On Darfur, UN Never Answered Inner City Press On March 2013 Nyala Kidnappings, Now Ladsous Exposed by Radio Dabanga

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 7, 2014 -- Back on March 25, 2013, Inner City Press asked the UN Spokesperson about how the UN Peacekeeping in Darfur could have let a group of Internally Displaced People be kidnapped while they were ostensibly protected:

Inner City Press: there is this incident where IDPs were taken hostage or kidnapped by people that were in Government army uniforms, and somehow UNAMID is saying that they opposed it and they denounced the kidnapping, but some people are wondering how armed UN peacekeepers could have IDPs under their care and they could all be kidnapped. Can you clarify how it took place and how it is consistent with protection of civilians?

Spokesperson: Well, I have asked the Mission for more details on that, and I think if you were listening carefully you will have heard me read out precisely what you just said to me.

Inner City Press: But what I am asking about specifically about how it could take place?

Spokesperson: I heard what you said, and I’ve said that I’ll see if I can find out more, which is what I have already asked the Mission and Peacekeeping Operations.

  Now Radio Dabanga has published a memo by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, from April 10, 2013, still saying he didn't know how it happened. 

  What is Ladsous doing? Then, and apparently now, he refuses Press questions about topics ranging from Sudan -- why did he meet with International Criminal Court indictee Omar al Bashir in July 2013? -- to rapes in the DR Congo by UN Peacekeeping's partners in the Congolese Army.

  Dabanga to its credit says it is reporting the memos along with FP. The FP story, at least the first one, does not mention Dabanga, nor Ladsous' meeting with Bashir. Previously an explanation was provided for not reporting on Ladsous' extraordinary and public "non-answering," noted from the UK by the New Statesman, here.

  Will the publication of these leaks, in a non Ladsous protective way by Radio Dabanga, finally help bring accountability?

  The citation is to former UNAMID spokesperson Aicha Elbasri. Back on February 4, 2014, Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson about the full-on critique of UNAMID and DPKO by Ms Elbasri:

Inner City Press: On Darfur, maybe you have something on the Government ordering the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) to suspend operations. And I also wanted to know if there’s any response from the UN to former UNAMID [African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur] spokesperson Aicha Elbasri. She’s gone public, saying basically that, while serving as spokesperson of UNAMID, she wasn’t given information; that the Mission under-reports abuses of civilians and other developments in Darfur. I wanted to know, what’s the response of the UN to that?

Spokesperson: I’d have to check with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations on both of those.

  So, respecting that, Inner City Press waited. The answers weren't directly provided by e-mail as the UN does with other, but read out at the noon briefing, apparently to see if anyone else might report more positively on them (no one did)

"we were asked about reporting by the African Union–UN Mission on developments in Darfur. UNAMID notes that it reports verified information on the situation in Darfur to the United Nations and to the African Union on a daily basis. This information is then made public in the Secretary-General’s quarterly reports to the Security Council and, as the situation warrants, in press statements."

  To a casual or ill-informed listener, it sounded like a legitimate answer. But as the UN and its Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous know, this was part of Aicha Elbasri's critique, even then:

"On 24 April I resigned from UNAMID and wrote my end-of-mission report requesting the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to look into UNAMID’s violations of the UN Public Information policy which calls for open, transparent and honest information-sharing with the media. I didn't receive any response. On past August, I requested the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services to open an investigation into the matter. The information I shared with them should have made anyone who cares about the people of Darfur and the UN values and policies jump, call me and take a quick action. What I received so far is a deafening silence. And I can no longer wait, because every day that goes by, more men, women and children die in Darfur in total impunity and invisibility. So today I will break the UN code of conduct and share with you some confidential photos and information that show the African Union, the United Nations and UNAMID’ conspiracy of silence."

  Surely Ladsous' DPKO (and Carman Lapointe's OIOS) knew what Aicha Elbasri submitted. But the public response was as set forth above. Now, will the publication of these leaks, in a non Ladsous protective way by Radio Dabanga, finally help bring accountability? We'll be following this. Watch this site.

   

On Darfur, US Condemns Sudan's Attacks in Nyala, Herve Ladsous' UN in NY Quiet, He Met Bashir in July 2013

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 8 -- Amid attacks on civilians in Darfur in late February, and the blocking of African Union - UN peacekeepers of UNAMID from accessing the sites, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous in New York had said little.

