On
Rapes by DRC
Army, Belkacem
Says “Time Is
Enemy,” Will
She
Tell Ladsous?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
5 -- When
French
minister Najat
Vallaud-Belkacem
took
media
questions at
the UN on
Tuesday, she
brought up
sexual
violence
in conflict,
saying she'd
met with UN
expert Bangura
on the topic.
Inner
City Press
when called on
asked her
about Herve
Ladsous, the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row atop UN
Peacekeeping,
delaying three
and a half
months and
counting in
taking action
of the 126
rapes in
Minova by
the Congolese
Army, which
his MONUSCO
mission
continues to
support.
Ladsous
refused to
answer on Nov 27, Dec
7 and Dec 18 (video)
Vallaud-Belkacem
to
her credit
took the
question
seriously,
saying that
“time is the
enemy” in rape
investigations.
Precisely.
So why, after
Ladsous on
February 6
(after
complaints by
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access)
told Inner
City Press on
camera that
the UN knows
the
identities of
the majority
of the
perpetrators,
is the UN
now
continuing to
wait for a
Congolese
investigation
that is mostly
not
looking at
rapes, and on
rapes is
looking
elsewhere?
Again
to her credit,
after mention
France's work
with the ICC,
Vallaud-Belkacem
asked if her
answer was
responsive.
Inner City
Press
suggested, in
France, that
she raise the
issue of the
Minova rapes
(and “time is
the enemy”) to
Herve Ladsous.
It's not
Bangura who
needs to hear
it, and it
seems no other
UN official
dares speak to
Ladsous, or
say that this
emperor has no
clothes. Vallaud-Belkacem
might also
consider that
Ladsous
unlike other
(countries')
Under
Secretaries
General has
refused to
make public
financial
disclosure. Watch
this site.
Footnote:
While
waiting for
Najat
Vallaud-Belkacem
to arrive, the
focus of some
in the Dag
Hammarskjold
Library
Auditorium was
on making sure
that
the UN
Correspondents
Association
UNCA,
increasingly
known as the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance,
could get the
first
question. At
the
February
20 press
conference by
President Evo
Morales of
Bolivia,
this
turned into a
fiasco. He
did
not want to
call on UNCA,
but UNCA
insisted,
repeatedly.
This
time it was
not a problem:
the French
Mission to the
UN was running
the press
conference,
and they well
know (some say
use)
UNCA. Still
to the credit
of the
recently
promoted
spokesman (our
au
revoir
to the last
one is here),
though
somewhat
inevitably,
after a number
of
French
journalists in
a row, Inner
City Press was
allowed a
question.
There appeared
to be some
push-back when
the FUNCA
welcome and
thanks
were offered
-- there
shouldn't be,
it is not or
should not be
French
policy to have
one-party rule
in anything.
Watch this
site.
, 
