In
DRC, MSF Says
Kitchanga
Hospital Was
Shelled, UN
Says
It Wasn't
Targeted
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
7 -- When
Doctors
Without
Borders says a
hospital was
shelled,
killing two
people, and
then the UN
denies it, who
are you
going to
believe?
In
the town of
Kitchanga in
the east of
the Democratic
Republic of
Congo,
“shelling hit
one hospital,
killing two
people and
another
eight
wounded," said
Hugues Robert,
MSF's head
of mission for
North Kivu
province,
earlier this
month.
On
Thursday Inner
City Press
asked UN
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
who had
shelled the
hospital, and
about the
presence of
particular
units of
the Congolese
Army, which
the UN
supports,
ostensibly
subject to
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
“Human Rights
Due Diligence”
policy.
Beyond
the 126 rapes
in Minova
committed by
the Congolese
Army, still
unacted on by
the UN, the
shelling of a
hospital is a
war crime and
would trigger
the Policy.
So, Inner City
Press asked,
who did it?
Here
is the UN's
answer,
provided four
hours after
the noon
briefing:
Subject:
Question
on DRC
From: UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not Reply
[at]
un.org
Date: Thu, Mar
7, 2013 at
4:43 PM
To:
Matthew.Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
Regarding
your
question on
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo,
here is our
answer:
"A
MONUSCO team
has just
returned from
the area and
was able to
establish that
the hospital
has not been
the target of
any attack,
contrary to
previous
reports."
So
either MONUSCO
is denying the
report of
Doctors
Without
Borders,
which works in
the hospital,
or the UN is
trying to
distinguish
between the
hospital being
hit
(“shelled”)
and being
targeted.
This
is the same UN
which, in Sri
Lanka in 2009,
withheld
casualty
figures
and then
satellite
photographs of
what's called
the “Bloodbath
on
the Beach.”
Inner
City Press is
making its own
inquiries into
which units of
the
Congolese Army
FARDC were in
Kitchanga
fighting the
APCLS.
So far
responses are
that in the
first clashes
it was the 812
Regiment,
later with
support from
the 810 under
the command of
Bisengo, to be
replaced by
the 806
Regiment.
We'll
have more on
the UN's Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy. Watch
this
site.
, 
