On Gaza, UNICEF's Pernille Ironside on Mass Unemployment, Says Board of Inquiry Is Up to UNRWA and Ban Ki-moon (Who Was Lobbied in 2009)

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 21 -- When the Gaza field director of UNICEF Pernille Ironside took questions at the UN on August 21, Inner City Press asked her when a Board of Inquiry into the destruction of UN premises like the UNRWA schools will begin. Video here.

Ironside said that will be up to the Secretariat of Ban Ki-moon and UNRWA. Earlier this week Robert Serry told Inner City Press the same thing. But where is the Board of Inquiry? On the one conducted in 2009, Inner City Press reported on how Ban Ki-moon allowed himself to be lobbied and blunted in his cover letter recommendations in the report, later shown in detail by a cable published by Wikileaks.

Does that explain the delay?

Inner City Press also asked Ironside about her statement in her recent Reddit Ask Me Anything that “Gaza's economy has been severely depressed, particularly since the closure of the informal tunnel system with Egypt in July 2013.” Ironside said Gazans are well educated and eager to work, but precluded from doing so; she said the negotiators should take this into account.

Ironside said she previously served the UN in Goma in Eastern Congo, and more recently in Yemen. With the Houthis now in Sana'a, that's something we'd like to hear more about.

The moderator on August 21 began by giving out the first question to Ironside without set-aside, but then allowed the first question to be taken or “reclaimed” by the UN Correspondents Association, a group whose Executive Board tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN. 

  There have been no reforms; if anything UNCA, now the UN's Censorship Alliance, more aggressively demands the first question at such briefings, and then usually offers up a softball question of the type the UN likes. Then the same media takes a second question. This is something the Free UN Coalition for Access will continue to oppose -- the UN should not promote hierarchy, censorship, set-asides. Watch this site.

   

On Flying FDLR Leader in DRC, UN's Herve Ladsous Has Been Silent on Complaint 3 Weeks Now, Rwanda Tells Inner City Press (Video)

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 16, more here -- Amid reports on June 27 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.

   

Rwanda Formal Complaint Letter to UN Security Council on Ladsous Travel Waiver Bid for FDLR Leader

By Matthew Russell Lee, Follow up on Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, June 27 -- Rwanda has complained to the UN Security Council that UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous requested and carried out a travel ban waiver for FDLR leader Gaston Iyamuremye / Rumuli Michel. 

  Inner City Press has obtained the complaint letter, on which it first reported yesterday, and puts it online here. 

  The letter recounts irregularities in Ladsous' last-minute request, including that his MONUSCO mission under Martin Kobler effectuated an airlift to Goma and then to Kinshasa on a MONUSCO aircraft even as the request was denied by the 1533 sanctions committee. The accusation is of a "hidden agenda of sanitizing the FDLR genocidaires."

Despite a request to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric yesterday for the UN's explanation, no response has been received.

  When Herve Ladsous was appointed head of UN Peacekeeping by France and UN Peacekeeping, Inner City Press asked him to address his past as French Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN during the Rwanda genocide, arguing for the escape into Eastern Congo of thegenocidaires who would become the FDLR.

  Ladsous refused to answer, and then adopted the policy of trying to block Inner City Press questions, going so far as to have his spokesman grab the UN Television microphone to prevent a question. Video here,compilation here.

  Now -- not surprisingly -- a scandal has arisen, with Rwandan officials exclusively complaining to Inner City Press, citing letters, about Ladsous granting a travel ban waiver for FDLR leader Iyamuremye / Rumuli to fly from the DR Congo to Rome -- to meet with UN envoy Mary Robinson.

  Of course, Robinson could have met the FDLR leader without him breaking the travel ban. But in a UN trend, Robinson has been allowed to remained based in Ireland, just as Romano Prodi was allowed to remain based in Italy and to (over) charge the UN for his travel inside Italy.

  Earlier this year, Ladsous refused to answer Inner City Press' simple question on when UN Peacekeeping under his watch might belatedly go after or “neutralize” the FDLR, video here.

