Anatomy
of
UN Spin on
Congo Rapes,
Stonewall
& Lie,
Censor &
Steal
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
8 -- This is
how the UN and
its compliant
press corps
work, or
don't.
For
months,
the
investigative
Press asks
about 126
rapes in
Minova by the
Congolese
Army, with
which UN
Peacekeeping
partners.
Chief
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to hold
the post,
openly refuses
to answer any
of Inner City
Press'
questions. See November 27 stakeout, here.
Ladsous
even directs
one of his
three
spokespeople
to seize the
UNTV
microphone at
the Security
Council
stakeout on
December 18,
to try to
prevent a
Minova
question from
Inner City
Press. Video
here.
Inner
City Press,
through the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
complains to
the UN
Department of
Public
Information.
They tell
FUNCA, on the
record, that
they have
spoken quietly
to Ladsous'
spokesperson.
They take
credit for Ladsous
finally on
February 6
responding to
a question
from Inner
City Press
about the
Minova rapes.
But Ladsous'
answer, that
the UN knows
the identity
of the
majority of
the
perpetrators
(but has done
nothing)
raised more
questions. The
UN refuses to
answer Inner
City Press'
many
follow-ups.
Finally
on
March
5, at a
Security
Council
stakeout
session about
the Congo,
Inner City
Press manages
to ask
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
directly about
the rapes and
Ladsous'
failure to
implement
Ban's supposed
Human Rights
Due Diligence
Policy. Ban
says he will
do his utmost.
But
what does the
UN then do?
On
March 7, it
summons not
Inner City
Press which
asked the
Minova
question at
stakeouts
twice to Ban
himself and in
noon briefings
for months but
other,
friendlier
media --
several of
whom tried to
get Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN
in 2012,
through their
UN
Correspondents
Association.
These
media --
including Reuters'
Michelle
Nichols
and Louis
Charbonneau,
Agence
France Presse'
Tim
Witcher, Voice of
America's
Margaret
Besheer,
BBC's Barbara
Plett, more to
follow -- take
the spoon-fed
story that
they have
never
themselves
asked about
and run
stories about
how an unnamed
UN official
has given an
undefined
deadline for
prosecution to
two
unidentified
units of the
Congolese
Army.
The
stories have
no attribution
or context,
and no
criticism of
the UN,
Ladsous or Ban
Ki-moon.
This
is how the UN
and its
compliant
press corps
work, or
don't. But it
must change --
with these
sleights of
hand, the UN
will never
improve.
Take
as simply the
first example
the UN's
(and Ban's and
Ladsous'
DPKO's) terse
dismissal of
the legal
claim they
killed 8000
people by
introducing
cholera to
Haiti.
The
day it was
announced,
UNCA president
Pamela
Falk of CBS
demanded the
first question
at the UN noon
briefing
-- to ask not
about Haiti
but about an
unrelated and
self-serving
UNCA letter
she'd sent to
the chief of
DPI.
This
is how the UN
and its
compliant
press corps,
many in what's
now known as
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance,
don't work. It
has to change.
Watch this
site.
, 
