New UN Report on Child Soldiers Tap-Dances on Colombia, India, Pakistan, Philippines & Thailand

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On Free Syrian Army Use of Child Soldiers, Reported by UN, French PR Araud Says Only "O.P 1" -- Pulling a Ladsous

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 11 -- On Syria when French Ambassador Gerard Araud emerged from the UN Security Council on February 11, his spokesperson Frederic Jung made sure various forms of friendly state media could be serviced. 

  Inner City Press asked, repeatedly, "Child soldiers?"  This is because the Free Syrian Army, which France supports, has been found by the UN itself to both recruit and use child soldiers.  Here is the UN report (Para 12-13); here is UK comment.

  Since this was ostensibly a French priority under Araud's predecessor Jean-Maurice Ripert and de la Sabliere before that, Inner City Press put the question to Araud.

   But Araud's spokesperson Jung called on France 24, he called on US state media, he called, twice, on Reuters UN bureau chief.  Finally when Inner City Press again said "Child soldiers?" Araud answered as he walked away from the microphone -- pulling a Ladsous, it's called -- saying "O.P. 1," or operative paragraph one, which cites the UN report and condemns recruitment and use.

  But that's not the question: the question is, how can France continue to support a group that is named by the UN as a recruiter and user of child soldiers? We will continue asking.

  When UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi took press questions in Geneva on February 11, he confirmed he'll meet on February 14 with the US' Wendy Sherman and Russia's Gatilov, then return to New York "sometime next week" to tell Secretary General Ban Ki-moon what's going on.

    (Apparently phones and e-mail aren't good enough -- perhaps wise in light of the NSA and Nuland's intercepted call about Jeff Feltman and F- the EU.)

   Just as at the US State Department briefing on February 10, Brahimi was asked, Why wait until Friday? Brahimi said these are important people, it's hard to find a day.  Told that Syria's Mekdad complained his government had not been consulted, Brahimi agreed, saying that's how these trilateral meetings are done.

   Why don't you impose an agenda, Brahimi was asked.  He replied, I can't put a gun to their heads.

  The next question began, since you don't have a gun -- Brahimi cut in, I do have a gun but I don't want to use it. But what's the gUN?

  At the UN on the evening of February 10, at Iran's National Day reception featuring, among others, the Permanent Representatives of France, the UK and China, many references were made to how "delicate" the talks in Geneva are. Some cite this as the reason not to vote on the draft humanitarian resolution Russia's Vitaly Churkin calls "beyond redemption." Could ending the talks be Brahimi's gun?

  Here's Inner City Press tweeted photo of French PR Araud and Iran's PR Khazaee, and here's one of Araud making some point to Ban Ki-moon moments before.

The Syria "humanitarian draft" which French foreign minister Laurent Fabius has vowed to push in UN Security Council this week, while French President Francois Hollande is in Washington and San Francisco, was described by Russia's Ambassador Vitaly Churkin on February 10 as "beyond redemption."

  "They were trying to convene a meeting, but we felt that was not necessary," Churkin told the press. "They were insisting that the meeting should be dedicated to discussing a certain text, but we felt the text is beyond redemption." He said Russia wants to be back to "pragmatics."

  "This text is not going to be adopted," Churkin said, coming out of the UN Security Council seconds behind US Ambassador Samantha Power.

  An hour earlier in the US State Department briefing, deputy spokesperson Marie Harf had talked up the humanitarian resolution; she was asked why the US is supposedly deferring to the too-slow UN, after the high level humanitarian meeting in Rome.

  Churkin also said that meeting has been "quite useless" and that it "departed from the original conception." UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos is slated to brief the Security Council about it on February 13, but now one wonders: to what end?

  In Geneva, UN mediator Brahimi met with the Syrian National Coalition and the government's Bashar Ja'afari, usually its ambassador at the UN. Unlike in the last round, Brahimi did not hold a press conference. France 24 showed Ja'afari walking into entrance A13 of the UN in Geneva, then the SNC, in a loop.

  Neither they, nor other ostensibly Syria-focused media have done much follow up, but on January 29 Inner City Pressfirst published quotes from the UN's report on Syria Children and Armed Conflict, specifically that the Free Syrian Army recruits and uses child soldiers: 

"Throughout the reporting period, the United Nations received consistent reports of recruitment and use of children by FSA-affiliated groups."

  Inner City Press asked the US Mission to the UN to respond to the report, since Congress in its 2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act said the US Government should condemn the use of child soldiers by paramilitaries like the FSA. Inner City Press was told to put the request for comment in writing, and did, to the UK Mission as well.

   The report had already been circulated to Security Council members in English; the UK said it would wait to provide Inner City Press with a comment until the report was made official on February 3, that is to say, when it was translated into the UN's five other official languages and put on the Internet.

   Readers asked Inner City Press where on the UN website to find the Syria child soldiers report. Inner City Press told them it would go online on February 3, and noted that theFree UN Coalition for Access had previously opposed the UN withholding or delaying the release of important document like this.

