He also served for more than two decades as an international correspondent and editor for Reuters. He covered a number of issues affecting international peace and security, including the fall of the Berlin Wall, events in the Balkans and nuclear non-proliferation issues.
His tenure with Reuters included a stint as the Moscow Bureau Chief with responsibility for coverage of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and as a senior editor in London handling global political news stories, including the Middle East and Africa. He has been posted in Berlin, The Hague, and Seoul.
Mr. Nesirky succeeds Michele Montas of Haiti who is retiring from the Organization on 30 November. “The Secretary-General is grateful to Ms. Montas for her dedication and service as his Spokesperson since the beginning of his term on 1 January 2007,” read a note issued by Mr. Ban’s office.
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Commentary by Haitian-Truth.org
After several months of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, Michele Montas was removed from her position as spokesperson for UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon. Montas was the wife of Jean Dominique, a well-known Haitian newscaster who was assassinated in April, 2000. Montas is a close personal friend of Rene Preval and is blamed by many international leaders, and America’s State Department, for the Secretary General’s ongoing, and absurd statements to the effect that “Preval is Haiti’s only hope.”
If Preval is Haiti’s only hope then Haiti has no hope. Preval’s criminal, indifferent and incompetent government has effectively derailed any and all efforts to save his nation as his associates steal whatever is available. As a small example, no one has ever explained what happened to the $197,000,000 that disappeared rather than be applied to the damage done by 2008’s hurricanes.
The fact that Montas is violently anti-American may have sped her demise.
I was in Haiti during March/April 2000 writing material on the election process. As I recall, Dominique was killed after he threatened a Monday morning attack on certain government-oriented cocaine traffickers. Rumor has it that Aristide met with Dominique, Preval and Dany Toussaint in an effort to derail the broadcast. Dominique was arrogant (he was always arrogant) and refused to back-off…setting wheels in motion that would see him shot in front of his radio station.
Embassy contacts told me that he was one of Preval’s closest friends. According to my source Preval knew what was planned, yet did nothing to save his friend. (This wasn’t the first time he had pre-knowledge of an important killing. He was a part of Mireille Durocher-Bertin’s assassination in 1995, a fact supported publicly by the American general commanding Haiti, at that time)
Telephone intercepts would show that Preval called Michele Montas, asking her to stay at home. He had something important to say and would drive right over. So she stayed home as Dominique drove off to his execution.
Many Haitians believe Michele Montas was/is complicit in her husband’s murder. Because of this she remains unpopular within Haiti’s society.