As
UN
Talks Ebola,
UNanswered Qs
of Darfur
Restrictions,
Haiti
Cholera
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 9 --
As ebola in
Liberia is
considered by
the UN
Security
Council on
September 9,
the UN left
unanswered a
question
about ebola
related
restrictions
ascribed to
its
peacekeeping
mission
in Darfur,
UNAMID.
On
September 8,
Inner City
Press asked
UN spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric:
Inner
City
Press: On
Ebola, can you
confirm that
UNAMID has
ordered troops
from Nigeria
and Sierra
Leone either
not to return
to their
countries
on holiday in
return because
according to
UNAMID, the
UN-African
Union Mission,
they might
bring Ebola,
and also there
is another
statement
saying that
prior to this
ban on
traveling home
for
holiday, that
UNAMID had
ordered
medical
screening as
they left and
as they came
back from, and
to Nigeria and
Sierra Leone,
making trips
to or from the
UN?
Spokesman
Dujarric:
The report in
the Sudan
Tribune is
incorrect.
Inner
City
Press: Okay,
which part of
it?
Spokesman
Dujarric:
About the UN
telling troops
not to leave.
What we are
always looking
for in any
peacekeeping
mission is an
orderly
rotation
of troops to
ensure that
any mission is
able to
perform in the
best
possible
manner. On the
screening
issue, I don’t
know and I can
ask.
Twenty
hours later,
there was no
answer. The UN
including
envoy to Liberia
Karin Landgren
insists there
is no UN
involvement
in
quarantining,
but could that
too be a
semantic
difference?
In
terms of the
screening
reported at
UNAMID, some
contrast it
not only
to UN
Peacekeeping
not performed
the most basic
screening of
the
peacekeepers
which it
brought, along
with cholera,
to Haiti --
but of
not screening
for cholera
even now.
The
stonewalling
by UN
Peacekeeping's
Herve Ladsous
(video
compilation
here, UK
coverage
here)
including on
the question
of
accountability
for his
DPKO having
brought
cholera to
Haiti raised
questions as
the UN
speaks more
and more about
ebola. We'll
have more on
this.
, 
