By DC, Equatorial Guinea's Diplomatic Immunity Said to Cover Chair Attack, Indian Diplomat Khobragade's Case Contrasted

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 26, more here -- Twenty days after bodyguards of Democratic Republic of the Congo president Joseph Kabila beat up protesters in Washington but were not charged, only told to leave the country, an assault with a chair reportedly occurred at the residence of the Ambassador of Equatorial Guinea in the Arlington suburb of Washington.

  Due to diplomatic immunity, no arrest was made. ARLnow.com reports that 

Police were called to the home of Ambassador Ruben Maye Nsue Mangue after a female 911 caller reported that “there’s someone going crazy at her house” and a man “hit her in the head with a chair,” according to scanner traffic.

“I’ve been there before,” said a responding officer. “There have been previous calls from this address.” The female victim was struck “several times,” police said. Paramedics transported her to Virginia Hospital Center with a head wound, but no arrests were made.

“The subject has full diplomatic immunity and was not arrested,” Arlington County Police said in a crime report today. Police said the assault was “domestic” in nature but declined to reveal the identity of the suspect. “We won’t go in to those details at this time,” ACPD spokesman Dustin Sternbeck told ARLnow.com. “The State Department was notified by our officers and it’s in their hands at this point.

”

   While outrageous, this also strikes some as contrary for example to how India's diplomat Devyani Khobragade was treated, compared with others. We'll have more on this.

   On the DRC, US State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf on August 8 said:

"We are troubled by the attacks against several protesters by members of the official delegation from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  It was Wednesday evening.  Take the right to freedom of expression very seriously, and violence against peaceful protesters is totally unacceptable.  We communicated our concern to the delegation in the strongest possible terms.  We requested waivers of immunity to permit those involved to face prosecution, and if such waivers were not issued, we required that the immediate departure from the country of the individuals involved.  They did not waive immunity and the individuals involved left the country on Thursday."

 So amid the speeches in the Security Council on Thursday, August 7, officials from the DRC were leaving the US after attacking protesters and refusing to waive immunity.

   On August 7 in New York, Kobler said it had been transparent, than when the UN Security Council's sanctions committee denied the waiver requested by Herve Ladsous, the FDLR leader was returned "to the bush."

  Inner City Press asked, isn't he subject to an arrest warrant in Rwanda? Kobler said he was unaware of that.

  On the mere two convictions for the 130 rapes by the Congolese Army in Minova in November 2012, Kobler said the legal process was OK -- video here -- but that the investigation was not sufficient.

  The third Press questions, which Kobler did not answer, concerned the rehabilitation of General Amisi after a failure to investigate the charges against him. 

  On back June 27 amid reports that the UN flew a sanctioned militia leader of the FDLR militia on a UN aircraft in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujurric about it at the UN noon briefing on June 27:

Inner City Press: why did MONUSCO [United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo] fly him to Goma to Kisangani and then to Kinshasa when, in fact, I think there’s an arrest warrant for him?

Spokesman Dujarric: I’m not aware of any other services provided to him by MONUSCO.

 But it turns out that UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous flew the sanctioned FDLR leader from Eastern Congo to Kinshasa. Rwanda complained about this, in writing, on June 26.

  On July 16, Inner City Press asked Rwanda's Deputy Permanent Representative what has been Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations' response. 

  There has BEEN no response - in more than three weeks. Video here, and embedded below.

  Little more than an hour later, Ladsous floated into the Security Council to talk about Central African Republic -- without having answered a written complaint from a Security Council member in more than three weeks. We call this: unaccountable. 

Dujarric on June 27, and in the subsequent times Inner City Press asked, insisted that not only Mary Robinson (who today left her post as the UN's Great Lakes envoy) but also US envoy Russ Feingold requested the waiver, and that the FDLR leader Gaston Iyamuremye a/k/a Rumuli hadnot traveled to Rome, arguing that only that was important.

  Inner City Press disagrees -- why would UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous given his history on Rwanda, representing France in the Security Council in 1994 arguing for the escape of the genocidaires into Eastern Congo, fly a sanctioned FDLR figure linked to the genocide around? 

  On July 15,  Haq said Rumuli  was escorted from Kinshasa back to the east. Video here.

  Inner City Press asked about MONUSCO escorting Rumuli.

  Haq said what he had read did not say MONUSCO did the escorting. So who did? And if not the UN, how does the UN know where Rumuli went? Watch this site.

   

Hyping Hollande, White House Talks Up Syria Aid, Nothing on FSA Child Soldiers, No Congress Because San Francisco

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 10 -- To pump up French president Francois Hollande's solo visit to the United States, the White House held a background press call on February 10. A correspondent from Le Figaro asked, Why isn't Hollande being allowed to speak to a joint session of Congress, as on visits by previous French presidents?

