By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 5 --
The mass rape
of 135 women
in Minova in
November 2012
by two units
of the
Congolese Army
to which the
UN still
provide
support is an
issue on which
UN
Peacekeeping
has been far
less than
transparent.
When
Inner City
Press, which
has inquired
into the rapes
with exclusives
since last
November,
asked UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous, he
refused to
answer at all.
Video
compilation
here.
More
recently after
spin
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
has said it is
entirely a
matter for the
Congolese
authorities --
this despite
the UN's
continued
support to the
41st and 391st
Battalion in
seeming
contravention
of Ban's
stated Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy.
Now
with the UN
Security
Council in
Kinshasa for
meetings,
Inner City
Press has
reports from
multiple
sources that
the issue was
raised,
including to
President
Joseph Kabila
himself.
UK
Permanent
Representative
Mark
Lyall Grant to
his credit
gave an open
answer less
than an hour
ago, by
Twitter: "@innercitypress
Yes we have
just seen Pres
Kabila. Minova
crimes raised
by me &
others with
Defence and
Interior
Ministers."
Inner
City Press has
further
learned that
the "others"
referred to by
Lyall Grant
include US
Ambassador
Samantha
Power, who
raised the
issue not only
to the Defense
minister and
to the
Interior
minister
(accompanied
by the Justice
Minister in
the meeting
with the
Security
Council) but
to President
Kabila
himself.
A
complaint is
that the
claimed
investigation
has been far
too slow, and
that only
junior
soldiers have
been jailed.
Inner City
Press is
informed that
the Ministers
responded that
twelves
officers were
suspended, and
may be
prosecuted,
after
investigation.
How is
this
investigation
taking from
November 2012
until now,
October, more
than ten
months later?
And what is
President
Kabila's
response?
It
must be noted
for the
context of
Ambassador
Power's
question to
Kabila that
the 391st
Battalion was
trained by the
US. Inner
City Press,
after
reporting, got
a US
Mission to the
UN comment on
it, here.
French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud,
who dropped
out of the
trip at the
last minute
after his
Mission
hand-picked
which
correspondents
could
accompany and
cover the UN
trip and
rejected Inner
City Press, had
earlier
told the Press
that the units
implicated in
the Minova
rapes were the
DRC's "best"
units.
The
Security
Council is now
dining with
the DRC Prime
Minister;
tomorrow they
head east to
Goma. We will
continue to
cover the
trip. Watch
this site.
For
viewing: in
this video,
Ladsous
refused to
answer Inner
City Press'
question about
the Minova
rapes, then
took into the
hall some favored
correspondents,
including one individual
selected by
France for
this trip, as
well as
Reuters and
AFP: click
here.
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