UNITED
NATIONS, July
20 -- The unit
of the
Congolese Army
implicated
this
week in the
desecration of
corpses, the
391st
Battalion is
the same
one the the UN
continued to
support after
its
involvement in
135
rapes
in Minova in
November 2012,
and was trained
by the United
States in
Kisangani.
After
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous refused
Inner City
Press
questions for
months about
which units
committed the
Minova rapes,
video here,
the 391st and
41st
Battalion were
finally named.
Ladsous
however
decided to
continue
supporting
them after the
suspension of
a dozen
officers and
arrest
of only two
soldiers for
rape.
On
July 16 at the
UN noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
about
Congolese Army
mistreatment
of prisoners
and
desecration of
corpses,
shown by
photographic
evidence,
asking if
these complied
with the
Geneva
Conventions.
(Ladsous' DPKO
refuses to
answer if its
MONUSCO
mission in the
Congo is now
covered by the
Geneva
Convention.
The
answer must be
yes, as its
Intervention
Brigade is a
party to an
armed
conflict.)
Nesirky
said
he hadn't seen
the
photograph,
would check,
with DPKO.
Nothing
was said that
day, but the
next day the
UN expressed
concern.
Then DR
Congo's
Information
Minister
Lambert Mende
announced
there had been
an arrest,
naming the
officer as Lt
Solomo Bangala
“who had been
fighting on
the frontline
in the 391st
Battalion...
He was
transferred
into the hands
of military
judicial
officials for
the
desecration of
enemy
corpses,"
Mende said.
Nothing
was
said or
reported that
this is the
same 391st
Battalion that
Ladsous' UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
decided to
continue
supporting
after the
Minova rapes.
So what is the
responsibility
of
Ladsous, who
recently
bragged in
Sudan about
keeping the
corpse of a
slain
assailant, in
what the 391st
Battalion has
done since?
What
is the
responsibility
or at least
lessons
learned of the
United
States, which
trained the
391st
Battalion and,
this coming
week, will
hold a
Security
Council debate
about DR Congo
and the Great
Lakes,
chairs by
Secretary of
State John
Kerry? Is this
the type of
issue on which new US
envoy Russ
Feingold
should have
something to
say? Watch
this site.
Footnote:
Beyond
the
desecration of
corpses, the Group of
Experts report
the
full text
of which Inner
City Press exclusively put online
in June
names other
FARDC units
involved in
rape,
looting,
arming of the
FDLR
and
recruitment of
child
soldiers.
For
three weeks
now Ladsous'
four
spokespeople
have refused
to say which
of these units
the MONUSCO
mission
supports.
Ladsous' DPKO
should be
required to
disclose this
information,
particularly
now that it's
shown that his
failure to
implement the
UN's statement
Human Rights
Due Diligence
Policy led to
continued UN
support to a
unit which
they
desecrated
corpses.
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