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STORY: UN / HAITI
TRT: 1.56
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 10 OCTOBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
10 OCTOBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY
2. Various shots, Security Council vote
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Lyall Grant, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations:
“MINUSTAH is the clearest example of the mismatch between the needs on the ground and the tools the Security Council uses to address them. Even after the drawdown of troops mandated in this resolution, there will still be over 5,000 military peacekeepers in a country where there has been no military conflict in recent times. This makes little sense. Mr. President, we are concerned that some tasks are better managed by other elements of the United Nations system and its partners, still full for MINUSTAH to perform, and this is troubling.”
5. Wide shot, Council
6. Wide shot, French Ambassador Gérard Araud walks up to the stakeout position
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
7. Close up, reporter’s notepad
10 OCTOBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Gérard Araud, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations:
“The UN has made an answer; the assessment of the Secretariat, and we have absolutely no reason to contest or to discuss what the Secretariat has done. If it is going to the court, or to the courts, whatever, it will be up to the court to decide. You know, we are living in the state of law and I am sure that the UN will accept the decisions of the court.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
9. Close up, camera
10 OCTOBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Gérard Araud, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations:
“Moral responsibility is a very vague term and you can discuss hours and hours, so, the problem is legal. They are going to the court, it will to the court to decide and I trust the US court system.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
11. Close up, reporter’s notepad
10 OCTOBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY
12. Wide shot, Ambassador Araud walks away
The Security Council today (10 October) voted unanimously to extend the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti until mid-October 2014 so it can continue contributing to stability and development in the small Caribbean nation.
Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant of the United Kingdom told the Council that his country supported the resolution but said that the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, was “the clearest example of the mismatch between the needs on the ground and the tools the Security Council uses to address them.’
Grant said that “even after the drawdown of troops mandated in this resolution, there will still be over 5,000 military peacekeepers in a country where there has been no military conflict in recent times.”
The British Ambassador added that some tasks could be “better managed by other elements of the United Nations system and its partners.”
Today’s resolution decided that MINUSTAH’s overall force levels will consist of up to 5,021 troops and of a police component composed of up to 2,601 personnel. Currently, the mission consists of 6,233 troops and 2,457 police.
Outside the Council, French Ambassador Gérard Araud responded to questions about the law suit recently filed by human rights lawyers against the United Nations in US courts for its alleged responsibility for the introduction of cholera into Haiti in 2010.
Araud said “it will be up to the court to decide” and added he was “sure that the UN will accept the decisions of the court.”
The French ambassador said it was a legal not a moral issue and expressed “trust the US court system.”
According to press reports, the law suits seek 2.2 billion US dollars to compensate as many as 679,000 victims and for the Haitian Government to implement eradication plans.
