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By Matthew Russell Lee, Vid here, CAR photos

UNITED NATIONS GATE, February 2 -- Even as the UN was bragging about its role in a new Central African Republic agreement reached today in Khartoum, with immunity once again finessed, the UN's own impunity remains unaddressed. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres refuses to answer Inner City Press' questions about rapes committed there by his peacekeepers from Cameroon. And since late last year another scandal has come into focus, the UN Mission MINUSCA standing by while more than 100 civilians were killed in Alindao, see below. Alindao, at least the UN admitted there is a an issue. Not this one, yet: on January 14 at noon Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres, his Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed, USG Alison Smale and Spokesman Stephane Dujarric (the last two have promised answers, here and here) questions including: "January 14-2: On Central African Republic, please immediately provide the SG's comment and action on photos of videos of blue helmeted peacekeepers, apparently from the UN's Mauritanian contingent, carrying wounded / killed people near Ippy." No answer at all, even as Spokesman Dujarric tweets about expensive restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side, here - so Inner City Press which has been asked to report on his outrage, which includes video and photos of blue helmet dragging and "bragging" out corpses, now uploads some here. A full 24 hour later, Inner City Press again in writing asked Guterres, Amina J. Mohammed, Alison Smale, Dujarric and others: "On Central African Republic, please immediately as you did not yesterday provide the SG's comment and action on photos of videos of blue helmeted peacekeepers, apparently from the UN's Mauritanian contingent, carrying wounded / killed people near Ippy. To ensure your prompt response, here are two of the photos." And still nothing - totally unaccountable.  Another unanswered question by Inner City Press on this: "January 30-1: On CAR and peacekeeping and the photos and videos Inner City Press has asked your Office about without answer, MINUSCA has said "Certain images from the video are troubling and raise concerns regarding the conduct of the peacekeeping troops. Mauritania sent a high-level delegation to investigate and UN HQ is following up with the troop contributing country in NYC. The results of the investigative process will determine the next steps." Please immediately confirm if this investigation, of UN peacekeepers dragging corpse laughing, is being conducted only by Mauritania, or what the UN involvement is and possible penalties are." The UN is unaccountable: this, is Guterres' UN. Even though the UN simply stonewalls rather than seeking to answer, we'll note that some say this footage is front when "anti-balaka" tried to free people imprisoned by the Mauritanian UN peacekeepers - and the the UN Group of Experts published a photo with the blue helmets omitted. Guterres self-serving and censorious decision to rough up and ban the Press at the UN which asks about this, leaving a briefing room with no one asking and none of the promises answers to written questions - this is the disgusting state to which Guterres has brought the UN - not even responding to PHOTOGRAPHS of blue helmets defiling the cadavers of African civilians. We'll have more on this. This comes after UN negligence leading to the death of 100 civilians in Alindao in CAR. Inner City Press wrote about it on December 13, and on the morning of December 14, still banned from the UN by SG Antonio Guterres after 163 (now 186) days, submitted questions including this to Guterres, his deputy Amina J. Mohammed, Alison Smale, Stephane Dujarric and Farhan Haq: "December 14-1: On CAR, what is the SG's comment and more importantly action on reports that UN peacekeepers' fleeing contributed to the killing of 100 civilians in Alindao? Who will be held accountable?" Haq held an in person briefing at which no one allowed in asked about the UN killing 100 people through negligence. At 2:40 pm Haq sent Inner City Press this: "Regarding your first question, we have the following to say: We have seen the Amnesty report and we are taking extremely seriously the atrocities committed against civilians in Alindao. We have requested the Government to investigate these crimes against civilians with our support and for perpetrators to be held accountable.

We also take seriously any allegation of underperformance. MINUSCA is investigating the response of our peacekeepers at the time of the attack and we will take appropriate measures based on the findings. 

At the time of the attack, the Mission had 48 peacekeepers in the area and was trying to protect the 3,000 IDPs who have moved to our temporary operating base to seek protection. Our capacity was just not enough to deal effectively with the complexity, scale and type of the attack. MINUSCA immediately sent reinforcements from Bambari to help contain the violence but due to the poor infrastructure, they arrived in Alindao 36 hours later. Once the reinforcements were on the ground, MINUSCA was able to execute more efficiently its protection mandate. We are currently protecting around 17,000 civilians in Ouaka prefecture.

The Mission continues to engage with the UPC and anti-Balaka representatives on ending all the violence against civilians in Alindao and Ouaka prefecture. A human rights mission and a surge team are in the city as part of the measures to work with the communities to ease tensions, as well as relaunch dialogue and political engagement.

