Wednesday, November 29, 2017
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) — The United Nations, which last month launched a fresh mission to promote long-term development in Haiti, has had it with nice words: when it comes to corruption and human rights, “the proof is in the pudding.”
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UN AT WORK
“They have said they want to fight corruption, so they have to take responsibility,” insisted Susan Page, who is heading the UN Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH).
“I’m going to take them at their word, but I’m also going to help them if that is really what they want,” the American career diplomat said.
Elected president after an electoral crisis that paralyzed the country for two years, Jovenel Moise insists he is going to use his time in office to clean up Haitian politics.
“Corruption, in all its forms, eats away and atrophies the economy, it profoundly weakens the political foundations and destabilizes society’s social tissue: corruption is a crime against development,” the president, who took office earlier this year, told the UN general assembly in New York in September.
COMMENT: AND UN IMPORTED CORRUPTION IS EVEN MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE LOCAL GROWN VARIETY.
The concern is that his words are taking their time in being translated into action. In late August, a minister was sacked over corruption allegations, but no legal action has yet been taken.
COMMENT: AND THEN THERE WERE MANY UN MEMBERS ACCUSED OF CORRUPT DEALS WITH LOCAL BUSINESSMENT. NO LEGAL ACTION!
The new UN mission starts just as one of the symbols of financial waste in Haiti resurfaces: on Thursday, the Senate will debate a parliamentary report accusing a dozen former ministers, who held office between 2010 and 2016, of “fraud on a grand scale.”
“We’ll see how they react, not just in regard to the report but in general,” said Page, pointing to Haitian institutions in charge of fighting corruption and money laundering.
COMMENT: DUMB COMMENT. ONE MUST UNDERSTAND THE MOTIVES BEHIND THIS FLAWED REPORT. LAVALAS/ARISTIDE RENEWED GRAB FOR POWER!
“Will they strengthen the capabilities of agents in these organizations? Really put investigations in place which they will then pursue to the very end? Will they bring people to justice? We will see.”
Gnawed away by corruption, the country’s justice system is notoriously slow-moving. Its prison population, 400 percent above capacity, is one of the highest in the world.
MUST END PREVENTATIVE DETENTION BUT UN HAS NEVER SAID ANYTHING ABOUT THIS CRIME AGAINST OUR POPULATION.
Maintaining the rule of law also demands a real commitment to improving conditions in detention centers, but there, too, MINUJUSTH will not take the lead.
COMMENT: NEAT TO SAY WE MUST SORT THINGS OUT OURSELVES, AND THEN FIND OUR EFFORTS BLOCKED BY FOREIGN INTERESTS.
“It’s an age-old problem that the Haitians will have to sort out themselves,” said Page. “We are here to support, not to do it for them. They need to have the political will to do it.” Restoring the UN’s image in Haiti during this new mission will prove almost as big a task as overhauling its justice system.
COMMENT: YOU WON’T HAVE ENOUGH YEARS TO RESTORE UN IMAGE! HAITIANS ARE NOT STUPID THEY RECOGNISE CORRUPTION AND UNFAIRNESS UNDER THE GUISE OF ASSISTANCE.
The 13 years of the preceding UN mission, known as MINUSTAH, were blighted by sex crimes perpetrated against Haitian woman and children by UN police and peacekeeping troops, as well as a cholera epidemic sparked by Nepalese peacekeepers that has already claimed 10,000 lives.
COMMENT: WHAT’S WITH THIS 10,000? IT WILL SOON BE 1,000 THEN NOTHING! AT ONE POINT WE WERE OVER 18,000 AND ACCERATING. A STROKE OF THE KEYBOARD HAS DONE WHAT GOD CANNOT ACCOMPLISH – REVERSE DEATH!
MINUJUSTH is the UN’s sixth peacekeeping mission in Haiti over the past 25 years, a country where there is very little risk of civil war, regional conflict or terrorist attacks. The label “peacekeeping” exasperates many Haitian politicians, who may support the drive against corruption but also want a debate to redefine the UN mandate.
Aware of that debate, Page prefers not to take sides: “The UN Security Council considers it necessary to keep a certain level of stability here and to tackle the great challenges which threaten long-term development… that is not a mandate for development – that is to enable a transition between a peacekeeping mission and a lasting development.”
COMMENT: HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG
It is hypocritical for the UN to speak of corruption, without looking in the mirror.
There are a myriad of situations in which the MINUSTAH people stole – outright – or shared with Haitian partners. A true forensic audit by someone outside the UN’s influence.
Tens of millions went don the drain. Perhaps much more!
Just look at the 2 situations is which our electoral ballots were printed on the other side of the world, when Miami is only 1.5 hours by air freighter. The fuel for the Boeing, to fly to and from Dubia is staggering.
And then there was the millions set aside for intelligence operations – never dispersed to the Haitians – but filtered away by insiders with MINUSTAH.
No Bid contracts worth a few hundred millions!
Haitians have had good instructors in the field of international corruption via their Quake Disaster, a could of hurricanes and the MINUSTAH operations – now followed by another UN fiasco in the making!.
A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME IS STILL A ROSE.
BULLSHIT BY ANY OTHER NAME IS STILL BULLSHIT!!
