At
UNSG Guterres Presser, ICP Asked
of Sex Abuse by RoC
Peacekeepers, Today They
Pull Out
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
June 21 – When UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres held
a press conference on June 20,
it was his first in UN
headquarters since he assumed
office 168 days ago. He took
nearly 20 questions, including
two from Inner City Press, on
the UN having brought cholera
to Haiti, and sexual abuse by
peacekeepers in the UN Mission
in Central African Republic.
On this, he deferred, as did
his deputy Spokesman Farhan
Haq when Inner City Press
asked again on June 21. Then
this: "The UN Secretariat has
concluded a review of the
deployment of uniformed
personnel from the Republic of
Congo in the UN Mission in the
Central African Republic,
MINUSCA. The UN
recognises the importance of
the sub-region in the
resolution of the crisis in
the Central African Republic
and expresses its appreciation
for the constructive role
played by the Republic of
Congo, and President
Sassou-Nguesso as
international mediator during
the Transition and after the
election of President
Touadera, and looks forward to
their continued political
engagement to bring stability
to the Central African
Republic. The review of the
deployment of uniformed
military personnel from the
Republic of Congo found that
the nature and extent of
existing allegations of sexual
exploitation and abuse, in
their totality, point to
systemic problems in command
and control. These problems
have also been compounded by
issues related to the
preparedness, overall
discipline, maintenance of
contingent owned equipment,
and logistical capacity of
these troops. The
outcome of the review has been
shared with the authorities of
the Republic of Congo, who
have decided to withdraw their
military personnel deployed in
MINUSCA.
The Government of the Republic
of Congo has reiterated its
commitment to United Nations
peacekeeping and stability in
the Central African Republic.
The Secretariat is working
with the Republic of Congo and
MINUSCA on the modalities for
a speedy withdrawal that will
have the least impact on the
mission's operational
requirements and ability to
implement its mandate. The
United Nations stands ready to
assist the Republic of Congo
authorities by identifying
factors in the areas of
leadership and command,
performance, conduct and
readiness, to enable them to
address these gaps and for
Republic of Congo military
contingents to be eventually
considered for future
deployment to United Nations
peacekeeping operations.
Failures identified with the
military contingent are not
reflected by the performance
of the police contingent from
the Republic of Congo, also
deployed with MINUSCA.
Therefore, the police
contingent will be retained.
Nonetheless, the Republic of
Congo authorities have been
requested to urgently inform
the United Nations of
accountability measures they
have taken regarding the one
substantiated allegation of
sexual abuse involving a
Republic of Congo police
personnel. "
On
Haiti, Guterres announced that
he was just today - minutes
later the announcement went
out - naming as his
dollar-a-year special envoy on
Haiti Josette Sheeran,
formerly the director of the
UN World Food Program and now
the head of the Asia Society.
Video here.
Transcript here
and below. He seemed to say
the UN was never going to
compensate individuals or
families impacted by the
cholera the UN brought.
We'll have more
on this: Inner City Press will
be accompanying and covering,
in as much detail as possible,
the UN Security Council's
visit to Haiti from June 22 to
24 (a protest at the UN's
“logbase” is planned.)
Footnote: on
behalf of the Free UN
Coalition for Access, to which
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric does NOT "lend"
the briefing room and which
has never and will never ask
for a journalist to be thrown
out or restricted, Inner
City Press urged Guterres to
more routinely take questions,
for example on his way in and
out of the Security Council.
We'll see.
From the UN's transcript:
Inner City Press:
Matthew Lee, Inner City Press.
On behalf of the Free UN
Coalition for Access, thanks
for the briefing. Glad to have
it. Stakeouts would also be
useful when you speak to the
Council. But I wanted to
ask you about cholera in
Haiti. As you may know, while
you were away, your deputy
gave... gave the speech, and
many people in Haiti
interpreted it as a... as a
pulling back from the idea of
compensating victims of the
cholera that was brought.
Maybe they misunderstand it,
but they put out a press
release. There's a protest
planned there on Thursday
during the Council's
visit. So I wanted to
ask you, I know that Member
States haven't come forward
with what they might have, but
are you going to put more time
in? Do you think that the idea
of actually compensating the
people whose family members
were killed by cholera is
still alive? And, also,
I'd understood that there was
going to be an announcement
about the Congo Brazzaville
contingent being
repatriated... being
repatriated from Central
African Republic. Is it going
to happen? And, if so, what's
the standard? Because
the Burundians were found to
have 25 soldiers accused by
OIOS (Office of Internal
Oversight Services) of sexual
abuse. Is there some... is
there a number or what
determines when people are
repatriated? Thanks a lot. I
appreciate it.
Secretary-General: First
of all, in relation to Haiti,
the policy that was announced
by my predecessor had two
dimensions. One is fighting
cholera, and the other is the
possibility to support,
namely, to support communities
impacted. It was devised, not
as individual support, but
community support for the
communities impacted. As
you mentioned, there has been
little voluntary funding for
these projects. So we have
presented a proposal for the
amounts that were not spent in
the previous mission in Haiti
and that should be given back
to countries, for countries to
be ready to accept not to
receive those amounts back in
order to be able to fund the
cholera programme. And,
at the same time, we have just
appointed Ms. Josette Sheeran
as my Special Envoy for Haiti,
centred, of course, in the
fundraising for cholera. She
was, as you know, the World
Food Programme leader a few
years ago. She is now
President of the Asia Society,
and she accepted, with a
salary of $1 per year, she
accepted to be fully engaged
in fundraising for a programme
that, indeed, until now, has
received very little support
but that is very important
from the point of view of the
people and from the point of
view of the credibility of the
UN. In relation to what
you mentioned, there is a
procedure that is now being
adopted systematically. That
procedure involves an
evaluation. That evaluation
was concluded in relation to
the Republic of Congo. There
is a necessary contact with
the authorities of the country
before a public announcement
of the measure. So I will ask
for a little bit of patience,
because you'll soon have the
public announcement of what we
have decided to do. But it
will be, I mean, impolite and
unacceptable in the context of
our bilateral relations before
a number of contacts that need
to be established with the
country to announce it.
This procedure will now be
applied across the board, and
it's an evaluation that is
done by a group of experts on
the situation. It depends on
the capacity of countries
to... even if something
happened to correct what has
happened or if we feel that
there are more systemic
failures that cannot be
addressed and that require the
withdrawal of the force we are
discussing.
***
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