Ladsous (and see Inner City Press video below, Creative Commons)

  Under Ladsous, UN Peacekeeping is involved in other scandals, for example not enforcing Ban Ki-moon's stated “Human Rights Due Diligence Policy” with respect to the 41st and 391st Battalions of the Congolese Army after only two convictions for 130 rapes in Minova in November 2012. 

  The UNAMID mission in Darfur, Sudan, not reporting the killing of civilians has also occurred on Ladsous' watch, but he refuses to answer questions.

We will have yet more on this.

On June 26 Inner City Press, copying the Free UN Coalition for Access, has asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:

This is a formal request for the UN's response to allegations, including but not limited to in the letter(s) from the Rwandan government, about a travel ban waiver for FDLR's Gaston Iyamuremye / Rumuli Michel and the involvement of USG Ladsous.

Last Friday Inner City Press' written request and question about legal papers about cholera in Haiti was never answered while it was answered, by email, to other media. That should not be repeated. Please confirm receipt of this request.

  There has still been no answer. Watch this site.

   

On DR Congo, UN Admits Continued Minova Rape Case Delay, Insists Its Two Trucks in Anti Kagame Convoy Were "Taken Over"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 13 -- After UN envoy Martin Kobler told the Security Council on January 13 about "the need to address ill-discipline within the [Congolese Army] FARDC and National Police and to pursue all outstanding cases of misconduct," Inner City Press asked him about the FARDC's mass rapes at Minova in November 2012. 

  Kobler acknowledged that the most recent hearing in the Minova case had been postponed, that witness statements have still not been taken. Video here, from Minute 6:32. 

  Given that the UN says it has a Human Rights Due Diligence Policy of not supporting army units engaged in abuses, how much longer will the UN accept this? Thirteen months and counting.

  Perhaps relatedly, after rumors of the death of Rwanda's Paul Kagame were shot down, across the border in the Eastern Congo, a time-stamped photograph was tweeted of a UN truck full of people on the back, captioned "MONUSCO in Goma celebrating the death of Pres Paul Kagame."

  It seemed worth asking the UN mission chief Martin Kobler to comment on or explain the photograph, and Inner City Press sent this, to Kobler and three MONUSCO spokespeople:

"Please comment on / explain this time-stamped photo, which is being described as a UN truck participating in "celebrations" of the rumor of the Rwandan president's death. Do you dispute that the photo was taken on January 10? To whom is the UN giving a ride in this truck / photo? In what context?"

   After a time, UN envoy Kobler replied:

"@innercitypress Ceci apparait de toute évidence comme une utilisation frauduleuse d'un véhicule de la #Monusco. C'est inacceptable"

  Translated: "This appears clearly as a fraudulent use of a vehicle of the #Monusco. This is unacceptable."

(Translation not by Google, not only because of NSA spying issues but also acquiescence in Digital Millennium Copyright Act abuse by Reuters UN bureau, click here for that.)

  The question became, now what does Kobler, or those above him in New York, do?  

  Inner City Press on January 10 went to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's press conference, 11 am in New York, to ask this question: "in the DRC this morning, after false rumors of Paul Kagame being dead, a MONUSCO truck was photographed in what some call celebrations and Martin Kobler told me is "unacceptable." What do you think your UN should do about this, in terms of the perception of impartiality or bias by the UN?"

  But Ban's acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq did not call on Inner City Press, instead automatically giving the first question to the United Nations Correspondents Association(a/k/a UN's Censorship Alliance), then mostly questions soft on the UN about Syria.

  Next came spin from MONUSCO, e-mailed to the Press:

Fraudulent use of MONUSCO truck in Goma

Kinshasa, 10 January 2014 - MONUSCO is aware of a photo being circulated on the internet showing a MONUSCO truck in Goma during a demonstration.

