UN
Supported
Congo Army, 6
Killed, Won't
Say Which
Units, If in
Minova
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 15 --
The UN Mission
in the Congo
seems to
investigate
and report
selectively.
Much is heard
from MONUSCO
on
some groups
and fighting,
less or
nothing on
others.
Meanwhile the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations is
still
stonewalling
on the
126 rapes in
Minova in late
November
committed by
the Congolese
Army, its
partners.
On
Tuesday Inner
City Press
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin
Nesirky:
Inner
City Press: I
wanted to ask
some things
about the DRC.
There have
been two
different
reports of the
FARDC
[Congolese
Armed Forces]
fighting first
the Mai-Mai
Morgan, with
the support of
MONUSCO
(United
Nations
Organization
Stabilization
Mission in the
Democratic
Republic of
Congo), and it
is said that
six people
were killed,
it
wasn’t said by
which side.
And then, more
recently,
fighting with
Raia Mutomboki
in another
part of the
eastern Congo.
Do you have
some kind of
readout on
this, what
seems to be
fighting by
non-M23
groups? And
also, is it
possible to
know which
units of the
FARDC
the UN was
supporting in
this fight
against
Mai-Mai
Morgan,
because I
know we’ve
had… there has
been a row
about the
Minova rapes
and
which units
were there,
and which
units MONUSCO
works with. Is
there
any update on
the Minova
investigation,
and how does
MONUSCO know
that the units
that it is
supporting
since then,
against
Mai-Mai
Morgan, were
not the ones
in Minova
committing
rapes in
November?
Spokesperson:
I’ll check
with the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations,
Matthew, okay?
But
Inner City
Press has been
asking about
the Minova
rapes, and the
UN's
supposed Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy, since
November.
Three
times DPKO
chief Herve
Ladsous has
refused on
camera to
answer
questions
about the
rapes and
Policy: on November 27, 2012 (video), on December 7 (video) and on December
18 (video).
Ladsous'
spokesman, who
seized the
UN microphone
on December 18
to try to make
it impossible
to even ask
the question,
was at the
Security
Council on
January 14 and
told the
(French)
press, My boss
is not here so
he can't speak
to you.
But
Ladsous never
answers Press
questions,
even about the
Minova rapes.
UK
minister
Sayeeda Warsi
was in New
York, speaking
January 15 on
counter
terrorism.
Earlier she
put out a
tweet about
meeting with
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous, about
Afghanistan.
She
was asked
if the UK had
inquired with
Ladsous about
the 126 rapes
in
Minova by
the Congolese
Army, and what
Ladsous is
doing. There
has yet to be
an answer.
Watch this
site.
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