By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un1chile030110.html
UNITED NATIONS, March 1 -- In the aftermath of the earthquake in Chile, authorities fired tear gas and water cannons at people seeking to enter stores and supermarkets. According to the BBC, one "looter" was shot dead and 160 arrested; the items being taken were not only food but "plasma TVs and other electrical appliances."
Of course, this does not imply mass criminality, or systematic government repression. But when long time UN official Alicia Barcena briefed the Press at UN headquarters by phone at noon on March 1, and Inner City Press asked her about the government's use of tear gas and water cannons, she answered, "What is looting?" Video here, from Minute 15:20.
Inner City Press explained, when people go inside broken open stores, and in this case get shot at with tear gas and water cannons. Oh no, Ms. Barcena said, "there has not been any violence... no violence between the army and the people, none at all."
Tell that to the man shot and killed, or those fired on with tear gas. It would be one thing for the UN to say that the level of violence, other than the death, has been minimal in their view, or proportional. But hours after a person was shot and killed to providing a briefing that "there has not been any violence" is something else.
The UN has taken on the role of criticizing the media for reporting on looting, in Haiti and now Chile. The UN wants the images to be more positive, and so, in this case, its officials misspeak. This undermine the UN's duty of reporting on human rights, which include the rights of alleged looters, killed or gassed by the government.
While this case involves ignoring the shooting -- summary execution? -- of a single "looter," the principle of denying what takes place extends to the UN in the Congo, in the person of scandal plagued envoy Alan Doss, denying that civilians are killed by UN-supported troops of the Congolese Army.
The UN wants and in some sense needs to get along with governments where it works. But this can contradict with its role and goal of being a credible human rights reporter, or being credible more generally.
Inner City Press asked Ms. Barcena about rumors the President Bachelet might stay on past March 11. Barcena said no, only her emergency coordinator Carmen Fernandez would stay on.
Strangely, while still the sitting Chilean president, Ms. Bachelet has been listed as a UN (or UNIFEM) representative in Haiti. No matter how much one may like or respect Ms. Bachelet, it would seem that the UN should not be giving positions to sitting heads of state. But what do we know?
In fact, now Ms. Bachelet is being tipped for the newly created Under Secretary General for women's affairs post. Could this explain the counter-factual claim that there's been "no violence" by the Army against civilians, even "looters," under her watch?
