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Delegations criticize UN Secretariatâ€™s reaction to hurricane Sandy

06 November 2012 04:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Several delegations on Monday criticized senior UN officialsâ€™ reaction last week to hurricane Sandy, citing a "total breakdown in communications" with diplomatic missions to the world organizationâ€™s headquarters in New York, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Last week the officials reported to member nations the 17 acre complex -- closed for three days because of the Oct. 29-30 hurricane -- suffered "significant damage." Chillers for air conditioning were heavily damaged, the switchboard, websites and email closed down and subterranean spaces flooded, devastating some underground work spaces.

The storm killed scores of people in the Caribbean before killing more than 100 in the United States, almost half that number in New York. No injuries were reported in the UN complex and there was no wind damage.

Led by Ambassador Mourad Benmehidi of Algeria, chairman of the Group of 77 and China, several ambassadors voiced their concerns in the extremely polite jargon of international diplomacy at a meeting of the UN General Assemblyâ€™s Fifth (budgetary) Committee.

Nearly every one of the dozen speakers prefaced their remarks with concern for both staff of the United Nations and other UN missions and for residents of the area affected by Sandy and gratitude to work of staffers who were able to make it to work and help the organization return to work.

The Connecticut, New Jersey, New York homes of many staffers were heavily damaged and many staffers were left without transportation to get to work. Subways and commuter lines in the region were shut down for days.

"We all feel that the United Nations has disappeared from the screen for quite a long time," the Algerian envoy said carefully choosing his words. "It has disappeared from the screen of the member states. It has disappeared from the screen of the Secretariat. It has disappeared from the outside world."

He added, "We were out of touch. No mention of the United Nations for six, seven days, the combination, unfortunate combination, of a long holiday weekend with the storm, the secretary-general out of the headquarters ... I mean he travels a lot. Miscommunication with the member states, yes, the only email my mission received was from Ms. Marjorie Tiven," New York Cityâ€™s UN commissioner, the cityâ€™s liaison with the world organization.

The envoy said her email showed "some things were working technically but no use was made of it by either the secretariat or ourselves as a collaborative grouping. Something went wrong. The UN still has to address in the future preparedness. I donâ€™t agree to the self congratulatory assessment of Mr. (Gregory) Starr," chief of UN security and safety.

"I am sorry," Benmehidi said. "Before the storm we were working in this building and there was a false alarm. And we have seen the mess of people not knowing why they were leaving the room, why they were coming back to the rooms and no one able to explain to the delegates what to do. This was in a dry and clear weather situation. So letâ€™s be more humble in addressing this situation and letâ€™s be more prepared to discuss the issue."

In December 2010, a strange odor in parts of the complex caused an evacuation, a spokesman said, citing possible sewage gas caused by an unusually high tide in the East River running adjacent to headquarters on Manhattanâ€™s East Side.

Benmehidiâ€™s complaint, and those of other speakers was that the UN Secretariat was slow in announcing on Oct. 28 the closure of the organization in preparation for the hurricane that hit on the evening of Oct. 29.

"Today is time for anger management on the part of either the membership or the larger public of New York," Benmehidi said. "I am expressing the position of a member of the UN community. It has disappeared from the screen and I must say also on the part of local authorities. No mention whatsoever has been made of the United Nations which is intimately linked to the life of the City of New York during the whole crisis."

"Wall street opened. Wall Street closed. We have been relegated to the level of primary schools, you open and close, with the general public," he said. "Those are lessons learned but they are not related to the actual reaction of the (UN) team. I agree that our people did a good job ... and we are grateful for thinking of the safety of the community by closing for a limited time the premises but to erase the sentiment that we were out of touch would require that we work together in the future with a different spirit of mind."

His remarks in many ways were generally echoed by representatives of Brazil, Denmark, the European Union, Cote dâ€™Ivoire, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia and Singapore. Cuba, while expressing concern for other victims of the hurricane -- it suffered 11 fatalities from Hurricane Sandy -- wanted to know if the huge electronic vote tallying board in the General Assembly was working. The envoy was later assured it was.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon tasked his chief of staff, Susana Malcora, with a "lessons learned" exercise and she was expected to brief delegates later in the week.