   Back in July 2013 Ladsous met with Sudan's president Omar al Bashir, indicted for genocide in Darfur by the International Criminal Court, but has refused to say why, despite critiques from some human rights groups, the Press and implicitly Fatou Bensouda, prosecutor of the ICC.  This is Ladsous: film & UK.

  On the morning of March 8 US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki issued this statement:

We are deeply concerned by the recent escalation of violence by the Sudanese Government-supported Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Darfur. The United States strongly condemns attacks on civilians and calls upon the Government of Sudan to prevent further violence and to cease its own campaign of aerial bombardments.

On February 27th, the RSF, with media reports of support from the Sudanese Air Force, burned homes and attacked civilians outside of Nyala, resulting in multiple casualties and thousands of displaced civilians in Darfur. On February 23rd members of the RSF attacked and robbed internally displaced persons from the Kalma Camp in South Darfur, according to media reports. The Government of Sudan has refused to allow UNAMID peacekeepers access to the area to investigate these incidents.

We urge the Government of Sudan to uphold its commitments and allow UNAMID peacekeepers unhindered and immediate access to these areas, as mandated by the African Union and the United Nations.

The people of Darfur have suffered insecurity, violence and atrocities for far too long. Together with the international community, we urge the Government of Sudan and the armed movements active in Darfur to begin an inclusive and comprehensive political dialogue to achieve a peaceful resolution to the conflicts in Sudan and reestablish the rule of law.

   But where is Ladsous' DPKO? 

  Back on February 4, Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's lead spokesperson Martin Nesirkyabout a full-on critique of UN Peacekeeping's Darfur mission by its former spokesperson, Aicha Elbasri:

Inner City Press: On Darfur, maybe you have something on the Government ordering the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) to suspend operations. And I also wanted to know if there’s any response from the UN to former UNAMID [African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur] spokesperson Aicha Elbasri. She’s gone public, saying basically that, while serving as spokesperson of UNAMID, she wasn’t given information; that the Mission under-reports abuses of civilians and other developments in Darfur. I wanted to know, what’s the response of the UN to that?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I’d have to check with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations on both of those.

  So, respecting that, Inner City Press waited. The answers weren't directly provided by e-mail as the UN does with other, but read out at the noon briefing, apparently to see if anyone else might report more positively on them (no one did)

"we were asked about reporting by the African Union–UN Mission on developments in Darfur. UNAMID notes that it reports verified information on the situation in Darfur to the United Nations and to the African Union on a daily basis. This information is then made public in the Secretary-General’s quarterly reports to the Security Council and, as the situation warrants, in press statements."

  To a casual or ill-informed listener, it sounded like a legitimate answer. But as the UN and its Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous know, this is part of Aicha Elbasri's critique:

"On 24 April I resigned from UNAMID and wrote my end-of-mission report requesting the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to look into UNAMID’s violations of the UN Public Information policy which calls for open, transparent and honest information-sharing with the media. I didn't receive any response. On past August, I requested the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services to open an investigation into the matter. The information I shared with them should have made anyone who cares about the people of Darfur and the UN values and policies jump, call me and take a quick action. What I received so far is a deafening silence. And I can no longer wait, because every day that goes by, more men, women and children die in Darfur in total impunity and invisibility. So today I will break the UN code of conduct and share with you some confidential photos and information that show the African Union, the United Nations and UNAMID’ conspiracy of silence."

  Surely Ladsous' DPKO (and Carman Lapointe's OIOS) know what Aicha Elbasri submitted. But the public response was as set forth above.

  Ban Ki-moon tried to send his former speechwriter Michael Meyer to Sudan as communications chief of UNAMID; it never happened. Now Meyer is in Nairobi, "dean of the graduate school of media and communications at Aga Khan University." On the ICRC, Inner City Press checked and has found that inquiry was made - by the ICRC, not the UN -- with Sudan's "HAC." We'll have more on all this. Watch this site.

   

UN's Strange Quiet on Its Darfur Catering Contractors, Negotiating For Themselves?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 13 -- When asked why the UN said nothing for more than a week about the taking of three of its catering contractors in Darfur as hostages, UN deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey told Inner City Press "when people are being held, we await the process of negotiation."Video here.

