At
UN, Haiti's Moises
Called on UN's Guterres To Pay For
Cholera, ICP Asks for Update
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photos,
Periscope
UNITED NATIONS,
September 21 – When Haiti's
President Moises spoke in the
UN General Assembly on the
morning of September 21, he
called for UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres to
follow through on his
statements and provide funding
for both tracks of the
so-called New Approach to the
cholera the UN brought to the
island: that is, to pay
reparations. Inner City Press,
which accompanied and covered
the Security Council's trip to
Haiti this year, has
repeatedly asked Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric to
make the envoy UN envoy on the
issue, Josette Sheeran, available
for questions. It has not
happened. So on September 21,
Inner City Press asked
Dujarric, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: the General
Assembly, the President of
Haiti, Mr. [Jovenel] Moise,
said in his speech… devoted a
quite a bit of it to the UN
following through on what the
Secretary-General announced
about the new approach, and he
named specifically the two
tracks and said the money
should begin to come. I wanted
to know, can you give any
update on money that actually
has been devoted thus
far? And, number two,
has Josette Sheeran been
operating during this General
Assembly week to try to…
Spokesman: Yes, very
much so. I mean, she’s
been having… I know she’s been
having meetings. She, I
think, will participate in the
meeting of the
Secretary-General with the
Haitian leader. I don’t
think I have an updated figure
for you on the money.
What is clear is that the
money… we’re continually
trying to raise money, but
already the country team has
spent quite a lot of… and
deployed quite a lot of
resources on the issue, even
before this new approach has
been announced. Inner City
Press: Could she do some sort
of a press availability?
Spokesman: I think
she’ll probably do some sort
of a press availability in the
weeks ahead. We'll have more
on this - and on this: back on
September 19, French President
Emmanuel Macron's UN press
conference was set for 1 pm,
the same time as the heads of
state luncheon the Press was
covering. But it must have
started late, because when
Inner City Press after
coverage ran in, Macron was
still holding forth, without a
word on Africa. He began to
take questions, from AFP and
ultimately a French media
which criticized him for
speaking with CNN. Still not a
word on Africa, on which
France jealously "holds the
pen" in the Security Council.
Inner City Press shouted out,
once and then twice,
"Burundi?" But nothing,
rien. Inner City Press has
asked the UN repeatedly about
Cameroon and France's Paul
Biya, and Togo and Gabon. But
Macron was presenting himself
as a player on Syria and Iraq,
even North Korea. Rocket Boy,
one might say. And then it was
over. The day before, when
Italy's Foreign Minister
Angelino Alfano took media
questions at the UN on
September 18, they were all in
Italian except for a final
chosen question about Donald
Trump. Inner City Press
insisted and asked, in
English, if Italy funds
militia in Libya to detain
migrants and refugees.
Alfano's answer was in
Italian, but a handler from
the Italian Mission offered a
translation: that Italy has
denied it. So what due
diligence does Italy do, over
the funds it gives to the
UN-propped up government in
Libya? We'll have more on
this. Alamy photos here.
When US President Donald Trump
gave his UN reform speech on
September 18, he noted that UN
staff have doubled since 2000,
but we haven't seen the
results. He could have said
more: what HAS been seen
includes inaction on mass
killings in Sri Lanka and
Yemen, Myanmar and Cameroon.
Not mentioned in Secretary
General Antonio Guterres'
speech, nor in his answers the
two times Inner City Press has
asked him, is the UN bribery
guilty verdicts in the case of
Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe. The
UN was shown, only this
summer, to be for sale. And
nothing has changed. As UN
General Assembly week started
up on Sunday, the US announced
that Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson would meet with his
Russian counterpart Sergey
Lavrov at 9 pm, at Russia's
Mission to the UN. Inner City
Press after asking Cote
d'Ivoire president Alassane
Ouattara a question about
Myanmar - without answer -
biked up to that Mission on
67th Street. There in the half
light were dozens of reporters
and photographers, waiting for
Tillerson to leave. In the
street were US body guards
with machine guns. Tillerson
emerged and said nothing,
driving away. Video here.
Most of the Western wire
service correspondents, one a
photographer who'd been at the
UN photo op with Ouattara but
not the stakeout with Ivorian
media, turned and left. Then
the spokesman for Lavrov, and
before him for now deceased
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin,
emerged and briefed in Russia.
Inner City Press was informed
second hard that she said the
topics had been Syria, Ukraine
and Minsk implementation, and
“North Africa.” Later the US
State Department said, “U.S.
Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson and Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov met
this evening in New York on
the sidelines of the United
Nations General Assembly. The
two recommitted to
deconflicting military
operations in Syria, reducing
the violence, and creating the
conditions for the Geneva
process to move forward,
pursuant to United Nations
Security Council Resolution
2254.” So what about North
Africa? Peacekeepers in
Ukraine? Watch this site.
***
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