At UN,
Malcorra M23
Meeting
Panned,
Angolan
Presence in
Bukavu
Acknowledged
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 28 --
After the UN
Security
Council
extended Congo
sanctions on
Wednesday
morning for
another 14
months,
Congolese
representative
Ileka Atoki
then his
Rwandan
counterpart
spoke in the
Council
chamber.
Dysfunction
was on
display.
Rwanda
made a pointed
reference to
some Security
Council
members'
"escapades" in
the Great
Lakes region.
Chief among
these
would be
France.
Notably,
sitting in the
chamber now
representing
UN
Peacekeeping
was Herve
Ladsous, who
was France's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
at the UN
during the
Rwanda
genocide in
1994.
Afterward
in
front of the
Council the
references
became
clearer, with
the
Habyarimana
regime, which
France in 1994
supported,
being named.
Further
details
emerged about
Tuesday's
closed door
consultations,
after
which
Ladsous
refused to
answer any
Inner City
Press question,
including
what his
MONUSCO did
while the
Congolese Army
committed at
least 21 rapes
in Minova.
The
photographs
Ladsous showed
were called
"pathetic." It
emerged that
Susana
Malcorra
claimed that
in her visit
to Makenga in
Goma she saw
weapons
indicating
external
support.
"Since when is
she a guns
expert?" it
was asked.
"These are
just DPKO
talking
points."
Inner City
Press has been
exclusively
told that
France
confronted
Malcorra and
asked her by
what right or
authority she
spoke with the
M23 rebels.
One Council
member mused,
what about the
rebels in
Syria?
When French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
left the
Council on
Wednesday,
Inner City
Press asked
him, to be
sure, if
France
supported
Malcorra
meeting with
M23. It
is already
happened,
Araud said
with a smile.
"There is no
question of
supporting,
she has
already done
it."
The
more nuanced
argument is
that the
Security
Council is
undermining
the
decision of
the
International
Community of
the Great
Lakes Region,
the type of
regional
organization
the Council
says it
supports. The
ICGLR said
among other
things that
the Kabila
government
should
address the
legitimate
concerns of
the M23.
It
emerges that
in
consultations,
a member
insisted that
is only one
legitimate
force in the
DRC: the
government.
This is NOT
what that
government
says about the
government of
Syria, it was
pointed out,
so
it is a
position of
politics, not
principle.
Also
afterward,
Inner City
Press spoke
with Ileka
Atoki of the
DRC, asking
about the
rapes in
Minova, which
Ladsous
refused to
answer about.
(Previously,
Ileka Atoki
has referred
to UN
peacekeeper's
baisodrome
on the Congo,
their sexual
exploitation.)
Ileka
Atoki to his
credit
expressed
concern that
the military
leader sent
to Minova
might be too
hard line.
When
Inner City
Press asked
Ileka Atoki
about reports
of Angolan
troops in
Bakuvu,
positing that
these must
have been
false, Ileka
Atoki told
Inner City
Press
exclusively,
"not so false,
a line had to
be
drawn."
Inner
City Press
asked, but
what about the
sanctions and
arms embargo
on
the Congo?
Ileka
Atoki replied
that there
were there
only as part
of the
(future?)
Innernational
Neutral Force.
He said that
the UN
Security
Council should
listen
more to SADC
than the
ICGLR, since
SADC will be
providing the
troops.
So
are some major
members in the
UN Security
Council
picking which
regional group
to purport to
support? And
how can the
head of UN
Peacekeeping
get away with
refusing to
answer
questions
about his
peacekeepers'
inaction while
the FARDC they
partner with
committed at
least 21 rapes
in Minova? We
will have more
on this. Watch
this site.
, 
