Global Voices » Tunisian Diplomat Dies in Haiti Earthquake

180px-Hedi_Annabi

Tunisians were absorbed in the Tunisian National Football Team match against Zambia last night and so were bloggers. Football fans were cheering their country, which is taking part in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations Group D encounter in Lubango.

The number of posts published yesterday was also smaller than usual and very few people wrote about the Haiti earthquake. Those who wrote about it did to talk about the death of Hedi Annabi, a 66-year-old Tunisian diplomat and the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Haiti (Minustah).

Adibs1 ^[1] wrote a post entitled: Earthquake in Haiti: The Tunisian Hedi Annabi Head of the MINUSTAH Reported Missing. He said:

Hier à 23h heure locale, 17h heure a Haïti, un violent tremblement de terre de magnitude 7 sur l'échelle ouverte de richter a frappé de plein fouet l'île de Haïti faisant des centaines de morts et des dégats matériels énormes.
Le siége de l'ONU à Port Prince à été completement déteruit, des centaines de casques bleues sont portés disparus dont le chef de la Minsutah le diplomate Tunisien Hédi Annabi.
Agé de 63 ans, Annabi est un diplomate tunisiende carrière qui dirigeait depuis le 28 janvier 1997 le département des opérations de maintien de la paix aux côtés du français Jean-Marie Guéhenno.

Yesterday at 11pm local time, 5pm Haiti time, a violent earthquake – 7.0 in magnitude – struck the Haiti island causing hundreds of deaths and enormous property damages.The UN headquarters had been totally destroyed, hundreds of blue helmets have been reported missing, among them the Head of the Minustah the Tunisian diplomat: Hedi Annabi.
Aged 63, Annabi is a Tunisian diplomat with an important career . He has been running Peacekeeping Operations under French Jean-Marie Guéhenno since January 28th, 1997.

Stupid ideas wrote a post entitled Tunisian Representative of the UN ion Haiti probably Dead . In it the blogger said:

D'apres le yahoo, le représentant de l'ONU qui est un tunisien est décédé. J'espère que l'information soit fausse mais selon l'articleMr Hedi Annabi -ancien sous-secrétaire général adjoint aux opérations de maintien de la paix de l'ONU de 1997 à 2007, et chef de la Mission des Nations unies pour la stabilisation en Haïti (MINUSTAH) depuis le 1er septembre 2007- était parmi les personnes qu'abritaient le bâtiment de l'ONU lors du tremblement de terre qui a frappé la ville. Tous ceux qui étaient dans le bâtiment ont péri.
Mes pensées pour sa famille.

According to Yahoo ^[2], a Tunisian UN representative died. I hope that this information is false but according to the article Mr Hedi Ananbi previous Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations from 1997 to 2007 and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Haiti (MINUSTAH) since September 1, 2007, was among the persons sheltered in the UN buildings during the earthquake which struck the city. All the people in the building had been killed.
My thoughts go to his family.