On
Congo
Rape
Scandal, Khare Spins July 30 E-mail, Congo Army Rapes, US Susan Rice
Says Ntaganda Not with FARDC
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September
7, updated -- On the Congo rape
scandal, the UN's deputy
chief of peacekeeping Atul Khare on Tuesday afternoon delivered a
self-serving speech about how the UN Mission MONUSCO could not have
stopped the 242 rapes in North Kivu between July 30 and August 2.
Khare
said
that on
“30 July OCHA received unconfirmed information about possible
attacks by FDLR on Mpofi... An unconfirmed case of rape in Mpofi was
also reported... message was transmitted to humanitarian workers and
NGOs by OCHA” in Goma.
Inner
City
Press
has obtained this July 30 e-mail, including the list of UN and NGO
individuals to which it was addressed. Each has been asked a series
of questions by Inner City Press:
“Upon
receipt of the e-mail, what did you do? To whom did you pass the
information? What was done in response? What is the policy of your
organization on such reports of rape or other war crimes?”
Some
responses
have
arrived, others are awaited, and will be reported soon --
including those who did not respond.
Meanwhile,
Khare's
briefing
mentioned ten rapes by the FARDC -- the Congolese Army -- in
Uvira on August 17, which he said the Security Council had asked him
to look into, during the Council's August 26 session.
This
is
troubling
not only because Congo's own army is involved.
UN's Ban and Khare: I shall not tell a lie? July 30 e-mail not shown
While Khare and DPKO
are accused of withholding information from the Council, some now
argue that the Council withheld from the public information about
rapes by its partner, the Congolese Army.
Margot
Wallstrom,
in
her testimony, talked about partnering with the Congolese
government. On her way in, Inner City Press asked, Did MONUSCU have
your cell phone number?
In
the UN,
everyone has each others numbers, she answered, apparently meaning
that the landline of her (unoccupied) office was available to
MONUSCO. For shame. Watch this site.
Update of 4:41 pm --
just after Khare's presention, the UN Spokesperson's Office belatedly
confirmed the text of the July 30 e-mail, which Inner City Press
published word for word last week. Why now?
Update of 4:47 pm --
here's why the UN finally confirmed July 30 email(s) -- Khare called
the information uncomfirmed, but the OCHA email, obtained by Inner City
Press and published last week, refers without qualification to the rape:
“Message
urgent pour les humanitaires -- Selon l’ANR Walikale, la
localité
de Mpofi 52km de Walikale vient de tomber aux mains des FDLR. Une
femme y a été violée. Les humanitaires sont
priés de na pas
emprunter cette route pour le moment.”
[“Urgent
message
for
the
humanitarians - According to ANR Walikali, the
locality of Mpofi, 52 kilometers from Walikali, has fallen into the
hands of the FDLR. A woman there has been raped. Humanitarians are
asked not to use that route for the moment.”]
Now, the UN releases what is says was the underlying DSS email, which
refers to "one woman was reportedly
raped." Note: that's not what OCHA said.
Update
of 5:37 pm -- a source in the consultations says Khare apologized again
behind closed doors. The French have proposed a Presidential Statement.
There will be a follow-up Council meeting on lessons learned. UN
accountability? Not shown.
Update
of 6:27 pm-- "elements to the press" on DRC have been agreed to, and
will be read out once the Council finishes an "any other business"
session on Darfur. Who will pay for the cell phone repeaters? No one
knows. Much talk of sacntions on the rapists. But the DRC Permanent
Representative told Inner City Press to the side of the stakeout that
those responsible have no assets outside of the forest...
Update
of 7:42 pm -- finally, the Turkish Ambassador came out and read a
statement. Inner City Press asked him about the 10 rapes by the
Congolese Army. It is a very serious issue, he said.
Susan Rice said that the follow up meeting is at the US'
request. Inner City Press asked about the 10 rapes by FARDC (and about
Darfur). Ambassador Rice said that the US took seriously the clean up
of the Congolese Army, that five names were given to the government.
Inner City Press asked if Bosco Ntaganda, indicted by the ICC, isn't
still with the Congolese Army. Not to my knowledge, Ambassador Rice
answered.
Finally Atul Khare came to the microphone. On this issue, Inner
City Press asked about Ntaganda, who former UN official Patrick
Cammaert says walks freely around Goma, and about Colonel Zimulinda /
Zimurinda. Khare mentioned officials he had met with, said that
the 10 rapes will be prosecuted, but did not answer about Ntagana or
Mr. Z.
