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UN
Helps Congo Attack LRA, Can't Protect Civilians Then
Disclaims Any Role, as in Kivus
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 31 -- A UN-supported
offensive against the Lord's Resistance Army has been followed by the hacking
to death of more than 180 people in northeastern Democratic Republic of
Congo.
On New Years Eve, Inner City Press asked the UN's humanitarian
coordinator John
Holmes about the UN's role in the offensive against the LRA, with the
Congolese
army, and what is being done to protect civilians going forward. Holmes
said that
little can be done, since the UN peacekeepers' presence is limited due
to
redeployment to the Kivus, except to try to let the LRA know it will be
held
accountable. Video here,
from Minute 36:40.
In fact,
the UN has previously bragged about its logistical support to the
Congolese
Army for its attacks on the LRA. Now the UN Mission in the Congo,
MONUC, is
trying to distance itself from the results. A MONUC press release
on December
30 emphasized that MONUC " neither took part in the planning nor in
the
implementation of the operations carried out by the coalition against
the LRA"
but added that "MONUC will do everything in its power to continue to
protect civilians, notably by bringing substantial support to the DRC
Armed
Forces (FARDC)."
Which is it? Does
MONUC support the FARDC or "neither
take part in the planning nor in the implementation of [its]
operations"?
In fact,
Ban Ki-moon's Spokesperson has previously told Inner City Press that
"MONUC
supported the FARDC "with logistics, such as transport, water and
food" and "has also helped consolidate and widen the airfield at
Dungu, which serves as operational bridgehead for the FARDC and Ugandan
troops"of the UPDF.
Now MONUC's
press release states that "yesterday, 29 December, 105 troops were
transported to Doruma and 60 more today. Moreover, MONUC committed to
provide
them with logistic support in terms of food stuffs, water, medicines,
sanitation and fuel." So let's be clear, some say: if the FARDC troops
commit war crimes, the UN has facilitated these.
MONUC in the DRC, looking past civilians
MONUC
went
on to recount that "Ms. Leila Zerrougui, Deputy Special
Representative of
the UN Secretary General in the DRC, met today 30 December 2008 with
the DRC's
National Security Board, headed by the Minister of Interior Mr.
Celestin Mbuyu
Kabango [and] told them about MONUC's determination to support the
Government's
efforts to resolve the situation."
What does "resolve the situation" mean? Assist in
the
elimination of the LRA's Joseph Kony -- the UN's own hand in
extrajudicial
killing?
Inner City
Press asked John Holmes about the LRA's claims, for what they're worth,
that
the Ugandan Army's "Battalion 105" made up of ex-LRA fighters are
responsible for atrocities to blame them on the LRA. How does the UN
know it is
the LRA? "It's hard to be
sure," Holmes said, while calling the idea that the Ugandan Army might
be
involved "implausible." Those who thought that the International
Criminal Court's Luis Moreno Ocampo should have also indicted some in
the UPDF,
or who are aware of the UPDF's UN-funded torching of huts in Karamoja
in the
name of forcible
disarmament don't find it entirely implausible.
We know
the
Congo is big, but the UN seems to have a different relationship with
the FARDC
in the northeast, where it carries them around and cheers them on, than
in the
Kivus, where the full Special Representative of the UN Secretary
General in the
DRC Alan Doss
this week "voiced his concern over the closeness of the FARDC
and CNDP positions in Kibati. He also reiterated his appeal to the two
parties
'to refrain from taking any initiatives likely to provoke new
hostilities' and took
the opportunity to recall to both parties 'the need for guaranteeing
free movement
of persons and their goods.'" In the Kivus, to the UN the FARDC is just
one of two parties. In the northeast, the FARDC is the horse the UN has
bet on,
and carries to the race. Until things go wrong...
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
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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