Posted by Jim Lindgren:
Is the United Nations trying to take credit for US and Australian tsunami
missions?--
Diplomad [1]says so:
Well, we're heading into Day 7 of the Asian quake/tsunami crisis.
And the UN relief effort? Nowhere to be seen except at some
meetings and on CNN and BBC as talking heads. In this corner of the
Far Abroad, it's Yanks and Aussies doing the hard, sweaty work of
saving lives.
Check out this interview (on the UN's official website) with SecGen
Annan and Under SecGen Egeland . . .:
Mr. Egeland: Our main problems now are in northern Sumatra and
Aceh. <...> In Aceh, today 50 trucks of relief supplies are
arriving. <...> Tomorrow, we will have eight full airplanes
arriving. I discussed today with Washington whether we can draw on
some assets on their side, after consultations with the Indonesian
Government, to set up what we call an "air-freight handling centre"
in Aceh.
Tomorrow, we will have to set up a camp for relief workers - 90 of
them - which is fully self-contained, with kitchen, food, lodging,
everything, because they have nowhere to stay and we don't want
them to be an additional burden on the people there.
I provided this to some USAID colleagues working in Indonesia and
their heads nearly exploded. The first paragraph is quite simply a
lie. The UN is taking credit for things that hard-working, street
savvy USAID folks have done. It was USAID working with their
amazing network of local contacts who scrounged up trucks, drivers,
and fuel; organized the convoy and sent it off to deliver critical
supplies. A UN "air-freight handling centre" in Aceh? Bull! It's
the Aussies and the Yanks who are running the air ops into Aceh. We
have people working and sleeping on the tarmac in Aceh, surrounded
by bugs, mud, stench and death, who every day bring in the US and
Aussie C-130s and the US choppers; unload, load, send them off. We
have no fancy aid workers' retreat -- notice the priorities of the
UN? People are dying and what's the first thing the UN wants to do?
Set up "a camp for relief workers" one that would be "fully
self-contained, with kitchen, food, lodging, everything."
The UN is a sham.
References
1. http://diplomadic.blogspot.com/2005/01/un-death-watch.html
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