Plan
Puts UN
Between M23
and Goma,
After Ladsous'
Failure, No
Answers,
Rights Qs
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 24 --
After the
statement on
the M23
mutineers
issued by a
meeting of the
International
Conference of
the Great
Lakes Region,
Inner City
Press asked
the three top
UN
spokespeople
for UN
"comments and
plans on the
roles assigned
to it by what
was
announced."
Surprising
to
many, the UN's
MONUSCO
mission, which
did nothing as
the M23 took
over Goma, was
assigned the
task of
standing
between the
new
territory
taken by M23
and the city
of Goma, which
the statement
says
M23 should
leave - except,
paradoxically,
for its
airport.
But
so far the UN
has had no
response. This
is a pattern:
basic
questions
Inner City
Press posed to
the UN on
November 23
are still not
answered 24
hours later.
Inner City
Press asked
the UN to
"please
describe any
and all of
MONUSCO's
interaction
with or
support of
elements of
the Mai Mai or
NYATURA so far
this year."
But
more than
three hours
later, it was
Ladsous'
spokesman
Kieran Dwyer
who purported
to respond.
But on this,
all he said
was "I am
looking into
this."
In
the 21 hours
since, no
information
has been
provided.
Questions have
had to be
asked of the
Office of the
High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights,
including that
"in Minova,
there have
apparently
been
rapes and
looting by
FARDC units as
they
retreated. Has
anyone from
OHCHR visited
Minova?"
Inner
City Press
also asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokespeople
to
"please
specify all
damage or
injury to UN
system staff,
facilities or
property in
the Democratic
Republic of
Congo since
November 20,
including but
not limited to
in Bukavu,
Bunia, Goma,
Kinshasa and
Kisingani."
More
than three
hours later,
all Dwyer
responded with
was, "I am
looking into
this." And as
with the
question above
about Mai Mai
and NYATURA,
no information
was provided
in the 21
hours since.
How
could the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
purport to
have no
answer to
this? UN
buildings have
been set
aflame, rocks
thrown at
cars, mortars
reportedly
fired at the
MONUSCO base
in Monigi. But
after 24
hours,no
information at
all was
provided.
Back
on November
21, it was Kieran
Dwyer who for
Ladsous asked
UN
personnel to
not give
Inner City
Press the microphone
as its
question
"would MONUSCO
protect
Bukavu" was
asked.
Inner
City Press
asked Ban
Ki-moon's
three
spokespeople
to "please
state the
Secretariat's
position on
its Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations'
spokespeople
directing
staff of the
UN Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit and UN
Television /
audio to hold
the
Security
Council
stakeout
microphone
away from
Inner City
Press, most
recently by
spokesman
Kieran Dwyer
on November
21."
This
question was
paradoxically
referred to
Dwyer himself,
and he did not
purport to
answer it or
even claim "I
am looking
into it."
There was
another,
entirely
factual
question about
Herve Ladsous,
to
which Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson's
office has
replied only
that "We
do not comment
on recruitment
processes."
We'll have
more on
this.
Meanwhile,
Ladsous'
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations is
issuing short
statements
about the
"background"
and mandate of
MONUSCO.
What about its
failures? Who
will be held
accountable?
Watch this
site.
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