  What's strange here, though, is that there was no policy of not disclosing the hostage taking -- it was just another of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations' games. 

  The downing of the helicopter and taking of the three individuals -- DPKO now stresses to Inner City Press they are NOT staff of the UN, but catering contractors -- would have been disclosed at the August 5 noon briefing if anyone had asked.

  Thus, it's like playing the game of Twenty Questions with the DPKO -- except that 20 opportunities to ask a question are not given. Sometimes, only one.

When Inner City Press asked Herve Ladsous' four DPKO spokespeople, as well as Del Buey, about the hostage taking on the morning on August 13, Del Buey replied to all that

Date: Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 11:39 AM
From: Eduardo Del Buey [at] un.org
Subject: Re: Request for confirmation that a UNAMID helicopter has gone down in Darfur, and again re Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, pls confirm receipt, thank you
To: Kieran Dwyer, Andre-Michel Essoungou, Josephine Guerrero, Farhan Haq
Cc: FUNCA

Colleagues

I will reply using the if Asked of 05 August.

Cheers

Eduardo del Buey
Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General

  Moments later, the If-Asked that would have been read out, that is, disclosed on August 5 if the question had been asked arrived:

On 3 August 2013, the helicopter of a African Union/United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) contractor, tasked with delivering supplies to various UNAMID locations in South Darfur, made an emergency landing due to severe weather conditions.

Upon landing, 50 kilometers southeast of Nyala town, the crew members were detained by members of the Sudan Liberation Army - Mini Manawi (SLA/MM).

Communication is being maintained with all parties and negotiations are underway for the safe release of the crew, as well as the recovery of the helicopter.

  This was belatedly released by UNAMID in Sudan on August 13 -- eight days after it would have been released if-asked. The UN has no policy of not disclosing such information - it just will only do so if-asked, while controlling how many questions can get asked. Something is wrong.

Inner City Press, since publishing a first story on this and asking at the noon briefing, has received from the UN a request to clarify that the hostages are catering contractors. Del Buey at the August 13 noon briefing said "UN people have been taken;" both stories have been updated to specify "catering contractors." Does a separate standard, of disclosure or anything else, apply to them?

Also, apparently "if-asked" (and it was, by Inner City Press), this update has arrived:

"in terms of an update, we have the following information: The catering company has been in negotiations with SLA-Minni Minawi over the release of the helicopter and crew, with UNAMID also calling on Minni Minawi to release the occupants unharmed."

So the catering company is left to negotiate for itself? Watch this site.

   

After Meeting ICC Indicted Omar al Bashir, UN's Ladsous Tells AFP “I Cannot Accept Impunity," No DRC Answers

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 6 -- For UN Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous has been the worst of both worlds.

  He is soft on France's historic and colonial allies -- thearmy of Chad which recruits child soldiers, the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo and militias they support, on the rapes in Minova and most recently the Group of Experts report the full text of which Inner City Press exclusively put online.

  To try to make up for or cover it that up, Ladsous now talks and plays rough, bragging about a killing in Darfur and “keeping the body.” This is not the UN; at least, it is not what the UN is supposed to be. But it is what Ladsous is turning UN Peacekeeping into.

At the UN's July 5 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked about Ladsous' extraordinary and ghoulish quote in Khartoum, where he met ICC indictee Omar al Bashir, that a “UNAMID patrol...kept a body of one of the assailants.” But even worse was coming. From the UN's transcript:

Inner City Press: Mr. Ladsous said of an attack on a UNAMID patrol in East Darfur that the UN kept the body of one of the assailants and hopes to identify, using that body, the gunmen who attacked the peacekeepers. And I just wonder, is that common? What's the legality of keeping the body of an opposing, I guess of an assailant?

Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq: Well, regarding the question of the body... one assailant was killed and the body was handed over to Government authorities.

  Then Agence France Presse, among with Reuters at the UN Ladsous' go-to place for unquestioning coverage or mere transcription of what he says, ran an interview -- exclusive, to be sure -- of Ladsous in Khartoum.

AFP allowed Ladsous to say, without any question, that "I cannot accept impunity.” This is laughable. When two units of the Congolese Army which Ladsous' DPKO supports, the 41st and 391st Battalions, committed 135 rapes at Minova in November, Ladsous spend four months trying to cover it up.

