By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 17,
updated --
Hours after
Chad was
elected
without
competition to
the UN
Security
Council, its
foreign
minister
Moussa Faki
Mahamat went
up to the UN's
38th floor to
meet Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon.
The
previous day,
Inner City
Press had
asked Ban's
envoy to Mali
Bert Koenders
about the
gang rape
allegations
against
Chadian
soldiers
serving in the
UN
Peacekeeping
mission
MINUSMA.
Glaringly, the issue had not
been mentioned
in Koenders
statement to
the Security
Council.
But at
the UNTV
stakeout,
Koenders
answered Inner
City Press
that the rape
charges are
being
investigated,
and witnesses
not allowed to
leave Mali, so
they can be
interviewed by
Chadian
authorities.
Inner
City Press included
this in a
second story,
while not
there evern
noting that
Koenders'
supervisor
Herve Ladsous,
as head of UN
Peacekeeping,
has continued
to support
Congolese Army
units
implicated in
135 rapes in
Minova. But
that is
relevant, in
assessing
Koenders
response to
rape charges
in Mali.
Foreign
Minister
Moussa Faki
Mahamat was
accompanied
Thursday only
by his
country's
relatively new
Permanent
Representative
to the UN,
Mahamat Zene
Cherif.
The UN on the
other hand had
no less than
ten people
present for
the meeting,
including
Koenders,
Ban's chief of
staff Susana
Malcorra, UN
human rights
deputy Ivan
Simonovic and
Herve Ladsous'
deputy Edmond
Mulet. Tweeted
photo here.
Before
the meeting
started,
Koenders
approached
Inner City
Press and
said,
Monsieur,
I answered
that for you,
why did you
write that?
Inner
City Press
explained it
wrote one
story based on
Koenders'
statement to
the Council --
which did not
address the
rape charges
-- then a
second one
after the
Council
meeting was
over and
Koenders took
Inner City
Press'
question at
the stakeout.
Koenders
also
said that the
answers on the
killings (and
UN inaction)
at the Nahibly
camp in Cote
d'Ivoire, his
last posting,
were all in
press
conferences
that he has
given. But who
has been held
accountable,
including on
the UN side
given reports
that
peacekeepers
did nothing,
even pushed
IDPs off their
truck in order
to get beaten?
This has not
been answered.
But by
answering at
the stakeout,
and this
further answer
a day later,
Koenders is at
least
different from
Ladsous, who
outright
refuses to
answer Press
questions,
including on
rapes by his
parnters in
the Congolese
Army. Video
here; UK
New Statesman
article here.
Stonewalling
cannot (be
allowed to)
benefit the
UN.
Also,
Inner City
Press does
speak with UN
Envoys,
officials and
diplomats off
the record.
But that was
neither
requested nor
implied here.
The answers on
Nahibly? We
hope to have
more on that.
Ban
started this
Chad meeting
with chit
chat, then
instructed two
of his staff
members
(including one
who until
recently
served in the
Security
Council that
Chad will join
in January) to
sit on Chad's
side, in
"solidarity."
Tweeted
photo here.
The
Press was
escorted out.
But one is
left with a
question of
how the
different
pushes and
pulls are
handled. The
Secretariat
actively wants
Security
Council
members to
vote in
certain ways,
for example to
approve or
accept Ban
Ki-moon's
proposals on
Syria.
At the
same time, the
Secretariat is
charged with
speaking out
on the use of
child
soldiers, on
sexual
violence in
conflict, on
impunity.
There are
potential
conflicts of
interest here,
to say the
least. We will
have more on
this. Watch
this site.
, 
