In CAR, UN
Turned
Schools To
Military Use,
Held No
One Accountable,
Ladsous Exit
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Series
UNITED NATIONS,
March 23 – The United Nations
Department of Peacekeeping
Operations in Central African
Republic, under its fourth
consecutive French director in
a row Herve Ladsous, had
"peacekeepers" turns schools
into military sites, and held
no one accountable. From the
UN's March 23 transcript,
the day before Ladsous' "farewell"
press conference:
Inner City Press:
UN peacekeepers in the Central
African Republic of MINUSCA
used schools as military bases
in… contrary to everything
that's been called for, both
by Gordon Brown and
others. Is it
true? And, if so, why
did they use it? And
who… what are going to be the
accountability repercussions
for those who, in the name of
the UN, used schools as a
military base?
Deputy Spokesman:
Okay. First of all, as
of now… since the end of
January 2017, no MINUSCA
peacekeepers occupy any
schools as barracks or
bases. What did happen
is that, in 2016 and early
2017, UN peacekeepers occupied
two schools for a short period
of time in the west and the
centre of the Central African
Republic while implementing
protection of civilians
operations. The schools
were located in De Gaulle in
the Ouham-Pendé prefecture and
Mourouba in the Ouaka
prefecture. At that
time, MINUSCA peacekeepers
settled in De Gaulle while
separating 3 R and
anti-Balakas armed
elements. In Mourouba,
the school was no longer in
use, and the community had
fled due to clashes between
ex-Seleka UPC and FPRC in the
area. MINUSCA troops
vacated the school of De
Gaulle in November 2016 and
Mourouba in January
2017. On both occasions,
MINUSCA command force ordered
the immediate evacuation of
the schools once it was
observed that troops had
located bases in the schools.
Inner
City
Press: But
when… I mean, it sounds from
the first one… the way you
described the first one you're
sort of saying, because they
were engaged in protection of
civilians, somehow it was
okay. How did the
commanders not know where
their soldiers were… were
operating from? And… and
is the UN saying it is okay if
your motives are pure to use a
school as a military base?
Deputy Spokesman: No; in
fact, we have a directive on
the protection of schools and
universities against military
use. And as a result of
that and as a result of other
things, including, by the way,
the Conventions on the Rights
of the Child, we have made it
clear that no MINUSCA
peacekeepers are to occupy
schools and barracks or bases
and none of them are doing
that.
Inner City Press: But who
decided to go in… in the first
instance, it was actually a
school that was in use.
Who… at what level of command
did they decide to use it as a
base? How long did it
take for MINUSCA to understand
where its troops were
operating from? And
what's going to happen to the
person who… presumably, they
didn't just wander in
disorganized and start using
it.
Deputy Spokesman: The
point to be made is that all
troops have been advised about
the directives. It's…
we've tried to make it clear
that anyone when… including,
by the way, when armed groups
are occupying schools, they're
also requested to leave.
And we have a directive out
now that is… makes it very
clear that MINUSCA forces are
requested not to use schools
for any purpose and that
abandoned schools which are
occupied should be liberated
without delay in order to
allow educational authorities
to reopen them as soon as
possible. Masood?
MINUSCA
is also dumping waste
negligently leading to
malaria, a UN
memo leaked to and
exclusively published on
February 3 by Inner City Press
has shown.
On
February 13, when Inner City
Press asked UN Deputy
Spokesman Farhan Haq about the
UN killing three civilians
along with one combatant near
Bambari, the lack of
accountability in UN
Peacekeeping was again on
display. Haq dodged - this was
a day before he called Inner
City Press obsessive and then,
as he left, an a*hole - so on
February 14 Inner City Press
asked, transcript
here:
Inner City Press:
the UN is calling on the… the
Congolese authorities to look
into the civilian casualties
they may have caused; I'm
wondering if now, a day later,
if… if you have anything on
the reported killing of three
civilians by MINUSCA in CAR
outside of Bambari. What
is… what procedure is in place
for the UN to know how many
people were killed? And
it's… you described it as a
crossing of the red
line. But how many
people… how many
non-combatants were killed?
