Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

Brazil Says Advocate Against Dam to Displace 12,000 Could've Come to UN “on Vacation”

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 2 -- During the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York last month, the absence of Brazil's Azelene Kaingang was much noted. She was scheduled to speak on a panel as an advocate against that country's Belo Monte dam project. But she did not come.

On June 2, Inner City Press asked Brazil's Permanent Representative and Mission to the UN about Ms. Kaingang's abence and was told that she was not allowed to come as a government employee, but that she could have come if she had “taken vacation days.”

Brazil's Mission provided a vigorous defense of the dam, saying it would displace “only twelve thousand people” in a poor area “without electricity or running water... not indigenous land.” The defense included deriding those concerned about the displacement as “ladies from Stockholm and Mayfair who need to keep their NGOs going.” One of these NGOs, it should be noted, is Amnesty International.

Lula and Azelene Kaingang in 2006, UN 2011 & dam not shown

More substantively, it was argued that after the nuclear power accident in Japan, and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, hydro-power is the only way for Brazil to go. But what about the 12,000 people the government acknowledges it would displace? We will continue to follow this.

Footnote: during the Permanent Forum, Inner City Press was told of the existence of a blacklist administered by the UN, at the request of governments, of indigenous activists who are not to be allowed to attend in this or future years. This, we are looking into.

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UN Uses Peacekeepers Who “Occupy” Chittagong Hill Tracts, Indigenous Say

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 24, updated -- At the UN the left hand is often out of touch with whom the UN's right hand is hurting. Inner City Press was told Tuesday that the military in Bangladesh is seizing indigenous land in the Chittagong Hill Tracks to train its soldiers who are deployed on UN peacekeeping missions.

Aditya Dewan of the International Jumma Association told Inner City Press that the town in which he was born in the CHT is still “under military occupation,” and that the issue has repeatedly been raised to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, which uses Bangladeshi peacekeepers.

So in the same briefing room, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky to get a response:

Inner City Press: Earlier today in this room, there was a press conference about the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, and it was said that the Bangladesh military, it has seized land from indigenous people to do training for peacekeepers that are deployed with DPKO. This was said by a former UN official, now a professor, and backed up by this Chittagong Hill Tracts guy. So I am just wondering, they both also said that these issues had been raised to DPKO in the past, but I am aware that Bangladesh is one of the major troop-contributing countries, so I just wonder, and you may not have it now, but is there a way to get some response from DPKO to what was said in this room about the use of the Bangladeshi military, the use of the lands there and what’s sort of being done about it?

Spokesperson: I am sure my colleagues in DPKO are watching right now.

But five hours later, there was no response at all. Watch this site.

Update of 7:47 pm -- after publication of the story above, the UN sent a response:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Tue, May 24, 2011 at 6:48 PM
Subject: Response to your question regarding Bangladesh
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Further to your question at the noon briefing, DPKO advises that it is not aware of any land seized for the training of UN peacekeepers by the Bangladeshi army. There may be training facilities for the Bangladeshi army but the only peacekeeping training centre in Bangladesh is in the capital Dhaka, which is not in the Chittagong area.

But see the allegations made, including of (other) issues raised to DPKO, online here.

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On Walikale Rapes in DRC, Only Mayele in Jail, MONUSCO Shrink After Vote?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 18 -- Despite vows of accountability for the rapes in Walikale in the Democratic Republic of Congo last year, Inner City Press was told on Wednesday on the margins of the Security Council's meeting on the DRC that the only person still in jail for the rapes is Lt-Col Mayele of the Mai Mai Cheka.

“Witnesses are being intimidated and the judge is wavering,” a well placed source told Inner City Press. Mayele, in Goma, has information about other perpetrators, but nothing has been done.

The other perpetrators, including the elusive Serafim, are said to be identified by name in the forthcoming UN Human Rights Council report on the Walikale rapes.

On the more positive side, sources told Inner City Press, Margot Wallstrom and her UN office on Sexual Violence and Conflict briefed the Security Council's committee on DRC Sanctions.

Outside the Security Council's debate, top UN Peacekeeper Alain Le Roy told the Press that there is no move to reduce UN presence in the Congo “until the election.” After that it is possible.

Roger Meece previously at stakeout, action on Walikale not shown

France, the Security Council President for May, organized a day long session on the DRC held at the International Peace Institute but made “on background” under the Chatham House rules imposed by IPI.

At the session, the rapes in Walikale and elsewhere in North Kivu were ridiculed and dismissed by an official who, under IPI's rules, is given anonymity. Watch this site.

Footnotes: UN envoy Roger Meece didn't speak to the press, instead leaving the Security Council session with the DRC delegation. Meanwhile Chad's Permanent Representative to the UN told Inner City Press "it looks like they don't want to leave."

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund. Video Analysis here

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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