By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 15, more
here --
Amid reports
on June 27
that the UN
flew a
sanctioned
militia leader
of the FDLR
militia on a
UN aircraft in
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo,
Inner City
Press asked
UN spokesman
Stephane
Dujurric about
it at the UN
noon briefing
on June 27:
Inner
City
Press: why did
MONUSCO
[United
Nations
Organization
Stabilization
Mission in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo] fly
him to Goma to
Kisangani and
then to
Kinshasa when,
in fact, I
think there’s
an arrest
warrant for
him?
Spokesman
Dujarric:
I’m not aware
of any other
services
provided to
him by
MONUSCO.
Dujarric
that day, and
in the
subsequent
times Inner
City Press
asked,
insisted that
not only Mary
Robinson (who
today left her
post as the
UN's Great
Lakes envoy)
but also US
envoy Russ
Feingold
requested the
waiver, and
that the FDLR
leader Gaston
Iyamuremye a/k/a
Rumuli had not
traveled to
Rome, arguing
that only that
was important.
Inner City
Press
disagrees --
why would UN
Peacekeeping
under Herve
Ladsous given his
history on
Rwanda,
representing
France in the
Security
Council in
1994
arguing for
the escape of
the
genocidaires
into Eastern
Congo, fly a
sanctioned
FDLR figure
linked to the
genocide
around?
Then
the Italian
publication
L'Indro
reported
that even
after the
Security
Council
sanctions
committee
stopped Herve
Ladsous'
request for
Rumuli to fly,
he
nevertheless
"embarked on a
areo
dell'Etiophian
Airline
landing at
Fiumicino
airport with
regular
tourist visa"
and staying
until June 30.
Click
here for the
L'indro
article.
One would have
expected to
simply be able
to trust
answers or
denials from
the UN
spokesperson's
office. But of
later, not
only did that
office
apparently
withhold
answers on
this situation
-- they also
doctored
transcripts,
about Pakistani
journalist
Hamid Mir
and then, for the
second time,
censoring even
the name
of the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
from
"its"
transcript,
click here for
that.
In
this context
we summarized
and linked
to the L'indro
article,
then asked UN
deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
about the article
on July 15.
Haq clearly
had an if-asked,
and read it,
denying Rumuli
went to Rome,
instead saying
he was
escorted from
Kinshasa back
to the east. Video here.
Inner City
Press asked
about MONUSCO
escorting
Rumuli.
Haq said what
he had read
did not say
MONUSCO did the
escorting. So
who did? And
if not the UN,
how does the
UN know where
Rumuli went? Watch
this site.
, 
