In Timor Leste, UN Police "Refused" to Help Horta,
Decline to Answer Questions
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, February 11 -- In the aftermath of a
daring double-assassination attempt in Timor Leste, there were questions
concerning the UN that no one, it seemed, wanted to answer. After President Jose
Ramos Horta was shot, UN police secured the area but
did not move to help or transport him, according to the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation. Inner City Press raised this very report at the noon
briefing at UN headquarters on Monday, and was told that the UN had not been in
charge of Ramos Horta's security. Fine -- but why, once he was shot, didn't they
help?
After the Security Council adopted a
somewhat fill-in-the-blanks Presidential Statement, deploring the shooting and
calling for calm, Inner City Press asked the statement's proponent, South
African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, about the ABC's report. Amb. Kumalo replied
that it was not helpful to be assessing blame. Video
here.
But will the shooting cause any changes in the security mandate of the UN
Mission in Timor Leste, UNMIT? Amb. Kumalo said he didn't think so. When the
shootings took place, the head of UNMIT,
Atul Khare,
had been in New York to briefing the Council on Thursday. He set off flying for
Dili, but it "takes time" to get there, Amb. Kumalo said.
Jose
Ramos Horta in happier times: UN Police not shown then or now
The injunction not to blame anyone is not
followed by Ramos-Horta's brother in law Joao Carrascalao, who is also the
leader of the Timorese Democratic Union and a member of the State Council.
Carrascalao told ABC that "we advised the United Nations Police who went to the
scene but 300 meters before reaching there, they refused to proceed and the
President was lying on the road... more than half an hour bleeding and losing a
lot of blood. The United Nations Police didn't take action until the Portuguese
General got there. That's one of the worst things that could happen to this
country; have police from everywhere, everyone within one system and mostly
looking after themselves than looking after the situation here."
In a press conference Dili, in the
Obrigado Barracks, Khare's fill-in Finn Feske-Nielsen was asked why "UN Pol[ice]
attended the incident where the President was shot this morning, yet didn't
approach him to give him medical assistance." Feske-Nielsen said "we shall
obviously look into it to see." Watch this site.
* * *
These reports are also available through
Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a
Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army.
Click
here
for an earlier
Reuters AlertNet
piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's
$200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.
Video
Analysis here
Because a number of Inner City Press'
UN sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and
while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this
installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of the
UN agencies and many of their staff. Keep those cards, letters and emails
coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag, but please continue
trying, and keep the information flowing.
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-453A,
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Other, earlier Inner
City Press are listed here, and
some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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UN Office: S-453A,
UN, NY 10017 USA Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's mobile
(and weekends): 718-716-3540