At
Rwanda
Genocide
Panel, UN
Official Names
France, No
Press Q at IPI
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
22 -- When a panel
on "Twenty
Years after
the Genocide:
What are the
Lessons
Learned from
Rwanda?" was
scheduled
across
First Avenue
from the UN on
April 22, the dispute
earlier in the
month between
Rwanda and
France, about
the latter's
responsibility,
seemed sure to
come up.
Inner
City Press
RSPV-ed to the
International
Peace
Institute and
watched
the opening
statements by
webcast (while
simultaneously
live-tweeting
the
US State
Department's
daily briefing).
Before the
Q&A
segment,
before the
moderator
asked people
to raise hands
for
questions,
Inner City
Press arrived,
then indicated
that it had a
question. (Two,
actually,
including the April 3, 2014 cable from the UN in Burundi about the
government
arming its
youth wing that Inner City Press
published but
on which the
UN
spokesperson
has allowed
but declined
to answer
questions.)
The
first round
went to
insiders,
including the
chief of UN
Peacebuilding
Judy
Cheng-Hopkins
who to her
credit asked
about Jeune
Afrique
quoting a
French soldier
that he was
ordered to
fight with the
RFP outside
Kigali,
and to help
the
genocidaires
themselves.
It
seemed this
required an
answer from
the panel. But
the only
answer
was about the
United States,
that it was
gun-shy after
Somalia and
"Bush" said
the US had no
interest in
the country.
Actually, it
was under Bill
Clinton.
But
the IPI
moderator next
called on
people who
raised their
hands long
after Inner
City Press,
including
another UN
staff member.
The time
expired, and
the moderator
said Inner
City Press
could come up
front
and ask a
question one
on one. Well,
no. The UN
Host Country
Com'te
began meeting
on the US's
denial of
Iran's
ambassador-nominee's
visa.
Inner
City Press has
RSVP-ed for a
number of
other upcoming
IPI events. Is
this how they
are run? Inner
City Press
goes in each
time with
questions,
eager to
report
responses. At
the last one
it attended,
panelist Herve
Ladsous of
France, the
head
of UN
Peacekeeping,
answered Inner
City Press' question on when UN
Peacekeeping
will go after
the Hutu FDLR
militia by
saying,
"Mister,
I never answer
your questions."
Watch this
site.
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