By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
2d in Series
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 11 --
There were
bodies to be
hidden or
covered up in
South Sudan by
Herve
Ladsous in
January 2012.
His Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations did
nothing amid
mass murder of
members of the
Murle tribe in
Pibor in
Jonglei State.
Ladsous'
response? To downplay the
numbers,
call them
false,
then refuse to
answer
questions.
Inevitably
this echoed Ladsous'
role as
France's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
at the UN
during the
Rwanda
genocide, when
he argued for
the escape of
the genocidaires
into Eastern
Congo.
And
that's where
he headed
later in
January 2012,
meeting "la
classe
politique"
and, it now
seems clear,
beginning
planning the
colonial
military
approach
coming to a
head in August
2013: a French
high commander
of an
all-African
Intervention
Brigade
charged with
"neutralizing"
other
Africans.
How
else to
explain
Ladsous'
interventions
at a
"Responsibility
to Protect"
conference
that month in
New York,
where one
observer had
him calling
France's air
drop of
weapons into
Libya
"humanitarian
goods"?
More reported
him denying
the death
figures in
Jonglei state,
but offering
none of his
own.
Inner
City Press
asked Ladsous
for his
figure, when
Ladsous held a
press
conference on
February 7,
2012. (At that
time, Ladsous
answered
Inner City
Press
questions.
When and why
he stopped
will be
addressed
later in this
series.)
Ladsous had
denied
"thousands;"
the UN had
counter-bid
"dozens." Now
Ladsous said
"hundreds."
Was it a cover
up? What was
the figure?
Since
a Sri Lankan
military
figure
depicted in
Ban Ki-moon's
own report as
engaged in war
crimes had
become a
senior adviser
on
Peacekeeping
Operations,
Inner City
Press asked
Ladsous about
that. But he
wouldn't give
a substantive
response.
Ladsous'
spokesperson Kieran Dwyer told Inner City
Press to "ask
the Senior
Advisory
Group" - which
had no
spokesperson.
By
February 23,
Ladsous refused
to comment
at all on the
de facto
banning of that
military
figure, after
extensive
reporting by
Inner City
Press. UN
official Margot
Wallstrom, by
contrast,
called it
"important."
She is no
longer with
the UN.
One of
the few other
UN
media
tweets about
Ladsous, from
his press
conference,
was his
bragging about
cutting DPKO's
budget - it
was by Voice
of America,
run by the US
State
Department.
The US wanted
and wants to
be seen to be
saving money,
but does not
yet oversee
Ladsous: A
Problem from
Hell.
Jump-cut
to
March 23,
2012,
something of a
watershed:
Inner City
Press
exclusively
reported that
Ladsous
proposed to
the C-34
Committee on
Peacekeeping
the use of
drones. While
many diplomats
in the meeting
panned the
proposal to
Inner City
Press, Ladsous
refused to
explain it.
(Now
he's selected,
for 10
million Euros,
the Selex ES
Falco, which
has previously
crashed in
Pakistan and
Wales.)
On March 27,
Inner City
Press for
the first time
referred to
Herve "Drone"
Ladsous.
The rest is
history, of a
sort -- or at
least, is the
next
installment in
this series.
Watch this
site.
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