Lebanese, UN officials honor fallen comrades in Haiti

By Dalila Mahdawi
Daily Star staff
Friday, January 22, 2010

BEIRUT: Lebanese and UN officials gathered Thursday to honor the victims of last week’s Haiti earthquake, just hours after a Middle East Airlines aid plane returned to Beirut.

“Not in war, but in a tragic natural disaster the UN has suffered its single largest calamity,” UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Michael Williams, told a crowd of colleagues and Lebanese parliamentarians at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) headquarters in Downtown Beirut.

The January 12 earthquake killed up to 200,000 people, according to Haitian government estimates quoted by the European Commission, though thousands are still missing under the rubble. The commission has said 2 million Haitians are now homeless, with 250,000 in need of urgent aid. The UN has so far confirmed 20 fatalities among its staff members, including special representative of the secretary general and head of mission, Tunisian national Hedi Annabi, and his deputy, Brazilian national Luiz Carlos da Costa.

“Perhaps the best way to honor our fallen is to reflect on the fact that they lost their lives in the service [of] others,” Williams said. “In the midst of the pain and the shock that we feel, we realize that living up to the memories of our loved colleagues means continuing with even more determination and commitment the work to help the devastated people of Haiti and others around the world,” he said, adding the UN was grateful for Lebanon’s assistance to Haiti.

UNIFIL’s deputy commander Brigadier General Apurba Kumar Bardalai meanwhile paid tribute to fallen peacekeepers from the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti.

“Being away from our families, we develop strong ties of friendship with our colleagues, who become our family away from the family,” he said. “The death of so many colleagues in Haiti has thus been a very personal loss for many of us, [and] also a professional loss for the United Nations and the international community at large.”

Bardalai said that out of respect for their fallen colleagues, UNIFIL personnel had renewed their determination to continue toward achieving peace and stability in southern Lebanon. “It is at times like these that we are reminded of the risks taken and sacrifices made by the peacekeepers working under the UN umbrella,” he added.

ESCWA Executive Secretary Bader Omar AlDafa also paid his respects to what he called the “courage” of the UN’s Haiti personnel.

The memorial ceremony came as an official Lebanese delegation carrying aid to the Lebanese diaspora in Haiti touched down at Rafik Hariri International Airport, bringing back Lebanese national Nancy Jarjoura Hayar, eight Syrians and two Palestinians who were injured in the disastrous tremor. Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry said one Lebanese national died in the earthquake.

One of the Palestinians, Najib Tarazi, sustained broken bones while working at a supermarket in the Haitan capital, Port-au-Prince, and was taken by ambulance to a hospital upon arrival. “The roof fell on me,” AP quoted Tarazi as saying. “I stayed in the rubble for seven hours until they found me.”

The agency also quoted Lebanese citizen Nancy Yahya as saying she was at home with her children in Haiti when the house started shaking. “I said, ‘It’s over. We are dead,’” Yahya said. “I thank God that we survived.” Rasha Hashem, a Syrian woman who said three of her relatives killed in the earthquake were still buried under the rubble, was meanwhile seen burying her face in her hands and crying as relatives tried to comfort her. Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel-Karim Ali has said that two Syrian citizens, a couple, were killed in Haiti.

At a meeting on Monday ahead of the plane’s departure, officials said that several “logistical and technical problems faced the preparations,” especially because transportation had become so difficult within the destroyed capital city.

The plane departed on Tuesday, carrying 35 tons of non-monetary aid.

Also on Thursday, the Lebanese Red Cross said that it had opened a bank account for donations for Haiti. Anyone wishing to donate can pay in money to Fransabank account number 21.10.935605.01

Source: The Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=110954.