On
#KONY2012
Bandwagon, UN
Ignores
Darfur,
Airbrushes
Americans in
Dungu
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 23 --
When the
#KONY2012
video went
viral and
quickly
garnered tens
of millions of
views
worldwide, the
UN at the
highest
level was
caught
off-guard.
Inner
City Press
asked the
spokespeople
for Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon for
reaction
and to state
what they had
been doing
about Kony's
Lord's
Resistance
Army.
At
first there
was
no reaction.
Then the
spokesman sent
Inner City
Press the link
to a
report from
Ban, from
November 2011.
Finally
on Friday
the UN
provided a
video linked
briefing by
Ban's Special
Representative
for Central
Africa Abou
Moussa, the
Deputy Force
Commander of
the UN
Organization
Stabilization
Mission in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo
(MONUSCO)
Major-General
Adrian
Foster along
with the
Special Envoy
of the African
Union for the
LRA
issue,
Francisco
Madeira.
They
described
operations in
four
countries,
without
mentioning
Sudan or the
100
military
advisers the
Obama
administration
has sent.
Inner City
Press
then asked
about both,
and more
generally
about the
impact of
#KONY2012 and
of illegal
exploitation
of natural
resources,
including
by militaries
in the region.
Video here.
Abou
Moussa
acknowledged
there is
controversy
about the film
-- he did not
mention the
public
masturbation
charge against
its lead
creator --
but said two
points remain,
that the LRA
maims people
and that its
leaders should
be arrested.
Inner
City Press
asked about
reports that
the LRA had
entered Darfur
in Sudan, and
asked why this
military
operation
dealt at least
on paper only
with
DRC, Uganda,
Central
African
Republic and
Sout Sudan.
The answer was
that even the
"neighboring
states" should
be involved
and
if Kony enters
their
territory,
should arrest
him, under the
International
Criminal Court
warrant.
But
Sudan's
Defense
Minister, its
President Omar
al Bashir and
governor Ahmed
Harun have
themselves
been indicted
by the ICC and
not arrested.
In
fact, UN
Peacekeeping
offered free
helicopter
flights to
Ahmed Harun,
and Ban's
Darfur envoy
Ibrahim
Gambari most
recently
partied with
Bashir.
Could
this
undermine the
UN's
credibility in
tracking down
ICC indictee
Joseph
Kony?
Inner
City Press
asked twice
about the 100
American
military
advisers and
was finally
told that two
of them are in
Dungu in the
DRC. Where are
the other 98
and what have
they been
doing?
The
war in the
DRC, described
as Africa's
World War, was
fueled by
militaries
including from
Uganda looting
minerals in
Eastern Congo.
Inner City
Press asked
what
safeguards
were in place.
First it was
said, despite
UN Sanctions
reports to the
contrary, that
such looting
of minerals
is just a
"perception."
Then
Major-General
Adrian Foster
described a
meeting in
Kinshasa on
March 15
between the
defense chiefs
of staff of
DRC and
Uganda, saying
that the
"atmospherics"
were good.
This was also
meant to
answer a
question Inner
City Press
asked,
including
previously to
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman,
about the
Ugandan army
saying it has
been blocked
from DRC,
apparently
since just
before the
conduct of the
deeply flawed
(but scarcely
UN commented
on) Congolese
elections.
It
emerged Friday
that the
Uganda army,
the UPDF,
still for now
cannot or will
not enter the
DRC.
There
is a
credible
theory that
Uganda's
government and
military have
used the
Kony issue for
years, as a
boogie-man and
as a way to
raise funds.
With 5000
troops and 100
American
military
advisers, will
Kony and a
band of 200 to
700 fighters
be caught?
We'll see.
, 
