HRW on Saudi in Yemen Behind Closed Doors of Censors' Club, Silent on Sri Lanka

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 29, more here -- That the Saudi-led Coalition's airstrikes on Yemen have caused harm is recognized now even by Ban Ki-moon. So if HRW wanted launch a report about it at the UN, why not do it in the UN's actual Press Briefing Room, on UNTV, for all UN journliasts?

  Inner City Press asked an HRW representative on June 26, after he spoke in the UN's large Conference Room 4 -- not about Yemen and Saudi airstrikes, but Syria and barrel bombs. Video here.

  That was an open meeting of the UN, followed by a Q&A stakeout televised on UNTV. Their Yemen event, by contrast, will be in the private clubhouse of UNCA, now the UN's Censorship Alliance, not on UNTV.

  HRW has done this before; relatedly, HRW's UN lobbyist has refused to disclose in response to Press questions what its director Ken Roth raised to Ban Ki-moon. It doesn't seem to have been Ban's impunity for the UN bringing cholera to Haiti, nor now the UN having covered up French soldiers' child rapes in the Central African Republic, on which HRW  (and UNCA) has been noticeably quiet.

Perhaps they belong together. But what does HRW say about UNCA's chief Giampaolo Pioli demanding censorship of reporting on him having rented an apartment to Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative, given his role in the White Flag killings? HRW said nothing at the time - and continues UNchanged with the UN Censorship Alliance.

UNCA, as noted, makes its appears in the #SaudiLeaks published by WikiLeaks, here.

Back on February 11 with UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous still providing few to no updates on its UNAMID mission's November 9 covering up of rapes in Darfur, just as Ladsous stonewalled about mass rapes in Minova in the DR Congo, here, some soft on the UN try to raise the issue without blaming those responsible for the cover-up.

  A report put out by Human Rights Watch today has 48 pages, but does not mention UN Peacekeeping boss Ladsous once, nor his similar cover up of rapes in Minova in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, video here. What kind of report is this?

 Tellingly, in trying to "launch" this soft-on-Ladsous report inside the UN, Human Rights Watch instead of holding a regular press conference in the UN Press Briefing Room as other NGOs do has chosen to partner with the UN Censorship Alliance, a group whose board has tried to get investigative Press thrown out of the UN, including for its reporting on Ladsous.

 On February 11, added to the UN's "Media Alert" is a meeting between Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and this Sudanese government official: "Ibrahim Ghandour, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chairman of the National Congress, Republic of Sudan."

  So will Ban be demanded access -- second access, after Ladsous' initial cover up -- to Tabit?

  While some claim that Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping is trying to get back to Tabit, on Feburary 10 a Sudanese diplomat told Inner City Press he had met with Ladsous on February 9 and "it was nice." How's that, for Ladsous' supposed commitment to get to the bottom of rapes and rights abuses?

 Instead, in order to NOT move against the FDLR militia, Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping is now claiming to care too much for human rights to support the Congolese Army's supposed offensive against the FDLR -- which, the UN belatedly acknowledged to Inner City Press, has not even begun.

  But on the Tabit rapes, that the Sudanese diplomat without irony described his February 9 meeting with Ladsous has "nice" is telling.

  It is easy and appropriate, of course, to blame Sudan, as it was and is to blame the Congolese Army and government for the rapes in Minova. But there is a pattern, and until UN Peacekeeping's senior leadership's cover up of these incidents - and even silence on dead peacekeepers for more than a week -- nothing will improve.

  So why is Human Rights Watch, which alongside its detailed work goes out of its way not to criticize the UN and especially Ladsous, for example on Central African Republic, as Inner City Press reported here, partnering to hold a privatized event on Tabit, not in the UN Press Briefing Room but among friends, as they say?

 Why have HRW and its hosts said nothing about posts in UN Peacekeeping under Ladsous being sold for money, exclusively exposed by Inner City Press on February 7, asked about February 9, and partially answered by the UN on February 10, here?

  Any country can sponsor such a briefing in the UN Press Briefing Room. But HRW hides behind and in the clubhouse of the UN Censorship Alliance, Board members of which in the past have ordered changes to articles about Ladsous - and about Sri Lanka, more here. Human rights? Hardly.  Look how Human Rights Watch's selectively distributed invitation whitewashes UN Peacekeeping's and Ladsous' role:

"Between October 30 and November 1, 2014, Sudanese government forces entered Tabit, North Darfur, and carried out massive abuses against the town’s residents, including a mass rape of women and girls. Sudan responded by denying the abuses and has refused to allow international peacekeepers and other independent monitors to investigate the crimes."

  This is misleading - Ladsous' UNAMID was in Tabit on November 9, and put out a press release whitewashing the rapes and saying the people there like the government's security forces. This was shameful.

 More publicly, Inner City Press on January 26 asked Security Council ambassadors Mark Lyall Grant of the UK and Raimonda Murmokaite of Lithuania, "what happened with UNAMID going back for real investigation of rapes in Tabit?"

#Darfur Q for @LyallGrant: what happened with UNAMID going back for real investigation of rapes in Tabit? Thanks. @PRLTUN

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) January 26, 2015

  Lyall Grant replied, "We continue to press DPKO to encourage UNAMID to revert on the Tabit allegations."

.@innercitypress @PRLTUN We continue to press DPKO to encourage UNAMID to revert on the Tabit allegations.

— Mark Lyall Grant (@LyallGrant) January 26, 2015

   Murmokaite added, "have been raising the issue at consultations, will continue."

@LyallGrant @innercitypress have been raising the issue at consultations, will continue

— Raimonda Murmokaite (@PRLTUN) January 26, 2015

 And so Inner City Press at the January 26 UN noon briefing asked Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, video here:

Inner City Press: two of the Security Council ambassadors this morning said they continued to ask DPKO to ensure that the Tabit site of alleged mass rapes is revisited. I want to know has any action been taken on that? Has there been any move by UNAMID?

Spokesman Dujarric: The request to visit Tabit stands. There's nothing to report.

 Nothing to report? Back on January 8 Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, video here:

Inner City Press: what has the UN system done in order to get access again to Thabit in Darfur, where there were allegedly 200 rapes, and then the Government didn’t allow any inspectors. What have you done since we last spoke on it?

SG Ban: As for the first part of the question, as you know, we tried to have a thorough investigation. This report might not have been sufficient because of the lack of full cooperation of the authorities on the ground. That has really hampered our authorities to go into the field and get a thorough investigation. It is important that we have to have a thorough investigation and as a matter of principle, there should be a clear accountability process and justice. I am firm about this matter. And we will, in the course of time, have better information on this matter.

  While appreciated, it is widely recognized that the more time goes by, the more difficult a credible rape investigation becomes. So why did UNAMID issue a cover-up November 9 press release?
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