Question: Mine is a little related too, actually. It’s still on Haiti. Has the Secretary-General spoken with former President [Bill] Clinton about his visit to Haiti since… Can you update us on what’s happening there? And I suppose some of us are broadly interested in whether or not the Secretary-General’s discussions about Haiti have touched on the subject of Haitian sovereignty or the possibility of some kind of UN trusteeship over the nation? Spokesperson: Well, first of all, to my knowledge, the Secretary-General has not yet had a debrief from President Clinton. But I’m sure that that will come. I know that President Clinton, when he was on the ground, was liaising very closely with our Mission staff, and I am sure that that information is also being fed back. I would also note that from within the UN system here, from UNDP and from OCHA [the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs], there are people working directly with President Clinton’s team here in New York. So the information flow is very constant.
You asked about the role of the Haitian Government. The Haitian Government is clearly in charge on the ground there. It is a sovereign country with a sovereign government. What the Government clearly requires is assistance to coordinate on an international scale the aid that is being received and the longer term prospect of reconstruction and recovery. And that’s where President Clinton comes in; that’s where United Nations, through UNDP, for example, comes in. I think I’ll leave it there.
seen at 12:00, 8 February
in
Spokesman for the UN Secretary General.
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