As the Amnesty report acknowledges, MINUSCA is working hard to protect civilians in various parts of the country within its limited resources. Despite operational and logistical challenges, the Mission has saved countless of lives and it will continue to execute its protection mandate." But consider: "According to multiple eyewitnesses, UN peacekeepers did not engage an attack by an armed group but instead retreated in an armoured vehicle to their central base, leaving thousands of civilians unprotected at the camp in Alindao on 15 November.
An immediate and impartial inquiry must focus, in particular, on whether the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) failed in its duty to protect the lives of more than 18,000 people residing at the site.
“Scores of civilians at the displaced persons camp in Alindao were massacred after the UN peacekeepers charged with protecting them failed to take action to fend off their armed attackers,” said Joanne Mariner, Senior Crisis Response Adviser at Amnesty International." Now if only Amnesty would stand up to the UN, or at the very least answer its mail, about Inner City Press being "BARRED" by UN Security from a December 10 Human Right Day event in the UN moderated by Amnesty's Sherine Tadros. We'll have more on that - and on this: Guterres says he has a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment, and for retaliation. But when Inner City Press asked Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq on March 15 about Michel Sidibé's reported threats of retaliatory investigations against those making and offering support to sexual harassment complaints at UNAIDS, Haq said this is entire a matter for UNAIDS. Earlier Inner City Press story here; exclusive publication of whistleblowers' international condemnation of retaliation and favoritism in Sidibe's UNAIDS, below. On November 14, the 134th day Guterres has banned Inner City Press -- the UN data dumped after four pm five rape charges against six Cameroonian UN "peacekeepers" in the Central African Republic, on which the Paul Biya government has not even responded to the UN, a case of sexual exploitation by a UN civilian staffer in DR Congo. Photo here. Inner City Press, banned amid its critical coverage of impunity in and of Guterres' UN, would have to wait to ask for more information - apparently asking is "harassment," according to Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric. But even though Inner City Press emailed in the question before Dujarric's laughing noon briefing on November 14, at which none of those present asked about these just disclosed UN rapes and Dujarric did not bring them up, afterward still no answer. Nor a full day later, so Inner City Press submitted this on November 16, before a briefing Dujarric said he would keep short so he and his interlocutors could go have lunch: "November 16-5: AGAIN - On sexual exploitation and abuse and the new charges against Cameroonian peacekeepers in CAR put online yesterday, please now provide all further if-asked information about these abuses, as for example you did when asked in person by those not banned from the previous briefing about the Nigerian peacekeeper(s)." Four hours later, with Friday about to end, no answer at all. Guterres is covering up rapes by Cameroonian troops, while using state media to selectively tell good news spin about the few times the UN can even claim to work for accountability. This non-provision of if-asked information is completely contrary to the promise by Guterres' Global Communicator or Censor Alison Smale to UNSR David Kaye. Guterres' UN including Dujarric functionally cover up UN rapes. On November 5 Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric quickly read out new allegations of UN sexual exploitation and abuse. No one in the room asked about the 24 alleged child rape (one late set of softball questions were lobbed); Dujarric said all the information, including for previous periods for comparison was in his office and immediately available to those he HASN'T had roughed up and banned from the UN: Dooj's Stooges. Inner City Press immediately emailed him, his deputy, Guterres' Global Censor Alison Smale, Amina J. Mohammed, Maria Luiza Viotti, Hua Jiang and others: "This is a request to immediately be emailed the UN sexual exploitation and abuse data rattled off in the noon briefing Inner City Press remains banned from, and reiterates UNSR David Kaye's 20 July 2018 question what is the appeals process for this ban, still not answered." The briefing ended with Dujarric joking with his softball interlocutor, to whom he'd said "Vannina in my office has more information," video here, presumably gone and returned Vannina Maestracci. But when Inner City Press emailed Dujarric and his deputy for this additional information, the deputy Farhan Haq sent no additional information, claiming "The data provided below is exactly  the same as the data shared with the accredited press.  For comparisons, please look at the Conduct and Discipline Unit website, which includes previous data." But that's only peacekeeper, not civilian staff information, much less UNSC authorized forces. What's the additional information that Dujarric said Maestracci has? From the past, before Dujarric and Guterres had Inner City Press roughed up and banned: one, two, three strikes and you're out. More than an hour after he read it out, and with none of the promised historical data, what Dujarric read was emailed to banned Inner City Press by Dujarric's deputy: "We have been giving you regular updates on cases of sexual exploitation and abuse in the UN system in line with the Secretary-General’s initiative on increasing transparency on these allegations. Today I have an update for the period 1 July to 30 September 2018. Please note that not all the allegations have been fully verified and many are in the preliminary assessment phase. During this period, the United Nations received 39 allegations involving UN personnel – 6 for peacekeeping and 33 from agencies, funds and programmes. We also received 25 allegations involving non-UN personnel working as implementing partners. There were no allegations pertaining to non-UN international forces authorized by Security Council mandate for this period.
The total allegations reported for this period is 64. 30 incidents allegedly took place in 2018; 7 in 2017; 2 in 2016; 6 in 2015 or before and the date is unknown for 19 allegations.
From the 64 allegations, there are 77 victims: 42 women, 24 girls (under the age of 18), 2 men and 1 boy (under the age of 18). The age of 8 victims is unknown. The categorization of the allegations against these 77 victims is 16 as sexual abuse, 55 as sexual exploitation, 4 unknown. Two (2) are categorized as others as they were unsubstantiated following investigation. The alleged perpetrators are 66 men, 1 woman, and 2 individuals whose gender is unknown.
Of the 39 allegations related to UN personnel, one was not substantiated, 22 are at various stages of investigation and 16 are under preliminary assessment to determine if there is sufficient information to investigate.
Of the 25 allegations relating to implementing partners, 2 have been substantiated through an investigation and the perpetrators were dismissed by the implementing partner. One allegation was not substantiated, 14 are at various stages of investigation, 7 are under preliminary assessment and 1 allegation was closed at the request of the victim.
The efforts to implement the Secretary-General’s strategy to combat sexual exploitation and abuse have continue to be strengthened. You’ll remember that on 27 September 2018, the Secretary-General issued a Collective Statement of the Members of his Circle of Leadership in which they reaffirmed their continued personal commitment as global leaders to support efforts to combat sexual exploitation and abuse across the United Nations system. As of today, that Statement has been endorsed by 49 Heads of State and Government and 22 Heads of United Nations entities. 72 global leaders have joined the Circle of Leadership. And also, 100 Member States are to this date signatories to the voluntary compact with the United Nations to eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse.
During this quarter, the electronic tool, “Clear Check” used for screening UN staff dismissed as a result of substantiated allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, or who resigned or were separated during an investigation is on its way to be fully utilized system-wide."  On October 24 - UN Day, and the 112th day Guterres has banned Inner City Press -- the UN data dumped at 11 am a rape charge against a UN Volunteer in DR Congo, as recent as August 2018. Photo here. But no one let into the UN noon briefing even asked about it, or any question about anything in Africa where the UN - and Guterres' son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres - raise their money. Inner City Press asked before noon in writing: October 24-3: On sexual exploitation and abuse and the new rape charges against the UNV in MONUSCO put online an hour ago, please now provide all further if-asked information about these abuses, as for example you did when asked in person by those not banned from the briefing about the Nigerian peacekeeper(s)." More than an hour later, this from Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq: "Regarding question 24-3, we can say the following:

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) has received an allegation of sexual abuse involving an International UN Volunteer (UNV). The allegation concerns two Congolese adult females and allegedly took place in Bunia in August 2018.
 
The matter is being investigated by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) and the United Nations Volunteers Programme has been notified of the allegation and the ongoing investigation.
MONUSCO reports that the alleged victims were examined by a doctor at a local hospital on the day of the reported incident and further referred to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) for appropriate support, as per the UN’s Victim Assistance Protocol.
The protection of and assistance to victims is our top priority. The Mission will maintain contact with them and continue to monitor the situation." Nothing on the nationality, for example, of the alleged UN rapist - why not? Banned Inner City Press cannot ask, and no one else does. Guterres is a cover up artist.  On October 18, the 107th day Guterres has banned Inner City Press from entering the UN - now on a secret banned list along with "political activists," see here, the UN mid afternoon data dumped another case of sexual exploitation by a Cameroonian "peacekeeper" in CAR, photo here. On October 19 Inner City Press, banned from the UN briefing for the 108th day, asked questions in writing including: "October 19-3: On sexual exploitation and abuse and the new charges against Cameroonian peacekeeper in CAR put online yesterday, please now provide all further if-asked information about these abuses, as for example you did when asked in person by those not banned from the briefing about the Nigerian peacekeeper(s)." Two hours after the briefing, at which none of those allowed into the briefing asked about this new sexual exploitation outrage, the UN sent Inner City Press this:  "Regarding question 19-3, we have the following information: The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) has received a new allegation of sexual exploitation involving one member of the Cameroon military contingent deployed to the Mission. 
 The allegation refers to an exploitative relationship with one adult woman that allegedly took place in February 2018, resulting in pregnancy. The UN has informed the Member State of the allegation and has requested that a National Investigation Officer be appointed within five (5) working days. The UN has also requested for the investigation to be completed within the reduced 90-days timeframe. The alleged victim has been referred for assistance to humanitarian partners. The Mission will continue to monitor the victim needs, as well as provide any additional assistance such as the collection of DNA samples if requested to do so by the victim."  Inner City Press contends the UN needs a new column or data point: if pregnancy resulted. How many more abuses by Cameroonian soldiers, both in and outside of that country, will Guterres put up with? On October 9, the 98th day Guterres has banned Inner City Press from entering the UN in any capacity, at 12:01 pm as the noon briefing was to start, and banned Inner City Press' questions for the day had already been emailed in, the UN disclosed yet more sexual exploitation charges, against two Gabonese "peacekeepers" concerning three women - no age given - in the Central African Republic. And Dujarric didn't even bring it up in the briefing and no one whom Guterres allowed into "his" room asked about it.

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