UN
Scandal in CAR Exposed, Demands
Made to Guterres, His 2 Spox
Refuse to Answer
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
June 12 – When Jean Pierre
Lacroix, the fifth French boss
of UN Peacekeeping (DPKO) in a
row, held his first press
conference in UN Headquarters
on May 24, Inner City Press
asked him to state what he
sees as the benefits of his
country controlling DPKO for
so long, compared to the
downside (for example the
French Force Sangaris rapes in
CAR), and if he didn't think
in an Organization of 193
states, with most peacekeeping
missions in Africa, the
position should belatedly be
rotated. Amazingly, Lacroix
refused to answer the
question. UN video here,
from 38:38. Also amazing, but
now a trend, Secretary General
Antonio Guterres' top two
spokesmen have refused to
answer this formal question
from Inner City Press: "On CAR
and Berberati, please state
when the UN became aware of
the situation and the SEA
risk. When did UN know, and
what did they do about it?"
We'll have more on this.
Lacroix' DPKO has been exposed
in a leaked
memo (1-pager here),
and it is Secretary General
Antonio Guterres and not
Lacroix who has received this
Code Blue letter. Inner City
Press asked UN Spokesman
Dujarric about it on June 7,
UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: I
wanted to ask you about this
memo that's emerged from the
Central African Republic, not
only about the Congolese…
Congo Brazzaville battalion
but about the camp itself that
they're based in, saying that
it's totally contrary… Code
Blue has written to the
Secretary-General, but also
the memo speaks for
itself. It basically
describes a camp that's
totally at odds with the
possible zero tolerance of
sexual abuse. So I'm
wondering, what is his
response to this… beyond… I
believe maybe they'll
repatriate the battalion, but
the critique seems to be much
more fundamental: that
there are camps with no
kitchens for the soldiers,
people going into town trading
sex for food…
Spokesman: I think what
the report shows is that the
Force Commander has been doing
his job. It's part of
the Force Commander's
responsibility to check and to
check on the troops, assess
their performance through a
number of evaluation
mechanisms. The report
has been sent to
Headquarters. The
assessment was, indeed, done
on the Republic of the Congo
troops, on their… the
contingent and on the
base. The result of the
evaluation, which was done not
too long ago, has been shared
with the Member State, and
we're following up on various
options. UN peacekeeping
is obviously, as we've said in
the past, very much committed
to the high standards of
performance and conduct, and
they will spare no action to
reach that goal.
Inner City Press: Who's
responsible for these
bases? I guess what I'm
saying is it's one thing to
say that soldiers did
something, but if this is a UN
base, was the Congolese
battalion entirely in charge
of setting it up, or who
checks these things?
Spokesman: It's part of
the peacekeeping mission, and,
obviously, this is part of a
routine evaluation. And,
as you said, the report is
being evaluated. It was
done as part of the work that
is required by the military
and contingents.
Guterres is once again setting
out on a long trip, this time
to Central Asia. Will the UN
ever be reformed? Can it be?