A self-described Senior Administration Official cited Hollande's scheduling, that he's traveling to "California to visit some of our most innovative business." And it's true, on February 12 Hollande is slated to be in San Francisco, where France has a consulate which Inner City Press has previously covered.

  Voice of America, which is in essence US state media, asked a questions about the "counter-terrorism" operation in Central African Republic. It seemed a strange formulation; to some it cast in a different light what UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says was France putting Muslim communities at risk by first disarming the ex Seleka.

  Al Hayat asked what President Obama can "offer" Hollande on Syria, and if the US will be attending a Friends of Lebanon Group meeting in Paris. The Senior Administration Official responded that Obama and Hollande will discuss efforts on humanitarian aid in Syria: seemingly, the draft UN Security Council resolution that Russia has already said is a non-starter.

  While the Senior Administration Official said Obama and Hollande will talk about Syria's "moderate opposition," there was no mention, or question, about the UN's finding that the Free Syrian Army recruits and uses child soldiers, supposedly a big issue for France (and subject of the US 2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act). We'll have more on this.

  In other diplomatic news, in UN Federal court in New York a UN Office of Legal Affairs letter has been filed stating that Indian diplomat Khobragade, who was arrested and strip searched and who the US says it will still go after if she returns to the US, had or obtained full diplomatic immunity. Watch this site.

   

After French Mission Asserts Diplomatic Impunity, Araud Shouts of Romain Serman NYPD Record On Which His Mission Declined to Comment

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 14 -- When does diplomatic immunity become diplomatic impunity? 

  Last week Inner City Press compared the high profile case of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade who was indicted in connection with allegedly underpaying a domestic worker with an earlier case of a French diplomat Romain Serman who was taken into police custody while attempting to buy cocaine, according to NYPD records.

  Inner City Press had asked the French mission to comment on the NYPD record and Serman's case but was told only that it was a "hostile act" if the records, also including leaked documents showing France's domination of the UN with regard to former colonies in Africa, remained online. Inner City Press rejected that French censorship bid.

  On January 13, after the comparison to the Indian diplomat, things escalated. Both on his way into the Security Council and again on his way out, French Ambassador Gerard Araud stopped to shout at Inner City Press about the story. 

  When Inner City Press began pointing out that his Mission had been asked for comment but had only responded with the "hostile act" threat, Araud shouted over the point, and made another threat, to sue.

Click here for video / audio by UNTV taken at the stakeout. And embedded below: "flag shot" with UNTV ambient audio.

  Perhaps Araud or the French Mission to the UN do not understand press freedom as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. This is what investigative journalism is: ferreting out such documents, seeking comment on that, analyzing and comparing them, publishing.

  The French mission should have commented, if it disputed the document or thought it should be amplified with some explanation -- for example, that citing diplomatic immunity made the arrest, but not this record, go away: 

"for attempting to purchase cocaine and marijuana from a known drug dealer...106th Street and Park Ave...claimed to be a diplomat from the country of France and displayed a ID which proved such. When...Miranda rights he refused to cooperate...was taken into custody"

  That is the story: that for attempting to buy cocaine, for which many are in prison in the US and New York State, a French diplomat not only was not treated similarly, but was allowed to leave the country and then return, now, as French consul in San Francisco. 

  That is the comparison to the Indian case, in which it is said that Ms. Khobragade is on a "watch list" and would be arrested if she tried to re-enter the US where her two children, 4 and 7, live.

  The Indian case was widely reported and it does not seem that the Indian foreign service or Ms. Khobragade threatened to sue any media for reporting it.

   That is Araud's French Mission's tactic, deployed in lesser ways against others covering the UN who in turn were so cowed, or so needed access to the French Mission, that they resisted any reporting of the French Mission's censorship and conditioning of access on positive coverage.

  Araud's threat to sue notwithstanding, the UN is so lawless that it allows its Media Accreditation unit and process to be open for bids at censorship or outright exclusion. After facing such from some atop the United Nations Correspondents Association (now the UN's Censorship Alliance), not unrelated to ces jeux francais, the new Free UN Coalition for Access asserts journalists' right to due process and, even regarding the French mission and French foreign policy, freedom of the press. Watch this site.

Footnote: ironically the day after Araud's threat, French president Francois Hollande said he would not try to sue, since he has immunity and it would be a double standard. But is France engaged, through Araud, in triple standards? Or is Araud on his own on this one and soon, as he foreshadowed, leaving the UN?