As UN Security Council Leaves Haiti, UN Dodges on Cholera on France Inter Radio, HRW's Lobbyist But No Ladsous

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 25 -- As the UN Security Council ends its Haiti visit, has there been any answer, much less accountability, for the UN bringing cholera there? The UN Mission MINUSTAH has refused to answer questions. 

   And when the question was put to UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, in a France Inter radio piece broadcast tonight, he shifted the question to old UN sins of omission -- Rwanda and Srebenica -- rather than the more recent sin, or murder, of commission. Audio here; Inner City Press at Minute 24, UN response at end.

  The long-form France Inter piece includes a clip up in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operation's 24/7 center, where strangely they said they were monitoring Burkina Faso, where DPKO has no peacekeeping mission at all. 

  DPKO's spokesman is interviewed, but Inner City Press understands that promised interview with Ladsous was canceled once the questions got less than friendly. It's no surprise - see this with video, from last week, of Ladsous saying “I do not respond to your questions Mister.”

  Telling, the show lists Cote d'Ivoire, where UN Peacekeeping help oust critic of FrancAfrique Laurent Gbagbo from power, as a success of the UN, and attributes UN Security Council blockages to Russia and China, without much mentioning US vetoes on Palestine, and France's abstention for BNP Paribas.

   Human Rights Watch's self-described “lobbyist” is interviewed and says the obligatory things about holding the UN accountable. But what has HRW actually said or done about the UN killing 8,000 people in Haiti? When Inner City Press asked HRW what its Ken Roth raised to Ban Ki-moon, no substantive answer was given, and HRW removed Inner City Press from its email lobbying. And so it goes.

  Hope, of course, must spring eternal. If an Ambassador from Jordan, hosted in Haiti by the US and Chile, can publicly note the plight of women imprisoned without trial, then no cover-up can be complete. That, at least, in the hope. Watch this site.

   

On Protesters Shot by Mali Army in Kidal, France's Araud Urges Probe, Hasn't Read of Ouattara Hit Men in UN Liberia Sanctions Report

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 3 -- With France taking over presidency of the UN Security Council for December, its Ambassador Gerard Araud took questions from the press on Tuesday.

   Inner City Press asked him about the Malian Army shooting protesters in Kidal, and about the UN's report of agents of Cote d'Ivoire president and French ally Alassane Ouattara going into Ghana to try to kill or kidnap supporters of former president Laurent Gbagbo.

  On these Cote d'Ivoire aspects of the UN Liberia Sanctions report, Araud replied that he hasn't read the report. In two days, Liberia Sanctions are on the Security Council's agenda.

  On the shooting of protesters in Kidal, on which the UN has confined itself to a press release from the MINUSMA mission which even Reuters deemed unclear, Araud provided a bit more information. He acknowledged that two female demonstrators were left in critical condition.

  Araud alluded to the larger issues of the Tuaregs, saying that some in Bamako and the south view them as accomplices to or complicit with ("complice") the Islamist takeover of the north. 

 But if a solution would be more equitable distribution of resources and more impartiality by the UN, the UN mission siding with the Malian Army as they shoot protesters is hardly condusive to this.

  Araud said the protesters were throwing rocks. But is that a sufficient reason for an army, one the UN and France are providing support to, to open fire? Araud said this requires a Malian judicial and administrative investigation, and also one by MINUSMA. Given UN Peacekeeping's recent history of sitting on or burying reports, it is difficult to have confidence in this.

  Earlier on Tuesday, Araud had been scheduled to speak about Syria at the Security Council stakeout. That got canceled; Araud had to brief non-Council member states.

   Inner City Press on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Araud (he kept it newsy so we will) and hoped that he will do as many question and answer stakeouts as last month's presidency, China -- nine. 

  In one of Araud's previous presidencies -- he'd said he thought his one fifteen months ago would be his last -- he did a mere three question and answer stakeouts. That might have been related in part to which month it was. December as he said will be busy. Watch this site.

