To
Spin Rapes, UN
Couples With
Ladsous' 3
Mouseketeers
of VOA,
Reuters &
AFP
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
7 -- When the
UN's lack of
accountability
finally
results in
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
feeling
uncomfortable,
even
if only
briefly, what
does the UN
do?
If
the source of
the problem is
persistent
questions from
Inner City
Press about UN
Peacekeeping's
Herve Ladsous'
inaction on
126 rapes in
Minova by his
partners in
the Congolese
Army, the
answer is to,
Step One,
round
up the same friendly reporters who accompanied
Ladsous out
into the
hall on
November 27.
Video here.
The
reporters are
Margaret
Besheer of
Voice
of
America, Tim
Witcher of
Agence
France Presse,
and Louis
Charbonneau
of Reuters,
who now outsources
the
stenography to
Michelle
Nichols
and then
tweets about
it.
Besheer,
it seems, is
reduced to
only tweeting
her “news,”
mixed with
gushing
appreciation
of the British
royal family.
Step
Two: then
give these
scribes, who
never asked
about Minova
or pushed
Ladsous on
any topic,
seemingly
important
information
about threats
Ladsous is
belatedly
making to two
unnamed units
of the
Congolese
Army.
Ascribe
these
comments to an
unnamed UN
source and
voila: the
total sleazy
dysfunction
that is the UN
Censorship
Alliance and
the UN chief
of
peacekeeping.
Ladsous
first
started
publicly
refusing to
answer Inner
City Press' in
late
May, just
after Besheer,
Witcher,
Charbonneau
and two others
started
a Kafka-esque
“trial”
(without
rules) against
Inner City
Press in
their UN
Correspondents
Association.
Emboldened,
Ladsous said,
no
more answers
for you.
But
the questions
kept coming,
including
after the 126
rapes were
committed by
Ladsous'
partners in
Minova in late
November.
Things got
more extreme:
from the
Security
Council
stakeout on November 27,
Ladsous took
the three
Mouseketeers
out into the
hall (video
here).
After
again refusing
to answer
Inner City
Press about
the Minova
rapes on
December
7, on December 18 Ladsous had his spokesman
seize the UNTV
microphone
to try to
prevent Inner
City Press'
question. Video here.
The
person in
charge of
UNTV, Stephane
Dujarric,
would later
tell Inner
City Press
after advocacy
by the Free UN
Coalition for
Access -- on
the record, of
course -- that
he quietly
told Ladsous'
spokesman that
it was
improper. But
he did not
tell anyone
else.
Later,
on February
22, when Inner
City Press for
FUNCA was
summoned to a
meeting that
included
Charbonneau
and the “new”
UNCA president
Pamela Falk of
CBS,
Charbonneau
told Inner
City Press
“the
fundamental
problem is
your website.”
When
Inner City
Press reported
on the
meeting,
Dujarric wrote
a false
complaint that
“it was
clearly
understood by
all sides that
there
would be no
reporting.”
In fact, Inner
City Press
said loudly,
“You
are on the
record,” and
Pam Falk said,
“He is going
to write this
up.” Audio
here.
The
Department of
Public
Information,
for which
Dujarric
works, had
repeatedly
urged
Inner City
Press to “go
easier” on
Ladsous, had
implied that
things would
get better, or
at least as
they were
under Ladsous'
predecessor
Alain Le Roy.
But it appears
to all be a
scam, with
Dujarric
writing false
complaints and
refusing to
explain or
retract
them, and
Ladsous daily
hitting new
lows -- and
taking the
three
Mouseketeers
with him. And
maybe more.
Watch this
site.
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