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UN's Congo Mission Critiqued by
General, UN Fires Back, Blames the USA, ICC Follies
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
February 13 -- The UN Mission in
the Congo, even as it defers to Rwandan troops to fight the Hutu
militia FDLR
long in the Kivus, is under fire from other quarters. Doctors without
Borders
said MONUC did not protect civilians from the Lord's Resistance Army.
The UN
called the report "totally unfounded." Now MONUC's former force
commander, General Diaz Villegas, in his end of mission report has said
MONUC
in most of the country is only capable of "auto-protection," while
civilians get killed. Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Michele
Montas on February
11 if the UN has any response to the report. He was only there two
weeks, she
said, then said all other questions should be directed to the
Department of
Peacekeeping Operations.
Inner City
Press' inquiries with DPKO, an interchange on background and quick
questions to
DPKO chief Alain Le Roy and other senior UN official in the hall, glean
that
the UN is mad to General Diaz. While acknowledging that he was there
three
weeks and not two, the background briefer questioned why Diaz would
have fled the
country instead of staying the trying to change MONUC's strategy. But in his report as quote in El Pais, Diaz
says the Mission's Alan Doss said that he was in charge.
Interestingly, DPKO's position is that they expend
political capital
appointing a European general to lead a mission like MONUC. The
Africans ask
why, if it is their continent and they supply many or most of the
troops, a
European is chosen. And then Diaz flees, compounding the problem.
Whistleblower
or coward? That appears to be the question.
Alain Le
Roy, who graciously takes questions that the spokespeople for some
reason will
never answer, said that he was in Kabul when the UN called Doctors
without
Borders "totally unfounded." He asked for a more credible response,
and later a detailed letter went from Doss to MSF. But why is the UN's
first
reaction always one of defending the indefensible?
MONUC peacekeepers, MSF and HRW reports not shown
The other
senior UN official, who asked not to be quoted by name, said that the
fault was
the Americans', who funded the Ugandans' attack on the LRA and provided
satellite photos, but no back-up. Why don't you ask them, he suggested.
While
we intend to, questions about the UN should be answered, too.
And more
than is usually the case, some Congo questions were answered Friday afternoon
by UN Humanitarian Coordinator John Holmes. He returned Wednesday from
the
Congo, providing a description of "positive dynamics" in the Kivus,
including the integration of the CNDP militias into the Congolese army,
and
describing civilian suffering in the aftermath of the three-country
offensive
against the LRA. His long diplomatic training showed through -- he said
the
assault on the LRA, which has been going to badly, might work out for
the best.
Inner City Press asked about the MSF report, and he split the
difference
between MONUC and Le Roy, stating that he found the report
"exaggerated,"
but that MONUC can do more.
Unlike
Spokesperson Michele Montas earlier on Friday, who said MONUC does not
have
access to the zones of the Kivus in which the Rwandan-Congolese
offensive
against the FDLR is taking place, Holmes said the UN has 41 positions,
and
hasn't heard reports of the level of killing by the FDLR -- 100
civilians --
reported by Human Rights Watch. He said he hopes those reports are
false. Or would that be, "totally
unfounded"?
Holmes
also defended MONUC by stressing they will not work or "sit at the
table" with indicted war criminal Bosco Ntaganda, although he has now
been
integrated into the Congolese Army, with whom MONUC decidedly works. Earlier on Friday, Inner City Press asked the
head of the State Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC,
Liechtenstein's Christian
Wenaweser, for his view on Bosco's freedom and incorporation into an
army the
UN works with. "We are evaluating the situation," he said, and
"can't comment." Video here,
from Minute 17:44.
Also on the Congo, Inner
City Press asked Wenaweser
about the ICC's trial against militia leader Thomas Lubanga, in which
the first
witness virtually recanted, after Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo
had left
the court, too hastily, some felt. Wenaweser acknowledged it was "a
rocky
start," but said "I'm sure the Chief Prosecutor knows what he's
doing." We'll see.
Update of 4 p.m. Friday -- we are
compelled to note, and mourn, the death of Congo expert Alison Des
Forges, who was killed in the crash of Flight 3407 from Newark to
Buffalo on February 12. Her reports on the DRC helped many civilians.
She will be missed.
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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