Deputy Spokesman: Well,
you've heard the update I gave
you about the situation
there. The UN mission
has reaffirmed its
impartiality in the
hostilities. And, again,
its core mandate is to protect
civilians. The worry in
this case was that if… once
the red line was crossed, that
fighting would be brought to
the civilians of Bambari,
which has happened before,
mind you. And it needed
to be stopped at this
stage. Beyond this, we
are looking into our actions
over… of the past few days to
see whether there are any
further details.
Inner City Press: No, I
just want to follow up,
because I'm sure the DRC army
said they did what they did
for a reason. So I'm not
contesting your reason for
shooting. I'm just
saying, doesn't the UN have a
mechanism to, in fact,
discover and disclose
civilians that it
killed? And what is that
mechanism? And what is
the deadline to state what
happened? Not why it
happened.
Deputy Spokesman: Well,
it's not a question of
deadline. We'll need to
get further details, and the
mission is trying to get
further details about what
happened, including any
potential casualties, such as
civilian casualties.
It's
called hypocrisy.
From the February
13 UN
transcript:
Inner City Press:
on the Central African
Republic announcement that you
made, the reports say that…
that… or the people that were
fired on say that one
commander, but also three
civilians were killed.
What is the UN's estimate of
what the effect of using the
helicopter, I guess, gunships
was?
Deputy Spokesman: Well,
at this stage, we are still
trying to evaluate what
happened as a result of its
actions. Like I said, we
had no choice but to take the
particular action we did once
it was clear that the actions
being taken by the FPRC could
harm civilians in
Bambari. The coalition
led by the FPRC refused to end
its military campaign, has
made taking Bambari its main
objective. From our
standpoint, we had been trying
to mediate and urged them to
engage in dialogue. So
we continue to stress that and
we continue to stress the need
to protect civilians,
including in Bambari.
And so we're hopeful that the
armed groups, the FPRC and the
UPC, will now stop crossing
the red lines that they're not
to cross. It's because a
red line was crossed that we
had to engage.
Question: But, if a
military intervention… if it's
true what's being… what this
says that… that the ratio
between civilians and
combatant casualties is 1 to
3, or 75 per cent civilian, is
it acceptable to the UN?
And what's the mechanism to
investigate that?
Deputy Spokesman: We're
looking into see exactly what
happened, what the casualties
were, whether they were
civilians or combatants.
At this stage, we don't have
those sorts of figures, those
sorts of numbers. It's
clear that a helicopter from
the UN Mission had to
intervene because the FPRC
members went into an
uninhabited zone. That
necessitated our action, and
that was designed to protect
the civilians in
Bambari. Had we not
acted, the fear was that that
would mean that there would be
actual fighting involving
civilians in Bambari.
So how
many civilians were killed by
the UN?
On February
7 Inner City Press put the
question to the UN Ambassador
of France, which has
controlled UN Peacekeeping
four times in a row not, and
prospectively a fifth. See
below.
Ambassador
Francois Delattre told Inner
City Press "I will take a
close look at it, it is a high
priority for us." Video here.
On
February 6, in a classic UN
noon briefing cover up,
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric when Inner City Press
asked about its February 3
exclusive said he wouldn't
speak to the authenticity of
the leaked memo but that the
UN is looking at possibilities
of moving or somehow improving
the dump.
Then the
memo showed up as "removed"
from Scribd -- NOT by Inner
City Press - so we uploaded it
to our own server, now via PDF here.
(Likewise,
eviction by Dujarric and the
UN's current head of
communications Cristina
Gallach has hindered Inner
City Press from putting up
video of Dujarric's evasion.
The high-speed cable in the
office Gallach evicted Inner
City Press from sits entirely
unused by the Egyptian state
media Akhbar al Yom she seeks
to give it to.)
