In
DRC's Pinga,
UN Did Nothing
on
Decapitation,
Ladsous Covers
Up
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 26 --
Two day before
Goma fell to
the M23
mutineers
as UN
Peacekeepers
fled, their
commander
Herve Ladsous
openly
refused
to answer two
Press
questions:
who broke the
ceasefire, and
did
the
UN defend
Pinga in
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo from
the non
M23 militia of
the Mai Mai
Cheka.
Ladsous
had
his spokesman
ask UN
personnel not
to give the
microphone to
Inner City
Press, but the
questions were
audibly asked
anyway.
Ladsous
refused to
answer or
respond to
them.
As
Inner City
Press wrote
at the time,
Ladsous'
MONUSCO had
actually
flown DRC
officials to
meet Mai Mai
fighters and
seek to
recruit them
to fight M23
-- he UN, not
Ladsous,
replied that
they simply
flew
FARDC to the
meeting, did
not ask or
know what it
was about.
Now,
after more
refusals by
Ladsous to
answer and
a statement
three days
ago by his
spokesman Kieran Dwyer
that "I am
looking into
that,"
never
followed up,
TIME
has published
this on Pinga:
"Pinga,
west
of Goma, was
taken over by
a private
militia and
protection
racket called
Mai Mai Cheka
(after its
commander
Colonel
Cheka)... On
his orders,
two civilians
from the town
were abducted,
decapitated
and their
heads thrown
at
the base
gates, while
Cheka shouted:
'Come out!'
'Do you think
Monusco
ventured out
of the gate?'
asks a senior
aid worker
with
knowledge of
the incident.
“[They did]
nothing. How
safe did the
population
feel after
that?”
TIME
quotes French
foreign
minister
Laurent
Fabius, as
"France,"
that MONUSCO's
and UN
Peacekeeping's
inaction has
been "absurd,"
but TIME does
not
name the
person in
charge of
both: Herve
Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to hold
the position.
Ladsous
was
in fact a
last minute
replacement
foisted on the
UN by the
Sarkozy
government for
the vetted
winning
candidate
Jerome
Bonnafont,
as Inner City
Press exposed
in September
2011.
That exposure,
followed by anti-Press
events at the
UN that
Ladsous
latched on
to, led
Ladsous to
begin in late
May 2012 to
refuse any
questions from
Inner City
Press, no
matter how
benign.
During
the
UN General
Debate in
September
2012, at a stakeout
where no other
reported
despite being
prompted by
Ladsous'
spokesperson
had any
questions for
him, Inner
City Press
asked, "What
is the UN's
role in Abyei,"
contested by
Sudan and
South Sudan.
Ladsous said
facetiously ,
"No more
questions?"
and walked
away -
captured by
Inner City
Press in a
YouTube video,
since Team
Ladsous
also orders
UNTV to edit
questions out
of its
archived
webcast.
Perhaps,
some
say, Ladsous
is "crazy like
a fox" --
normally, the
top guy would
have to take
the fall for a
failure like
that of UN
Peacekeeping
at
Goma.
But if you
refuse
questions, and
keep your name
out of the
media, maybe
you can keep
collecting
this large and
largely
unearned
taxfree UN
salary.
Clearly
the
French, so
loudly
concerned with
the Congo and
Mali just as
colonial Cote
d'Ivoire, know
who they put
in charge of
the
"absurdity."
And Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, who
has
allowed
Ladsous'
stonewalling
and other
anti-press
moves, is
ultimately in
charge. Watch
this site.
, 
