ICP Asks UN of US Bill on Peacekeeper Rapes, UN Doesn't Keep Records By Matthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, April 20-- How low has the UN fallen, in terms of corruption, not stopping rapes, and retaliating against the Press that asks the questions? April 16 eviction here and here. Now that a bill on UN peacekeepers' sexual abuse and exploitation has passed the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Inner City Press on April 29 asked the spokesman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon what he thought of the bill, video here. UN transcript: Inner City Press: Do you have any records of who was killed? [Inner City Press actually said, does the UN even keep records on who it kills?] Spokesman: Matthew, as I said, I'm trying to get some information on it. I will get it to you as soon as I can. No one more than the Secretary-General is concerned anytime anyone, whether it's an international peacekeeper or UN peacekeeper or UN civilian, violates human rights or commits criminal conduct. And he's extremely focused on ensuring that there's accountability and that there is no impunity. Extremely focused. That's why he and his Under Secretary General for "Public Information" Christina Gallach threw out the critical Press which is asking about these issues, and Gallach's "2016 Communications Guidelines" barely mention sexual abuse, and are silent on the Ng Lap Seng UN bribery case which broke in 2015 and in which Gallach is implicated, see UN OIOS audit at Paragraphs 37-40 and 20(b): https://www.scribd.com/doc/307245166/OIOS-Audit-of-Ng-South-South-News-OIOS-Cut-Out-Ban-Photo-Op-with-Ng-at-UNCA-Ball Here's the Senate Committee statement: http://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/chair/release/corker-cardin-state-department-authorization-bill-for-2017-passes-committee On April 20, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about rapes inside the UN's "protection" camps, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: There’s a lengthy 18 April piece in Time magazine about rape as a tool of war. And one of the situations that it describes are people who sought shelter in the UN… UNMISS Protection of Civilians Sites being, they say, repeatedly raped inside the camps. And so it… it’s not something that I’d heard of. And I wonder, is it something that the UN and UNMISS keep track of? It sounds pretty bad to be in a… in a POC (protection of civilians) site. And so what is the UN’s position on whether rapes have occurred in these sites, as described in Time magazine? Spokesman: I don’t have any reports to that end. Obviously, the situations inside the camps are challenging given that these protection of civilians sites were not designed to house the tens and tens of thousands of people we are housing. We’ve seen that sometimes the security situation inside those POCs has been precarious. We hope, if there are any reports, that they are reported to the UN authorities. On April 12 Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq about an April 13 hearing in the US House of Representatives about impunity for UN rapes. Just as the UN skipped court hearings on bringing cholera to Haiti, Haq's answer did not say that the UN would attend the hearing. Video here. Inner City Press live-tweeted the House hearing on April 13, in which Aicha Elbasri described Herve Ladsous' cover up in Darfur, and former OIOS auditor Peter Gallo described how top UN officials just USE the OIOS (as they have to de-link Ban Ki-moon from the Ng Lap Seng scandal). Brett Schaefer said there is a need for US training of other countries' peacekeepers. There's truth in that, but one of the DRC Army units implicated in the mass rapes in Minova was US trained. Chairman Chris Smith cited the UN's "zero tolerance, zero compliance culture;" in the Senate there were strong argument for reducing the UN's funding. On April 14, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, video here, UN transcript here:

• published: 29 Apr 2016
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