By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/haiti1foodfire012510.html
UNITED NATIONS, January 25 -- Amid the suffering of the Haitian people, the UN's accelerating spin of its own centrality in the aid effort was on display on January 25. In Cite Soleil on January 24, a distribution of food and radios ended with UN Peacekeepers' deployment of tear gas and shooting into the air. Inner City Press asked the UN's principal deputy in Haiti, Tony Banbury, about it. Video here, from Minute 27:34.
Banbury said he was aware of the incident, that "distribution [had] not gone according to plan." But then the UN's director of communication in Haiti David Wimhurst passed Banbury a note and cut in. He said he had been there and that the distribution "went extremely well."
He clarified that at the end, when they had run out of food to distribute, people "got upset." But when Inner City Press asked him about the AFP reported tear gas, shooting in the air and leaving piles of radio behind for people to fight over, Wimhurst said he hadn't seen any of it. Video here, from Minute 29:50.
Previously, Wimhurst chided the Press for reporting on Haitian dissatisfaction with and protest of snafus in aid distribution. It's one thing to advocate for the media to cover your organization differently, quiet another to describe a distribution that ends in tear gas as having "gone well."
Later on Monday, Inner City Press asked World Food Program director Josette Sheeran dissatisfaction, including by the government of Thailand at the cost WFP would charge to transport rice it wants to donate to Haiti. Ms. Sheeran said that because of violence at food distributions, a way had to be found to be sure to reach women.
Inner City Press asked, do you do distributions by gender? Ms. Sheeran said yes. In fact, the distributions are limited to women. She was asked, what about households headed by men, including where the mother died in the earthquake. We'll deal with that later, Ms. Sheeran in essence said. Video here.
She impliedly chided, while appearing to praise, donors like Thailand who go bilateral, saying they better be sure their donations can be overloaded and stored. Banbury, who previously competed with Sheeran for the top WFP post, derided small NGOs who send a single plane with a few tents but "want a seat at the table." Video here, from Minute 32:28. Oh, civil society.
Inner City Press had asked Banbury to compare the reaction of government in Haiti and in Myanmar, where he worked on Cyclone Nargis while at WFP.
Banbury sidestepped Nargis, in which the UN system allowed the Than Shwe military government to siphon off up to 25% of aid in forced foreign exchange transactions, and focused rather on the UN's response to the tsunami, in Ache and Sri Lanka. Of the latter, he neglected to mention the widespread diversion of aid by the Rajapaksa government, which later used resources to bomb Tamil civilians in the north.
Monday's noon briefing ended with Inner City Press asking UN Spokesman Martin Nesirky two simple questions about Haiti, the first about a Canadian helicopter owner who shipped two copters to a UN base in the Dominican Republic, where he says they have laid unused for a week. Nesirky said he would look into it, but told Inner City Press it could have asked Banbury, but chose to ask another questions.
Inner City Press asked, since the UN was paying $94,000 a month rent for the Hotel Christopher which collapsed (and seemingly was not MOSS compliant), is the UN still paying rent? You could have asked that earlier, Nesirky said. "Let's see." Video here, from Minute 56:25.
Footnote: Ms. Sheeran of WFP and her spokeswoman demonstrated and then gave out a so called high energy biscuit, which Ms. Sheeran said came from El Salvador. The label says Ecuador. We will have more on the this.
