By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un5quakehaiti011310.html
UNITED NATIONS, January 13 -- At the UN on Wednesday, top humanitarian John Holmes announced that a Chinese search and rescue team had already arrived in Haiti. This timing seemed extraordinary, so Inner City Press asked how the Chinese search and rescue team got there so quickly, if they had perhaps been in the Caribbean when the earthquake happened.
They came from Beijing, Holmes answered, adding that their speed is in part explained by Chinese interest in the "high level police delegation" that he confirmed had been meeting with Mr. Annabi. (Inner City Press was told of and reported this meeting earlier today, here.)
But even if the team left Bejing by jet minutes after the earthquake hit, it could not have reached Port au Prince so quickly. Inner City Press checked with a Chinese spokesman, who after making a cell phone call stated that while the search and rescue team had left Beijing, it would fly through Vancouver and had in no way arrived yet in Haiti.
As this article went to press, China's Ambassador confirmed that the search and rescue team would not arrive in Haiti until, at earliest, this evening.
At a subsequent stakeout, Inner City Press asked China's Ambassador, this months' Security Council president, about the Chinese delegation in Haiti. He said they had been meeting with Mr. Annabi, but that he had no more information. The stakeout was over. Afterwards, one wag snarked, "Google it."
Inner City Press also asked, now for the third time, whether the Hotel Christopher, for which the UN paid $94,000 a month, had been deemed by UN Security to be MOSS (Minimum Operations Safety Standard) compliant, a formal requirement for UN facilities. John Holmes said he did not know.
Spokesman Martin Nesirky, who was moderating for Mr Holmes just was he was during the morning's stakeout by Peacekeeping and UNDP officials, heard the question, which is a simple UN Secretariat / Department of Safety and Security question, but has not seen fit to provide an answer to it.
After the briefing, it was argued to Inner City Press that even if the UN's $94,000 a month facility had been MOSS compliant, it might still have fallen.
But at least since the bombing and partial collapse of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in the Canal Hotel, all UN facilities are supported to be inspected for, and pass, so called MOSS compliance. Facilities in Afghanistan have been evacuated for failure to meet this standard. Watch this site.
