As
Congolese
Army Defiles
Bodies,
Ladsous Brags
of Keeping
One,
Stonewalls
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 16 – The
UN claims that
while it
supports the
Congolese Army
generally it
will suspend
support to
units engaged
in abuses.
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous has
refused for
many months
Press
questions
on how this
applies to 135
rapes at
Minova by the
41st and 391st
Battalions,
despite only
two arrests
for rape.
Now
there are photographs
of the
Congolese Army
defiling the
corpses of
killed
combatants,
in violation
of the Geneva
Conventions
and, as a
spokesperson
for the UN
said Tuesday,
“basic
decency.” But
Ladsous' DPKO
says nothing.
At
the July 15
noon briefing
Inner City
Press asked:
Inner
City
Press: in this
recent
fighting that
you gave the
readout on,
between the
FARDC [Armed
Forces of the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo] and
M23, the
spokesman for
the FARDC or
the Congolese
Government has
said that they
are going to
display
captured M23
rebels in a
press
conference in
Goma. Since it
seems that the
intervention
brigade is
subject to
Geneva
Convention
rules and
since MONUSCO
works closely
with the
Government,
does it comply
with existing
international
humanitarian
law to parade
and display
captured
combatants in
an armed
conflict?
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky: I
haven’t seen
those reports,
Matthew. I’d
need to check
into them
first.
Twenty
four hours
later when
Inner City
Press asked
again, this
time with
reference to
photographs,
Nesirky still
had no answer
from DPKO. He
said generally
that defiling
a body would
violate basic
decency –
there is an
outstanding
question about
Herve
Ladsous
bragging about
“keeping the
body” of a
slain
assailant in
Darfur –
but said he
did not yet
have an answer
from DPKO.
Now,
with for
example this
photograph,
will Ladsous'
DPKO finally
answer which
Congolese Army
units it
supports, and
if this list
intersects
with those
units in the
recent abuses
or those depicted
engaged in
abuses in the
Group of
Experts report
the full text
of which
Inner City
Press exclusively
put
online in June.
That
question was
received by
DPKO seventeen
days ago but
has yet to be
answered. This
is the
Ladsousification
of the UN.
Watch this
site.
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