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In Timor Leste, UN Police "Refused" to Help Horta, Decline to Answer Questions

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, February 11 -- In the aftermath of a daring double-assassination attempt in Timor Leste, there were questions concerning the UN that no one, it seemed, wanted to answer. After President Jose Ramos Horta was shot, UN police secured the area but did not move to help or transport him, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Inner City Press raised this very report at the noon briefing at UN headquarters on Monday, and was told that the UN had not been in charge of Ramos Horta's security. Fine -- but why, once he was shot, didn't they help?

   After the Security Council adopted a somewhat fill-in-the-blanks Presidential Statement, deploring the shooting and calling for calm, Inner City Press asked the statement's proponent, South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, about the ABC's report. Amb. Kumalo replied that it was not helpful to be assessing blame. Video here. But will the shooting cause any changes in the security mandate of the UN Mission in Timor Leste, UNMIT? Amb. Kumalo said he didn't think so. When the shootings took place, the head of UNMIT, Atul Khare, had been in New York to briefing the Council on Thursday. He set off flying for Dili, but it "takes time" to get there, Amb. Kumalo said.


Jose Ramos Horta in happier times: UN Police not shown then or now

            The injunction not to blame anyone is not followed by Ramos-Horta's brother in law Joao Carrascalao, who is also the  leader of the Timorese Democratic Union and a member of the State Council. Carrascalao told ABC that "we advised the United Nations Police who went to the scene but 300 meters before reaching there, they refused to proceed and the President was lying on the road... more than half an hour bleeding and losing a lot of blood. The United Nations Police didn't take action until the Portuguese General got there. That's one of the worst things that could happen to this country; have police from everywhere, everyone within one system and mostly looking after themselves than looking after the situation here."

            In a press conference Dili, in the Obrigado Barracks, Khare's fill-in Finn Feske-Nielsen was asked why "UN Pol[ice] attended the incident where the President was shot this morning, yet didn't approach him to give him medical assistance." Feske-Nielsen said "we shall obviously look into it to see." Watch this site.

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These reports are also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

  Because a number of Inner City Press' UN sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of the UN agencies and many of their staff. Keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the information flowing.

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Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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UN Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540