Ladsous
Brags to UNRIC Met
Bashir, HRW
Silent, Calls
Nigeria
Cowardly
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 15 – The
UN shields
itself from
questions and
in turn
few question
it, either
because of its
declining
relevance or
because
those that
could hold it
accountable
too
desperately
want access.
Take
for example
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous'
meeting
earlier this
month with
Sudan
president Omar
al Bashir, who
has been
indicted by
the
International
Criminal Court
for genocide
and war
crimes.
That
meeting with
Bashir is
controversial
is witnessed
by criticism
today by Human
Rights Watch
and the
Coalition for
the ICC, along
others, of
Nigeria
not arresting
him during an
HIV / AIDS
conference
there. This
position has
been reported
by Agence
France Presse
– a good
friend
of Ladsous, on
one of whose
management
board's
Ladsous used
to serve
– BBC
and others.
But
HRW said
nothing when
Ladsous met
with Bashir.
Previously,
when Inner
City
Press asked
merely for the
topics HRW's
Ken Roth
raised to UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon,
Roth's
spokesman
Philippe
Bolopion,
who previously
covered the UN
for Le Monde
and France24,
told
Inner City
Press these
had to remain
secret to
maintain
access.
Nor
apparently did
BBC
or AFP (no
surprise) ask
HRW while
quoting its
finger wagging
at
Nigeria. (Ken
Roth on
Twitter called
Nigeria – the
whole country,
apparently --
“cowardly”
for not
arresting
Bashir, while
not
explaining
why his own
failure to
even comment
on Ladsous
meeting
Bashir was so
heroic.)
Now
Ladsous
appears
interviewed
not even by
friendly but
ostensibly
independent
media but by
the UN
Regional
Information
Center for
Western
Europe,
UNRIC, run
by the UN
Department of
Public
Information.
Ladsous
is
asked three
softball
question and
says, “In
Khartoum, I met
with
President
Al-Bashir.” No
question is
asked about if
this meeting
was
appropriate.
Ladsous
openly
refuses
critical Press
questions,
about the ICC,
the Geneva
Conventions,
his role in
covering up
135 rapes by
his partners
in the
Congolese Army
in Minova in
November.
Sixteen
days ago
Inner City
Press asked
Ladsous' four
spokespeople a
simple
question,
if his MONUSCO
mission
supports the
Congolese Army
units named in
the
Group of
Experts report
the full text
of which Inner
City Press
exclusively
put online in
June.
An
answer was
promised, and
has three
times been
re-requested
in the UN noon
briefing run
by Ban's
spokespeople.
But no answer
at all as been
provided. This
is Ladsous,
and Ban's, and
DPI's, UN.
Watch this
site.
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