UNITED
NATIONS, April
2 -- Rwanda's
Eugene Richard
Gasana is
President of
the UN
Security
Council for
April, the
month of the
genocide in
his country in
1994. He held
a press
conference
Tuesday about
the month's
Council work.
Many questions
were about
North Korea.
Inner
City Press
asked Gasana
about the
resolution the
Council
adopted on
March 28
creating an
“intervention
brigade” in
the Democratic
Republic of
Congo.
Since
then, the
Congolese
foreign
minister
Tshibanda has
said the
brigade will
be in place by
April 30, and
will eradicate
the M23 as
both a
military and
political
movement if it
does not
“cease to
exist.”
Is
this helpful?
Gasana
said that
Rwanda voted
for the
resolution,
and views it
as a victory
not for DRC but
for the
region. He
said the FDLR
remains a
threat.
Inner
City Press
asked about
the UN and
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous
allowing the
April 1
deadline for
action by the
DRC on the 126
rapes by its
soldiers in
Minova to pass
without any
action or
specifics
about
assurances
that Tshibanda
supposedly
gave to
Ladsous.
Gasana
said he and
Rwanda are
waiting for
the results of
the
investigation.
The UN has
already said,
after many
questions
asked and
evaded, that
two battalions
of the
Congolese Army
were there and
responsible.
What
happened to
the deadline?
Inner
City Press
asked about
the Security
Council's
relations with
the African
Union. Gasana
diplomatically
said that the
relationship
is improving,
it's a process
not an event.
Inner
City Press,
for the Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
urged Gasana
to hold as
many press
stakeouts as
possible
during the
month,
particularly
after Council
closed door
consultations.
At the end he
said, yes, he
will try.
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
The
first question
was
unilaterally
grabbed, by
shouting out,
by an
unelected
representative
of the old UN
Correspondents
Association.
This
organization,
according to
documents
obtained under
the US Freedom
of Information
Act from Voice of
America,
worked in 2012
to try to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN.
The
first
questioner's
former
employer Reuters,
according to
the documents,
supported the
move to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out. Now,
leading to the
launch of FUNCA, they've become even worse in
2013. More on
this to
follow. Watch
this site.
, 
