exclusively put online. 

  At that time, Inner City Press asked all four spokespeople for UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous to answer if the named units receive UN support. An answer was promised -- after checking with MONUSCO -- then none was provided.

On Monday August 27 Inner City Press asked if there had been any MONUSCO casualties and was told by spokesperson Farhan Haq, "none to report." On August 28 Haq read out that the

"MONUSCO Force, including the Intervention Brigade, is supporting the FARDC military operations. MONUSCO is supporting the FARDC defence line, has delivered mortar and artillery fire and engaged its attack helicopters. The FARDC has used attack helicopters, battle tanks and ground forces. The operation is still ongoing. We have just learned that one MONUSCO peacekeeper has been killed. Three others have been wounded."

  Later on Wednesday UN Peacekeeping specified the nationality, and envoy Martin Kobler's outrage, which some noted did not include the previously used term, war crime. Inside the UN, an expert has explained to Inner City Press the term war crime cannot properly used with regard to a combatant, to a party to an armed conflict. Rest in Peace.

Martin Kobler, Head of MONUSCO, strongly condemns killing of UN Peacekeeper by M23

Kinshasa, 28 August 2013 – A Peacekeeper was killed on 28 August as the M23 directed artillery fire on a United Nations position close to Kibati heights north of Goma. The attack occurred as MONUSCO supported action by the FARDC to push the M23 off the heights from where they have been shelling Goma.

“I am outraged by today’s killing of a United Nations Peacekeeper from Tanzania by the M23”, says Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in the DRC. “He sacrificed his life to protect civilians in Goma. My thoughts go to his family and all members of his unit in this very difficult moment."

  As said, Rest in Peace. We maintain that UN Peacekeeping, if its stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy is to have any meaning and be able to be assessed, must release which Congolese Army units it is supporting. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Desecration of Corpses by DRC Army Makes It Into UNSC Statement, and FDLR Attacks on Rwanda; Ladsous Lurks

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 25 -- Hours before US Secretary of State John Kerry kicks off the Great Lakes meeting of the UN Security Council, the underlying Presidential Statement is still "under silence" until 9 am, following last minute changes to the draft.

  The desecration of corpses by the Congolese Army has been added, along with a more expansive reference to increased attacks on Rwanda by the FDLR militia. 

  Still, much of the debate and coverage is sure to focus on external support to the M23 -- ironic to some, given that Kerry by 4:20 pm is set to meet with the Syrian opposition, which is openly supported and influenced from outside of Syria.

  But while Rwanda ultimately compromised on this Presidential Statement or PRST, it seems like most of the Security Council's deliberation to let the UN's own Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous off the hook.

  The desecration of corpses was by the 391st Battalion of the Congolese Army, which Ladsous' DPKO supports. Under the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, this UN support should have stopped after the 391st Battalion was implicated in 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012.

But Ladsous first covered up the rapes for months, repeatedly refusing questions from Inner City Press on the topic, video here. Then he decided to rely on what most say are only two arrests for the rapes, and a dozen "suspensions." Is suspension enough for mass rape?

Now, after this non-enforcement of the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, the same UN supported (and US trained) 391st Battalion continued with abuses including but not limited to the desecration of corpses. Is it any surprise?

 (The US Mission the UN did give Inner City Press a written response about the 391st Battalion, which we published in full here.)

  On July 24 Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's outgoing deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey about the Congolese Army's (or its mercenaries' according to local accounts) aerial bombardment of Rumangabo and the adjoining village of Kavodo, which gave rise to gruesome photographs of children killed.

  The UN answer it didn't know anything about this fighting -- this on the eve of the Security Council's big Great Lakes debate. 

  Under Herve Ladsous, who as France's Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN in 1994 argued for the escape of genocidaires from Rwanda into Eastern Congo, UN Peacekeeping has betrayed what the UN says it stands for.

  But who is on this? Human Rights Watch on July 22 issued a report almost entirely about the M23, not even MENTIONING the UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy. It had to correct the report, but continues to pump it out without the correction appended, for example on the Huffington Post. 

  HRW brags that it primed the US State Department and Jen Psaki to deliver -- the State Department run Voice of America-- and canned quote on July 23 about Rwanda and the M23.

  Did State Department run Voice of America asked about the US training of the 391st Battalion? Will anyone ask US envoy to the Great Lakes Russ Feingold, said to be at the UN on Thursday? Watch this site.

   

Exclusive: France's Ambassador Araud Tells Inner City Press 391st is "Best Unit" in DR Congo Army, Being "Reassessed" After Desecration

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 24 -- While the Congolese Army was blasting away at Rumagabo on Wednesday, apparently killing civilians including children there, Inner City Press at the UN in New York exclusively asked French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud about the UN's stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, quoted below.