Footnotes: Araud initially made light of a question about the Central African Republic rebels Seleka and the diamond trade, alluding to former French president Valerie Giscard d'Estaing and, it seemed, to the French luxury goods to then "Emperor" Bokasa. Araud returned to the question by reading from the pending resolution, noting the suspension of CAR from the diamond trade Kimberly Process.

  A question on French firm Areva and the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Araud flatly refused, saying it is not on the Security Council's agenda (true) and is "not a threat to international peace and security" (less certain). 

  Inner City Press might ask: what then about Areva and its lobbying against paying taxes in Niger, which at least through the Sahel IS on the Security Council's agenda? Should be an interesting month - we'll have (much) more. Watch this site.

   

As France's FM Fabius Announces UNSC Schedule Even Before Bilaterals, What of Somalia PM Voted Out, & Journalists Murdered There?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 2 -- As France takes over presidency of the UN Security Council for December, before it has even held the traditional bilateral consultations with the other 14 members of the Council later today, foreign minister Laurent Fabius has already made public announcements about the program of work not yet agreed to.

  Fabius said France has four priorities, set forth below. But he has also announced the date and topic of debate not yet agreed to. No other Security Council presidency, including by the four other Permanent members, has done this.

  On December 18, France says the Security Council "will" have a debate about drug trafficking particularly in West Africa and the Sahel. This comes amid reports from Ghana that French ally Alassane Outtara's government in Ivory Coast has set hit-men to kill or kidnap supporters of former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo. Inner City Press will have more on this.

  Citing the murder of two French journalists in Mali, which the Security Council nearly immediately denounced in a Press Statement, Fabius says that the Security Council on December 13 will debate the protection of journalists. 

  While laudable, Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access question why the Council has not issued any press statements about the murder of other journalists for example in Somalia.

  In Mogadishu, the parliament has now voted out Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Saaid, with fully 184 of 250 parliamentary voters present against him. What will the French presidency of the Security Council do? Somalia is NOT among France's priorities for the month.

France's priorities, according to Fabius, are former French colony the Central African Republic, and Syria, which France declared Ahmad al Jarba the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

  We will have more on both of these topics as well. But it is noted: Fabius made date-specific announcements about the Security Council's program of work for December even before the French Mission to the UN holds bilateral consultations with the Council's other 14 members. Faux pas? Watch this site.  
  

In Addis, Ban Ki-moon Is Selective on Mali, Shows Ladsous Gun-Jumped on Drones, War: French Connections

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 -- At the African Union summit, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's speech on the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Cote d'Ivoire was tell.

  In French, Ban said "We are considering establishing a peace enforcement capacity within the Mission to address the threat of armed groups in eastern DRC."

  Back in New York, as a sort of pre AU summit sales pitch using the embedded media (AFP, Reuters, BBC), a UN official left unnamed on January 25 was more specific, serving up to friendly media more details: three battalions of 850 soldiers each, and tellingly three drones.

  The head of Ban's UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to hold that post, has been moving forward on UN drones even before receiving even limited approval.

  As Inner City Press exposed on January 25, Ladsous' DPKO launched a procurement for drones back on November 28 -- the day after he refused to answer Press questions on the Congo, and took the same media out into the hall for a private briefing, video here.

  So did Ladsous' DPKO similarly jump the gun declaring war in the DRC? In any event, it seems no matter what Ladsous does or doesn't do, Ban Ki-moon would not and could not replace him. UN Peacekeeping "belongs" to France. And that is part of the problem.

  The UN read-out of Ban's meeting with Alassane Ouattara of former French colony Cote d'Ivoire had not a word about Ouattara supporters killing perceived Laurent Gbagbo supporters in a camp for Internally Displaced People.