One nexus here: these abuses
are be troops from
Congo-Brazzaville, a country
like Cameroon and Gabon whose
abuses France covers up,
including in DPKO. Back on May
24 Department of Field
Support's Atul Khare said he
doesn't see Lacroix as French
- besides the point - and when
Inner City Press asked, So how
was a replacement of Herve
Ladsous recruited, UN Deputy
Spokesman Farhan Haq cut off
the follow up, as he hadn't
others. Then Inner City Press
asked lead (French) spokesman
Stephane Dujarric to provide
the response that Lacroix had
refused to. Dujarric declined
to confirm that his new boss
Antonio Guterres had asking
only France for candidates
(the others, Inner City Press
first reported, here
Jean-Maurice Ripert and Sylvie
Bermann). So how is Guterres a
reformer, if he kept this up
and his spokesman won't even
try to explain it? We'll have
more on this. The UN's
two-tier treatment in Mali and
elsewhere of African versus
European peacekeepers was
confirmed on May 19 by the
UN's Force Commander in Mali's
MINUSMA mission Jean-Paul
Deconinck. Video
here. Inner City Press,
now restricted
in the UN for reporting on
corruption, sought to go
across First Avenue to asking
him, though it would mean
re-entering with tourists and
missing most of an African
Group press conference. On the
way, the Department of Public
Information's Hua
Jiang, involved in the
15 months of restrictions on
Inner City Press, nodded; at
IPI Youssef Mahmoud told Inner
City Press to keep its
questions short. Even so, when
it asked of restrictions on
sharing technology with the
African contingents suffering
most of the casualties in
Mali, a crew of Caucasian UN
Peacekeeping supporters loudly
opined, "Irrelevant." On the
UN on May 22, Inner City Press
asked UN Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric about it, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press: on Friday
across the street at IPI tothe
Force Commander of MINUSMA
[United Nations Stabilization
Mission] in Mali, I asked
something that I've asked you
here in this room about the
sharing of technology between
different contingents and the
complaint that, for example,
Chadians have… don't have
night-vision goggles and other
security equipment that the
European delegate… contingents
had. And he said that's
just how it is; every country
comes with their own
equipment, and he didn't
provide any provision for
trying to share it and kind of
equalize the degree of risk
covered. So can you
clarify? What is DPKO's
position on different
delegations from
different-incomed and
resourced countries coming to
serve in Mali and who faces
the risk of being blown up by…
Spokesman: Obviously,
I'm not going to contradict
what the Force Commander may
have said. But, as you
know, the troop-contributing…
the units come with their own
equipment. We,
obviously… also sometimes we
have to provide the
equipment. But it is
clear that the safety and
security of our troops is
something that is shared… that
concern is shared by the
mission as a whole, and any
mission as a whole will try to
protect all of the
troop-contributing countries
as much as possible.
Inner City Press: I'm
sure the concern is
shared. What I'm
wondering is whether the
night-vision goggles and other
equipment are, in fact,
shared.
Spokesman: Well, I think
the work that one contingent
may do to provide for the
security of the rest of the
mission is obviously of common
interest.
The Force
Commander will speak to the
Security Council on May 22.
But will he take Press
questions? Amid attacks on and
mismanagement from UN
headquarters of the UN
peacekeeping mission in Mali,
MINUSMA, an "extraordinary"
meeting for troop contributors
was held on January 27.
Inner City
Press, which has covered the
disparate treatment in MISUSMA
between for example troops
from Chad and Europe, wanted
to cover it. But due to a
retaliatory eviction
order
by the UN's Cristina Gallach,
it could only do so with the
UN "minder."
Even so,
UN Security officials demanded
to know where its minder was,
cutting off several diplomats
who had approached Inner City
Press to give it information.
As the meeting wound
down, Inner City Press worked
around the minder to learn --
from UN official Atul Khare to
his credit -- that there is
discussion of moving the
Senegalese "quick reaction
force" from Cote d'Ivoire to
Mali.
It was not
possible yet to ask about the
recent mutiny / unrest in Cote
d'Ivoire. Khare had to go, and
Herve Ladsous refused to
answer any Press questions,
having been exposed
linking peacekeepers' rapes
to "R&R."
Other
diplomats, even as Inner City
Press was being told to leave
the second floor where other
journalist were free to stay
(though none were in fact
staking out the Mali meeting),
told Inner City Press that
Egypt is offering a battalion.
Troublingly, to some, Sri
Lanka is being recruited by
Ladsous' UN to provide "convoy
protection," despite its
military's record of killing
in northern Sri Lanka in 2008
and 2009
and abuses since, to say
nothing of sexual
abuse in Haiti.
Inner City
Press wants to do more
reporting into the UN's
engagement with the Sri Lankan
military. But Gallach's minder
ordered Inner City Press to
leave. This is censorship.
To be continued.
***
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