On Congo, ICC Belatedly Convicts Germain Katanga, But Child Soldier Recuiter Kerim Still Free, Ladsous Who Met With Bashir Stonewalls Still

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 7 -- After the International Criminal Court scaled back its charges against Germain Katanga, today it announced:

Germain Katanga, alleged commander of the Force de résistance patriotique en Ituri [Patriotic Force of Resistance in Ituri] (FRPI), was tried before Trial Chamber II, composed of Judges Bruno Cotte, Fatoumata Dembele Diarra and Christine Van den Wyngaert... In her dissenting opinion, Judge Van den Wyngaert challenges the change in the characterization of Germain Katanga’s mode of liability. She argues that the change in characterization rendered the trial unfair and breached the rights of the Defense, as it did not receive proper notification of the new charges and was not afforded a reasonable opportunity to conduct investigations in order to mount a defence against them.

  But if Katanga is guilty, even of lesser charges and with this dissent, why wasn't Peter Karim ever put on trial? For the FPRI he recruited child soldiers, and kidnapped (and killed) UN Peacekeepers.

  Then head of UN Peacekeeper Jean-Marie Guehenno knows or knew all about Kerim, who in exchange for releasing the UN Peacekeepers he didn't kill demanded such things as the return of his motorcycle and a slew of boots. Guehenno, back in the era before candor was banned in the UN, mused that Kerim might be on drugs. 

  On camera, Guehenno told Inner City Press of Kerim / Karim, "I know he wanted to be a colonel... if he does become a colonel in the Congolese army, he will need a lot of training, let me say that." 

  But he struck a deal in Congo itself, and moved into the Grand Hotel in Kinsasha. The ICC became a tool of Joseph Kabila against his enemies.

  And the UN? Has it gotten better on child soldiers since it looked the other way on the Peter Kerim (non) case? Guehenno's successor twice removed, Herve Ladsous, on March 6 refused to answer an Inner City Press question about child soldiers.

  Under Ladsous, UN Peacekeeper has incorporated into its Mali Mission a UN-listed recruiter of child soldiers, and is about to do it again in the Central African Republic. 

  Ladsous may cook the books, so to speak, and pragmatically get them delisted. But it is not credible, including because no questions are taken about it.

  Nor has Ladsous explained his meeting in July 2013 with ICC-indictee Omar al Bashir, which Inner City Press asked ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda about, click here for that. 

  Now Ladsous' DPKO in South Sudan has been caught driving guns, by road, in white UN trucks. Where's the accountability?

   Here is UK coverage of how low Ladsous has taken UN Peacekeeping. His new spokesperson Nick Birnback, who used to work for Guehenno, has adopted the circus-like stonewalling of his predecessor, Kieran Dwyer.

  Dwyer now runs communications for OCHA, the UN's humanitarian arm. Click here for a video of Ladsous refusing questions about the 100 rapes in Minova by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army, and Dwyer's rationalization. 

  This is today's UN. Watch this site.

   

Ladsous' Cover Up: UN Says Helps FARDC in Ituri, But Not Which Units & If In Minova During Rapes

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 16 -- While the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations claims it will not work with or support units of the Congolese army which engage in rape or other abuse, DPKO chief Herve Ladsous has three times on camera refused to answer Press questions about Congolese Army rapes in late November in Minova. 

 Click for videos of November 27, December 7 & December 18.

The UN has even refused to say which units of the Congolese army it works with. 

   But when it was reported that in a particular operations in Mambasa the UN supported the Congolese Army or FARDC, Inner City Press on January 15 asked about it.

   Twenty four hours later, just as the January 16 UN noon briefing became, Nesirky's office emailed Inner City Press this:

On 5 January, the Mayi Mayi Simba militia attacked and captured the city of Mambasa, Ituri, in Province Orientale. The next day, on 6 January, MONUSCO supported the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) in an operation against Mayi Mayi Simba, which led to the recapturing of the city of Mambasa. The FARDC is now in full control of Mambasa Town and MONUSCO is carrying out joint patrols with FARDC.

  The response totally ignores Inner City Press' question of WHICH UNITS of the FARDC were being supported by the UN. How can Ladsous' DPKO spend public money and refuse to disclose who it is helping?

  The UN also provided a response about the "Minova investigations" which still does not specify which FARDC unit were there -- Inner City Press is aware of, at least, Regiment 802 and Regiment 1001 -- nor even how many soldiers are accused of the rapes, as opposed to looting.

  To many, this has become Ladsous' cover up. And where is Ladsous? Watch this site.

REVIEW: Kofi Annan Memoir Downplays Oil for Food, Congo and Corruption, Ignores Western Sahara

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 22 -- There is a telling omission, among many, in Kofi Annan's 2012 memoir "Interventions." 

  The Oil for Food scandal is addressed, how ever self-servingly, in five page -- Benon Sevan, who is still on the lam, is not mentioned. Western Sahara, where the UN has had a peacekeeping if not referendum mission since before Annan came to head the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, is not mentioned at all.

   The Democratic Republic of the Congo, in which the UN has had its largest and longest running peacekeeping operation, barely figure in the book, except when Annan praises Jacques Chirac to sending French soldiers into Ituri as Operation Artemis. All four UN Peacekeeping chiefs since Annan have been from France, with the current boss Herve Ladsous refusing to answer any Press questions. On this, Annan was better than his successor(s).

   Virtually nowhere in Annan's book are UN scandals or the need to reform mentioned. Annan mentions and thanks his top lawyer Nicolas Michel -- without any mention that he violated Article 100 of the UN Charter by having the Swiss government pay for his palatial Manhattan apartment while ostensibly working only for the UN.

   Annan mentions Martin Griffiths helping him, without noting that he left his employment in Geneva after money went missing under his watch. Alan Doss, who pushed UNDP to hire his daughter -- and did nothing while the person whose job was taken for this nepotism was prosecuted in US courts -- does not appear in the book (butdid appear, at least until noted, on Annan's Syria "dream team").  UN official Angela Kane is thanked -- as "Angela King" (Page xiii).

  There is something regal in Annan's retelling of events. Even of the Rwandan genocide, he quotes President Paul Kagame that "he did not trust Daillaire's [sic] ability to protect him when he made official visits to the UN field headquarters" (Page 53).

   Annan claims that he established with the International Monetary Fund "an unprecedented level of cooperation" (Page 221). But even now, the UN's ECOSOC and other bodies are subservient to and sometimes ignored by the IMF.

   The failure to reform the UN he blames on developing world ambassadors like Munir Akram of Pakistan, writing that Akram was "typical" in that he "routinely claimed to have 'very strong instructions' but could then change those instructions if needed" (Pages 146-7).

   Amid all this some good work is quietly done: by Department of Political Affairs officials like Craig Jenness (page 196) and Anna Tibaijuka.

   Ban Ki-moon appears only twice in the book: asking Annan to deal with post-election violence in Kenya, then in connection with Annan's failed Syria mediation which is now a selling point for the book.

   Ironically, despite Ban's spokesperson's office's denials orstonewalling when Inner City Press first asked about it, having heard bragging at Singapore's mission to the UN, Ban has already collaborated on a book -- watch this site.