By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 3 --
When UNICEF's
Global Ebola Emergency Coordinator Peter Salama took questions at the UN
on November 3, he said UNICEF aims to increase its staffing by hundreds
in the three most impacted countries.
Inner City Press asked Salama how many of these will be national versus
international staff, and if the two groups will be treated equally in
terms of a right to medical evacuation.
Salama said UNICEF's "mix" is one-third international staff. He said, as
others have, the the UN is concerned about adequate care for all staff -
including of NGOs and local governments. But he added this requires
"transportation and a receiving country." Salama said this is really up
to the UN Medical Service and the World Health Organization. So are UN international and national staff treated equally? We'll continue on this.
Inner City Press also asked Salama about the use of schools for
involuntary quarantine. He responded about decentralized treatment, and
that five million children now aren't in school.
Back on October 17, UNICEF's Sarah Crowe
upon her
return from
five weeks in
Liberia held
a UN press
conference. She described
people
quarantined in
a school
surrounded by
barbed wire.
Inner City Press
asked her about
the UNMEER
mission --
there was no
answer -- and
if
international
and national
staff in Liberia
have the same
right to medical
evacuation
(she referred
the questions
to UN Medical;
it hasn't been
answered.)
Anecdotally,
Crowe said she
wasn't checked
for Ebola or
fever at JFK
Airport or in
Europe. She
said that when
she got back
to Manhattan
and told a bus
driver where
she'd been, he
loudly asked
if she should
be getting on
the bus. (For
the MTA's
information,
it was the M15
First Avenue
line - but was
it appropriate?)
On
quarantines,
Inner City
Press asked
Crowe what
UNICEF's and
the UN system's
position is,
for example on
that of the
West Point
neighborhood
in Monrovia.
Crowe called
the situation
in the school
"not ideal,"
saying that
the people
quarantined
inside wanted
to leave.
UN
Peacekeeping's
Herve Ladsous
on October 14
said his DPKO
officials "are
working
closely with
Liberia's
security
agencies to
plan future
security
operations
conducted in
the context of
the state of
emergency."
Inner City
Press asked,
what does that
mean -- UN
Peacekeeping
participation
in curfews?
Cordon and
quarantine?
Martial law if
it comes to
that?
Early on the
morning of
October 15,
Inner City
Press put
these
questions and
others to
three
spokespeople
of the UN
Mission in
Liberia,
UNMIL. See
below. By
noon, no
responses had
been received,
so Inner City
Press posted
the UNMIL
mandate
question, and
one about
MEDIVAC, to UN
Deputy
Spokesperson
Farhan Haq at
the day's noon
briefing. Video here.
Despite the
fact that
Liberian
authorities
have already
engaged in a
quarantine, of
Monrovia's
West Point
neighborhood,
Haq called the
questions
hypothetical,
and had no
direct
response to UN
staff's demand
that the right
to medical
evacuation be
assured.
Inner City
Press had put
that question,
as well, to
UNMIL's
spokespeople,
along with
these, based
on
whistleblowers'
complaints to
the Press and
the Free UN
Coalition for
Access:
"This
is a Press
request for
confirmation
or denial that
SRSG Landgren
rents living
quarters in
Monrovia, (2)
from the
Swedish
government /
embassy (or if
not, from
whom), (3) at
a cost of over
$8000 a month.
Also, please
describe the
medical
evacuation
procedures
that have been
in place for
UNMIL staff
for the past
six months.
One further
question: it
has been said
that UNMIL
officials 'are
working
closely with
Liberia's
security
agencies to
plan future
security
operations
conducted in
the context of
the state of
emergency.'
Please
explain,
including
stating
whether UNMIL
would take
part or assist
in
quarantining,
curfews or
even martial
law."
This has been
UNMIL
response,
hours later to
these
questions:
Dear
Matthew, You
can attribute
these to me:
On the
SRSG’s
accommodation,
the UN does
not disclose
its staff
members’
personal
information.
Decisions
to
medevac are
made on a
case-by-case
basis and
depend on
factors such
as the stage
of the disease
and the
ability of
receiving
facilities to
take patients.
Best
regards,
Russell
Geekie,
Chief of
Public
Information
United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)
United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)
How the UN
spends money,
including to
house its high
officials, is
not private -
the UN is
ostensibly a
public
organization,
and certainly
spends the
public's
money, as
FUNCA has
pointed out.
"Case by case"
does not sound
like the right
to medivac
that staff are
demanding.
We'll have
more on this.
As to planning
for "security
operations" in
Liberai,
Ladsous should
answer - but he has refused Press questions (video
compilation
here),
blocked the
Press' camera
(Vine
here) and
more recently
his Office demanded
that an on the
record
interview
about DPKO
bringing
cholera to
Haiti not be
aired.
But the
questions
should be
answered, as
should the
impact on this
mission in
Mali of its
chief, Bert
Koenders, so
quickly
leaving to
become Dutch
foreign
minister.
Inner City
Press wrote
about this
early on
October 14;
at the day's
noon briefing
UN deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
wouldn't even
confirm that
Koenders is
leaving. This
is the
Ladsousification
of the UN.
Back on
September 24
for the UNMEER
Ebola response
mission, UN
official Tony
Banbury said
“we're moving
470 four by
four vehicles”
into the
impacted zone
of Liberia,
Sierra Leone
and Guinea.
Inner
City Press
asked Banbury
if these
vehicles are
all coming
from existing
UN
Peacekeeping
missions.
Banbury
replied, “some
peacekeeping
missions are
downsizing
[so] all of
them are
coming from
peacekeeping
missions.”
As
Inner City
Press exclusively
reported a
week ago, as
the final
point in an
otherwise
positive
profile of
this UN
mission's
lightening
speed, the
UN is seeking
to withdraw
vehicles from
its mission in
Darfur,
where it is
also accused
by
whistleblowers
of covering up
continued
killing of
civilians.
The UN
seems to have
no problem
pulling its
vehicles and
forces out of
Darfur - the
only problem
is getting the
government in
Khartoum to
agree to big
Western
transport
planes to fly
into Darfur to
move the
vehicles.
Banbury
continued
that “some are
very close to
the end of
their
serviceable
life for the
UN. The
requirement in
some cases is
for burial
parties, to
transport
corpses.”
Banbury
said
the UN is told
by doctors
that “after
use for that
purpose for a
length of
time, it
should be
burned.”
So the
UN is bringing
peacekeeping
vehicles from
Darfur, to
transport
corpses in and
them burn
them. Watch
this site.