ICP
Asks If UN
Commented on
DRC Censoring
Panzi Hospital
Film, No, Libya
Link?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 4 --
With the DR
Congo's
decision to
ban a film
about
rape-treatment
doctor Dennis
Mukwege and
the Panzi Hospital
giving rise to
protests from
all over the
world, the
silence of the
UN has been
striking. So
Inner City
Press on September
4 asked the UN
Spokesman, video here, transcript
here:
Inner
City Press: I
may have
missed it, but
the Government
of the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo has
banned the
screening of a
film about Dr.
[Denis]
Mukwege at
Panzi Hospital
called "The
Man Who Mends
Women".
It's viewed as
basically an
outright
censorship or
an attempt to
sweep under
the carpet the
sexual
violence that
Panzi Clinic
tries to help
women
with.
What's the
comment and
sort of… I
don't think
MONUSCO
(United
Nations
Organization
Stabilization
Mission in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo),
have they said
anything?
Has the
Secretary-General?
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric:
I don't think
they
have.
Obviously Dr.
Mukwege is a
good… is an
amazing
humanitarian,
has done
tremendous
work and
recognized
internationally
and by the UN
and we would
hope that his
message is
heard clearly,
both
nationally and
internationally.
So the UN
hadn't
commented. For
UN
Peacekeeping,
under recalcitrant
Herve Ladsous,
it's not surprising:
Ladsous even
refused to
answer a Press
question about
the Panzi
Hospital, see
below.
But
what about
SRSG Martin
Kobler?
Kobler
is being
touted -- by
unnamed
diplomats
using their
scribes -- as
Bernardino
Leon's
replacement as
the UN's Libya
SRSG. Could
that be why he
has not spoken
out against
censorship in
his current
post, the DRC?
We hope to
have more on
this.
Back
on January 22,
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous made a
speech about
freedom of the
press in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo
Thursday to
the US
Security
Council, and
made excuses
for not acting
to
“neutralize”
the Hutu FDLR
rebels as the
UN did the
largely Tutsi
M23.
Then
Ladsous came
to the
Security
Council
stakeout,
ostensibly to
take
questions.
Inner City
Press asked,
“On the
neutralization
of the FDLR,
what is the
hold up?”
Ladsous said
"I don't
respond to
your
questions,
Mister." Video
here and
embedded
below.
Then Ladsous
turned and
gave the
question to
Reuters. When
that back and
forth was
over, Inner
City Press
asked if any
of the
countries in
the UN's Force
Intervention
Brigade are
well than
willing to
attack the
FDLR, as
senior
diplomats at
the UN have
told Inner
City Press.
Ladsous
refused to
answer this
question, and
gestured that
Ban Ki-moon's
envoy to the
DRC Martin
Kobler,
standing
behind Ladsous
at the
stakeout,
shouldn't
answer it
either.
Reuters took
or was given
another
question,
distancing the
FDLR from
genocide.
Finally Inner
City Press
asked both men
what if
anything UN
Peacekeeping
has done as
the Kabila
government has
frozen the
accounts of
the Panzi
hospital for
rape
victims.
Ladsous waved
this off --
for months he
waved
off Press
questions
about mass
rape in Minova
by his
partners in
the Congolese
Army, video
here --
and walked
away with this
spokesman.
(One
can only
imagine the
advise this
“communications
professional”
is giving
Ladsous.
Perhaps he can
help Ladsous
address his
history with
Hutu groups as
evidence in this memo.
These are
Press
questions.)
Kobler to his
credit told
Inner City
Press he would
come back and
answer, and he
did, albeit
only some, and
off camera.
That will be
another story.
Because the
story here is,
how can a
person in
charge of UN
Peacekeeping
be allowed to
refuse
particular
media's
questions in
this way?
While, in
classic UN
fashion,
giving a
speech about
freedom of the
press,
elsewhere? The
weakness of
current UN
leadership
comes to mind.
But as many
ask, WHY does
Ladsous refuse
to answer
Inner City
Press? While
he has refused
to answer
that, too, it
began when
Inner City
Press reported
that Ladsous
was not even
France's first
choice for the
position -
Jerome
Bonnafont was.
Tellingly, an
Agence France
Presse member
of the
Executive
Committee of
the so-called
UN
Correspondents
Association complained
about this
Inner City
Press story,
and soon the
Executive
Committee of
UNCA, under
then and now
president
Giampaolo
Pioli, made
more complaint
about that
story, and another
about Sri
Lanka,
demanding it
be removed
from the
Internet.
Inner City
Press quit
UNCA and
co-founded the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
which demands
that all UN
Under
Secretaries
General answer
questions.
UNCA, for
course, has
said nothing
about Ladsous'
refusal. It is
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
More on this
-- including
video -- to
follow.
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