Missing
from
ICC's Lubanga
Verdict is
Kerim, Given
Immunity
Under UN
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 14 --
Amid the
backslapping
and
self-congratulation
around the 593
page Lubanga
verdict
released today
at the
International
Criminal Court
in the Hague,
there is no
mention of
another
recruiter of
child soldiers
well known to
the ICC, to
the UN
and former
high UN
officials who
are now back
in action in
Syria:
Peter
Kerim, a/k/a
Karim.
Kerim
was the
leader of a
competing
militia, the
FPI, which
inarguably
recruited
child
soldiers, as
well as taking
hostage and
killing UN
peacekeepers.
But
when he
negotiated an
impunity deal
with the
government in
Kinshasa, the
UN under then
top envoy Alan Doss
either
looked away or
was involved.
Then
UN
Peacekeeping
chief
Jean-Marie
Guehenno, the
second of
what's turned
out to be four
Frenchmen in a
row to hold
that post,
told Inner
City
Press he
thought Kerim
was "on
drugs...
asking for
boots and the
return of his
motorcycle" in
exchange for
releasing the
MONUC
Nepali
peacekeepers.
So
what ever
happened to
Peter Kerim?
Well, as part
of the
impunity deal
the UN
in essence
signed off on,
he was made a
Colonel in the
Congolese
Army, and
installed in a
hotel in Kinshasa.
Doss knew of
this.
Now
both Guehenno
and Alan Doss,
who left the
UN amid a
nepotism
scandal after
asking
or order UNDP
to break the
rules and give
a job to his
daughter, are
visibly "back
in the game"
with Kofi
Annan,
traveling to
Syria in
what one
disgusted Gulf
diplomat told
Inner City
Press is
their "old
school, back
room
diplomacy"
that sucks up
to war
criminals.
Accountability,
indeed...
For
the record, UNICEF wrote
to Inner City
Press:
Dear
Matthew, below
are some of
the answers to
your
questions.
Child soldiers
DRC:
19
April, 201 FNI
members left
the Centre
de Brassage
Initial in Kpandroma (where
ex-combatants
are retrained
and integrated
into the FARDC
- the DRC
Armed Forces)
and went to
Bunia.
On 13
May, a second
FNI group of
more than 177
members
arrived in
Bunia.
Since
April, 542
former
combatants
have
surrendered,
including 51
children
associated
with armed
forces and
groups.
From
January to the
present, 101
children
associated
with armed
forces and
groups have
left and 95
per cent of
them have been
reunited with
their
families. The
others have
been
transferred to
COOPI’s
transit and
guidance
centre
awaiting
reunification
with their
families.
It is
currently
estimated that
some 150
children are
still in Peter
Karim's army.
Footnote:
the above is
Congo-specific;
one might also
note that the
UN has offered
helicopter
flights to ICC
indictee Ahmed
Harun, and Ban
Ki-moon's
envoy Ibrahim
Gambari
recently
partied with
ICC indictee
Omar al Bashir
at a reception
for the
wedding of
Chad's Idriss
Deby and the
daughter of
janjaweed
leader Musa
Hilal -- and
has said,
without
repercussion
from Ban, that
he'd do it
again. But
that's another
story. Watch
this site.
, 
