In
Hours After Haiti's Earthquake, Silence from UN, Building Codes
Flashback
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, January 12, updates below
-- In the hours after a 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti,
prepared statements were issued by U.S. President Barack Obama,
Secretary of State Clinton, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and
even Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer in New York. At
the
headquarters of the UN, which has 7000 peacekeepers in Haiti, there
was silence.
After
7 p.m on
January 12, Inner City Press and another journalist covering the
Americas ventured down to the new UN Spokesperson's office in the
basement. Any communications from the UN Peacekeeping Mission,
MINUSTAH? No. Anything from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon? No.
Mr.
Ban is on Long Island on retreat, with the heads of regional
organizations.
Update of 8:12 p.m. -- after 8
p.m., the UN Spokesperson's Office issued an e-mail to correspondents
that Mr. Ban "will meet with press on Wednesday morning at 8:20 am, at
UN Headquarters." We'll be there.
Update
of 8:40 p.m. -- and at 8:28 p.m., after even Scott Stringer, the
UN
put this out:
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon on the earthquake in Haiti:
My
heart goes out to the people of Haiti after this devastating
earthquake. At this time of tragedy, I am very concerned for the
people of Haiti and also for the many United Nations staff who serve
there. I am receiving initial reports and following developments
closely.
First,
given that
the UN told not only Inner City Press but also AFP they could not
reach MINUSTAH, how Ban is "receiving initial reports,"
other than CNN, is unclear. But the point, we emphasize, is that the
UN has more presence on the ground in Haiti than anyone else. Why
hasn't it been the go-to organization for information on the
earthquake?
Update
of 9:20 p.m. -- and at 9:12 p.m., in greater detail than Ban
Ki-moon
(why? Because of Francophonie? Lss skeptically, because peacekeeping
and civilian personnel are missing? but where else is this done?)
DPKO chief Alain Le Roy chimed in:
Statement
from the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le
Roy:
English:
The
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations expresses his
deep concern following this afternoon’s catastrophic earthquake.
The Department of Peacekeeping Operations is still in the process of
gathering information on the extent of the damage and the status of
UN personnel. Contacts with the UN on the ground have been severely
hampered as communications networks in Haiti have been disabled by
the earth quake. For the moment, a large number of personnel remain
unaccounted for. The United Nations can confirm that the Headquarters
of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) in
Port au Prince has sustained serious damage along with other UN
installations. Further information will be provided as it becomes
available.
We
hope so.
To Gonaives
in 2008, it took the UN and others three days to reach those in need.
Will response this time be more timely?
When
the head of
MINUSTAH, Hedi Annabi, came to brief the Security Council in
September, Inner City Press asked him what if anything had been done
to improve building codes and practices following the deadly school
collapse in Petionville. Video here,
from Minute 1:50. Inner City
Press asked asked what discipline had been imposed on the over 100
peacerkeepers repatriated to Sri Lanka on charges of sex abuse or
exploitation in Haiti.
Mr.
Annabi, as to
building codes, said that the government of Michel Pierre Louis has
been "very mindful" and made "special effort to
improve the relevant rules and regulations" to make buildings,
particularly of institutions, safe. One of the first reports on
January 12 was of a collapsed hospital.
Previous
UN
Spokesperson Michele Montas in November 2008 told Inner City Press,
which asked
whether the UN given its central role in Haiti might be trying to
encourage
improvements in building codes, that "there is a government in Haiti...
those codes have existed for two hundreds years." That might be the
problem.
UN's Ban waves to UN staff in Haiti, quake
and response not yet shown
From our
November 10, 2008 report:
After Haitian Collapse, UN Uses Batons But No Building
Codes, School Chief Said Arrested
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
November 10, 2008 -- In the wake of a
deadly school collapse in Petionville in Haiti,
the UN's strange role in the country was
exemplified by its peacekeepers beating back parents who surged on the
ruins to
determine the fate of their children, while the UN said it had no role
in
improving the construction practices that even President
Rene Preval says led to the
collapse.
UN
Spokesperson Michele Montas told Inner City Press, which asked
whether the UN given its central role in Haiti might be trying to
encourage
improvements in building codes, that "there is a government in Haiti...
those codes have existed for two hundreds years." That might be the
problem.
Following
the collapse, not only concerned parents but neighborhood residents
converged
on the school. Some of the latter tried to get in and remove debris,
reportedly
accusing "the internationals" of moving slowing in order to make more
money off Haiti. Reportedly
"anger boiled over as
thousands of Haitians looked on in the blazing sun, with the stench of
rotting
bodies beginning to rise from the rubble. Rumours have circulated that
the
international rescuers were working slowly to inflate their wages.
About 100
men rushed the unstable pile... Thousands cheered them on, chanting,
'We don't
need money to do the work!' Baton-swinging Haitian police and United
Nations
peacekeepers in riot gear drove the men away, only for them to return
and throw
rocks."
In New York
on Monday, Ms. Montas was asked who decided on this use of force.
Initially and cordially,
she said that a "serious problem of crowd control" had existed as
parents tried to get to the school, which "two teams, French and
American,
were working with MINUSTAH" to clear the rubble. Video here,
from Minute
13:20.
One
wonders, given the insistence that the UN system which includes the UN
Development Program can do nothing about the building codes and
practices that
led to the collapse, why MINISTAH is described as being in charge of
the rescue
effort. Also, if the UN's Hedi Annabi can
call for a delay in using
construction equipment on the site, why cannot he not call for better
building
codes or enforcement?
UN Peacekeepers outside a school in Haiti,
kids in tank's shadow
Inner City
Press asked again, who controls MINUSTAH's use of force against
civilians in
Haiti? Ms. Montas answered that the Haitian National Police were
working with
MINUSTAH at the site. So did MINUSTAH need and get consent?
In response
to Inner City Press' question about Haitian President Rene Preval's
statement
that "what occurred was the result of instability and disorder on a
state
level in Haiti," Ms. Montas countered diplomatically that the collapse
did not reflect on
"the state as a whole." Video here,
from Minute 21:02.
Inner
City Press was later informed by a UN
official who stress they were not speaking as an international civil
servant,
and is therefore granted anonymity even without explicitly requesting
it, that
"the person in charge of the school was arrested on Saturday."
To come
full circle, the UN in the past month has twice spoken about
its work on the
prisons in Haiti.
News analysis: So in Haiti as in
the Congo, the UN is everywhere when there
is success, and tried to be nowhere, at least in terms of
accountability and
transparency, when things go wrong.
That
Haiti
and Haitians need help is clear. Whether the UN, Minustah or UNDP are
the right
ones to deliver it is another question.
, 
