UN
Waste In Dump Caused Malaria in
Central African Republic
Under Ladsous, Bermann Next?
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Series
UNITED NATIONS,
February 4 – Despite having
killed more than 10,000 people
in Haiti with lax sanitation
practices, the United Nations
Department of Peacekeeping
Operations in Central African
Republic, under its fourth
consecutive French director in
a row Herve Ladsous, is
dumping waste negligently, a UN
memo leaked to Inner
City Press shows.
The memo
states that "following
complaints by the local
population living in the
vicinity of the dumpsite" a UN
investigation found that the
dumpsite sludge dams breed
insects which result in
sickness. Eighty-one percent
of the UN's victims are
children, the memo says.
The
report, under "Community
Discontent," cites malaria. It
notes that when concerns were
raised, "police force was used
to quell the dissent."
Inner City
Press has long questioned
Ladsous, for example about his
linking of sexual exploitation
and abuse by peacekeepers to
"R&R" or rest and
recreation, here.
Ladsous replies,
"I don't answer your
questions, Mister."
Now under
new UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, many are
interested who will replace
Ladsous. While other Under
Secretary General posts like
Cristina Gallach's atop the
Department of Public
Information are now subject to
public
vacancy notices, DPKO
has not. Why not? Inner City
Press asked, but UN holdeover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
didn't answer.
Sources
will Inner City Press France
is trying to hold onto DPKO
for the fifth time in a row,
albeit with a women, on
information and belief Sylvie
Bermann, since 2014 France's
ambassador in London. Five
times in a row? Given this
kind of mismanagement, in a
former French colony?
Exclusive:
UN Waste In Dump Caused Malaria in
Central African Republic, Report
Leaked to Inner City Press S...
by Matthew
Russell Lee on Scribd
This
concerned the Kolongo dumpsite
in Bangui. Related memos refer
to the UN in Mali as well.
Tellingly,
this UN memo warns of
litigation, "taking into
account lessons learned in the
Haiti case." But was did the
UN learn?
Ban
Ki-moon, who after leaving the
UN on January 1 has found his
campaign for South Korea's
Presidency implode amid
corruption charges, dodged
legal papers about Haiti for
years. In his last month he
promised millions but so far
less than $2 million have been
raised, more than half of it
blood money from South Korea.
In the
Central African Republic, UN
peacekeepers have been accused
of sexual abuse, including of
minors. The UN itself recently
accused 25 Burundian
peacekeepers of sexual
exploitation and abuse, but UN
Peacekeeping chief Herve
Ladsous, the fourth French
national in a row to hold the
position, determined to
continue to pay the Pierre
Nkurunziza government for 800
more troops.
New UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres is considering who
will replace Ladsous. He
should consider and act on
this as well.
UN
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
while declining to explain
Ladsous' reasoning, recent
answered only two and a half
of 22 questions Inner City
Press posed in writing. UN
Department of Public
Information chief Cristina
Gallach evicted Inner City
Press from its UN office without
due process, confining
it still to minders to cover
the General Assembly.
The UN
reflexively covers up its
abuses. Even after killing
10,000 people with cholera in
Haiti, these practices
continue in the Central
African Republic.
Other
memos have been leaked to
Inner City Press. Meanwhile
even the UN's Office of the
High Commissioner for Human
Rights, rather than dealing
with the substance of a UN
Ethics Office memo Inner City
Press published,
has Tweeted a press release
saying it is all
unsubstantiated. Really? The
UN must be reformed.
***
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