On
Syria, UK Amos
Promoted by UK
Reuters, IRC Not
Mapped by OCHA
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 8 --
Humanitarian
aid is
supposed to be
impartial and
non-political
but here is
how it works
at the UN
these days.
The
Office for the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs, which
as Inner
City Press has covered
ignored just
such
impartiality
questions
raised by
Doctors
Without
Borders in
Eastern Congo,
wrote a
"confidential"
letter to the
UN Security
Council about
access in
Syria.
The
head of OCHA
is Baroness
Valerie Amos
of the UK.
Mysteriously,
Reuters had
the
"confidential
letter," most
say, from the
UK Mission to
the UN. (While
noting that Reuters'
UN Bureau
demonstrably
leaks TO the
UN, here.)
Soon, Reuters'
re-type job
was re-tweeted
by
WFP's
spokesman...
in the UK.
Meanwhile
in
the UK,
there's been
an expose
of outrageous
salaries at
the big
aid NGOs, but
nary a word
from Amos'
OCHA. Nor
any similar
listing of
the tax-free
compensation
of UN aid big
wigs.
On
August 7, OCHA
in Syria put
out a map of
UN agencies
and
international
staff in the
country, which
included the
International
Organization
on Migration
-- which is
NOT a UN
agency. The Free UN
Coalition for
Access asked,
why was IOM
included?
A
techie working
for OCHA, more
responsive
than most of
the UN's
UNsocial
media, replied
that the
footnote says
IOM is in the
UN
County Team.
Is any other
group?
Apparently
not.
Then
on August 8, OCHA
put out a map
of NGOs in
Syria.
Earlier in the
day,
the
International
Rescue
Committee, run
by former UK
politician
David
Miliband,
teased a press
call featuring
its "team
inside
Syria." But IRC
is not
mentioned in
the OCHA map.
They brag
of a visit by
new US
Ambassador to
the UN
Samantha Power
- and replied
about where
the cited refugees
were from (including
Syria).
It's all
good - but why
is IRC,
not on the
UN's map,
bragging of
its team
inside Syria?
Watch this
site.
, 