   While the UN peacekeepers there, who "work with" the the French Force Licorne, are accused of pushing IDPs off their UN trucks and into the mob to be beaten to death, Ban's and Ladsous' envoy to Cote d'Ivoire Bert Koenders has twice self-exonerated the UN.

  On Mali, where France has been bombing Timbuktu, Ban cited the "bilateral support" received by the Malian authorities -- without saying the word France. 

  Ban did not mention that these Malian authorities including coup leader Amadou Sanogo, nor about the Malian Army's executions in Sevare and elsewhere. Even Ban's description of the UN's deployment did not mention human rights. But Ban spoke in French.

   To be fair, the non-enforcement of the UN's supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy is not limited to Ladsous' ongoing cover up (video here) of 126 rapes in Minova by his partners in the Congolese Army, or looking the other way while the Malian Army is, well, the Malian Army.

   In Somalia, with no French connection, the UN and its Department of Field Support have had little to say or follow up with the recent killing of seven civilians, five of them children, by the AMISOM forces that the UN through DFS supports.

  The UN Security Council is supposed to provide some oversight on all this. But today they are belatedly in Yemen, where even motorbike traffic has been Banned. Back in New York, the UN Staff Union last week adopted by 186 to 45 a resolution that they have "no confidence" in Ban. We'll have more on all this. Watch this site.

Profile: Herve Ladsous "Dumped" on UN after Defending Genocide, Oil for Food, 1st Look Over Stonewall

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- Who is Herve Ladsous? It's a question that Inner City Press began asking at the UN from the day Ladsous was named as the last minute fill-in for Jerome Bonnafont as head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations on September 2, 2011.

  As Inner City Press pursued the inquiry, starting in late May 2012 Ladsous began refusing to take any Press questions at all, even benign questions about the UN's role in Abyei, Sudan. 

  On November 27, Ladsous refused Press questions about rapes by the Congolese Army in Minova and retreated to a hallway with correspondents he selected (video here). He refused follow up questions on Minova and his Department's supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy on December 7, video here.

  Now "who is Herve Ladsous" is a question that Inner City Press gets asked, by diplomats, UN staff, even journalists who cover France, and its former colonies, such as Billets d'Afrique.

  That's where the Ladsous story begins: with France and colonialism, in Oran and Madagascar. Now he is the fourth Frenchman in a row to head DPKO. Inner City Press is reliably informed that Ladsous was rejected for the position by Kofi Annan in 2000. 

  But Ban Ki-moon gave it to him, or accept the Sarkozy administration's "dumping" of Ladsous on the UN, eleven years later. This has been described to Inner City Press by a senior Annan administration official; the word "dumped on the UN" was used.

Ladsous, The Early Years: From Nukes to Genocide

   Ladsous joined the French government in 1971, and first appeared in the press in 1983, defending France's nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. 

   As reported at the time, Ladsous said "France will take whatever action is necessary to meet its defense needs." This still seems to be his position, even while ostensibly working for the UN.

   Ladsous' most problematic service, and one that some feel disqualifies him during the scandal surrounding his DPKO in Eastern Congo in late 2011, was his public positions during the Rwanda genocide in 1994. 

  As France's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Ladsous repeatedly argued for a safe zone for the officials of the genocidal Hutu government of Juvenal Habyarimana, to whose wife France is now offering permanent residence.

  Back in July 1994, Ladsous blamed the entire crisis on the RPF and said France would oppose them seeking to enter the genocidaires' French-protested safe haven in southwest Rwanda.

  Rwanda's Permanent Representative Bakuramutsa asked Ladsous directly, ''How can the population in a region consider you to be credible if at the same time you house the criminals, you arm them and you take care of them?''

  Ladsous' replied was that Bakuramutsa's question was ''needlessly unpleasant.'' But who's being unpleasant now?

  By 1997, Ladsous was involved in the UN Oil for Food program, the documented scandal of which he would end up denying in 2004, including as to businessman Patrick Maugein and former interior minister Charles Pasqua for having received Iraqi vouchers to sell 11 million barrels of oil.

