UN
Has
Over 1000
Staff and 16
Agencies in
Syria,
Selective
Alphabet
Soup
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 31 --
Amid talk of
missile
strikes on
Syria, the UN
has bristled
at questions
about how many
of its
international
staff
are leaving
the country.
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
said that even
after the
chemical
weapons team
left, more
than a
thousand UN
staff
remained. He
did not
distinguish
between
national and
international
staff -- a
distinction
the UN did
make after the
earthquake in
Haiti.
Instead,
after
US President
Barack Obama
announced
Saturday he
will take his
intention for
military
action on
Syria to the
US Congress,
Nesirky's
office put out
a list of the
alphabet soup
of 16 UN
agencies in
Syria:
World
Food
Programme
(WFP), United
Nations
Department of
Safety and
Security
(UNDSS),
United Nations
Development
Programme
(UNDP), United
Nations Human
Settlements
Programme
(UN-HABITAT),
Office for the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs
(OCHA), Office
of the United
Nations High
Commissioner
for Refugees
(UNHCR),
United Nations
Children’s
Fund (UNICEF),
World Health
Organization
(WHO), United
Nations Relief
and Works
Agency for
Palestine
Refugees in
the Near
East (UNRWA),
United Nations
Industrial
Development
Organization
(UNIDO),
United Nations
Conference on
Trade and
Development
(UNCTAD),
United Nations
Population
Fund (UNFPA),
International
Labour
Organization
(ILO), United
Nations
Disengagement
Observer Force
(UNDOF),
United Nations
Truce
Supervision
Organization
(UNTSO), and
Office of the
Joint Special
Representative
(OJSR).
This
list did not
include the
International
Organization
for Migration
(IOM), though
the UN Office
for the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs did
include IOM on
its list of UN
agencies,
saying IOM is
part of the
"UN team."
OCHA
also produced
a list of
international
NGOs active in
Syria, but
then
declined to
answer Inner
City Press'
questions
about threats
by the
rebel ISIS
group made to
NGOs in
Jarabulus. So
the UN speaks
when it
wants, for its
own reasons.
Watch this
site.
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