The UN's top man in Haiti: his last poignant words
The UN secretary general’s special representative in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, who was killed with other UN officials in Tuesday’s earthquake, was one of those exceptional UN people like Sergio de Mello, the UN assistant secretary general blown up in Baghdad in 2003.
Both men, in a sense, died in action. Both men are what makes the UN, for all its fault, a singularly remarkable and exceptional body.
Annabi, a Tunisan, had been the UN assistant secretary general for peace-keeping.
He decided to take the head of mission job in Haiti (a country virtually run by the UN following political turmoil) partly because he wanted one more “throw of the dice” before retirement, and partly because his wife was suffering from Alzheimer’s and in Haiti he could afford the 24-hour nursing care she needed.
Poor woman, lost in that eternal fog of Alzheimer’s, widowed by this devastating tragedy, and now lingering in the confusion of earthquake aftermath. Has her nurse even survived?
Poignantly, Annabi delivered a new year message to the people of Haiti just five days before he died. I feel bound to share with you the most poignant parts (translated from the French in which he spoke it):
“A year ago, we started 2009 in a particularly difficult national and international context….Indeed, in January the country was trying to recover from the tragic consequences of a series of hurricanes and tropical storms which hit in August and September 2008. Roads and bridges had been destroyed by flooding, populations stricken by the disaster or displaced, and many people were threatened by the further deterioration of their already difficult living conditions.”
And then in conclusion:
“We can say that 2009 has not been a bad year for Haiti. Of course the results we’ve obtained are still not enough to ameliorate, for now, the lot of the most destitute and many challenges will need to be taken on in 2010 to strengthen their stability and to bring together conditions for durable social and economic development.
“I am however convinced that these obstacles can be overcome and the promise of a better future for Haiti is not naive, if all Haitians engage themselves resolutely in a dialogue of understanding and cooperation and if they turn their backs to doubt, mistrust and suspicion. Today Haiti is at a decisive moment in its history…it’s now for the Haitians and the Haitians alone to transform that hope into reality by working together for the interests of their country.
His full speech is here: Annabi transcript at radiokiskeya.com
My source inside the UN reports that the seven senior Chinese police officers who died with Annabi, passed through New York en route to Haiti.
My friend and others gathered to share last Sunday evening with them. They brought a small jade box, a keep-sake.
Sitting on a hall table on the Lower East Side it is now all that’s left as evidence that they were ever there.
They died little more than a day after the party in New York – at the UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince attending a top level meeting with Annabi, his deputy and an unknown number of other UN officials who were also killed.
China contributes to the training for police in Haiti – part of the continuing effort to give the Haitian people that future of which Annabi spoke in his new year message.