By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 10,
updated -- The
day after the
UN was sued
for bringing
cholera to
Haiti, Inner
City Press
asked French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
about the
case, and how
the UN should
respond since
it is "pretty
clear the UN
brought
cholera to
Haiti." Video
here, from
Minute 9:04.
Araud
replied,
"that's your
judgment, that
the UN brought
cholera,
that's your
assessment,
you can make
it."
But
even those who
wrote the UN's
first cover-up
report have
recanted it
and admitted
that a strain
identical to
that from
Nepal where
the UN brought
peacekeepers
from caused
cholera in
Haiti.
On the
class
action
lawsuit, a
copy of which
Inner City
Press put
online
yesterday
morning here,
Araud said
"that for UN
to answer, the
UN has made an
answer, the
assessment of
the
Secretariat"
-- apparently
referring to UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
pre-lawsuit
ruling that
the claims
were "not
receivable."
Araud
continued,
about the
"state of
law," that "it
will be to the
court to
decide... I'm
sure that the
UN will accept
the decision."
Actually,
even
in the UN's
dubious
in-house legal
system, Ban
Ki-moon
appeals nearly
every decision
against him,
including for
lack promised
of
whistleblower
protection.
Inner
City Press
then asked
Araud about
what Haitian
Prime Minister
Laurent
Lamothe said
in the General
Debate last
month, that
the UN has a
"moral
responsibility"
for cholera in
Haiti.
Araud
scoffed and
said, "moral
responsibility
is a very
vague term." Video
here, from
Minute 10:22.
Inner
City Press
tweeted this,
and minutes
later Haiti
Prime Minister
Laurent
Lamothe wrote
to Inner City
Press by
Twitter:
"@innercitypress
do you have a
question?
#haiti
#cholera #UN
#UNSC #UNSG"
Yes,
Inner City
Press had and
has questions,
and has now
sent three to
Lamothe's
office,
including
about
testimony
yesterday on
Capitol Hill
about Haiti.
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
Yesterday
Ban Ki-moon's
Associate
Spokesperson
Farhan Haq
answered Inner
City Press
that UN
Peacekeeping
under Herve
Ladsous now
screened
peacekeepers
for cholera,
he thought: "I
believe that
part of our
lessons
learned from
this has been
to screen
peacekeepers
for cholera."
Inner City
Press asked
him to check,
saying
"I haven't
heard that
they are."
Having
no response 24
hours later,
Inner City
Press asked
Haq at
Thursday's
noon briefing
and he said --
only when
asked a second
time -- that
Ladsous' DPKO
does NOT
screen for
cholera. When
was that
answer going
to be
provided?Video
here from
Minute
9:38. [And
see update
below.]
Inner City
Press asked
Ladsous a
simple
question in
front of the
Security
Council on
Thursday,
which he
refused to
answer. This "farce"
was reported
earlier this
week in the UK
New Statesman,
here. We
will pursue
all of this.
Watch this
site.
, 
