By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 13 --
It's already
become a trend
for this UN to
remain silent
amid
crackdowns on
the press and
free speech in
some
countries. But
now in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo, the
UN is
militarily
supporting a
government
which is
reported to
arrest
elected
parliamentarians
for "insulting
the
president,"
Joseph Kabila.
Muhindo
Nzangi,
MP for Lubero,
appeared on
Kivu Radio on
August 10.
Afterward
he was
reportedly
charged with
insulting
Kabila, and
arrested. The
UN
has refused to
answer Inner
City Press'
questions from
June, when it
exclusively
published the
full text of
the Group of
Experts
report,
on which units
of Kabila's
Army it is
providing
support to.
At
the UN's
August 12 noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
outgoing
deputy
spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey:
Inner
City
Press: In the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo,
there is an
uptick in
violence in
Katanga
Province,
which is not
in the Kivus,
but in which
they say
civilians are
being killed.
And so one is,
is
MONUSCO
[United
Nations
Stabilization
Mission in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo]
doing anything
on that?
What’s their
response to
that? And as
to the Kivus,
the M23 [23
March
Movement]
has said that
they are
sticking by
what they
agreed to in
Kampala and
they are not
going to
relinquish
their
positions near
the Goma
airport, and
the spokesman
for MONUSCO
has said that
they intend to
expand the
weaponless
zone to
include those
positions. So,
does the
UN still view
what was
agreed to at
Kampala as a
binding
agreement or
does this
announcement
by the MONUSCO
spokesman
supersede
that?
Deputy
Spokesperson
Del Buey:
Well, I’ll
have to get
back to you on
that. What I
have for you
is that the
objective of
the security
zone is to
provide better
protection to
the over 1
million
civilians,
including
internally
displaced
persons living
in the area.
UN
peacekeepers
and
Congolese
security
forces will
continue their
patrols and to
ensure
the area is
free of
unauthorized
weapons. The
Mission adds
that the
security zone
is not an
offensive
operation and
is not
targeted
against any
one group.
They are there
to protect
civilians.
Inner
City
Press: if you
could, what’s
the
relationship
between
enforcing
this zone and
those
agreements
that were
reached at
Kampala? I
know
that Susana
Malcorra went
there, there
was a signed
agreement of
where
positions were
supposed to
be, does that
mean a
position
without
weapons? It
seems like
there is a
brewing
problem?
Deputy
Spokesperson:
Well, I’ll
have to find
out, Matthew,
I don’t have
any
information
with me.
Twenty
hours later,
no answer has
been provided.
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous, who
refuses to
answer Press
questions even
when he is in
New
York, is
nowhere to be
seen (although
he had his
spokesperson
Kieran
Dwyer
spoon-feed a
half-response
to questions
Inner City
Press asked
on June 24 to
another
media.)
There
are reports of
a new radio
station in the
Kivus being
jammed by the
government, a
sort of Debbie
Does Dungu.
But given how
far the UN's
ostensibly
support of
free speech
and free media
has fallen,
what
would UN
Headquarters
or Ladsous say
about that?
Perhaps newly
arrived envoy
Martin Kobler.
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
The
UN providing
military
support to a
government
which arrests
its
critics for
what they say
on the radio
is a larger
example of
events
inside UN
Headquarters,
where Ban's
Department of
Public
Information
combined with
its UN
Censorship
Alliance to
purport to ban
(some)
signs on media
office doors.
Then the
Alliance has threatened
Inner City
Press'
accreditation
with
suspension or
withdrawal for
merely hanging
a sign
of
the new Free UN Coalition for Access on the
door of its
shared
office, while
UNCA
has five signs.
UNCA "leaders"
are
engaged in
anonymous
social media
trolling, stirring
up haters even
from the Great
Lakes region.
This is
today's UN.
, 
