On
Haiti Cholera
Suit, ICP Asks
UN of Funds
& Reforms,
Ladsous Won't
Answer
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 9 --
Last night
Inner City
Press reported
that a
class action
lawsuit would
be filed this
morning in the
Southern
District of
New York
-- and today
it was.
But
the UN's
response has
been even more
lame than
might have
been
expected.
Inner
City Press
asked UN
Controller
Yukio Takasu,
who had just
finished
saying that
the financial
position of
the UN is
strong, how
that
related with
the UN's
decision to
dismiss all
claims for the
death of
8,300 people
and country
from cholera
it brought to
Haiti.
Takasu
replied that
the Secretary
General can't
spend a penny
without
approval of
the General
Assembly. One
might then
thing: take a
vote.
But it is
Ban's and his
then top
lawyer
Patricia
O'Brien, and
the
head of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous,
who are
responsible
for the
decision.
Also,
Ban in a
letter to week
to the
Security
Council about
chemical
weapons in
Syria says
that he is
funding the
operation from
a slush
fund for
unexpected
events. This
fund exists --
does to not
even
consider using
it mean that
cholera deaths
in Haiti WERE
expected?
Since
Ban's
associate
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
refused to
comment on the
claims (while
saying the UN
has commented
a lot in
recent months
--
in reality, by
saying "we
have nothing
further to
say"),
Inner City
Press asked
about UN
Peacekeeping's
statements
that the
peacekeepers
had been
screened
(which the
lawsuit calls
"false"),
and if UN
Peacekeeping
under Ladsous
now screens
those it
deploys, at
least from
cholera
hotspot
countries.
Haq
said he thinks
they do
screen. Inner
City Press
asked him to
get a
statement from
DPKO --
because Ladsous
has repeatedly
refused to
answer
this question
and others
from the
Press, a
"farce" which
was covered
yesterday in
the UK's New
Statesman,
here.
For
now, we are
putting the
lawsuit
online, here.
Watch this
site.
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