On
Haiti
Cholera, WaPo
Notes UN's
Non-Response,
Ladsous &
USUN Too
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 16 --
The lawlessness
and lack of
responsiveness
of
the UN on its
responsibility
for bringing
cholera into
Haiti has
beennoticed
by the
Washington
Post. They
call Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson's
letter to
the editor
"something
closer to a
non-response,"
in that it
evaded the
issue of
responsibility.
But
inside the UN,
Inner City
Press has
asked Ban's
spokespeople
repeatedly
about the
cholera.
After sitting
on claims for
more than a
year, Ban's UN
ruled the
claims were
"not
receivable."
Then
when Inner
City Press asked
for a more
detailed legal
argument,
Ban's
last top
lawyer Patricia
O'Brien said
there was just
"nothing
more to say."
Inner
City Press has asked the
US Mission to
the UN, too,
since Ban
listens
so much to
them. But even
after
19 members of
Congress wrote
to Ban
about the
issue, the
US Mission has
not follow up
on the issue
of
accountability.
During
new Ambassador
Samantha
Power's
Twitter town
hall on August
15, as
Inner City
Press
noted, she
glaringly did
not respond to
the tweets
about the UN's
role in
bringing
cholera to
Haiti.
Some
supporters of
the think that
to ignore this
is best. They
are wrong: it
makes the
UN unable to
credible
preach about
rule of law
and
accountability.
Ban's
chief of UN
Peacekeeping Herve
Ladsous, with
his own
history in Haiti
as on
Rwanda,
has simply
refused to
taken
this and other
questions from
the Press, compilation video here. Ban
has a new
chief lawyer
from Portugal,
Miguel de
Serpa Soares.
Can he be
credible
without
addressing
this issue?
On
August 16 it
was announced
that Ban will
hold a "press
encounter" in
the briefing
room on
Monday, August
19. While some
fear this
means he will
not take
questions --
i.e., hold the
type of
press
conference
that at one
point was
promised to
take place
every
month -- it
seems clear
that he should
address
cholera in
Haiti on
Monday. Watch
this site.
, 