Ladsous as Spokesman: For Ben Ali, Against Aristide

  By then Ladsous has become Quai d'Orsay spokesman, replacing Francois Rivasseau. In that post, Ladsous was on administrative board of Agence France-Presse, a wire he continues to wield. And in his Quai d'Orsay role, Ladsous promoted France's position in Tunisia, run by dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, while denouncing the Laurent Gbagbo government in Cote d'Ivoire.

  On Cote d'Ivoire, after a report slammed as "a delinquent mission from the French foreign ministry," Ladsous replied that "it is up to the head of state (Gbagbo) and the authorities to take their responsibilities in the light of the facts established" in the report), which Ladsous said he'd "learned of the content of the report, which is currently with the (UN) secretary general, through the press." Now Ladsous refuses to take Press questions.

  On Haiti, Ladsous called it "completely inappropriate to say that France was an accomplice in a political kidnapping of Mr. [Jean-Bertrand] Aristide." 

  But the AU said, "The African Union expresses the view that the unconstitutional way by which President Aristide was removed set a dangerous precedent for a duly elected person and wishes that no action be taken to legitimize the rebel forces." And Ladsous' boss Dominique de Villepin's sister, Veronique, was charged.

  Once out of this spokesperson job, replaced by Jean-Baptiste Mattei, Ladsous remained on the hook as he will here, charged with manipulating the justice system in Djibouti, to stymie the investigation into the killing of judge Bernard Borrel there. Ladsous was investigated for having "sought to pressure the judiciary to hand over the case file to the Djibouti authorities."

  Amid the Arab Spring, Ladsous as chief of staff to foreign minister Michele Alliot-Marie was involved in her scandal-plagued receipt of air flight gifts from Aziz Miled, a listed and sanctioned associate of dictator Ben Ali's brother-in-law Belhassen Trabelsi, even in December 2010.

  On February 16, 2011, the aforementioned Agence France-Presse reported that "Alliot-Marie had a short telephone conversation with Mr Ben Ali as she had with many other heads of state or foreign ministers," her aide, who asked not to be named, told AFP on Wednesday."

Ladsous Dumped on UN, Stonewalling: A New Low

  It was later that year on September 2, 2011, that Ladsous was at the last moment "dumped" on the UN in place of Jerome Bonnafont, who was already receiving cards of congratulations at the UN, for example from French politician Jean-Marie Bockel, but who bragged about it in India, where he was ambassador.

  When Inner City Press reported and then reviewed the specifics of the last minute switch, anti-Press moves began, further heating up in late May 2012. 

   Then, opportunistically, Ladsous said on UN Television that he would not answer Inner City Press' questions. Video here, at Minute 28:10. 

  He has repeated this four times on-camera since, refusing any of the questions above about who is Herve Ladsous? Instead, he arranges puff pieces with friendly media, like the Journal du Dimanche.

   Perhaps most interesting, when current French Permanent Representative to the UN Gerard Araud was Ambassador to Israel in 2004, Ladsous spoke for him. After Araud regretted the reporting of an off the record quote, Ladsous issued a written statement dropping a previous claim it had been off the record, now saying it was only "allegedly uttered" and had been "taken out of context."

   How Ladsous spoke, and for whom, are problems. Now as a supposedly independent international civil servant Ladsous is supposed to treat all Security Council members, including Araud, the same. But he does not. 

   There is a growing call that Ladsous should go; the military expert of a major Troop Contribution Country calls Ladsous the worst head of DPKO ever. But who makes the decision? Watch this site -- and this series.

Seven Killed in Abidjan, 3 Weeks After UN Proposed Removing BattalionSeven Killed in Abidjan, 3 Weeks After UN Mission in Cote d'Ivoire Proposed Removing Battalion

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 7, updated -- The UN's state-media reporting of its concern about an attack in Abidjan which killed seven Ivorian soldiers is incomplete and therefore misleading.

