UN
Slips on Haiti
Envoy,
Trinidadian
Honore
Withdrawn,
Cholera
Stonewall
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 14 --
With the UN
under fire in
Haiti for
having in
all
probability
introduced
cholera, a new
UN envoy was
recently
proposed to
the UN
Security
Council by
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon:
Ambassador
Honore of
Trinidad and
Tobago.
But
even this was
a fiasco: the
nomination
"did not fly,"
a
Latin
Permanent
Representative
exclusively
told Inner
City Press,
and
Ban Ki-moon
withdrew the
name.
Meanwhile
while
Inner City
Press has,
since the
announcement
of some $23.5
million in UN
funds for
cholera in
Haiti, asked
if any of
these funds
would go to
victims,
and if the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
has
implemented
any safeguards
to ensure it
doesn't
introduce
cholera
elsewhere, no
answer has
been given.
UN
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
said he would
ask DPKO, but
came back with
nothing. Inner
City Pres
asked again on
December 14;
still nothing,
even as Nesirky
insisted later
in the
briefing that
he answers
questions.
Here,
it seems that
DPKO boss
Herve Ladsous
had decided
that not only
will he
personally
refuse to
answer Press
questions
-- "his" DPKO
as a whole
would answer
this cholera
safeguard
question, nor
questions
about its
supposed Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy, in
the Eastern
Congo and now
Mali.
This
became clear
when, minutes
after Nesirky
said he had
not answer
from
DPKO, Inner
City Press
asked an
official of
the Department
of Field
Support and
got at least
some response.
Is this the
real response?
We'll see.
Watch this
site.
, 
