UN Checks on Peacekeeper Equipment Looted by Syria Rebels, Video Shows Philippines Flak Jacked, Official Tells ICP of Abandoned Posts

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 23 -- Eleven days after avideo went on YouTube of an injured Syrian rebel writhing in a blue UN flak jacket, UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky said of UN blue helmets being looted, "We are aware of those reports and that seems to be the case."

  Afterward, the UN said the UNDOF mission is checking, but it takes time because some Troop Contributing Countries have left and have to be asked if all their equipment went with them.

  It's true that troops from Austria and Croatia have left -- but in the YouTube video, here, the flak jacket is marked not only UN but also "Philippines." Despite kidnappings by the Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigade, Philippines troops are still in UNDOF.

  So whose flak jacket is that? Watch this site.

Update: Inner City Press is informed by a senior UN official that UNDOF is checking on equipment left behind when the peacekeepers abandoned posts in the UNDOF Area.

  

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.