  The UN says that the "head of UNOCI, Bert Koenders, strongly condemned the attack," without mentioned that it was less than three weeks ago that Koenders blithely proposed cutting a full battalion from Abidjan saying things are so much better there. Click here for that July 17 report by Inner City Press.

  If Koenders was so wrong in his assessment of conditions in the financial capital of Cote d'Ivoire, some ask why believe his denial of ONUCI wrongdoing during the deadly refugee camp attack here Duekoue? 

  An investigation had been promised, amid on the record quotes by survivors that ONUCI peacekeepers pushed them off trucks and back into the mob to be beaten.

  But two days after the promise, Koenders said everything was fine, denied all allegations of wrongdoing or even negligence. Even the UN's response to Inner City Press' was bungled, perhaps intentionally so, click here for that.

  While among a few well run UN mission there are others plagued by incompetence and complacency, the UN Mission in Cote d'Ivoire has had and still has a conflict of interest.

  The head of UN Peacekeeping is Herve Ladsous, the fourth time in a row the post has gone to a Frenchman. DPKO was used to oust French opponent Laurent Gbagbo after a tight election, and now the Mission has reportedly stood by while Gbagbo supporters, already in a camp, were attacked and at least six killed. 

  Then Koenders denies the allegations, and doesn't even take back his now clearly erroneous assessment of the situation in Abidjan.

   That the UN "reports" on itself often corrupting.  When it is done by or for DPKO, whose chief refuses to take Press questions based on critical coverage, it is even worse.

   Koenders, most than other SRSGs, seems to be taking all of his lead from Ladsous. Whom does it serve? Watch this site.

Update: further information comes in, not from DPKO, but from Ivorian source, who think the attack was to coincide with the National Day, which will be celebrated too at the UN in New York.

On Guinea Bissau, Bamba Offers to Travel to Lisbon, Mali in the Wings

By Matthew Russell Lee, Partial exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 26, updated -- As if Guinea Bissau didn't have enough problems, now the dispute between ECOWAS and the Lusophone grouping CPLP about how to approach the country has grown more stark.

  Carlos Gomes Jr. and Raimundo Pereira were ousted in the coup. Now the CPLP won't recognize the post-coup government without them, while ECOWAS will.

  Inner City Press asked ECOWAS' speaker, Ivorian Ambassador Bamba, about the disagreement. "You have to be realistic," he told Inner City Press exclusively, "you must have interlocutors."

  Given what happened in Cote d'Ivoire last year, Inner City Press asked Bamba is such "being realistic" wouldn't have meant not using the UN and French Force Licorne for Alassane Ouattara but rather leaving Laurent Gbagbo in power, since unlike the Guinea Bissau coup leaders he at least received nearly 50% of the vote.

  Bamba pointed out that he ended his address inside the Council chamber with an offer to go negotiated with CPLP in Lisbon. This was not in his prepared text - "I added it," Bamba told Inner City Press.

  Initially, only questionable UN envoy Joseph Mutaboba, who allowed an alleged drug kingpin to set up shop in the UN compound in Bissau, Brazil's Permanent Representative Viotti for the Peacebuilding configuration, Mozambique for CPLP and Bamba were to speak.

 But at the end of the open session, Portuguese Permanent Representative Cabral asked for the floor, to dispute Bamba's implication that Gomes' party is in the government and that things are safe or better in Bissau.

 After Cabral's intervention, a non-Western Security Council member came out and told Inner City Press, "who is Portugal to be nosing around in Guinea Bissau, the colonist coming back as a friend? I might want to reform the Vatican, but does that mean I have a right to? This is the biggest hoax, post 1945, the colonists become the friend."

  In the background is ECOWAS' proposal about Mali, and how to deal with the coup leaders there. With former colonial power France taking over the Council presidency in August, can we expect a Licorne-like force? 

