By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 2 --When
UN Humanitarian
chief Valerie
Amos on
January 2
described
response in
the Central
African
Republic after
citing the
UN's new
"Rights Up
Front"
promises,
Inner City Press
asked her a
question about
it. Video
here, from
Minute 17:37.
Last month,
Doctors
Without
Borders
slammed the UN
non-response
in the CAR in
an open letter
asserting:
"MSF
has repeatedly
asked UN
agencies to
deliver food,
tents and soap
to the more
than 15,000
people
displaced in
the vicinity
of Bangui’s
airport,
without any
reaction; in
Bossangoa, UN
aid officials
on security
lock-down
inside the
FOMAC compound
did not even
provide
assistance to
the displaced
sheltering
inside the
same compound,
forcing MSF to
intervene once
more.
Following the
fighting in
Bossangoa, the
UN remained on
security
lock-down for
days,
abandoning the
more than
30,000
displaced
persons in the
main Bossangoa
camps, while
MSF and ACF
teams move
through the
city to
provide
emergency
assistance."
Inner
City Press on
January 2
asked Amos
about the MSF
letter, and if
the UN is now
as requested
in Yaloké and
Bouca.
Apparently not
-- these were
not among the
places Amos
rattled off.
Amos said she
was
disappointed
by MSF's
letter, that
MSF had not
acknowledged
that UN
facilities had
been looted.
She
acknowledged
that the UN
can and must
do more. But
some wonder,
when will this
UN really put
"Rights Up
Front"?
Background:
In
belated
response to
its failure in
Sri Lanka,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
administration
came out with
a "Rights Up
Front" plan.
Inner City
Press obtained
and published
a leaked copy;
Ban's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
said it "may
or may not
exist."
Now
Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson has
cited Rights
Up Front in
speaking of
Central
African
Republic, as
has UN Human
Rights deputy
Ivan
Simonovic, vying to
shift much of
the UN's "rule
of law"
machinery into
his office.
But what MSF
described is
hardly "Rights
Up Front."
Inner City
Press is
asking and
asking about
it.
Amos
said MSF and
other partners
-- this would
include Action
Contre la Faim,
ACF, which the
letter cites
-- are able to
go places that
the UN isn't.
But in Sri
Lanka, ACF says
the government
slaughtered
its workers.
And what is
the UN
doing?
Watch this
site.
, 