In reality, the truck was taken over by demonstrators while on a regular mission. The driver was alone and unarmed when the incident happened. MONUSCO condemns this agressivity against its assets.

MONUSCO has launched a full investigation to ascertain the circumstances and the context surrounding the incident. 

  But how does the UN explain, then, this UN jeep or Four by Four in this longer video of the anti-Kagame protests, from Minute 1:04 to 1:54? http://youtu.be/L9EPcUOpT1M

 On January 13, Inner City Press asked Kobler about the two vehicles. He said that both had been taken over, which now seems to mean that the UN drivers remained in the vehicles, carrying the protesters, on the single road from Sake to Munigi, through Goma.

  Kobler said the drivers were unarmed, but even if armed would not have tried to get the demonstrators off, at least not be using force. He said the protesters got off or disappeared out by the Uruguayan peacekeepers' base by the airport. There is more than a little skepticism. But that is what Kobler said: video here, from Minute 6:32.

   Watch this site.
   

UN Photos from Haiti, Goma & Korea with Ban Ki-moon in Gabarron's Carriage House for Sale, Parallel Worlds

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- Alongside the real UN there is a parallel one, based on careful editing and relying on the sweat equity of 68 years of idealists, some of whom left or remained disillusioned.

   This parallel UN was on display on Wednesday night six blocks from the UN in the Gabarron Carriage House Center for the Arts on 38th Street. There was photographs from Korea, the Sinai and Eastern Congo; there were posters about Haiti and by Keith Haring. 

  There was Ban Ki-moon, returned only earlier in the day from the Nelson Mandela memorial in South Africa, with a detour through the Group of 77. There was former Group of 77 leader Maged Abdelaziz of Egypt, now Ban's Special Adviser on Africa.

   Ban in his prepared remarks did pay tribute to the unknown people who build up the UN's name. But what about the ranks of bigger name people who tear it down? Okay there was no mention of Kurt Waldheim -- as noted, that gets edited out.

   But it must be said: Ban posed under a poster about Haiti, the UN's response to the earthquake there. Yes, many idealists were there, some died. But the UN brought cholera to the island, and has yet to admit it, or to apologize. 

  By Inner City Press' last report, the UN's Office of Legal Affairs refused to even accept service of legal papers on behalf of the victims. No amount of stunning archive photos can make this go away.

   Or take for example the photo of Eastern Congo, or one tweeted by Gabarron that UN Peacekeepers only use force in self defense. The latter is no longer true: the UN now deploys attack helicopters in the Congo, and recently participated as the Malian Army fired at unarmed protesters in Kidal. 

  There has been a change, but this parallel UN doesn't acknowledge it. Nor even answer questions: the current head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous openly refuses to answer Press questions, video here, UK coverage here. The UN allows this to continue.

   Le Monde ran a puff piece about the exhibition, noting that at Gabarron "the sessions are sometimes followed by a projection of a Stevie Wonder concert at the UN, or a radio program with, among others, Audrey Hepburn and Michael Douglas." 

  Two of these are set to be honored a week from now, along with Ban Ki-moon, by the United Nations Correspondents Association, collaborators in the falseness of this parallel world, and at times spies for it (click here for that.) They preach freedom of the press -- but their leaders tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, based onreporting about Sri Lanka and conflict of interest. They've yet to institute any rule that they won't do it again.

  They say TV equipment from Samsung "doesn't involve any mission" -- when even the UN admits that it does. As one UN official at the Gabarron on Wednesday night, one from the real not parallel UN, said the UN would do better answering all questions, not hiding and stonewalling. But they have to choose: real world or its parallel?

Footnote: cursory research after the event found that the carriage house itself was put on the market last year for $8.25 million dollars. Apparently there were no takers, as the show is on there. But like some the UN increasingly seems to be, it is for sale. Watch this site.

   

In DR Congo, UN's Kobler Orders Attack Copters, Complains That "Unarmed" Ones Are Shot At: Ladsous-ification

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 12 -- During the UN's recent General Debate, the issue of UN helicopters flying reconnaissance missions over positions assigned to the M23 when they withdrew from Goma last November arose. 

