Minova
Rapes &
FDLR Raised in
SC Statement,
France-Penned,
Ladsous
Stonewalled
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 14 --
On the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo,
even
as the
government of
Joseph Kabila
backtracks on
signing an
agreement
in Kampala,
the UN
Security
Council on
Thursday
morning agreed
to a
Presidential
Statement.
France,
which
"has the pen"
for the
Council on
DRC, as on its
former
colonies Mali,
Cote d'Ivoire
and the
Central
African
Republic,
drafted the
statement.
But a diplomat
from the
Rwanda Mission
to the
UN told Inner
City Press to
pay particular
attention to
Paragraph 5,
on the FDLR.
Of particular
interest to
Inner City
Press is
Paragraph
11, on the
mass rapes at
Minova on
which the UN
stonewalled
for
months.
The
Security
Council
adopted the
Presidential
Statement
without
reading
it out loud in
the chamber,
and even a
half an hour
later it was
not
online on the
Council's
website.
The Free
UN Coalition
for Access
tweeted at the
French Mission
to the UN
requesting a
copy - but it
came first
from the UN
Spokesperson's
office.
Here
it is, put
online
by Inner City
Press; here is
Paragraphs 5
and the
conclusion of
Paragraph 11:
The
Security
Council
expresses deep
concern
regarding the
sustained
regional
threat posed
by the Forces
Democratiques
de Liberation
du
Rwanda (FDLR),
a group under
UN sanctions
whose leaders
and members
include
perpetrators
of the 1994
genocide in
Rwanda and
have
continued to
promote and
commit
ethnically-based
and other
killings
in Rwanda and
the DRC, and
stresses the
importance of
permanently
addressing
this threat.
The Security
Council
stresses the
importance
of
neutralizing
the FDLR and
all armed
groups,
including the
ADF, the
LRA and
various Mayi
Mayi groups,
in line with
resolution
2098
(2013)...
The
Security
Council urges
the Government
of DRC to
expedite the
investigation
of the
November 2012
mass rapes
committed by
elements
of the FARDC
in Minova and
bring the
perpetrators
to justice.
On
Minova, the
head of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous,
who was France's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
at the UN
during the
Rwanda
genocide
in 1994,
repeatedly
refused Press
questions
about the
Minova rapes.
Video
here; UK
coverage here.
Now
while still
refusing Press
questions,
Ladsous is set
to take
and it
seems answer
questions for
dues-payers,
near but not
in the UN next
week.
Watch this
site.
, 
