In
Goma,
M23 Said to
Loot Bank, But
Manager Says
No, Still No
Correction
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 9,
updated twice
-- During the
day the M23
mutineers
controlled the
Eastern Congo
city of Goma,
the UK Guardian
reported that
the "rebels
appeared to be
looting the
central bank
in Goma.
M23 fighters
surrounded the
bank early
this afternoon
and were seen
loading white
bags into
cars. The
armed rebels
looked nervous
and ordered
the Guardian
to leave the
area. 'They're
looting the
bank,' a UN
source said."
This
report was
echoed in Le
Soir and
elsewhere. But
once M23
pulled out of
Goma under the
plan proposed
in Kampala,
the Bank's
director
Venance Lengwe
was quoted
that the safe
was "perfectly
closed,"
everything in
"perfect
shape,"
nothing taken.
And so
some have been
waiting for
the Guardian
to run a
correction or
amplification.
Unless, of
course, they
think Venance
Lengwe suffers
from the
Stockholm
Syndrome.
At
the UN
Security
Council in New
York, multiple
sources tell
Inner City
Press French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
called M23
nothing but
criminals and
gangsters.
They note the
same is not
said of the
rebels in
Syria, even
the Al Nusra
Front. There's
been little
denunciation
of video
footage of Al
Nusra
murdering ten
captured
soldiers. If
M23 did it, it
would cited as
proof of
brutality.
Similarly,
while
the UN system
issues --
well, leaks --
detailed
reports on
Eastern Congo,
when Inner
City Press
asked the head
of the UN's
Commission of
Inquiry on
Syria, Paolo
Pinheiro, if he was
studying the
acts of the Al
Nusra Front.
He said, no.
The
Goma bank job
that wasn't
has the type
of movie
script
resonance as
some of the
leaked reports
of the UN
Group of
Experts
coordinated by
Steve Hege
(who, we've
noted, did not
correct but
took off the
Internet his
2009 writing
dismissing the
threat posed
by the FDLR
militia).
Some have
wondered if
the bank issue
will be edited
out, or
amplified on,
in Hege's next
leaked report.
There
is,
to be
diplomatic,
some race
related
differences in
the coverage,
not only
political. To
play out the
idea, just for
argument's
sake, would
Syria rebels
pull out, in
order to
negotiate?
Would they be
asked to? The
M23 when asked
by the Kampala
communique
pulled out of
Goma, to head
to Kampala for
talks with the
Kabila
administration
that began
today, with DRC foreign
minister
Raymond
Tshibanda,
who began by
denouncing
M23. Watch
this site.
Update
1
- after some
weekend back
and forth
stories about
whether M23
took
"beans from
the bank," at
Monday's UN
noon briefing
Inner
City Press
asked UN
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
what the UN's
final
position on
what one of
its officials
told The
Guardian was
"looting
by M23."
Was it only
looting of
beans? Or what
the whole
story a
hill of beans?
Nesirky told
Inner City
Press to ask
the Bank - the
manager
already told
Radio Okapi
everything was
intact -- and
that
he'd revert if
he gets any
more
information.
Update
2 -- then,
after Inner
City Press
asked if the
UN's position
was that the
Bank in Goma
had been
looted by M23
of anything,
this came in:
From:
UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not Reply
[at]
un.org>
Date: Mon, Dec
10, 2012 at
2:05 PM
Subject: Your
question on
the Central
Bank of Goma
To:
Matthew.Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
On the Central
Bank in Goma:
We checked
with DPKO. The
UN mission
reports that
the Central
Bank in Goma
was not
attacked.
So who WAS
that UN
official who
told the
Guardian M23
was looting
the Bank?
, 