  At the UN in New York, Inner City Press twice asked about them, including if given its new posture the UN is now a combatant, a party to an armed conflict.

  French Deputy Permanent Representative Alexis Lamek dodges the latter question; Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky told Inner City Press, in the context of the French-led Security Council trip to DRC, that "the other journalists" didn't care about these questions.

  Now UN envoy Martin Kobler has taken to the Twitter airwaves to complain about M23 shooting at an "unarmed" UN helicopter, vowing that the flights will continue. 

  As Inner City Press reported and updated yesterday, UN Peacekeeping under its fourth Frenchman in a row, Herve Ladsous, is ordering up Rooivalk combat helicopters with 70 mm rockets called only "relatively accurate."

So the UN, ostensibly about peace, is fueling an arms race in Eastern Congo, and escalating a conflict. This is the Ladsous-ification of UN Peacekeeping, about which Ladsousand now Kobler refuse to answer questions. (Ladsous' "farce" was in the UK New Statesman this week; when wil Kobler's turn toward unresponsiveness be similarly noted?)

  Kobler's emphasis on "unarmed" helicopters appears specious. Is he saying it's OK to fire on armed UN helicopters? Since the UN supports Congolese Army units, including those like the 41st and 391st Battalions implicated in the mass rape of 135 Congolese women in Minova, aren't reconnaissance flights part of an armed conflict?

  In most places on Earth, or before UN Peacekeeping's Ladsous-ification, UN envoys like Kobler sought to find a place for the UN that was not that of a combatant. But here, the dye is cast. 

 How will it work out? That is not yet clear. But it is clear to many that this is no longer the UN, or what the UN claims to be. And Kobler has become as unresponsive and unaccountable as his boss. A fish, as they say, rots from the head. Watch this site.

The Office of Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson sent this response to Inner City Press after the October 11 noon briefing:

Subject: Your question on MONUSCO
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 4:49 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

“In order to enhance MONUSCO’s capabilities in eastern DRC, the United Nations asked one of the Mission’s Troop Contributing Countries, the Republic of South Africa, to provide three attack helicopters and two utility helicopters to the Mission. South Africa has accepted the request and preparations are ongoing. MONUSCO also currently has attack helicopters from Ukraine and Bangladesh. MONUSCO will continue to use all assets in accordance with its rules of engagement.”

   

UN Peacekeeping in DR Congo, Kobler Under Ladsous, Won't Explain French Colonial Domination, FrancAfrique

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 6 -- If the UN Security Council had gone on a trip to Iraq to visit "its" UNAMI peacekeeping mission, would the United States have been allowed to alone hand-pick which media could go on the UN plane and cover the trip?

That is what was allowed to happen on the Security Council's current trip to Africa. The UN has admitted, on camera, that France was allowed to pick which media would fly in the UN plane, from Kinshasa to Goma to Kigali to Entebbe to Addis Ababa.

  Thus the UN (and its Security Council) have enshrined FranceAfrique, and colonialism. How can it be justified?

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky cut off the question, telling Inner City Press that the other correspondents in the room didn't care to hear about Inner City Press' travel arrangements, or lack thereof. Video here. 

  So Inner City Press has put the question to Martin Kobler, the UN's top envoy in the Council trip's first stop, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As luck would have it, Kobler was previously the top envoy in Iraq. Would he have accepted a "Security Council" trip with media hand picked only by the US?

  But Kobler hasn't answered. Nor has his MONUSCO provided any transcript of what its Dee Brillenburg Wurth "told reporters," about M23 child soldiers coming from and being trained by Rwanda, and the DRC being blameless. (See hand-picked Reuters piece here.)

   Kobler tweeted that his head of office in Goma Ray Torres was updating the Council about negotiations involving Mai Mai Cheka, sanctioned for mass rape. No clarification, or transcript, has been provided. Will it now, that France's Genocide Joyride has moved to to Rwanda?

