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At UN, Lucent Official Talks Congo & Congress, Ed Royce's “Take Me To Your Leader" - Kabila Fils & Pere

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 8 -- Holding a glass of wine in front of a tapestry depicting the Great Wall of China, the corporate social responsibility director for Alcatel - Lucent Marie Royce Tuesday night spoke to Inner City Press about Rwanda and the Congo, Kabila and bonobos.

  “My husband is a member of Congress,” she said, describing a trip by Rep. Ed Royce (R-California) to Kinshasa on the day that Mobutu was overthown by Laurent Kabila. “My husband was in a jeep, protected by a group of men with guns. He was able to say, for the first time in his life, 'Take me to your leader.'”

  With that, Marie Royce laughed heartily. She said Alcatel - Lucent is in 45 countries in Africa, she has been to Rwanda and the war crimes tribunal in Tanzania. Rwanda, she said, has “better P.R.” in Washington, the Congo can't compete.

  Inner City Press pointed out that while the DRC is Francophone, Rwanda has shifted to English. There is that, she said, adding that she has met twice with Joseph Kabila. Returning to the past, she said her husband spoke with Laurent Kabila when he first came to New York and stayed in the Waldorff = Astoria. “He had never seen snow,” she said.

  She shifted to bonobos, how “a man named Antoine” gave her a tour and called up to the primates in the trees, who waved back. They were just like people, she said. And so it goes at the UN.

* * *

Amid Torched Villages in Abyei, UN Flew in Torcher Haroun, Questions Unanswered

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 7 -- Amid the torching of villages in Abyei by Sudanese nomads, the UN flew into Abyei Ahmen Haroun, indicted by the International Criminal Court for organizing nomads to commit war crimes in Darfur, it confirmed to Inner City Press on March 4.

In follow up, Inner City Press over the weekend asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky to

provide all previously requested specifics of ICC indictee Ahmed Haroun's now second flight with the UN, and did DPKO tell the Security Council? Was it a special or scheduled flight? How much did it cost? Did the UN ask why Sudan's air force couldn't make the flight? Did OLA consider and approve this? When will Patricia O'Brien hold a press conference and take questions?”

On March 7, with Nesirky not having answered any of the questions, he used his noon briefing opening to deliver praise to the government of Omar al Bashir, also indicted by the ICC for genocide, for now agreeing to try to avoid violence. Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: on Sudan, I mean, I heard your message lauding this agreement between the SPLM and the NPC. Has the UN seen, and can it… seen this report, and can it confirm that three villages were burned down in Abyei, 300 buildings destroyed, and what’s the relation between that… is this the violence that the agreement that you are applauding will be stopping or… and what was, did Ahmed Haroun, this indicted ICC [International Criminal Court] individual, what was his role? Did he sign this for the NPC, and do you think that villages will no longer be burned down in this way?

Spokesperson Nesirky: First of all, it is precisely that kind of violence and damage with human, as well as material, cost that this agreement would be designed to stop, and to try to stop. Governor [Ahmed] Haroun of South Kordofan, as you know, is responsible for the Misseriya’s respect for the rule of law and finding a solution to their migration, and so that is why his role was crucial in that respect.

Inner City Press: What do you say to those who say that, since he is actively charged by the ICC with organizing nomadic tribes to burn down villages that may be relying on him, transporting him may be not a good idea?


Menkerios (r) with Mbeki & Hillary Clinton, Haroun not shown

Spokesperson Nesirky: I think the point here is that, as I just said, his role in ensuring that Misseriya respect the rule of law and also in helping to find a solution to their migration is really crucial. And, indeed, the talks between the Ngok Dinka/SPLM and the Misseriya/NCP really can’t take place without his participation.

So it is impossible to deal with murderous nomads without the UN flying in a Sudanese government official indicted by the ICC for organizing nomads to murder in Darfur. Is the resulting and continuing murder any surprise?

Footnote: Meanwhile on March 7 Inner City Press on deadline asked the three spokespeople of the US Mission to the UN the following question, so far without response:

Does the US State Department / Administration find the new Satellite Sentinel Project imagery, confirming the deliberate burning of three villages in Sudan's contested Abyei region, useful? How is the Obama administration focusing on Abyei? Do you agree with the conclusions of the Satellite Sentinel Project that it's systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure, and as such, evidence of a possible war crime?”

There are other questions to the US Mission to the UN that have gone unanswered. Watch this site.

