UNSC
Hears of Cholera,
Lone Press
Question, UN Country Team Goes
Behind Closed Doors
By Matthew
Russell Lee
Port au Prince,
June 22 – When the UN Security
Council visited Haiti's
Presidential Palace on
Thursday, they heard about the
cholera the UN brought,
specifically that the $40
million remaining in the
MINUSTAH mission's budget
should remain behind. This was
emphasized after the meeting
with President Moise by his
acting (for a day?) foreign
minister, and was the subject
of the sole questioner
allowed. Video here.
But the responses seem
routinized. In the UN Budget
Committee there's talk against
it, as a bad precedent. Wasn't
bringing cholera, and then
denying it for six years, a
worse precedent? Sui generis.
After a drive through the
drizzle back to the Council's
high altitude hotel, a meeting
was held with the UN Country
Team. The Press was
ushered about amid generic
statistics from the Deputy
SRSG. We'll have more on this.
Earlier on Thursday morning,
the country's booming voiced
Ambassador to the UN was at
the airport to greet the
Council members. Protests,
too, awaited - although
MINUSTAH staff, and a
Haiti-based European
journalist, mocked the protest
as small. In the minibus
that took the Council members
up into the hills to the Royal
Oasis Hotel, the talk was of
the wind-down of the MINUSTAH
mission, begun after the
ouster of President Aristide
in 2004, of access for
interpreters but barely - five
minutes at each meeting? - for
the press. Civil society,
however, has been chiming in
with the Press. When UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres held a press
conference on June 20, Inner
City Press about the UN having
brought cholera to Haiti under
his predecessor Ban Ki-moon
but now reneging even on what
Ban belatedly proposed for
individual reparations. Inner
City Press mentioned upcoming
protests in Haiti that it will
be covering from there, June
22 and 23, accompanying the UN
Security Council mission which
took off from JFK airport
early on June 22. Photo here,
Periscope video here.
Guterres announced that he was
just then - minutes later the
announcement went out - naming
as a new special envoy on
Haiti Josette Sheeran,
formerly the director of the
UN World Food Program and now
the head of the Asia Society.
Video here.
Transcript here.
He seemed to say the UN was
never going to compensate
individuals or families
impacted by the cholera the UN
brought. And the demands are
for more than that: here's a
sample list, in advance of the
protest(s): "1. Close the
MINUSTAH acknowledging its
failure
2. Cancel the MINUJUSTH
articulated following the ques
Chapter 7 is a contradiction
with the mandate defined
3. re-articulate globally the
concept of relations between
the UN and Haiti and
especially among Latin
American countries and Haiti.
Recalling the generous
internationalist commitment of
the founders of our country
and concrete, substantial and
decisive solidarity offered to
Miranda and Simon Bolivar
4. Launch a process of
compensation, justice and
reparation contemplating the
numerous victims and
destruction caused by this
military occupation of 13
years.
5. Compensate victims of rape,
men, women and children were
raped or processes used in
sexual exploitation
6. Support the thousands of
women who have babies and
children / children without
parents because soldiers and
police of MINUSTAH left
without parents assume their
responsibilities without
leaving their addresses
7. compensate the families of
citizens / citizens killed by
the introduction of cholera by
Nepalese MINUSTAH troops.
We're talking about at least
20,000 bodies (the official
figure underestimated speaks
of nearly 10,000 dead)
8. Compensate survivors were
infected by cholera by but did
not die but their lives were
severely affected (we're
talking about more than
800,000 people)
9. To compensate the country
for the huge economic losses
caused by the presence of
cholera during these long 7
years.
10. Invest to universalize
access to drinking water for
the entire population
11. To strengthen the system
of public health and
sanitation." On June 21 Inner
City Press asked Guterres'
deputy spokesman Farhan Haq to
clarify. UN
Video here,
from Minute
16:21. From
the UN transcript:
Inner City Press: this was
something that the
Secretary-General said on the
record when I asked him about
the seeming change in the
cholera in Haiti plan.
And he said that that policy
was announced by his
predecessor and had two
dimensions; one is fighting
cholera, and the other is the
possibility to support
communities impacted. It
was devised not as individual
support. And just, since
then, I went back and actually
looked at the November
A/71/620 document, and there’s
a whole section on individual
support. It was called
track 2B. So I just
wanted to--
Deputy Spokesman: And I
was here at the time.
And I remember the discussions
that the former
Secretary-General, Ban
Ki-moon, had about this.
And, at that point, it was not
determined whether it would be
individual or
community-based. Even at
that point, I believe the
discussion was towards
community-based. So
that’s something that’s… a
process that’s been crafted.
Inner City Press: I wish
I’d had that document in front
of me when he answered,
because there are many people
that are in Haiti that have
seen the new announcement made
by Amina Mohammed as a
retrenchment, as a taking back
of that before even consulting
people. Mario Joseph and
others have put out a press
release; they’re protesting on
Thursday. So I wanted to
just get your quote before
that protest, that at one time
the idea of individual
reparations to people harmed
by cholera was in a UN
document as being considered
and it’s now not being
considered at all?
Deputy Spokesman: I
wouldn’t say that it’s not
being considered at all.
And I wouldn’t say that
initially it was something
that was devised as the
primary idea. This is
something that’s been under
consideration. It
remains under consideration,
but the primary focus, for
reasons that were described at
the end of last year and again
at the start of this year,
have been
community-based. And if
you look at what Ban Ki-moon
said in December, again, it
mentions the community-based
approach.
But the UN
document in November 2016 has a
Track 2B, individual. Here's the
beginning of the press release
for the protests:
"Port-au-Prince: Haitian cholera
victims and their advocates
called on the UN Security
Council to deliver on the
promise of a new,
victim-centered approach to
cholera during its visit to
Haiti this week, by meeting
directly with victims and
committing to funding the $400
million initiative before
MINUSTAH --the peacekeeping
mission that caused the cholera
epidemic—pulls out in October.
'The UN’s apology and promises
were promising in December,'
said Mario Joseph, Managing
Attorney of the Bureau des
Avocats Internationaux (BAI)
that has led the fight for
justice for cholera victims.
'But seven months later, with
only a pittance raised for the
so-called "New Approach" and not
a single promised consultation
with the cholera victims, they
look like empty public relations
gestures. It is time for the UN
to deliver.' The 15-member
Security Council is in Haiti
from June 22-24 to finalize the
transition from MINUSTAH to a
new mission focused on
supporting justice that will be
known as MINUJUSTH. The BAI
announced two protests during
the visit: one at the UN
logistics base in Haiti on
Thursday at 11 am, and a second
one in Champs de Mars on Friday
at 11." We'll have more on this:
Inner City Press will be
accompanying and covering, in as
much detail as possible, the UN
Security Council's visit to
Haiti from June 22 to 24. Watch
this site.
Footnote: on behalf
of the Free
UN Coalition for Access,
to which Guterres' spokesman
Stephane Dujarric does NOT "lend"
the briefing room and which has
never and will never ask for a
journalist to be thrown
out or restricted, Inner
City Press urged Guterres to
more routinely take questions,
for example on his way in and
out of the Security Council.
We'll see.
***
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