On
Rapes in
Minova,
Ladsous Calls
Situation
Fluid,
Won't Say
Which Units,
Policy
Question
Dodged
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 30 --
When top UN
Peacekeeper
Herve Ladsous
took
questions
Friday across
First Avenue
from the UN,
he said
apparently
without irony
that the
MONUSCO
mission has
done a good
job in Eastern
Congo in the
last two
weeks.
Inner
City Press
asked Ladsous
about two
specific
places in the
Kivus:
Pinga,
on which Ladsous
previously
refused to
answer a
Press
question, and
Minova
where at least
22 women were
raped after
the
Congolese Army
retreated from
Sake.
Since
the UN,
specifically
Ladsous'
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations,
says it has a
Human Rights
Due Diligence
Policy under
which it will
not work with
or support
rights
abusers, Inner
City Press
asked
Ladsous
whether the
Congolese Army
units at issue
will be named.
Ladsous
dodged
the question -
better than
refusing it, as he did
before -
saying that
the
situation was
"fluid." He
said that
Policy will be
complied
with.
But
when Inner
City Press
asked again
the unanswered
question,
whether
the units of
the Congolese
Army or FARDC
in Minova at
the time will
be named,
Ladsous did
not answer at
all.
As
Ladsous
continued,
including to
say that he
has no problem
with the
media, his
spokesman seem
to indicate
that more
information
may be
available.
We hope it is,
and await it,
having two
days ago
emailed
three of
Ladsous
spokespeople,
and the two
spokespeople
of Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon whom
they copied,
these
questions on
Minova:
"On
Minova, (a)
which FARDC
units were
present in
Minova when
the 21
rapes took
place? (b)
What was
MONUSCO's
presence in
Minova during
this time? (c)
What and where
are the
"appropriate
processes"
through which
DPKO will
report? Are
any of them
public, so
that
compliance
with the Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy can be
assessed?"
As
soon as these
questions are
answered, we
will report
the answers in
full. Until
then, we will
keep asking.
Inner
City Press had
to leave
Friday's
event, after
several more
statements, to
continue to
cover the
Security
Council debate
on
Women, Peace
and Security.
Ladsous spoke
there, with no
mention on
Minova or
abuses by the
Congo forces
that MONUSCO
works with.
Nor
did no respond
on the
reports,
including in
TIME Magazine,
that Mai
Mai Cheka
rebels
decapitated
civilians in
Pinga and the
MONUSCO
peacekeepers
there did
nothing.
The
event,
entitled
"Telling the
Peacekeeping
Story Better,"
was held
across First
Avenue at the
International
Peace
Institute, on
whose Syria
program Inner
City Press
also recently
reported /
tweeted.
The
program of
theStorytelling
on
Peacekeeping
event is
or will soon
be here --
several of the
other panelists
and
participants
spoke
movingly, for
example about
winning
over a BBC
reporter to
the UN's work
in Sierra
Leone by
actually
explaning and
answering
questions
about it --
and video
should be
available
shortly
(though UN
Peacekeeping's
link
to it
wasn't working
at press
time.) We may
have more on
all this.
Watch this
site.
, 
