UNITED
NATIONS, July
8 --After UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
belatedly
responded late
Friday to the
May 30 letter
from 19
members of the
US
Congress
urging him to
take
responsibility
for the UN
introducing
cholera into
Haiti, Inner
City Press put
the letter
online and
wrote
about
it Saturday
and Sunday.
(Now, here's
Ban's letter
to the
Congress
members, as a
single PDF,
here.)
At
Monday's noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
to respond to
those who see
a major
contradiction
between the
claim to care
so much for
Haiti while
denying all
legal
claims of
having
introduced
cholera.
“I
don't have
anything
further on
that topic
today,”
Nesirky
replied.
Video
here, from
Minute 23:30.
But
Mario Joseph
of the Bureau
des Avocats
Internationaux, lead
counsel for
the 5000
victims and
families who
filed claims
against
the UN in
November 2011,
does have a response:
““The
hypocrisy of
the UN’s
position is
clear to the
victims of UN
cholera and
everyone else
in Haiti. The
UN claims a
mission of
promoting the
rule
of law, and
regularly
lectures
Haitian
citizens and
officials
about
the need to
submit to the
law. Yet the
UN will not
even explain
why
it is not
subject to its
own laws.”
Inner
City Press has
asked
the UN mission
MINUSTAH when
its radio
station
MinustahFM
will belatedly
cover Ban
Ki-moon's
response to
the
Congress
members,
so far without
response.
The
UN is not
responsive,
particularly
but not only
its
peacekeeping
missions under
Herve
Ladsous who
outright
refuses to
answer Press
questions, see
video
compilation
here.
Brian
Concannon of
the Institute
for Justice
&
Democracy in
Haiti, who
is co-counsel
on the case,
had this response:
“We now have
no
choice but to
take the UN to
court to stop
cholera’s
killing and
seek justice
for victims
and their
families. The
cholera
victims, the
U.S. Congress
and the
taxpayers
around the
world who fund
the UN all
deserve
better.”
While
while Haiti
cholera may be
the worst
example in
recent years,
there
are other
saying that of
this UN as
well. This is
a new low.
The
19 members of
Congress who
wrote to Ban
Ki-moon
include:
Maxine Waters,
Barbara Lee,
Yvette D.
Clarke,
Frederica S.
Wilson, Jan
Schakowsky,
John Conyers,
Jr., Alcee L.
Hastings,
Charles B.
Rangel,
Corrine Brown,
Donald M.
Payne, Jr.,
Bobby L. Rush,
Wm. Lacy Clay,
Raúl M.
Grijalva,
Debbie
Wasserman
Schultz, John
Lewis, Gregory
W. Meeks,
Donna F.
Edwards, Keith
Ellison and
Carolyn B.
Maloney.
Watch
this
site.
, 
