Amid
Rape Protests,
UN Calls Haiti
IDPs
Promiscuous,
Covers
Up FARDC
Victims
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 5 --
As outrage at
rape
increases,
from New
Delhi in India
to Steubenville
in Ohio,
what is the UN
doing?
Its Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operation has
delayed since
November
an
investigation
of 126 rapes
in Minova by
its partners
the Congolese
Army.
DPKO
chief Herve
Ladsous has refused to
answer Press
questions
about the
rapes and
the UN's
supposed Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy of
not working
with army
units which
rape.
Now
DPKO's mission
in Haiti is
Tweeting
and distributing
a report about
camps for
Internally
Displaced
People in
Haiti, which
cites
"promiscuity
in most of the
camps." Report
at Page 3,
going on about
"one of such
camps, Gaston
Margon in the
Carrefour
commune south
of
Port-au-Prince."
What is wrong
with the UN?
Or at least,
what is wrong
with Ladsous'
DPKO?
On January
4, Inner
City Press
tried for the
upteenth time
to get a
status update
on DPKO's
claimed
investigation
of the rapes
in Minova.
How can DPKO
be said to
implement its
Rights Digence
or
conditionality
policy if it
won't say
which FARDC
units were in
Minova, nor
even which
FARDC units it
works with?
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
said
he had nothing
new on this,
and said Inner
City Press has
already raised
questions
comparing the
speed with
which Ladsous'
DPKO
"investigated"
to debunk
reports about
the
genocidaire
militia FDLR
(site visits
December
21-24, press
release
already out)
with DPKO's
silence on the
November rapes
in Minova.
Yes,
Inner City
Press HAS
asked before.
But where is
the answer?
Where is
Ladsous? When
last he was
seen at the
UN, he was
directing his
spokesman to
seize the UN
Television
microphone so
that the
Press'
question about
the rapes
could not be
heard. Video
here.
While
it is now
clear that the
UNTV stakeout
where this
took place is
in the purview
of the UN
Department of
Public
Affairs, and
the issue was
squarely
raised to DPI
on December
19, nothing
has been done.
Ladsous
has in the
past tried to
use some
media,
particularly AFP on one
of whose
boards he used
to serve, to
block
Press
questioning. This has
continued.
The
worldwide
protests of
rape are
against
impunity. But
the UN allows
impunity, even
embodies it,
especially in
Haiti. Watch
this site.
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