Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

UN Delays Access of Ambulance Responding to Emergency by Security Council

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, April 16 -- The UN delayed entry by a New York City ambulance on Monday after one of its media technicians fell to the ground barely 100 feet from the Security Council, the victim of an apparent seizure.

  Multiple UN staff complained to Inner City Press that despite calling the City's 911 emergency line, when an ambulance and fire truck arrived at the UN on First Avenue they were told that only fire trucks could come in, not ambulances.

  A UN staff member in the basement Publishing Unit died of a stroke after a similar ambulance blocking, as Inner City Press exclusively reported as well as a similar delay for a journalist, Han Janitschek, apparently without follow-up, after which it announced that the UN would henceforth allow Emergency Medical Service ambulances in, and that staff should call 911.

  But this instruction had obviously not been conveyed. And a UN Security officer closest to the technician's collapse on Monday had a walkie-talkie which reportedly did not function.

  Finally, after what witnesses say was more than five minutes, the UN Security guard at the First Avenue gate said he would take it on himself and allow the ambulance in. Even then, the emergency medical technicians were led through the Visitors' Tent, leading to further delay.

  Earlier this year, Inner City Press exclusively reported that UN Security found 14 kilograms of cocaine in the UN mail room and only disclosed it, first to others, after it was reported by Inner City Press. What will they say now?

  The UN fought long and hard not to allow the Fire Department to ever inspect the UN headquarters building, finally relenting only after New York City threatened to block City students from taking paid tours of the UN.

  More recently, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has sat on documented claim that UN Peacekeepers introduced cholera to Haiti; the UN argues it has immunity, some say impunity, from legal requirements that apply to others.

  But to block the access of an ambulance?

  The UN has what it calls a "protection of civilians" mandate in many of its missions around the world, but cannot even protect, or allow the protection of, those in its own buildings in New York. Watch this site.