After
Congo Silences
Radio Okapi,
UN In Weak
Position, DPKO
Blocks Free
Press
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 2,
updated --
When the
Congolese
authorities
silenced Radio
Okapi, which
is affiliated
with the UN
Peacekeeping
mission
MONUSCO,
the UN was put
into a
contradictory
position --
one into which
the UN
of late has
put itself.
MONUSCO
is
explicitly in
support of the
Congolese Army
FADRC. Even
when FARDC
regiments
committed mass
rape in Minova
in late
November, UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
chief Herve
Ladsous has
refused to say
which
regiments
were there,
or to commit
to make this
information
public in the
future.
With
the UN so
clearly on the
side of the
Congolese
authorities,
what can
they credibly
say when these
same
authorities
crack down on
freedom of the
press, even of
the UN's own
media?
MONUSCO
chief Roger
Meece, who had
his deputy Moustapha
Soumare answer
press
questions via
video link to
UN
Headquarters
last week
rather than
doing so
himself, has
complained,
but without
addressing the
reasons:
broadcast of
an interview
with the M23
rebel leader.
(Meece's press
release
does not
appear to be
on MONUSCO's
web site -
this page has
nothing since
August -
but was
emailed to
Inner City
Press after an
inquiry with
the UN
Spokesperson's
office,
appreciated.)
Because
Meece's press
release won't
mention the reason,
he is reduced
to calling the
decision
"puzzling" --
so the
complaint is,
in a sense,
censored.
Nothing
puzzling about
it - the UN
engages in or
allows
censorship, so
Congo says why
can't we?
Notably,
DPKO chief
Ladsous
has opposed
free inquiry
in at least
three UN
televised
press
conferences
and stakeouts,
saying he
refuses to
take questions
from
the Press due
to coverage he
calls
"insulting."
This
appears to
refer to
questions
about the
relations of
his currents
positiions
with work he
did for the
French
government,
including as
its Deputy
Permanent
Representative
at the UN
during the
Rwanda
genocide.
Beginning
on
late May, emboldened
by other
anti-Press
moves in the
UN,
Ladsous
began refusing
to answer or
even take
questions,
including
about the
rapes in
Minova, abuses
of Pinga and
inaction in
Goma.
Also in May, Ladsous'
spokesman
demanded the
censorship
of a portion
of an Inner
City Press
article, consisting
of a direct on
the record
quote of a
Permaent
Representative
serving on the
Security
Council.
So
how can
Ladsous'
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
credibly stand
for freedom of
the press, as
Ladsous
blithely
claimed at a
November
30 "DPKO
Storytelling"
events by the
UN? (There, we note
he indirectly
answered a
Press
question,
calling the
situation in
Minova
"fluid," but refused
the follow up
about if DPKO
will ever
disclose who
was present in
Minova.)
So
how will Meece
and the UN
follow up on
his complaint?
Even the UN
Group of
Experts on DRC
has a strange
relation to
freedom
of the press
or social
media. The
most recent
report by the
Steve
Hege-led group
states,
without
providing
support, that
a website --
not this one
-- which
negatively
covered the
group is
simply part of
a "Government
of Rwanda"
campaign.
Inner
City Press has
asked numerous
questions of
the UN about
Hege and how
he was
selected,
including
whether this 2009
writings
dismissing the
threat posed
by the FDLR
militia
were vetted,
all without
answer.
Absent
responses,
one is left to
surmise from
the recent
report that
Hege
and his Group
must be
pleased that Facebook took down the page
of the
M23 group.
Congolese
nationalists
were and are
free to make
such
requests: but
on what basis
did Facebook
censor the
page,
especially
after the
heads of state
in Kampala
said that
M23's legimate
grievances
must be
listened to?
The take-down
is
inconsistent.
Also
taken down,
but
voluntarily,
was Hege's
2009 writing
about the FDLR.
The recent
Hege report
alludes to the
writing, but
does not
explain
its removal.
And so it goes
with this UN.
Again, how
will Meece and
the UN follow
up on his
complaint? Watch
this site.
, 
