On
Haiti Cholera
Dismissal, UN
Tells ICP No
More Answers,
Only Aid
Program
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 25 –
The UN sat for
fifteen months
on the legal
complaint
that it had
introduced
cholera into
Haiti, before
tersely
dismissing it
as “not
receivable”
on February
21.
Now
only four days
(and only two
noon
briefings)
after the
barely
explained
ruling, the UN
on February 25
rebuffed Inner
City Press'
follow up
questions and
request for a
briefing,
perhaps by the
UN's
top lawyer
Patricia
O'Brien.
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey told
Inner
City Press,
“we have
provided you
with all the
information we
are
going to
provide...
We're not
making further
comments on
this.”
Video
here, from
Minute 20:11.
In the
interim, Inner
City Press has
learned from
lawyers expert
in and
outraged by
the UN's
immunity games
that the venue
in Europe to
pursue this is
the European
Court of Human
Rights.
The ECHR
issued a
decision in
2011 against
France: a
French
national who
worked as the
chief
accountant for
20 years for
the Kuwaiti
Embassy was
fired, and
denied access
to court on
account of
diplomatic
immunity. The
ECHR found
that
diplomatic
immunity
should not
have prevented
his employment
claim. How
much more so
in this case?
Inner
City Press
asked if the
UN had thought
through how
its
credibility
will further
suffer, when
it seeks to
send missions
into countries
or
preached to
such countries
about “rule of
law” and
accountability.
Del
Buey replied
that the
“Secretary
General has
embarked on
trying to
resolve... a
program for
the
international
community to
contribute
funding and
effort to
eradicate
cholera from
the island of
Hispanola.
So
is that
program in the
nature of an
attempted
settlement of
the
claims?
Del
Buey said
only, it is to
“address the
humanitarian
situation.”
Even
the UN must
see that
further
explanation is
necessary. How
can the UN
talk about
rule of law
and
transparency,
and tersely
dismiss a
claim
like this?
Watch this
site.
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