ICP
Asks UN of
Reported Rapes
In Its
"Protection"
Camps, Inept
Redux
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
20-- How low
has the UN
fallen, in
terms of
corruption,
not stopping
rapes, and
retaliating
against the
Press that
asks the
questions? April 16 eviction here and here.
On
April 20,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric about
rapes inside
the UN's
"protection"
camps, UN
transcript
here:
Inner
City Press:
There’s a
lengthy 18
April piece in
Time magazine
about rape as
a tool of
war. And
one of the
situations
that it
describes are
people who
sought shelter
in the UN…
UNMISS
Protection of
Civilians
Sites being,
they say,
repeatedly
raped inside
the
camps.
And so it…
it’s not
something that
I’d heard
of. And
I wonder, is
it something
that the UN
and UNMISS
keep track
of? It
sounds pretty
bad to be in
a… in a POC
(protection of
civilians)
site.
And so what is
the UN’s
position on
whether rapes
have occurred
in these
sites, as
described in
Time magazine?
Spokesman:
I don’t have
any reports to
that
end.
Obviously, the
situations
inside the
camps are
challenging
given that
these
protection of
civilians
sites were not
designed to
house the tens
and tens of
thousands of
people we are
housing.
We’ve seen
that sometimes
the security
situation
inside those
POCs has been
precarious.
We hope, if
there are any
reports, that
they are
reported to
the UN
authorities.
On
April 12 Inner
City Press
asked Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
about an April
13 hearing in
the US House
of
Representatives
about impunity
for UN rapes.
Just as the UN
skipped court
hearings on
bringing
cholera to
Haiti, Haq's
answer did not
say that the
UN would
attend the
hearing. Video
here.
Inner
City Press
live-tweeted
the House
hearing on
April 13, in
which Aicha
Elbasri
described
Herve Ladsous'
cover up in
Darfur, and
former OIOS
auditor Peter
Gallo
described how
top UN
officials just
USE the OIOS
(as they have
to de-link Ban
Ki-moon from
the Ng Lap
Seng scandal).
Brett Schaefer
said there is
a need for US
training of
other
countries'
peacekeepers.
There's truth
in that, but
one of the DRC
Army units
implicated in
the mass rapes
in Minova was
US trained.
Chairman
Chris Smith
cited the UN's
"zero
tolerance,
zero
compliance
culture;" in
the Senate
there were
strong
argument for
reducing the
UN's funding.
On
April 14,
Inner City
Press asked UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric, video here, UN
transcript
here:
, 
