UNITED
NATIONS, May
21 -- Ahead of
the arrival of
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon and
his
Intervention
Brigade in the
Democratic
Republic of
Congo, the
Congolese Army
was using
attack
helicopters
just outside
of Goma.
At
the UN noon
briefing on
May 21, Inner
City Press
asked Ban's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey if the
Congolese Army
units involved
in
135
rapes in
Minova, the
41st and 391st
Battalions,
were involved
in
the fighting.
Del Buey said
he would have
to check. Video
here, from
Minute 6:38.
This
seems like
something UN
Peacekeeping
should know,
and quickly,
after its
Herve
Ladsous
stonewalled on
the rapes for
four months. Click here for video of Ladsous
refusing
Inner City
Press questions
about the
rapes.
Ban
Ki-moon
speaking from
Mozambique,
his stop
before the
DRC, said the
new fighting
only proved
the need for
the
Intervention
Brigade. To
some, it
seemed like
circular
logic.
But
well placed
sources have
told Inner
City Press of
another,
equally
telling
conflict. As
Ban and World
Bank chief Jim
Kim prepared
for
their stop
after the DRC,
Rwanda, the
sources say
Ban was angry
he
was not being
offered a
state dinner.
While
the Ban's Jim
Kim was said
to be "more
relaxed" about
it,
Ban was not.
One source
muses, "What
are Ban's
priorities?"
There
is certainly a
lot of pomp
and
circumstance
with Ban's UN,
with
retinues of
body guards
and protocol
officers.
"Style over
substance,"
one of the
sources put
it.
Also
at the May 21
noon briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
Del Buey if
there
would be a
state dinner
-- he said he
didn't know --
and if there
had
initially been
on planned (he
did not
answer.)
Del
Buey ended the
briefing even
as Inner City
Press tried to
ask another
question, on
only its third
topic of the
day. Video
here, from
Minute 9:38.
What was the
rush? And so
it goes in
Ban's UN.
Also,
a lack of or
only belated
transparency.
Even with
regard to this
trip, when
Inner City
Press asked if
Ban would
visit
Mozambique,
after UNICEF
tweeted it,
Ban's office
of the
spokesperson
refused to
confirm. Then
of the DRC
leg, the
MONUSCO
mission even
announced it
at a press
conference,
but Ban's
office refused
to confirm.
Control
freaks too,
then, or at
least less
than press
friendly.
Inner
City Press
asked if Ban's
UN has any
comment on
crackdowns on
the
media in
Uganda, the
Daily Monitor,
Red Pepper,
Dembe FM and
KFM,
where Ban will
be going next.
I would not
want to
pre-judge, Del
Buey said. Or
would that be,
predict? Watch
this
site.
, 
