UNITED
NATIONS, July
21 -- The UN's
stated Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy
has
effectively
been killed,
by the 391st
Battalion of
the Congolese
Army and
really by UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous.
After
the 391st
Battalion was
implicated in
135 rapes in
Minova in
November
2012, Ladsous
stonewalled
then decided
to continue
support to
them,
after only two
soldiers were
arrested, and
a dozen
officers
"suspended."
Now
the 391st
Battalion is
implicated in
the
desecration of
corpses,
another war
crime. This
after Ladsous
declined to
continue to
support them.
Here
is Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
supposed “human
rights
due diligence
policy," as
articulated by
his outgoing
chief
lawyer
Patricia
O'Brien at a
July 9, 2013
meeting on
which
Inner City
Press exclusively
reported:
"First,
the
UN cannot
provide
support to
non-UN
security
forces where
there
are
substantial
grounds for
believing
there is a
real risk of
those
forces
committing
grave
violations of
international
humanitarian,
human rights
or refugee
law. Secondly,
where grave
violations are
committed by
non-UN
security
forces that
are receiving
support from
the UN, the UN
must intercede
with a view to
bringing those
violations to
an end. And
thirdly, if,
despite such
intercession,
the
situation
persists, the
UN must
suspend
support to the
offending
forces."
At
latest
since the
November 2012
mass rapes,
there have
been
"substantial
grounds for
believing
there is a
real risk of
those
forces
committing
grave
violations of
international
humanitarian,
human rights
or refugee
law."
Ladsous
tried to
cover these
grounds up, by
refusing to
disclose which
FARDC units
his
MONUSCO
mission was
supporting,
and which
units were in
Minova. Ladsous
openly
refused
Inner City
Press questions
on this topic
at stakeout
after
stakeout,
video here.
But
when
it came out,
he claimed to
"intercede
with a view to
bringing those
violations to
an end." This
resulted in
only two
arrests, for
135 rapes, and
the cited
dozen
"suspension."
It
could
have been
foreseen that
this low level
of
accountability
would
not bring
violations to
an end. And it
did not: the
same 391st
Battalion,
in July 2013,
was involved
in abuses
including the
desecration of
corpses,
which Inner
City Press asked Ban's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
about on July
16.
Clearly
stage three
of the Policy
has been
reached:
despite
intercession,
the situation
has persisted.
So the UN
"must suspend
support to the
offending
forces" -- but
has not.
The Policy has
been killed by
Ladsous
and the 391st
Battalion.
Immediately,
DPKO must be
made to
disclosure
which units it
supports, not
only in the
DRC but at
least the two
other
countries the
Security
Council has
applied the
Policy to,
South
Sudan and
Somalia.
Similarly
in South
Sudan, when
Inner City
Press asked
about video
evidence of
Ladsous'
UNMISS mission
standing by as
thousands of
Lou Nuer
fighters
marched
by from
killing Murle,
and asking
about the
Policy, the
written
response has
been as if to
a
hypothetical:
Subject:
Your
question on
South Sudan.
From: UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not Reply
[at] un.org
Date: Fri, Jul
19, 2013 at
12:00 PM
To:
Matthew.Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
A
request for
aviation fuel
to aircraft of
the Sudan
People’s
Liberation
Army would be
viewed as a
request for
“support” and
would be
subject to a
risk
assessment on
the basis of
the Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy.
In
the
event that
such a request
was approved,
the UN Mission
in South
Sudan (UNMISS)
would take
steps to
monitor how
the fuel is
used in
order to
ensure that it
not be
diverted for
other
purposes.
So:
was
such a request
made? Was it
approved?
Which units of
the SPLA
does UNMISS
support?
Because
Ladsous is not
credible in
implementing
or enforcing
the stated
Human Rights
Due Diligence
Policy. Watch
this
site.
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