* * *

UN Admits 2d Flight of ICC Darfur Indictee Haroun to Abyei in Sudan, Impunity

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 4, updated -- The UN has for a second time offered a free UN flight in Sudan to Ahmed Haroun, under indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, the UN admitted Friday in response to questions from Inner City Press.

  On March 3 the UN Security Council met about renewed fighting in the disputed Abyei region. Back in January, Inner City Press got the UN to acknowledge they had flown ICC indictee Haroun from South Kordofan, where he serves fellow ICC indictee Omar al Bashir as governor, to Abyei.

  The UN has defended this controversial flight by saying that Haroun and Haroun alone could stop violence in Abyei. The UN never explained why the government of Sudan, which has an air force currently bombing civilians in Jebel Marra in Darfur, couldn't itself fly Haroun.

The UN said it was a scheduled flight, then UN Mission in Sudan chief Haile Menkerios admitted to Inner City Press that it was a special flight. Inner City Press is told such flights cost $40,000, and the UN has confirm no reimbursement has been sought from the Bashir government.

But now the violence has continued, making the UN flight of ICC indictee Haroun harder to justify even by the UN's own argument.


UN's Ban & spox Nesirky, cost of flying ICC indictee not shown

  March 3 in front of the Security Council, Inner City Press asked Council president for March Li Baodong of China if the UN Peacekeeping official who briefed the Council, Atul Khare, had mentioned if Haroun would again be flown in a UN helicopter. Li Baodong did not directly answer.

At the March 4 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky to confirm or deny that that the UN would once again fly ICC indictee Haroun to Abyei, even now that his work in connection with the first flight has proved ineffective.

Nesirky said he would check. Ten minutes later, Nesirky's deputy Farhan Haq announced by speaker to all UN correspondents that yes, Haroun attended today's meeting in Abyei, and yes, “he was transported” by the UN.

  This UN promotes impunity, even for one of the few people indicted for war crimes by the ICC. Meanwhile Ban Ki-moon brags about the Security Council's partial referral of the situation in Libya to the ICC -- a referral that Ban Ki-moon did not even call for until after the Council voted to make the referral.

  This UN is promoting and enshrining lawlessness, with no transparency or accountability. Watch this site.

Update of 3:48 pm -- Human Rights Watch, via Richard Dicker, submitted this comment:

This is the second time in recent weeks the UN has transported Ahmed Haroun who is charged by the ICC with war crimes in Darfur. We have real concerns because the U.N. should not be in the business of transporting Haroun. There needs to be an extremely high threshold of urgency for such action by UNMIS.”

Responses have been sought from the Missions to the UN of France, the UK and the US, with the latter two asked if they knew in advance of the UN's new flight of ICC indictee Haroun. Given her statements this year about social media, & after hours of non-response by the US Mission to the UN,@AmbassadorRice has been asked directly as well. Watch this site.

Update of 4:30 pm -- Then this, from UK Mission to the UN spokesman Daniel Shepherd:

As spokesperson, I would only reiterate the message that my two Ambassadors have both said on the record (and published by Inner City Press) first time around: that we aren’t going to second guess how UNMIS fulfills its mandate to provide good offices to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) parties in efforts to resolve differences through dialogue and negotiations. I’d only add that this work is particularly important at this sensitive time, to contain any potential escalation after the recent Abyei violence.”

We could note again that violence has persisted despite the UN flying ICC indictee Ahmed Haroun in the first time, and that it is the role of UN member states to oversee the UN Secretariat, not to defer in this case to what some see as its promotion of impunity - but at least the UK would put its position on the record.

Update of 4:43 pm -- this too has come in, perhaps in response:

Date: Fri, Mar 4, 201
Subject: Haroun and Abyei
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

You guys ask great questions! Have you noticed perhaps that the United Nations seems to be unaware of who is causing the violence in Abyei. And yet "diplomatic sources" report seeing the burial of 33 bodies - all southerners.

The Arab nomads say the violence started when SPLM police shot at them (Hitler used a similar ploy to invade Poland) - and today thousands of civilians fled Abyei fearing another crisis like in June 2008. The Dinka Ngok villages north of Abyei, such as Maker, have been burnt to the ground. The end explains the means. There is a creeping ethnic cleansing going on in the Abyei region despite the agreements of 2005 and the Court of Arbitration ruling in 2010.

Why fly Haroun to Abyei - what is his cv? It is, as you correctly point out, that of arming arab militias to burn villages. I hope to see more of your questions pinning the UN to the responsibility to protect.

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate

Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56

Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza

Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate

Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger

Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards

Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

* * *

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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