  In this case, however, the delay affirmatively helped the Syrian opposition. On January 29 they were in Geneva, issuing statements about abuses by the Assad government. They were not asked about the Free Syrian Army's use of child soldiers.

   On February 3, Inner City Press again asked the UK for its comment, and it did arrive the following day on February 4:

"The UK absolutely condemns the use of child soldiers in all cases, and strongly supports international efforts to stop the use of child soldiers. We urge all parties in the Syrian conflict to release any children held in detention.

"Armed conflict affects millions of lives around the world, and children are among those most vulnerable to the effects of conflict. The only way to secure the long-term future of Syria’s children is to find a political solution to the crisis.

"We have made clear our absolute condemnation of the use of child soldiers. As noted in this report, the use of child soldiers by the opposition is not systematic and is limited to certain elements. We have provided training to the Supreme Military Council of the Syrian opposition on the law of armed conflict, and will continue to work with them to help ensure that they meet their obligations under international law."

    Before publishing the UK's quote, Inner City Press again in writing asked two spokespeople of the US Mission to the UN for their comment -- noting that the UK had provided one. As Inner City Press noted, that might be OK for the United Kingdom -- but what about the US, including in light of the 2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act, which provides for example:

It is the sense of Congress that— 

 (1) the United States Government should condemn the conscription, forced recruitment, or use of children by governments, paramilitaries, or other organizations; 

 (2) the United States Government should support and, to the extent practicable, lead efforts to establish and uphold international standards designed to end the abuse of human rights described in paragraph (1); 

  There are prohibitions on funding which can only be overridden for formal, public findings by the President. Given all this, Inner City Press on February 4 again asked the two spokespeople for the US Mission to the UN its January 30 question: "could the US provide aid to a non-state group, the FSA and its affiliates, which the UN has found using child soldiers?" 

  The New York Times, saying that the child soldiers report was "quietly presented to the Security Council last week," had a quote from the State Department. Why was the report, and this statement, delayed a full six days until the Geneva II talks were over?

  Even more cynically, Voice of America on whoseBroadcasting Board of Governors US Secretary of State John Kerry serves, also ran a delayed / withheld story on the report; Reuters typically didn't bring up the US Child Soldiers Prevention Act  and claimed that the report was released on February 4, when even the Times said it was February 3 -- and see Inner City Press' January 29 story, here.

 On January 29, Inner City Press published additional quotes from the report, including that:

"Boys aged 12 to 17 were trained, armed, and used as combatants or to man checkpoints. For instance, a 15 year-old boy reported being recruited in April 2012 by the FSA in Tall Kalakh (Tartus governate), and participation in military operations.... Also indicative was the case of a 16 year-old boy from Homs who reportedly joined the FSA as a combatant. In March 2013, his family reported to the United Nations that he was still fighting with the group."

And is this boy still fighting with the FSA? There is more to be said about this UN report, but what steps will actually be taken on this UN report? Watch this site.

   

Rich Williamson, Who Offered Candid Criticism of UN Peacekeeping in Sudan, Has Died: Rest in Peace

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 9 -- Rich Williamson, the US envoy on Darfur in 2008, has died. While at the UN, Williamson was frank. On June 17, 2008, he came to announce that Khartoum had been asked for permission to open up six additional routes for humanitarian convoys to Darfur.

  Inner City Press had asked if the UN peacekeepers stationed in El Fasher should rather be deployed to protect at least some of the World Food Program trucks which have been subject to hijacking. Williamson agreed there should be "more activity from the UN." Video here (old UN Real Media).

  Down in the UN basement in a conference room that day, Williamson painted a fuller picture of UN inaction, of UNMIS peacekeepers sitting in their base while, he said, 25 feet away Sudanese homes were being burned and looted in Abyei. 

  "We pay one billion dollars a year for UNMIS," Williamson said. And yet they stood by while 52,000 lives were shattered and nearly 100 dead.

UN Photo: Williamson and Ban Ki-moon, condolence to be added if issued

Six weeks after Williamson's candor, the Security Council went late before renewing the mandate of the mission in Darfur, complete with high school antics captured here. Williamson did good work, including on Darfur. Rest in Peace.

UN Photo: Williamson & Mia Farrow at UN

Footnote: Also on June 17, 2008 but still relevant today, some of French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert's sudden standoffishness with the press during the Security Council trip to Sudan and Chad which Inner City Press covered became more comprehensible. 

  Sources told Inner City Press that it was only on the trip that Ripert learned that he would not be getting the job of head of UN Peacekeeping. At the last moment, these sources say, the Ban Ki-moon administration because concerned that Ripert's constant references to Bernard Kouchner might create a problem of split loyalty. And so France was asked for another name, and forwarded that of Alain Le Roy.

   Turns out that Herve Ladsous was considered and rejected at that time, as he was before Jean-Marie Guehenno was selected. He finally got put into the job in 2011 after the UN chose then un-chose Jerome Bonnafont, and Sarkozy administration jammed Ladsous through. He has refused to answer Press questions, video here, UK coverage here. We'll have more on this.

   

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.