UN
Congo
Committee
Unlike Meece
Discusses
Rwanda, Set to
Join UNSC
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 13 -- As
the UN
Security
Council's
Sanctions
Committee
on the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo met
behind closed
doors on
Wednesday
afternoon,
sources told
Inner City
Press that
unlike at DRC
envoy Roger
Meece's
superficial
briefing, the
topic of
Rwanda
supporting the
Congolese
mutineers was
front and
center.
"The
allegations
are serious,
and deadly," a
Council member
said. "Given
the history we
have to dig
into them."
"Their
work
is really
impressive,"
another
Council member
told Inner
City Press of
the reports
they were
receiving.
Rwanda
is slated
to join the
Security
Council in
January.
Another
Council member
joked that
maybe Rwanda
could take
over the chair
of the DRC
Sanctions
committee.
Rwanda
was on the
Security
Council during
the 1994
genocide,
representing
the Hutu
government.
Now, a Council
member noted,
they will
rejoin the
Council amid
controversy
about
supporting
Bosco Ntaganda
and his
mutineers
inside the
Congo.
Rwanda's
Permanent
Representative
to the UN is
genial, and
President Paul
Kagame has
tweeted with
Inner City
Press. But
what was
presented by
the DRC
Sanctions
committee did
not paint a
pretty
picture.
Rwanda
denies the
allegations
that it
recruited and
trained the
mutineers, we
note, and has
said Meece
should come to
Kigali to
explain. The
UN wouldn't
even confirm
the invitation
to Inner City
Press, and on
Tuesday in
front of the
Security
Council, Meece
more or
less
dissembled
about his
previous
denial of
Rwanda
involvement.
After
that denial it
emerged that
the UN knew
and had in its
care mutineers
who
said they were
recruited and
trained in
Rwanda. Inner
City Press
wrote it,
crediting BBC
and the
tweeter who'd
made it aware,
and then
asked the UN
about Meece's
previous
statement.
Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey said, things
change.
This, the San
Francisco Bay
View covered,
with credit.
But
when Meece
appeared at
the Security
Council
stakeout on
June 12 and
Inner City
Press asked
him about his
previous
statement in
the video
briefing, and
the BBC story,
Meece denied
it all.
He said he
didn't
have a
transcript of
his video
briefing -- in
fact, as
noted, the
UN's
Department of
Public
Information
entirely
omitted from
its
"press
release" about
the briefing
the Rwanda
question, and
a detailed
question about
a moribund
project,
Meece's Mills,
that
MONUSCO
whistleblowers
have said the
the UN's
Office of
Internal
Oversight
Services
should
investigate.
On
June 12 Meece
said he had no
updated on the
project. But
most
striking was
his statement
that the UN
has still
never said
there was
a Rwandan role
in the mutiny.
This is not
just based on
what Meece
called a
"leaked"
report --
there were and
are direct
quotes from
"Hiroute
Guebre-Selassie,
bureau chief
of the UN
mission in the
DR Congo
(Monusco)."
Does
Meece not know
Ms.
Guebre-Selassie?
What kind of
UN
communications
are these?
Footnote:
in
other
sanctions
committee
news, the
chair of the
committee on
Guinea Bissau
sanctions
voted by the
Council has
yet to be
chosen - but
sources
exclusively
tell Inner
City Press it
is slated for
Morocco. Watch
this site.
, 
