By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 13 --
After UN envoy
Martin Kobler
told the
Security Council
on January 13
about "the
need to
address
ill-discipline
within the
[Congolese
Army] FARDC
and National
Police and to
pursue all
outstanding
cases of
misconduct,"
Inner City
Press asked
him about the
FARDC's mass
rapes at Minova
in November
2012.
Kobler
acknowledged
that the most
recent hearing
in the Minova
case had been
postponed,
that witness
statements
have still not
been taken. Video
here, from
Minute 6:32.
Given that the
UN says it has
a Human Rights
Due Diligence
Policy of not
supporting
army units
engaged in
abuses, how
much longer
will the UN
accept this?
Thirteen
months and
counting.
Perhaps relatedly,
after rumors
of the death
of Rwanda's
Paul Kagame
were shot
down, across
the border in
the Eastern
Congo, a time-stamped
photograph
was tweeted
of a UN truck
full of people
on the back,
captioned
"MONUSCO in
Goma
celebrating
the death of
Pres Paul
Kagame."
It seemed
worth asking
the UN mission
chief Martin
Kobler to
comment on or
explain the
photograph,
and Inner City
Press sent
this, to
Kobler and
three MONUSCO
spokespeople:
"Please
comment
on / explain
this
time-stamped
photo, which
is being
described as a
UN truck
participating
in
"celebrations"
of the rumor
of the Rwandan
president's
death. Do
you
dispute that
the photo was
taken on
January 10? To
whom is the UN
giving a ride
in this truck
/ photo? In
what context?"
After
a time, UN
envoy Kobler
replied:
"@innercitypress
Ceci apparait
de toute
évidence comme
une
utilisation
frauduleuse
d'un véhicule
de la
#Monusco.
C'est
inacceptable"
Translated:
"This appears
clearly as a
fraudulent use
of a vehicle
of the
#Monusco. This
is
unacceptable."
(Translation
not by Google,
not only
because of NSA
spying issues
but also acquiescence
in Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act
abuse by
Reuters UN
bureau, click
here for that.)
The question
became, now
what does
Kobler, or
those above
him in New
York,
do?
Inner City
Press on
January 10
went to Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
press
conference,
11 am in New
York, to ask
this question:
"in the DRC
this morning,
after false
rumors of Paul
Kagame being
dead, a
MONUSCO truck
was
photographed
in what some
call
celebrations
and Martin
Kobler told me
is
"unacceptable."
What do you
think your UN
should do
about this, in
terms of the
perception of
impartiality
or bias by the
UN?"
But Ban's acting
deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq did
not call
on Inner City
Press, instead
automatically
giving the
first question
to the United
Nations
Correspondents
Association
(a/k/a
UN's
Censorship
Alliance),
then mostly
questions soft
on the UN
about Syria.
Next came spin
from MONUSCO,
e-mailed to
the Press:
Fraudulent
use of MONUSCO
truck in Goma
Kinshasa, 10
January 2014 -
MONUSCO is
aware of a
photo being
circulated on
the internet
showing a
MONUSCO truck
in Goma during
a
demonstration.
In reality,
the truck was
taken over by
demonstrators
while on a
regular
mission. The
driver was
alone and
unarmed when
the incident
happened.
MONUSCO
condemns this
agressivity
against its
assets.
MONUSCO has
launched a
full
investigation
to ascertain
the
circumstances
and the
context
surrounding
the incident.
, 
