By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
17 -- The UN
and its
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
under Herve
Ladsous claim
to be doing a
lot to protect
civilians and
bring
accountability.
The claim is
wearing thin,
now in South
Sudan as well.
There
were the
incidents in
Pibor, and the
UN's long
silence about
how many were
killed.
Now, just as
Inner City
Press twice
this week
asked the UN
about
photographic
evidence of
its Congolese
Army partners
mutilating
bodies, today
we highlight a
video
depicting
UNMISS
peacekeepers
in “Manyabol,
Jonglei on
July 14, 2013
narrating as
'thousands and
thousands' of
members of a
government
supported
militia
thought to be
returning home
from ethnic
violence in
Jonglei state
marching past
them and
government
troops with
stolen cattle
after violent
clashes which
have already
led to
hundreds of
wounded. No
action was
taken to stop
them or even
to make this
sighting
public.”
While
further
inquiry
proceeds, what
will UN
Peacekeeping
do? Its
and Ladsous'
claims are
belied by the
MONUSCO
mission in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo,
where after
135 rapes by
the UN's
partners in
the Congolese
Army, the UN
continues to
support the
two units, the
41st and
391st
Battalions.
Ladsous
sought to
cover up the
rapes for
months,
repeatedly
refusing Press
questions
about them. Video compilation here.
Now
for nineteen
days they have
refused to
answer a
simple Inner
City Press
question about
whether the
units of the
Congolese Army
they support
include those
depicted in
the new Group
of Experts
report engaged
in rape,
looting,
arming the
FDLR and child
soldier
recruitment.
They
acknowledged
receipt of the
question in
June when
Inner City
Press
exclusive put
online the
full text of
the Group of
Experts
report, and
said they
would answer.
But since
then: nothing. Given
what Ladsous
is turning
DPKO and the
UN into -- a
stonewalling
duo which
refuses
questions on
the
implications
of its own
Group of
Experts
report,
responding
only to visual
evidence, we
run the video
above.Watch
this site.
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