  Specifically, Inner City Press asked how it could be that UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to hold the post, continued UN support to the 391st Battalion of the Congolese Army after it was implicated in 135 rapes in Minova in November.

  Now, the same 391st Battalion has been implicated in the desecration of corpses. Has the Policy failed? Or has Ladsous?

  Araud responded citing higher numbers of arrests than even Ladsous has, and saying "even the Americans" are in a tough spot, since the 391st is the "best unit" of the Congolese Army, "which doesn't have many good units." (The 391st Battalion was trained by the US in 2010; Inner City Press requested, obtained a US Mission comment, here.)

  If its "best" units commits mass rape and desecrates corpses, what of the other ones, in Rumagabu for example? Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's outgoing deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey told Inner City Press the UN doesn't know anything about that fighting -- hard to believe.

  Of the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy and the 391st Battalion, Araud exclusively told Inner City Press on Wednesday that "these issues have been raised in the Council, the Secretariat was following it."

  Of the mass rapes in November Araud to his credit endeavored to give a substantive answer, saying, "after Minova twelve officers were suspended, twenty nine soldiers were arrested and two or there indicted." 

  Other have said that only two of the arrests were for the rapes. Inner City Press has repeatedly asked the UN; Ladsous' four spokespeople have left questions unanswered for twenty five days (and one of them tried again to bypass Inner City Press for Ladsous' favorite Agence France Presse again on Wednesday, story here.)

While Ladsous and his spokespeople have never said it, Araud on Wednesday told Inner City Press that "they said the support to the units have been, I guess, drastically reduced... they didn't say totally cut."

  Here as promised is the UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy as explained by Ban's outgoing chief lawyer Patricia O'Brien at a July 9, 2013 meeting on which Inner City Press exclusively reported:

"First, the UN cannot provide support to non-UN security forces where there are substantial grounds for believing there is a real risk of those forces committing grave violations of international humanitarian, human rights or refugee law. Secondly, where grave violations are committed by non-UN security forces that are receiving support from the UN, the UN must intercede with a view to bringing those violations to an end. And thirdly, if, despite such intercession, the situation persists, the UN must suspend support to the offending forces."

  The policy does not speak of calibrated "reduction" in support. Also, Ladsous clearly miscalculated on the risk, as evidence by the continued abuses committed by the 391st Battalion, up to desecration of corpses.

  Of that, Araud said, "Now after what jsut happen, they are re-assessing." You would think - but given Ladsous' refusal to answer questions, how would you know?

  Araud also tried to spread the blame away from Ladsous, up to Ban Ki-moon himself, telling Inner City Press "the decision is by the SG himself, there are several entities, OLA, DPKO, [Zainab] Bangura and Human Rights, the recommendations are to the S-G, now I guess they re-assessing." Before or after the Congolese Army kills more civilians? Watch this site.

   

DRC Report, Vague on Rwanda, UNacted on by Ladsous, From Rape to Desecration with the 391st Battalion

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 22 -- It was in June, last month, that Inner City Press exclusively put online the Democratic Republic of the Congo sanctions Group of Experts report. 

   Since then, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations has refused to answer whether they provide support to the DRC Army units named in the report engaged in rape, looting, support of the FDLR and recruitment of child soldiers (about which Inner City Press asked UN envoy Leila Zerrougui earlier on Monday, here.)

Now Monday afternoon, the UN Security Council will hold a closed door meeting on the report. It is understood that Rwanda will point out that while the report alleges Rwanda Defense Force support for or communications with the M23 rebels, no RDF personnel are named.

Rwanda's Mission to the UN tells Inner City Press that they have asked not only DPKO chief Herve Ladsous -- who admitted in consultations that his allegations were based on rumors -- but also the Group of Expert for enough information to investigate, but none has been provided.

  Meanwhile, DPKO has the numbers of the FARDC units, and names of commanders. Does it still support them, as it does the 41st and 391 Battalions implicated in the 135 rapes at Minova in November?

  After Ladsous decided to continue supporting the 391st Battalion, after only two arrests for 135 rapes and a dozen "suspensions," the 391st Battalion has now shown up desecrating corpses. 

  At Monday's noon briefing Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky if this does not at last trigger Ban's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy and the cut off of support to the 391st Battalion.

  Nesirky said, twice, that it is under investigation. But that process was allowed to take months under Ladsous on the Minova rapes, and no support was suspended. The Policy, as articulated by outgoing Legal Counsel Patricia O'Brien, is not being followed. It involves an assessment of risk, CLEARLY triggered now. Ladsous has made a joke of the policy: now what? Watch this site.

   

UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy Killed by Ladsous & DRC Army's 391st Battalion, Now Mocked in South Sudan

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 21 -- The UN's stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy has effectively been killed, by the 391st Battalion of the Congolese Army and really by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous.

