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In Haiti, UN of Two Minds on China, No Guidance on Bullets, Florida Football Games Blocking Medical Flights

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- Two days after the UN's spokesman in Haiti David Wimhurst denied knowing about UN Peacekeepers shooting even rubber bullets to control crowds of aid seekers, detailed reports emerged of "UN troops" shooting 50 caliber guns over crowds.

  Inner City Press asked the UN's humanitarian coordinator John Holmes about these reports, and what the UN considers the best practice in crowd control while aid is distributed. "There is no set standard in the humanitarian lexicon," Holmes said, adding that the main focus is that nobody gets hurt. Video here, from Minute 26:03.

  So are tasers okay? Tear gas? Electrified fences? Are these decision left up to each country's contingent adopting the UN's blue helmets in Haiti, including a battalion from Sri Lanka, accused of war crimes?

  A stark different in the statements of David Wimhurst and Holmes was also raised but not resolved. On January 27, Wimhurst confirmed to the press that the Chinese search and rescue team, once it dug out the Chinese diplomats from the wreckage of the UN's rented Hotel Christopher, left the country.

  But on January 28, Chinese diplomats told Inner City Press to check with John Holmes, who they cited as on record about additional Chinese work in Haiti -- a country with whose government China has no diplomatic relations, since Haiti recognized Taiwan.

  Inner City Press asked Holmes to square this with what Mr. Wimhurt said. "I don't know what to add," Holmes said. "That's my understanding, the Chinese information as well." But was he a witness? Video here, from Minute 15:34.


UN's Holmes, UNDP's Helen Clark behind: paying $5 or just $3 a day in Haiti?

  Media in Florida reports that the flights evacuated injured Haitians to Florida have stopped, due to the upcoming Super Bowl and Pro Bowl of the National Football League. Inner City Press asked Holmes about this. "I have no idea," he said. "Ask the Americans."

  A reporter whispered, "Touchdown!" -- referring also to Holmes "touchdown" space in the UN compound, now that others in his office have been moved full time to Madison Avenue. Football is only simulated war. But the UN in Haiti is shooting with real bullets. Watch this site.

* * *

In Haiti, Chinese Team Dug Up Its Own and Left, UN Confirms, $94,000 Monthly Rent

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 27 -- UN peacekeepers have been firing tear gas and, according to eye witnesses, rubber bullets at Haitian aid seekers. Meanwhile, the UN confirmed on Wednesday that the Chinese search and rescue team which appeared so quickly in Haiti left just as quickly, as soon as it recovered the bodies of its own national who had been visiting the UN Mission, MINUSTAH.

  Inner City Press asked MINUSTAH's David Wimhurst about the use of rubber bullets and tear gas, which Wimhurst previously said he had not witnessed in Cite Soleil on January 24.

  Wednesday, Wimhurst counted the Cite Soleil "incident" as one of two uses of tear gas. He said the use by the UN is under "strict rules and regulations" that are "well established." Video here, from Minute 32:31.

  Wimhurst said he is "not aware of rubber bullets" being used, despite numerous eye witness accounts of both Uruguayan and Brazilian UN peacekeepers firing into the air. Inner City Press asked about similar reports of peacekeepers leaving behind food and in one case a pile of radios, which were then fought over.

  Wimhust said he was "not aware of [these] being left behind," adding that battalions take their equipment with them. But these are transistor radios. Inner City Press asked him to confirm that the UN was paying $94,000 a month for the Christopher Hotel, now collapsed. "The number you mention is probably close to the amount," Wimhurst replied, saying that Security informs him the Hotel was MOSS compliant. Video here, from Minute 12:15. We'll see.


Chinese search team in Haiti, recovering own and ready to leave, per UN

  Wimhurst remained silent when asked to explicitly confirm that the Chinese search and rescue team left immediately after digging out its own national. But when asked twice to name a single other place in Haiti where the Chinese team had dug, he could not. "They went back to China," he said. Video here, from Minute 10:02.

China is this month's UN Security Council President. We will be pursuing this. Watch this site.

Footnote: The UN's noon briefing on Wednesday, 15 days after the Haiti earthquake, was limited to a video link to MINUSTAH, with no other UN questions taken on any other topic. Some said that Spokesman Martin Nesirky was still busy from having accompanied Ban Ki-moon into the Security Council earlier on Wednesday. But his Office has other staffers.

  While Ban Ki-moon is slated for a stakeout on Wednesday afternoon, it is doubtful that many questions can be asked. To some, this appears to be an attempt by the UN to manipulate the press, to remain "on message," on Haiti and Ban's Wednesday announcement, about Afghanistan. What about Sudan? Somalia? Sri Lanka? Corruption? Watch this site.

* * *

 Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate

Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56

Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza

Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate

Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger

Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards

Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

* * *

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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