After
Calling Haiti
IDPs
Promiscuous,
OCHA Tells ICP
It was
Translation
Error
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 7,
updated -- The
UN makes
mistakes both
large and
small, but
often does not
fix them or
even try.
Sometimes the
opposite is
true.
UN
Peacekeeping
fled Rwanda in
1994 while
800,000 were
killed; the
French helped
the
genocidaires
escape to Goma
and environs.
Now Herve
Ladsous
a French
diplomat who
defended this
is in charge
of UN
peacekeeping,
and refuses to
answer Press
questions
about his
partners'
rapes outside
of Goma. Video
here.
This
is another
story, though,
about other
part of the
UN: the Office
for the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs.
When
Inner City
Press noticed
that OCHA's
report on
Haiti cited
"promiscuity"
in the camps
for Internally
Displaced
People, it raised the
issue on the
Internet,
tweeting
at OCHA chief
Valerie Amos
then OCHA
itself.
Just
before 10 am
on Monday, OCHA tweeted
back:
"@innercitypress
@ValerieAmos
-- Thanks for
highlighting
translation
error. Revised
report will be
up shortly."
While
it remains to
be seen what
French word
was used and
"mistranslated"
as
promiscuity,
it's notable
that OCHA
unlike the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
responded to
the question,
even online,
and
acknowledged
an error.
The UN
won't
acknowledge
its role in
bringing
cholera to
Haiti; in the
Congo, DPKO
ended up
claiming it
had done a
good job in
Goma, even as
it did nothing
as the M23
mutineers took
it over.
Now
Ladsous has
three times on
camera refused
to answer
questions
about at least
126 rapes in
Minova by the
Congolese
Army, which
his DPKO
supports. It's
becoming too
late to admit
error. Watch
this site.
Update
of 11:08 am --
OCHA by tweet
at Inner City
Press
explains:
, 