Ladsous refused to answer any Press questions about it. He took AFP,Reuters and Voice of America (which on July 5 mis-reported Nyala as “Nyla”) into the hallway for a private briefing after which nothing was reported about the Minova rapes. Video here.

Even when forced to say something about the rapes, he did it to favored scribes -- and then didn't follow through, continuing DPKO support to the units even thought only two soldiers have been arrested, for 135 rapes. Ladsous very much CAN and does accept impunity.

A week ago Inner City Press asked all four of Ladsous' spokespeople -- Kieran Dwyer, Andre-Michel Essoungou, Josephine Guerrero and Anayansi Lopez -- a simple question.

Inner City Press asked whether Congolese Army units listed in the Group of Experts report the full text of which Inner City Press exclusively put online, as credited by BBC and Bloomberg News, have received support from the UN's (and Ladsous') MONUSCO.

That same day receipt was acknowledged by Anayansi Lopez and a DPKO answer promised. A week later, nothing. The question has been put MONUSCO, by the new Free UN Coalition for Access, through @FUNCA_info. MONUSCO like other missions has become less responsive under Ladsous than previously under Le Roy or even Jean-Marie Guehenno. This is Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping, and its approach to impunity. Watch this site.

  

As Voice of America Spin Falters, Below David Ensor, Steve Redisch & Sonja Pace Named by Union at BBG, Global Scheme in Shambles?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 5 -- Just after Independence Day we ask again, why does the US government need a propaganda network, and why turn it loose inside the US? On July 2, Inner City Press published a short critique of Voice of America and its Broadcast Board of Governors, here.

  In the three days since, mail has poured in providing yet more detailed accounts of BBG and Voice of America incompetence and assaults on the principles they supposedly uphold. (Beyond this new communication, just for example today Voice of America mis-identified Nyala, the capital of South Darfur in Sudan, as “Nyla,” here and here for now.)

  The union that represents workers there, AFGE Local 1812, has written that

“poor morale was made markedly worse by a decision in 2010 to re-appoint the present newsroom director [Sonja Pace]. A correspondent since the 1980’s, she had been reassigned from the position of news chief more than a decade earlier. Fast forward to 2010: An audio recording of an open meeting in VOA’s newsroom shows that strong protests against the reappointment of the former news director were dismissed by VOA's Executive Editor [Steve Redisch] a former CNN employee. In the recording, the Executive Editor rejected staff concerns, saying 'you’re responsible for your own morale.' Though he has known of the morale crisis in VOA’s Central News Division created by the 2010 decision, current VOA director David Ensor has allowed this situation to continue.”

  Inner City Press in 2012 had its own experience of these three individuals. VOA's Executive Editor Steve Redisch wrote to the UN asking that Inner City Press' accreditation be “reviewed.”

  The only communication Inner City Press had received from VOA or BBG in Washington prior to this was from Sonja Pace, that “regarding VOA’s Charter and Code, we absolutely stand by those mandates and guidelines, without exception.”

  Apparently Voice of America's principles don't include the First Amendment. Subsquent inquiring under the Freedom of Information Act found David Ensor involved in the decision to try to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN. Ensor served the US State Department in Afghanistan and perhaps re-formed his view of press freedom there.

  Interestingly, the Obama administration has nominated former Afghanistan envoy Ryan Crocker to join the half-empty Broadcasting Board of Governors, along with John Kerry, while claiming that the output under the BBG is entirely independent from the US government. This is not credible.

  The Colombia Journalism Review, with its own conflicts, has made this point, and BBG has belatedly responded. Will any of this finally bring this troika to account? Watch this site.

  

UN Let Darfur IDPs Be Kidnapped, VIP Service to Bozize Clan from UNHCR, MONUSCO Flies the Mayi Mayi

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 25 -- Most of the UN's work is in Africa, but it gets very little oversight of its work there, at least from the press corps it accredits to its New York headquarters.

  On Monday at noon Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky questions about the UN in three countries in Africa: the Central African Republic, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.Video here.

  In CAR, despite a UN political mission there, its envoy Margaret Vogt was in New York on March 13, she told Inner City Press, on vacation. She showed little sense of urgency, saying that she would brief the Security Council “in April” and maybe Ban Ki-moon would issue a statement before then.

