Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the United Nations to Wall Street to the Inner City

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 5 -- The 1994 genocide in Rwanda echoed through the UN Security Council on Wednesday evening. In a session on the ad hoc tribunals, the last speaker was Rwanda's Permanent Representative Gasana, now also a minister.

  Gasana complained that even those convicted by the ICTR and sent to Mali to serve their sentences were running businesses from jail.

  Good Fellas in Bamako, Inner City Press is calling it, referring to Hollywood's portrayal of Mafiosi cooking their own meals, slicing garlic with a razor blade, while in jail. But it's now garbage time for these Tribunals.

  Convicts sent by the ICTR to Mali, which has this year had a military coup and lost more than half of its territory, included  Jean Paul Akayesu, Mikaeli Muhimana, Alfred Musema, Ferdinand Nahimana and Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda, on supposed life sentences.

   The facility at issue is Koulikoro Prison; the favored prisoners include the former Prime Minister, Jean Kambanda. Numerous sources at the UN now note that the current head of UN Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, was France's Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN during the 1994 genocide. He is now in charge of the MONUSCO mission in Eastern Congo, but refuses to answer Press questions, at least in the UN. See video here.

  Wednesday, Gasana called for a review of agreements with and conditions in Mali. Inner City Press suggested to some Security Council members that the "AFISMA" mission they are considering for Mali should put this too in its mandate. We'll see.