  On Guinea-Bissau, at least two delegations told Inner City Press it's time for the African Union to step in with some leadership. 

Update: and when consultations ended, SRSG Mutaboba escaped through the Chamber and GA lobby, no stakeout. Usually talkative Nestor Osorio, July's Council president, declined a stakeout, saying a statement is being negotiated between Portugal and Togo, that is, CPLP and ECOWAS. Waiting for the African Union? Watch this site.

As Six Ivorians Under UN Protection Are Killed, UN Admits to "Light Security"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 22 -- While ostensibly under UN protection, at least 6 Ivorian in the Niambly refugee camp were killed on July 20 and 5000 more were made homeless, nearly all of the Guere ethnicity perceived to support ousted president Laurent Gbagbo.

 Before 10 am on July 21, Inner City Press asked the spokesman for Department of Peacekeeping Operations chief Herve Ladsous, who has taken to refusing all Inner City Press questions, as well as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's top two spokesmen, for the

UN / DPKO position on how that camp near Duekoue in Cote d'Ivoire could be burned down and people killed while ostensibly under ONUCI protection. Is Mr. Koenders still in NY?

  The UN mission in Cote d'Ivoire, headed by Bert Koenders, is supposed to be focused on national and ethnic reconciliation following the joint military effort involving the UN and the French Force Licorne to oust Gbagbo.

   Six hours after the questions were posed, it was neither answered nor acknowledged, as we then reported.  But after 10 pm on Saturday, a response came in, which we appended in full, here, and publish herebelow, in full:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 10:35 PM
Subject: Côte d'Ivoire
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

In answer to your question about events in Côte d'Ivoire.

The Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Côte d’Ivoire, Arnauld Akodjénou, today briefed the media on events in the Duékoué area. The Mission condemns the attack on the IDP camp which resulted in the killing of 6 people and at least 15 seriously injured.  

UNOCI had light security arrangements in place for UN and NGO staff operating inside the camp, and contributed to securing the outer perimeter. Ivorian security forces had the primary responsibility for providing security for the Nahibly IDP site. 

At the time of the attack, 12 UN police were inside of the camp to provide security to humanitarian workers and control entry to the camp. In addition, 10 military officers were stationed outside of the camp. When several hundred youths approached the site in the morning of 20 July, UNOCI immediately called for reinforcements, which arrived shortly afterwards. Some of the demonstrators by-passed the entrance and pushed the wooden fences to enter the camp and set it on fire. UNOCI escorted humanitarian personnel out of the camp, assisted in evacuating some of the injured IDPs, and provided security to IDPs seeking shelter elsewhere.

UNOCI and national security forces are currently providing enhanced security at Nahibly camp, the Catholic Mission in Duékoué, and near the Mairie and Sous-Préfecture, where large numbers of IDPs have gathered.

UNOCI is conducting a full investigation of the incident.

  While we appreciate the answer and publish it in full upon receipt, it must be noted that the UN and DPKO have said they are conducting an investigation of their alleged direct killing of civilians in North Kivu in the DR Congo, but have yet to provide any updates. Will they here?  

  With much more delay, Haitians are still waiting for the UN to respond to formal complaints about the introduction of cholera by peacekeepers, a topic on which Ladlous directly and on camera refused to answer Press questions, along with why he and Ban have an alleged war criminal Sri Lanka general Shavendra Silva as an adviser. 

  When SRSG Bert Koenders was at the UN in New York this week and Inner City Press asked him about Duekoue, the site of earlier massacres of Guere and now this one, Koenders said he'd had asked for action by the government of Alassane Ouattara, who replaced Gbabgo.

  The UN is in fact proposing to remove a full battalion or 750 troops from Cote d'Ivoire, based on its assessment that things are safer and better.

  There remain troubling inconsistencies between Koenders statements in New York and the deadly events on the ground back in the Ivory Coast. We hope to have more on this. Watch this site.