  Now the Bozize family has been deposed by the Seleka rebels, and Inner City Press was left, or back, to ask if the UN refugee agency UNHCR is giving some form of VIP service to Bozize's entourage in the DRC, or the same service offered to others fleeing CAR.

  Nesirky said he would check; he declined to confirm if Bozize himself is in Cameroon.

  On Sudan, Nesirky read out a statement about IDPs being kidnapped on the way to Nyala. Inner City Press asked, how was this possible when they were accompanied, if not protected, by armed UN peacekeepers?

  Nesirky insisted he'd already read a statement. But it did not answer the obvious question: what's wrong with UNAMID? Previously UNAMID let rebels in Darfur take all their weapons, without firing a shot. Where IS the Protection of Civilians strategy? The UN has never directly answered that one.

On the DRC, Nesirky did after the briefing provide a written description which we will run in full:

Subject: Your question on Katanga province, DRC
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 1:23 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

The UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) reports that on Saturday, 23 March, following a clash between Mayi Mayi elements and Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) troops in Lubumbashi, Katanga province, 245 Mayi-Mayi combatants entered the Mission compound, where they sought refuge and handed over their arms to peacekeepers.

The Mayi-Mayi combatants arrived at the MONUSCO compound at around 13.30 hours, local time, on Saturday, after being repelled by Government troops, following a surprise attack against Government institutions in Lubumbashi.

Following negotiations mediated by MONUSCO between the provincial authorities and the Mayi-Mayi, on 25 March, the Mayi Mayi combatants were transported by the Congolese authorities to Kinshasa on two flights. MONUSCO welcomes the peaceful surrender of the Mayi-Mayi combatants.

Out of the combatants, UNICEF had identified and separated 40 children to be demobilized and sent back to their families. Local NGOs estimated that at least 35 people, including civilians, Mayi-Mayi and FARDC soldiers, lost their lives in the fighting in the city. All the 16 injured combatants have been transferred to local hospitals for medical treatment. There were no casualties among UN staff. MONUSCO is closely monitoring the situation in Lubumbashi.

   Closely monitoring like the peacekeepers in Darfur “monitored” the IDPs who they let get kidnapped? How is it that there is so little oversight of UN Peacekeeping and its fourth French boss in a row, Herve Ladsous? Watch this site.

In Darfur, UN Says Travel Restrictions Break Agreement, But No Attribution of Pilot Hostake Taking or Kalma Camp Violence

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 2 -- In Darfur, the embattled UN - African Union mission UNAMID has been instructed to only travel, including on the roads of Nyala, after giving prior notice to the government, which has also said it will search UNAMID personnel's bags in airports.

Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky about these new Sudanese government rules. “If implemented, then these restrictions on movement would not be consistent with the Status of Forces Agreement,” Nesirky replied in what seemed a prepared statement. Video here, from Minute 33:38.

Does that mean that UNAMID is resisting the restrictions, in a way it did not resist the orders to only use its helicopters on 48 hours notice, even to defend its peacekeepers? “We're working with the local authorities in South Sudan,” Nesirky said.

Inner City Press last week repeatedly asked if and when the UN would disclose what it knows about who took hostage the Russian pilot, and beat his passengers. On July 30, Inner City Press was told that the pilot, already then released, would rest before being interviewed as to who had taken him.

But when on August 2 Inner City Press asked the UN, which has presumably now interviewed the pilot, to say whether as reported it was pro-government militia, Janjaweed, who were responsible for the incident, Nesirky said the UN still does not know.

Asked if the UN and its Department of Peacekeeping Operations has begun work toward the Security Council required (and compromised) “full understanding of the facts” behind the deaths and violence in the Kalma camp last week, Nesirky said that DPKO chief Alain Le Roy will conduct a previously scheduled briefing for the Press on August 4.

Nesirky then read a prepared that the situation in Kalma has “improved but remains tense,” and that deputy joint Special Representative Mohamed Younis visited Nyala and spoke with the Wali of South Darfur sheiks and UNAMID staff. Nesirky did not fully confirm until after the briefing that three UNAMID peacekeepers, from Sierra Leone, while accompanying Younis died in a car crash. RIP.

We will have more about the roads of Nyala. Watch this site.