As
Rwanda
Threatens Darfur Pullout, Will Ban Edit Out Genocide, Of Jeane Afrique
and Le Monde
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 30 -- Rwanda has threatened to pull its 3485 soldiers
from the peacekeeping mission in Darfur if it is accused by genocide
by the UN. UN spokesman Martin Nesirky on August 27 denied that
Rwanda president Paul Kagame made such a threat. Inner City Press
immediately asked if Kagame's foreign minister Louise Mushiwigabo had
made the threat in writing.
Now,
quoting from
Ms. Mushiwigabo's August 3 letter, Inner City Press on August 30
asked Nesirky to confirm the threat, and the UN's response. Video
here,
from Minute 20:13. Nesirky insisted he had confirmed but
declined to “characterize the letter, the letters.” But now that
the letter is known, what sense does this make?
Inner
City Press
asked, if the word genocide is dropped from the final report, whether
it will be due as reported to Ban Ki-moon's doubts if the word
applies, or to the threat. Video here,
from Minute 21:55. Nesirky
said to wait and see, to compare the leaked and final reports.
If
Rwanda releases
its letter or makes it threat publicly, will the UN respond? “You
seem to be on a hypothetical strand,” Nesirky said. “Let's not go
down that road.” Video here,
from Minute 22:37.
But
inexorably the
UN is being taken, or is taking itself down that road.
DSG Migiro and FM Mushikiwabo, threats not shown
On August 27,
Nesirky acknowledged
that Ban's office is conferring on the content of the High
Commissioner on Human Rights report.
Since Ban
named Kagame as the
co-chair of his High Level Advocacy Group on the MDGs, one assumes
Ban does not believe Kagame is guilty of genocide. So why wouldn't
the conferring be editing, and excision of the “G” word?
On
August 27,
Nesirky said the UN was disappointed that Le Monde had published the
draft report. In fact, it appears that
Jeane Afrique first broke news
of the leaked report on August 13. Later, however, even Jeane
Afrique
cited Le Monde, while linking to their earlier stories. So in whom is
the UN disappointed? Watch this site.
* * *
As
Kagame's
Rwanda Accused of Genocide, UN Downplays Threats, MDG Connection
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 27 -- In the face of Rwanda's push back Friday
against a draft UN High Commissioner for Human Rights report accusing
it of genocide in the Congo in the 1990s, the UN in New York was in
disarray.
UN
Spokesman Martin Nesirky said it was “absolutely false” that
Rwandan president Paul Kagame threatened to withdrawn his country's
troops from the peacekeeping Mission in Darfur, UNAMID.
Inner
City Press
asked if this threat was made not by Kagame but in a letter by
Rwandan foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo -- from whose photo op
with Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro Inner City Press was
excluded. Video here,
from Minute 10:20.
“There has been
correspondence,” Nesirky replied, calling it the “normal practice
to not disclose the contents of correspondence in that way.” But
Nesirky had so strenuously denied the threat of withdrawing
peacekeepers, a threat Rwanda made before, after complaints about one
of its general, indicted for war crimes, serving with UNAMID.
The
working theory
is that one of the 30 authors of the report leaked it, because they
sensed or knew that the word genocide would be removed from the final
version.
Rwanda, on
the other hand, is accusing the UN of more
systematically and strategically leaking it, to divert attention from
its peacekeeping
mission MONUSCO's inaction on mass rapes by the Hutu
rebel FDLR.
Inner
City Press asked Nesirky about this Rwandan
government allegation. Nesirky refused to comment, saying he wasn't
aware of the Rwandan government response. Video here,
from Minute 14:44.
UN's Ban and Kagame in July 2010, HCHR genocide
charge not shown
Given that
this
UNHCRH report, at least in draft form, accused Kagame's Rwanda of
genocide, Inner City Press asked Nesirky if Ban Ki-moon considered this
before naming Kagame the co-chair, along with Spain's
Zapatero who in turn snubbed Kagame on war crimes grounds, of the UN
MDG advocacy group.
“The
two are not
connected,” Nesirky said. So why not name Omar Al Bashir, one wag
asked, to the UN's High Level Panel on Global Sustainability?
Footnote:
in
fact, on the High Level Panel on Global Sustainability, along with
Kevin Rudd, Ban named the head of Research in Motion / BlackBerry,
James Lawrence Balsillie.
While one angle involves the countries like
Saudi Arabia trying to block BlackBerry service if they are not
allowed to unencrypt communications, the other is the opprobrium of
the SEC and Canadian government at Ban's sustainable choice
Balsillie. Then again, Ban put a convicted corporate criminal from
South Korea on the UN Global Compact board. Watch this site.
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