UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- While the UN speaks of the humane relocation of Haitians, on April 9 the Haitian National Police summarily evicted over 7000 people from the Sylvio Cator soccer stadium in Port-au-Prince. The stadium's managers said that "the Taiwanese are planning to repair the bleachers and replace the artificial turf," which the earthquake survivors had reportedly damaged.
The UN had send Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro to Haiti for the three month anniversary of the January 12 earthquake. On April 15, Inner City Press asked DSG Migiro if the UN had planned any role in the eviction, if the UN had been informed by the HNP, which UN officials have described as a "partner," prior to the evictions.
DSG Migiro said that despite her visit, she was unaware of the eviction. She said that some relocations are involuntary, but are intended to move people to higher ground before the rainy season. Those in the soccer stadium, however, were merely given one small tent per family, and were otherwise left to fend for themselves.
By contrast, the UN system has rented luxury cruise ships on which to house its international staff. Inner City Press asked Ms. Migiro about these ships. She disputed that they were luxury liners, despite the ship's owner's own photographs. She said she had been aware of the controversy, but had not visited the ships.
After her press conference, several correspondents remarked how her presentation style has improved since the halting and hurried MDGs presentations earlier in her tenure. The Secretariat's communications arm, on the other hand, seems to be moving backwards. Wednesday that Office said it would explain why Ms. Migiro's predessessor Mark Malloch Brown was at the UN Chief Executives Board meetings last week in Vienna. But a day later, no answer has been provided.
Footnotes: Later on Thursday, as SG Ban Ki-moon marched with his entourage into the Security Council, Mr. Ban asked Inner City Press about the new press arrangements. We still have less access that before, Inner City Press replied, but pointed out that after a fight, the press was allowed in a pen in front of the Council entrance. Mr. Ban indicated, seemingly joking, that this made him more vulnerable. But there are questions to be answered.
Among them is why the UN said nothing when it learned that its U.S. staff member Louis Maxwell and other colleagues in Kabul were quite possible killed by Afghan National forces and not the Taliban. Already this week Mr. Ban has said he was unaware of the case of Al-Tijani Al-Sissi Ateem, who was recruited as a pro-government Darfur rebel leader by the UN-AU mediator Djibril Bassole while Ateem was being paid as a UN staffer. (Inner City Press has been promised both contact information for Mr. Bassole, and a further answer about his activities, neither of which has yet been provided).
Will Ban say he is unaware of the troubling case of Louis Maxwell? Watch this site.
