By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, June 20 – When UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres held a press conference on June 20, it was his first in UN headquarters since he assumed office 168 days ago. He took nearly 20 questions, including two from Inner City Press, on the UN having brought cholera to Haiti, and sexual abuse by peacekeepers in the UN Mission in Central African Republic.
On Haiti, he announced that he was just today - minutes later the announcement went out - naming as his dollar-a-year special envoy on Haiti Josette Sheeran, formerly the director of the UN World Food Program and now the head of the Asia Society. Video here.Transcript here and below. He seemed to say the UN was never going to compensate individuals or families impacted by the cholera the UN brought.
We'll have more on this: Inner City Press will be accompanying and covering, in as much detail as possible, the UN Security Council's visit to Haiti from June 22 to 24 (a protest at the UN's “logbase” is planned.)
On sexual abuse in CAR, SG Guterres said that before making the announcement, the Republic of Congo must be told. Inner City Press asked why the Burundi contingent is not being repatriated after 25 rapes alleged by the UN OIOS. He said there is a process. The Security Council meets about Burundi later on June 20, and Inner City Press will cover it. Watch this site.
Footnote: on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access, to which Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric does NOT "lend" the briefing room and which has never and will never ask for a journalist to be thrown out or restricted, Inner City Press urged Guterres to more routinely take questions, for example on his way in and out of the Security Council. We'll see.
From the UN's transcript:
Inner City Press: Matthew Lee, Inner City Press. On behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access, thanks for the briefing. Glad to have it. Stakeouts would also be useful when you speak to the Council. But I wanted to ask you about cholera in Haiti. As you may know, while you were away, your deputy gave... gave the speech, and many people in Haiti interpreted it as a... as a pulling back from the idea of compensating victims of the cholera that was brought. Maybe they misunderstand it, but they put out a press release. There's a protest planned there on Thursday during the Council's visit. So I wanted to ask you, I know that Member States haven't come forward with what they might have, but are you going to put more time in? Do you think that the idea of actually compensating the people whose family members were killed by cholera is still alive? And, also, I'd understood that there was going to be an announcement about the Congo Brazzaville contingent being repatriated... being repatriated from Central African Republic. Is it going to happen? And, if so, what's the standard? Because the Burundians were found to have 25 soldiers accused by OIOS (Office of Internal Oversight Services) of sexual abuse. Is there some... is there a number or what determines when people are repatriated? Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.
Secretary-General: First of all, in relation to Haiti, the policy that was announced by my predecessor had two dimensions. One is fighting cholera, and the other is the possibility to support, namely, to support communities impacted. It was devised, not as individual support, but community support for the communities impacted. As you mentioned, there has been little voluntary funding for these projects. So we have presented a proposal for the amounts that were not spent in the previous mission in Haiti and that should be given back to countries, for countries to be ready to accept not to receive those amounts back in order to be able to fund the cholera programme. And, at the same time, we have just appointed Ms. Josette Sheeran as my Special Envoy for Haiti, centred, of course, in the fundraising for cholera. She was, as you know, the World Food Programme leader a few years ago. She is now President of the Asia Society, and she accepted, with a salary of $1 per year, she accepted to be fully engaged in fundraising for a programme that, indeed, until now, has received very little support but that is very important from the point of view of the people and from the point of view of the credibility of the UN. In relation to what you mentioned, there is a procedure that is now being adopted systematically. That procedure involves an evaluation. That evaluation was concluded in relation to the Republic of Congo. There is a necessary contact with the authorities of the country before a public announcement of the measure. So I will ask for a little bit of patience, because you'll soon have the public announcement of what we have decided to do. But it will be, I mean, impolite and unacceptable in the context of our bilateral relations before a number of contacts that need to be established with the country to announce it. This procedure will now be applied across the board, and it's an evaluation that is done by a group of experts on the situation. It depends on the capacity of countries to... even if something happened to correct what has happened or if we feel that there are more systemic failures that cannot be addressed and that require the withdrawal of the force we are discussing.
Secretary-General: First of all, in relation to Haiti, the policy that was announced by my predecessor had two dimensions. One is fighting cholera, and the other is the possibility to support, namely, to support communities impacted. It was devised, not as individual support, but community support for the communities impacted. As you mentioned, there has been little voluntary funding for these projects. So we have presented a proposal for the amounts that were not spent in the previous mission in Haiti and that should be given back to countries, for countries to be ready to accept not to receive those amounts back in order to be able to fund the cholera programme. And, at the same time, we have just appointed Ms. Josette Sheeran as my Special Envoy for Haiti, centred, of course, in the fundraising for cholera. She was, as you know, the World Food Programme leader a few years ago. She is now President of the Asia Society, and she accepted, with a salary of $1 per year, she accepted to be fully engaged in fundraising for a programme that, indeed, until now, has received very little support but that is very important from the point of view of the people and from the point of view of the credibility of the UN. In relation to what you mentioned, there is a procedure that is now being adopted systematically. That procedure involves an evaluation. That evaluation was concluded in relation to the Republic of Congo. There is a necessary contact with the authorities of the country before a public announcement of the measure. So I will ask for a little bit of patience, because you'll soon have the public announcement of what we have decided to do. But it will be, I mean, impolite and unacceptable in the context of our bilateral relations before a number of contacts that need to be established with the country to announce it. This procedure will now be applied across the board, and it's an evaluation that is done by a group of experts on the situation. It depends on the capacity of countries to... even if something happened to correct what has happened or if we feel that there are more systemic failures that cannot be addressed and that require the withdrawal of the force we are discussing.