For the UN
to try to cast doubt on the
leaked memo while seeking to
dodge its contents with vague
assurances of improvements is
typical.
The UN has
known about this dumping and
malaria for months. Who will
be help accountable?
The memo
states that "following
complaints by the local
population living in the
vicinity of the dumpsite" a UN
investigation found that the
dumpsite sludge dams breed
insects which result in
sickness. Eighty-one percent
of the UN's victims are
children, the memo says.
The
report, under "Community
Discontent," cites malaria. It
notes that when concerns were
raised, "police force was used
to quell the dissent."
Later on
February 3, an "anonymous" UN
Peacekeeping officials spuns
wire services about DPKO's
same-old claims to reform
itself, which include Ladsous
visiting the Haiti mission he
has mis-managed.
But this
CAR negligence will be a test
of the commitment to reform
expressed, among other places,
in the US Senate confirmation
hearings. How can Ladsous (or
MINUSCA as constituted) remain
in place? How can France keep
this UN Department?
]
By the same
token, how could corrupt
censor Cristina Gallach remain
in the UN system, in a post
other than Public Information
of which she had made a
mockery? We'll have more on
this.
Inner City
Press has long questioned
Ladsous, for example about his
linking of sexual exploitation
and abuse by peacekeepers to
"R&R" or rest and
recreation, here.
Ladsous replies,
"I don't answer your
questions, Mister."
Now under
new UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, many are
interested who will replace
Ladsous. While other Under
Secretary General posts like
Cristina Gallach's atop the
Department of Public
Information are now subject to
public
vacancy notices, DPKO
has not. Why not? Inner City
Press asked, but UN holdeover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
didn't answer.
Sources
will Inner City Press France
is trying to hold onto DPKO
for the fifth time in a row,
albeit with a women, on
information and belief Sylvie
Bermann, since 2014 France's
ambassador in London. Five
times in a row? Given this
kind of mismanagement, in a
former French colony?
Exclusive:
UN Waste In Dump Caused Malaria in
Central African Republic, Report
Leaked to Inner City Press S...
by Matthew
Russell Lee on Scribd
This
concerned the Kolongo dumpsite
in Bangui. Related memos refer
to the UN in Mali as well.
Tellingly,
this UN memo warns of
litigation, "taking into
account lessons learned in the
Haiti case." But was did the
UN learn?
Ban
Ki-moon, who after leaving the
UN on January 1 has found his
campaign for South Korea's
Presidency implode amid
corruption charges, dodged
legal papers about Haiti for
years. In his last month he
promised millions but so far
less than $2 million have been
raised, more than half of it
blood money from South Korea.
In the
Central African Republic, UN
peacekeepers have been accused
of sexual abuse, including of
minors. The UN itself recently
accused 25 Burundian
peacekeepers of sexual
exploitation and abuse, but UN
Peacekeeping chief Herve
Ladsous, the fourth French
national in a row to hold the
position, determined to
continue to pay the Pierre
Nkurunziza government for 800
more troops.
New UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres is considering who
will replace Ladsous. He
should consider and act on
this as well.
UN
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
while declining to explain
Ladsous' reasoning, recent
answered only two and a half
of 22 questions Inner City
Press posed in writing. UN
Department of Public
Information chief Cristina
Gallach evicted Inner City
Press from its UN office without
due process, confining
it still to minders to cover
the General Assembly.
The UN
reflexively covers up its
abuses. Even after killing
10,000 people with cholera in
Haiti, these practices
continue in the Central
African Republic.
Other
memos have been leaked to
Inner City Press. Meanwhile
even the UN's Office of the
High Commissioner for Human
Rights, rather than dealing
with the substance of a UN
Ethics Office memo Inner City
Press published,
has Tweeted a press release
saying it is all
unsubstantiated. Really? The
UN must be reformed.
***
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