As
LRA
Rampages in UN Peacekeepers' Zones, Security Council Debates,
DPKO Silent
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 7 -- The UN Security Council repeatedly debated “the
protection of civilians.” Meanwhile, in the midst of three of its
most expensive peacekeeping missions, a small group of machete
wielding fanatics, the Lord's Resistance Army, continues to
slaughter, or rape and enslave, women and children.
This,
perhaps, is
the test case of the Security Council's and Department of
Peacekeeping Operations' commitment to the actual protection of
civilians. Inner City Press asked June's Security Council President,
Claude Heller of Mexico, about the issue on June 28 as his presidency
ended (video here)
--
Inner
City
Press: One question on the LRA. It was mentioned in the CAR
[inaudible] Do you think the dismantling of MINURCAT and the
shrinking of MONUSCO, it seems that there will be fewer peacekeepers.
What’s the plan to actually get these three UN missions, actually
two..?
Claude
Heller:
That is a very good question because that is the question
that we have ourselves and some other members of the SC, we have put
to the Secretariat and the SRSG. We have insisted at the same time
that the LRA issue has to be viewed from a regional perspective.
Because you know very well that the LRA has been very active in
different countries and we have asked, in the case of Mexico at
least, we have asked the Secretariat and SRSG to make some proposals
on how to deal on a regional basis with this role so negative that
the LRA is playing.
But
as it turns out, no proposal has yet been unveiled.
Fleeing the LRA, protection by 3 UN peacekeeping
missions not shown
The
next day June 29
Inner City Press asked
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Spokesperson's
Office:
Inner
City
Press: yesterday the Security Council, the President, this
month’s President, Claude Heller, said that there is a concern,
certainly in his Mission, but I think on the Council, about how to
combat the Lord’s Resistance Army; that with MINURCAT [United
Nations Mission in Chad and the Central African Republic] pulling out
and MONUSCO [United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo] shrinking, what used to be MONUC, that there
may be fewer UN peacekeepers and intelligence in the area where the
Lord’s Resistance Army is massacring civilians. So he’d said
that there has been a request to the Secretariat to come up with some
kind of a plan rather than just report on the massacres that take
place. I wanted to know — maybe you can do it now or maybe
sometime later — what the UN’s plan; whether it’s DPKO
[Department of Peacekeeping Operations] or this Mission in Central
African Republic, whether the UN actually, whether such a plan is
being developed and how it will address the withdrawal of
peacekeepers from both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and…?
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky: Yeah, sure, we can look into that. And I am sure my
colleagues from DPKO will be able to provide an answer on that. I
would simply reiterate that in both cases, the mandates were subject
to Security Council approval and scrutiny. And that we made
abundantly clear our view that, what our preference was in both
cases.
Inner
City
Press: You’re saying that there is a need to share
intelligence between these various missions? That somehow with each
Mission being looked at separately and having its own separate
resolution, whatever. I’m not trying to — if you can check to
see what DPKO is doing on this.
Spokesperson:
Sure. I’m sure they would be happy to help. Right.
Right? Since that
inter-change, nothing more has been said, by DPKO or the
Spokesperson's Office. On July 2, Inner City Press asked the
incoming
Security Council President, Joy Ogwu of Nigeria, whether she would
use her month atop the Council to do anything about the LRA. While
Ms. Ogwu and her team answered other questions, including about the
continued exclusion of the Spokesperson's Office from the Council's
consultations, she did not answer about the LRA. Perhaps at the July
7 debate -- watch this space.
* * *
UN
Council
To
Take Up Kosovo, Access Reconsidered, LRA Ignored,
Nigeria's Month
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July
2 -- Hours after a pro-Serbian demonstrator was killed
in Mitrovica in Northern Kososo, the UN in New York could not speak
about the incident, or why its UNMIK peacekeepers had not been
providing protection.
Inner
City Press asked UN Associate Spokesman
Farhan Haq what the UN's role had been in the planning and protection
of the opening of a Kosovo government office in Mitrovica. Haq said
he would have to check with the UNMIK Mission.
Later
Haq's
office
sent this to Inner City Press:
Subject:
your
questions
on Kosovo at the Spokesperson's Noon Briefing on
Friday
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply
To: Inner City
Press
Date: Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 2:26 PM
In
relation
to
your questions on Kosovo at the Noon Briefing today,
we're still awaiting some more information from colleagues at UNMIK,
but in the meantime, I wanted to tell you that the UN condemns the
violence which led to the loss of life and supports all efforts to
find those responsible for the explosion. In addition, UNMIK and its
office in Mitrovica will remain engaged with all communities to
encourage pragmatic dialogue and help address their concerns.
We'll
see.
Inner
City Press asked incoming Security Council president Joy Ogwu of
Nigeria if the Council would take the matter up. Yes, she said, there
will be a meeting on July 6, with the Department of Peacekeeping
Operations briefing. High officials will come. But what will
be accomplished?
Inner
City
Press
asked also Ambassador Ogwu about the access of the UN Spokesperson's
office to Council consultations, about elections in Burundi and
Guinea, and about the Lord's Resistance Army. She and her political
coordinator asked two or three of the four questions, leaving the LRA
off. Video here.
Joy Ogwu, and DPKO's Alain Le Roy, action on
Kosovo and answers on LRA not shown
On
access,
Nigeria's political coordinator said these are only interim rules,
and vowed to work on the issue during the month. On elections,
Ambassador Ogwu said the UN should learn from each situation, and
referred several times to the planned referendum in Nigeria. On the
LRA, she had no answer, like teh UN and the Council. And on Kosovo,
we'll find on July 6. We'll be there, watch this site.
, 