  A press conference was held at the Goma airport; Kobler tweeted a photograph but hasn't answered why France was allowed to pick the journalists to cover the trip. The UN's Radio Okapi, during the Goma press conference, was broadcasting... sports. Call it bread and circuses.

  So is the UN, or at least UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head DPKO, a vehicle for neo-colonialism? Is this, as some now say, just France's Genocide Joyride? It seems these questions should be answered. Watch this site.

   

In Goma, UNSC Hears of Rapist Cheka, Any Follow-Up on Minova Rapes by DRC Army, Mayele?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 5 -- It's all coming together. Or is it? Now the UN announces that its envoy on Sexual Violence and Conflict, Zainab Bangura, will be in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the same time as the Security Council.

  So will answers belatedly be given, publicly, about the 135 rapes in Minova in November by units of the Congolese Army to which UN Peacekeeping continues to provide support?

  Inner City Press asked Bangura, and UK foreign secretary William Hague, about accountability for the Minova rapes back on September 24 at the UN General Debate. Video here, from Minute 7:22.

  Hague referred the question to Bangura, since it had to do with the UN. (This seems strange, since it is member states, particularly the Permanent Five with which Secretary General Ban Ki-moon now almost exclusive deals on the matters he deems important, which oversee the UN.)

  Bangura first answered about sexual exploitation, meaning abuse by UN Peacekeepers themselves: the Sri Lankan peacekeeper in Haiti (no update), the Chad MINUSMA soldiers accused of rape in Gao (natch).

  Then she told Inner City Press that the best place to ask about the Minova rapes is "DPKO." But Department of Peacekeeping Operations chief Herve Ladsous has repeatedly refused to answer Inner City Press questions about Minova and other abuses. Video compilation here.

As Inner City Press reported yesterday, while the French picked scribes on the trip either trashed Rwanda (Reuters) or wrote a UN fluff piece (VOA), US Ambassador Samantha Power raised the issue to DRC President Joseph Kabila, and UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant raised it to three ministers.

  But what was the response? Inner City Press has asked the US Mission to the UN, including because one of the Minova rape units, the 391st Battalion, was US trained, and others. The answers should be public.

Meanwhile of the commander of a previous mass rape at Wakikale, Mai Mai Cheka a/k/a Ntabo Ntaberi, MONUSCO chief Martin Kobler tweeted, en francais bien sure, "Le chef de bureau de Goma nous informe sur les negociations en cours a #Pinga entre #Cheka et Janvier (#APCLS)."

  That is, the Head of MONUSCO's Goma office gave then an update on the negotiations taking place at Pinga between Janvier of APCLS and Cheka.

  Does MONUSCO so blandly give updates on talks involving mass rapists? And what is the reaction? Inner City Press has asked.

  In 2010 Bangura's predecessor Margot Wallstrom bragged of the arrest of ‘Lieutenant Colonel’ Mayele. But what ever happened with him? 

  What has happened with the two Congolese Army officers, jailed for human rights abuses, who recently escape with help from the prison at Bukavu? Inner City Press twice asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky, and neither time did he answer. Where is the follow-through? Watch this site.

In DR Congo, UNSC Meets North Kivu's Paluku, Tried Link with FDLR, Visits Mugunga, Failed French Promise of 2008 UNcovered

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 5 -- As the UN Security Council visits Mugunga camp for internally displaced people and meets with North Kivu governor Julien Paluku, some things must be reported -- particularly because the scribes hand-picked by France to accompany the trip are not. Reporting. Anything.

  Mugungu IDP camp was there in 2008. On that Security Council trip, which Inner City Press was on even at an earlier stage of its reporting work at the UN, then French Permanent Representave Jean-Maurice Ripert "waded into the crowd in Mugunga IDP camp outside Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and said he and the Council are doing everything possible 'so you can go home.'"

