Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ungo5haiti070209.html
UNITED NATIONS, July 2 -- While the UN congratulates itself for naming Bill Clinton as envoy to Haiti, questions are multiplying about the June 18 death of a civilian mourner in a crowd policed by the UN in Port au Prince. On June 19, UN Spokesperson Michele Montas said that the demonstrator, who remains unidentified but was among 2000 marching with the casket of Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, was killed not by a bullet but by a "blunt object."
In June 22, Inner City Press asked Ms. Montas if the UN peacekeepers policing the crowd has fired rubber bullets or live ammunition. Ms. Montas never answered the question, but instead insisted that "the demonstrator was not killed with a gun."
Now it emerges from the autopsy that the demonstrator was killed by a bullet. In Haiti, the UN has acknowledged this finding to the local press corps, and that its peacekeepers used live ammunition. But nothing was said by the UN in New York, to amend its previous statements.
On July 2, Inner City Press asked Ms. Montas about her statement that the demonstrator was killed by a blunt object.
"MINUSTAH has said that, true," Ms.Montas replied, referring to the UN mission in Haiti by its French acronym. She then said, contrary to her UN counterpart in Haiti, that the autopsy was not yet out.
When Inner City Press repeated its unanswered June 22 question about live ammunition, Ms Montas said "I didn't get an answer, I gather they are rubber bullets, mostly." Video here, from Minute 13:03.
It seems to some that the UN Spokesperson should update claims she has made once they are contradicted in the public record -- particularly by local UN offices.And see, www.innercitypress.com/ungo5haiti070209.html
