By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 15 --
The last time
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous was
scheduled to
take questions
from the
press, instead
he lunged
forward and
blocked the
Press' camera,
then canceled
his Q&A
stakeout on
Mali. Vine
here.
Since
then more
peacekeepers
have been
killed and
injured but
Ladsous,
unlike his
also-French
predecessors
Alain Le Roy
and Jean-Marie
Guehenno, has
not done a
stakeout to
speak up for
those put
under his
command.
Instead,
Ladsous
now tried to
do softball
interviews
with
hand-picked
correspondents.
Even that
works out
badly --
perhaps very
badly.
In
a recent
“interview,”
in which for
example UN
Peacekeeping
bringing
cholera to
Haiti is
vaguely
mentioned but
not followed
up on, it slips
out that
Ladsous is
expanding
“signal
intelligence,
using
high-tech
surveillance
of
communications
such as
telephone
eavesdropping.”
How
can it be that
at the same
time that the
UN General
Assembly is
considering a
Brazilian and
German drafted
resolution on
Privacy in the
Digital Age,
Ladsous is
expanding
eavesdropping
and
wire-tapping?
On whose
authority?
This
was from a
softball
interview,
which didn't
mention that
in 1994
Ladsous
supported and
pushed for the
escape of genocidaires from
Rwanda into
Eastern Congo
where he now
uses the Force
Intervention
Brigade as, in
his words, a
“useful tool.”
Nor does the
interview
mention
Western
Sahara, much
less the problematic
light thrown
on Ladsous by
recently
leaked cables.
More
recently,
Ladsous was
asked not only
about UN
Peacekeeping
bringing
cholera to
Haiti --
Ladsous
insisted that
it hasn't been
proved -- but
also about
proceeding
with drones
without C-34
member states'
approval, and
about the
expanding rape
scandals. On
these, Ladsous
claimed he is
setting up
reviews.
But
Ladsous for
months refused
Press
questions
about, and
covered up,
the 130 rapes
by the DR
Congo Army in
Minova. Video
compilation
here.
Is it
any wonder
that his
UNAMID in
Darfur tried
to quickly
deny that mass
rapes took
place in Tabit
in Darfur?
Is
this
performance
acceptable? To
whom? Watch
this site.
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