  After the 391st Battalion was implicated in 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012, Ladsous stonewalled then decided to continue support to them, after only two soldiers were arrested, and a dozen officers "suspended."

  Now the 391st Battalion is implicated in the desecration of corpses, another war crime. This after Ladsous declined to continue to support them.

  Here is Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's supposed“human rights due diligence policy," as articulated by hisoutgoing chief lawyer Patricia O'Brien at a July 9, 2013 meeting on which Inner City Press exclusively reported:

"First, the UN cannot provide support to non-UN security forces where there are substantial grounds for believing there is a real risk of those forces committing grave violations of international humanitarian, human rights or refugee law. Secondly, where grave violations are committed by non-UN security forces that are receiving support from the UN, the UN must intercede with a view to bringing those violations to an end. And thirdly, if, despite such intercession, the situation persists, the UN must suspend support to the offending forces."

  At latest since the November 2012 mass rapes, there have been "substantial grounds for believing there is a real risk of those forces committing grave violations of international humanitarian, human rights or refugee law."

  Ladsous tried to cover these grounds up, by refusing to disclose which FARDC units his MONUSCO mission was supporting, and which units were in Minova. Ladsous openly refused Inner City Press questions on this topic at stakeout after stakeout, video here.

  But when it came out, he claimed to "intercede with a view to bringing those violations to an end." This resulted in only two arrests, for 135 rapes, and the cited dozen "suspension."

  It could have been foreseen that this low level of accountability would not bring violations to an end. And it did not: the same 391st Battalion, in July 2013, was involved in abuses including the desecration of corpses, which Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky about on July 16.

  Clearly stage three of the Policy has been reached: despite intercession, the situation has persisted. So the UN "must suspend support to the offending forces" -- but has not. 

  The Policy has been killed by Ladsous and the 391st Battalion. Immediately, DPKO must be made to disclosure which units it supports, not only in the DRC but at least the two other countries the Security Council has applied the Policy to, South Sudan and Somalia.

  Similarly in South Sudan, when Inner City Press asked about video evidence of Ladsous' UNMISS mission standing by as thousands of Lou Nuer fighters marched by from killing Murle, and asking about the Policy, the written response has been as if to a hypothetical:

Subject: Your question on South Sudan.
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Jul 19, 2013 at 12:00 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

A request for aviation fuel to aircraft of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army would be viewed as a request for “support” and would be subject to a risk assessment on the basis of the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy.

In the event that such a request was approved, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) would take steps to monitor how the fuel is used in order to ensure that it not be diverted for other purposes.

So: was such a request made? Was it approved? Which units of the SPLA does UNMISS support? Because Ladsous is not credible in implementing or enforcing the stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy. Watch this site.

   

After ICP Asked 3 Days, Ban Comments on Desecration of M23 Bodies, Ladsous Stonewalls

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 17 -- What is wrong with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous? 

 For eighteen days they have refused to answer a simple Inner City Press question about whether the units of the Congolese Army they support include those depicted in the new Group of Experts report engaged in rape, looting, arming the FDLR and child soldier recruitment.

  They acknowledged receipt of the question in June when Inner City Press exclusive put online the full text of the GoE report, and said they would answer. But since then: nothing.

  On Monday July 15 Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky about Congolese authorities bragging they would display captured and dead M23 fighters. He said he would ask DPKO. Nothing.

  On Tuesday July 16, Inner City Press asked Nesirky about a photograph online of Congolese Army soldiers desecrating a killed fighter, and asked if it complies with Geneva Conventions. (Ladsous' DPKO refuses to answer if its MONUSCO mission in the Congo is now covered by the Geneva Convention. The answer must be yes, as its Intervention Brigade is a party to an armed conflict.)

  Nesirky said he hadn't seen the photograph, would check, with DPKO. Nothing that day.

On Wednesday July 17, again at noon, Inner City Press asked for an update on the fighting aroung Goma, and a UN response to M23's allegation that Ladsous' UN mission lets the Congolese Army uses its position to attack. Nesikry said he would ask DPKO. Nothing by close of business.

Past 8 pm in New York, Nesirky's office emailed out to all correspondents a statement on behalf of the Secretary General about the desecration of bodies, citing the Human Rights Due Diligence that Ladsous has refused to answer questions about.

Frankly, why hasn't the head of DPKO said anything on all this? In fact, while in Sudan meeting ICC indictee Omar al Bashir, Ladsous bragged that “we kept the body” of a killed fighter, also problematic under the Geneva Conventions and, as Nesirky said July 16, basic decency.

Ladsous' refusal to answer, and the way this three day old question was answer by Ban's spokesperson's office, raises questions again about Ladsous actually implementing this supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy. Which units of the Congolese Army DOES the MONUSCO mission of Ladsous support? This list should be provided. Watch this site.