Inner City Press asked about the July 30 email, since Khare has said
that even one rape is "a little bit too much." Khare said that in
response to the email, about Mpofi, a patrol went out, and managed to
get through to speak to the FARDC. Khare, to his credit, stayed and
answered questions about Darfur, to be reported on this site later
today.
Update
of 8:40 pm -- from the US Mission transcript:
Inner
City
Press: The, Mr. Khare mentioned at least 10 rapes by the FARDC,
by the Congolese Army in Uvira in South Kivu, I wonder if that, since
MONUSCO works with the Government, is it easier to make sure that
these perpetrators are in fact prosecuted and what steps is the
Council going to take?
Ambassador
Rice:
With respect to the FARDC, this has been an issue that the
Council has been seized with for years and during our visit to Congo
in 2009 we, the Council and the United States and others, focused on
particular commanders who have been identified as perpetrators of
violence against civilians. And we have been pressing the Government
of Congo to take them out of command and hold them accountable, with
some mixed results. Some of the five have been removed, some of them
held, some of them under house arrest, and others have escaped.
Focusing on the FARDC is not new, and indeed the conditions that the
Secretariat and the Security Council have put on cooperation by
MONUSCO and previously MONUC with the FARDC are designed to ensure
that any units that have engaged in violence against civilians are
not the beneficiaries of support and cooperation from MONUSCO.
Inner
City
Press: Bosco Ntganda is still a part of the government, of the
Government? He was one of the names indicted by the ICC.
Ambassador
Rice:
No, not to my knowledge.
* * *
In
Congo,
July
30
UN E-mail Spoke of FDLR & Rape, 22 Rapes Reported
to UN Aug 6
By Matthew Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September
2
-- As the Congo
rape
scandal develops, the UN's
mis-statements become ever more clear. Roger Meece, the chief of the
UN Mission in the Congo (MONUSCO) told the Press that the first
MONUSCO knew of the rapes was on August 12.
Then
there
was an account
of a July 30 e-mail and an August 6 report by the International
Medical Corps. Inner City Press has now seen the e-mails, which the
UN initially said it couldn't find.
The
July 30
e-mail, from the UN's Agustin Rwandarugari to a variety of UN and NGO
parties, said in French:
“Message
urgent pour les humanitaires -- Selon l’ANR Walikale, la
localité
de Mpofi 52km de Walikale vient de tomber aux mains des FDLR. Une
femme y a été violée. Les humanitaires sont
priés de na pas
emprunter cette route pour le moment.”
[“Urgent
message
for
the
humanitarians - According to ANR Walikali, the
locality of Mpofi, 52 kilometers from Walikali, has fallen into the
hands of the FDLR. A woman there has been raped. Humanitarians are
asked not to use that route for the moment.”]
On
September 2 in
New York, Inner City Press asked UN acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan
Haq to square this July 30 e-mail with Mr. Meece's claim that MONUSCO
only knew of rape from August 12 onwards. Video here,
from
Minute
10:33.
Haq
tried to say
that Meece had meant with “verifiable” information. But UN
official Rwandarugari's above quoted July 30 e-mail, labeled
“urgent,” said the village was in rebel hands and a woman had
been raped.
In
fact, Mr.
Rwandarugari was told, at the IMC compound in Walikali on August 6,
of at least 22 rapes in Luvungi alone. He went there after he heard
that an IMC convoy had been ambushed.
Therefore he
and the UN got
notice of 22 rapes from a source, the IMC, which the UN has
acknowledged as credible. This was verifiable information, on a date
far in advance of the August 12 date used by Mr. Meece.
Inner
City
Press
asked,
what happens now?
UN's Meece, explanation of July 30 e-mail and Aug 6
report not shown
Haq continued
to point to the upcoming March
7 briefing (followed by closed door consultations) of the Security
Council by Peacekeeping deputy Atul Khare and Sexual Violence in
Conflict representative Margot Wallstrom.
September's
Council
president,
the
Ambassador of Turkey, held a press conference
on Thursday, and Inner City Press asked if he and the Council had
understood, despite the fanfare with which Ms. Wallstrom's office was
set up in March, that it would be inoperative into August 2010, and
become aware of the rapes only 15 (or 22) days after the UN in the
Congo was aware of them. Video here,
from
Minute
17:58.
He
said, you will
hear on March 7. We'll be there -- but where is the accountability?
Watch this site.
Footnote: on
September 2, a month after the mass rapes and a week after being put in
charge of coordinating the UN's response, Ms. Wallstrom greeted Inner
City Press as she walked to a media interview on the second floor of
the UN in New York. Still not in the Congo, someone said...
, 
