UN
Denies DRC
Attack on
Vodacom Tower,
Accuses M23 of
Firing into
Rwanda
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 22 --
There is
renewed
fighting
outside Goma
between
the Congolese
Army and the
M23 rebels.
But what does
the UN say
about it?
At
Thursday's
noon briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
outgoing
deputy
spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey about
reports that
the Congolese
Army
shelled a
Vodacom
telephone
tower, and
shot into
Rwanda. Del
Buey
said he did
not have that
information
and invited
Inner City
Press to
"call
MONUSCO." Video
here, from
Minute 9:25.
Just
after the noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
the UN
Peacekeeping
officials who
gave an
unscheduled
briefing to
the Security
Council.
Officer in
Charge Edmond
Mulet told
Inner City
Press M23 was
attacking the
MONUSCO force.
Jack
Christofides
said his
information
was that it
was M23 that
fired into
Rwanda.
This
last seemed so
strange that
Inner City
Press waited
for the
Security
Council's 3 pm
meeting to ask
Mulet about
it, on the
record, as
DPKO's acting
chief while
Herve Ladsous
is on ongoing
vacation.
Mulet
repeated the
statement:
that the UN
believes M23
shot into
Rwanda and
then blamed it
on FARDC, the
Congolese
Army.
"False
flag?" Inner
City Press
asked. Mulet
nodded. He
again said he
had no
information
about a
telephone
tower.
The
tower is
important, in
part because
the UN said a
lot about
using
telecommunications
to protect
women from
abuse, after
the UN stood
by
and allowed
the rapes in
Walikale. US
Ambassador
Rice, now
National
Security
Adviser in
Washington,
was critical
of the UN's
inaction.
So
if a telecom
tower has been
destroyed,
isn't it of
interest?
Also
on
communications
and Del Buey's
advice to
"call
MONUSCO,"
it was for
precisely that
the the Free
UN Coalition
for Access has
insisted with
the UN
Department of
Public
Information
that it comply
with what it
promised: UN
system
telephones in
the so-called
"focus
booths," on
which you can
call the
Peacekeeping
missions as a
local call.
But
DPI says it
must give out
the focus
booths to
media - while
it gives
three rooms to
its UNCA
Alliance. What
about helping
journalists
cover the UN?
What about
DPKO coming
forward with
information
about
its claims
about M23? Or
is this just
an information
campaign in
the
run up to the
Intervention
Brigade? Watch
this site.
Update
of 3:35 pm -
Inner City
Press has been
told there
will be
ANOTHER "Any
Other Business"
session on
MONUSCO later
this
afternoon, and
that a
"Congolese
minister
called Ladsous
or Mulet today."
Again we ask:
run-up to
Intervention
Brigade?
Update
of 4 pm:
, 