  Inner City Press asked in its report on the trip, even then in 2008, "Does unqualified support for Joseph Kabila, and nodding dismissal of the country's legislature -- which questioned the politics and timing of the arrest of Kabila's main opponent -- qualify in this regard? Time will tell. On the other hand, the UN operationally is feeding and sheltering, sometimes in brutal conditions, destitute refugees and displaced people. In Mugunga, people live in huts of plastic sheeting, with floors of lava rock. Somehow 10,000 people are fed three meals a day."

  And that is the good work of the UN, or really, humanitarian agencies. But what of Ripert's 2008 promise, broadcast on France 24? Later in that trip, after a UN bullet shot a hole in the UN plane (from the inside), "in the Kigali airport, clutching a print-out an Inner City Press article, Ripert approached Inner City Press and demanded, 'Why did you write this?' How about, because it's true?"

Five years later, what has changed?

  As to Julien Paluku, his appearance in the UN Group of Experts report must be noted -- as well as allegations that he promoted contacts with the FDLR militia. From The Gulf Today / VirungaNews:

"an official in DR Congo’s North Kivu province, where the commander of the Rwandan Hutu rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) is based, is tasked with persuading the FDLR to resume co-operation with the DRC army and to 'plan terror attacks on Rwanda. Two FDLR political cadres, traveling on Belgian passports, are currently in Rutshuru in North Kivu to meet the FDLR command and convince them to resume co-operation with the Congolese army,' spokeswoman Yolande Makolo said. She identified the men as Faustin Murego and Joseph Nzabonimpa, both resident in Belgium, and gave the numbers of the passports on which they are traveling. Makolo said the two flew into the Ugandan capital Kampala on an Egypt Air flight and then made their way to the North Kivu provincial capital Goma, with the help of DRC intelligence agents. Murego was a lieutenant in the former Rwandan army and now lives in the Belgian city of Liege, Makolo said. Nzabonimpa was also an officer in the former Rwandan army and now lives in Brussels, where he works in IT, she said. Still according to Makolo, North Kivu Governor Julien Paluku asked the UN mission in DRC to fly the two men to Walikale, a town deep in the forest, so they could meet FDLR commander Sylvestre Mudacumura."

  What will the Security Council members say or do about that? Forget the French picked scribes -- they only have eyes for the M23. That's why France choose them.

  From the Group of Experts report, in which Inner City Press obtained and then exclusively put online earlier this year (as credited not only by BBC and Bloomberg, neither of which asked to go on this trip unlike, say, BBC in 2008) but by Congolese publication like Le Potential:

"On 22 May 2013, aware of this ongoing problem of movement of bags and the confusion it created, local authorities took the decision to stop any movement of bags from Bisie mine to the village of Njingala, where minerals are stored or transported to Goma. On 27 May, in a letter to the Congolese Minister of Mines, the governor of North Kivu, Julien Paluku, requested authorization to release all the minerals stored in the village of Mubi."

  So Paluku wanted to release those minerals. Click here for Inner City Press report from a panel discussion of conflict minerals and the US Dodd Frank Act held Thursday night at the NYC Bar Association as the Council and the French picked scribes took off on their trip.

  Paluku raised some mineral (well, gold) issues earlier, implicating American and French nationals in illegal gold smuggling. Click here for Inner City Press story from 2011. 

  Will US Ambassador Samantha Power raise that (as she did the Minova rapes by the US trained 391st Battalion of the Congolese Army, on which we continue to await a response from the US Mission to the UN, as it await a transcript requested from MONUCO)? 

  Will France's Deputy Permanent Representative Alexis Lamek, who at the last minute replaced on the trip Permanent Representative Gerard Araud, after he picked the scribes?

  In 2008, at least France's Permanent Representative Ripert was ON the trip, making his promises, including in front of BBC. Now in 2013, France hand-picked media who don't even report, at least two of whom lack credibility, and didn't send its Permanent Representative. And what ever happened to Ripert's promise? Watch this site.