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UN's Ban Defends Lack of Sri Lanka Ceasefire Call,
Misunderstands His Powers and Duties, Council President Says
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
February 10 -- As bloodshed and
civilian casualties mount in Sri Lanka, at the UN in New York
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon was asked by Inner City Press why, unlike in Gaza, the
Congo and
elsewhere, he has not called for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka. Mr. Ban
responded at
some length, reading from notes. In essence he said, because Sri Lanka
is not
on the agenda of the Security Council, he cannot call for a ceasefire.
Video here,
from Minute 46:31.
Minutes
later, Inner City Press asked this month's Security Council president
Yukio
Takasu of Japan about the Secretary-General's argument, that he cannot
ask for
a ceasefire if a conflict is not on the Council's agenda. Ambassador
Takasu
directly disagreed, stating that "the Secretary General has very
important
responsibility granted in the Charter, he can draw the attention of the
international community to any issue that matters to peace and
security."
Video here,
from Minute 5:45.
Ban did say, in response,
that he is dispatching his political director to Sri Lanka. Inner City
Press understands this is to push for international monitoring of the
camps the government has set up outside the Tamil Tiger-held zone. Ban
also said he might send "humanitarian assessment team" when he thinks
it appropriate. It's worth nothing that the last time UN humanitarian
chief John Holmes went to Sri Lanka, he was officially called a
terrorist for speaking about the dangers to civilians.
Ban also answered that
"respect for the sovereignty of member states is another principle" he
makes his decisions by. But this did not keep him from calling for
ceasefires in other situations.
Mr. Ban's
answer on Tuesday included an admission that the situation in Sri Lanka
is "under-reported."
But not only does that not explain Ban's failure to follow his own
precedents
and statements and call for a ceasefire -- the UN Secretariat may be contributing,
with its contorted logic rejected by the Security Council president, to
the
under-reporting of the plight of civilians in Sri Lanka.
UN's Ban and Sri Lankan Presidential advisor,
no ceasefire call issued
Two and a half weeks ago, the senior advisor to Sri
Lanka's president, and his brother, came to the UN
and met with Ban Ki-moon, as Inner City Press reported.
The UN did not issue any read-out of this
meeting at the time. Ban referred to it on Tuesday. But it appears that
what
was discussed was for the UN and Ban to allow the Sri Lankan government
time to
try to knock out the Tamil Tigers, without facing too much criticism or
a
ceasefire call. This is the type of communication alleged between
Israel and
the United States, for the U.S. to use or threaten to use its veto in
the
Security Council to allow Israel time, to fight Hezbollah in Lebanon in
2006,
or Hamas in Gaza in 2009. But Kofi Annan in 2006, and belatedly Ban in
2009,
called for ceasefires.
Here, Ban
is saying that military operations should be conducted in compliance
with
international law. But he also said, twice on Tuesday about Iran and
then
Kashmir, that it is his philosophy that problems should be solved by
dialogue
and not military action. Does this
philosophy apply everywhere except Sri Lanka? What is Ban's response to
the
Security Council president's rejection of his novel argument that he as
Secretary General defer to the Council? Watch this site.
From the transcript of
Ban's February 10 press
conference:
Inner City Press: In your opening
statement, you mentioned Sri Lanka, as well as Gaza, and you just also
said
that everything should be resolved peacefully in Iran, and you also
said it now
with regard to Kashmir. I was wondering, with the offensive by the
Government
in northern Sri Lanka, and the hospital was bombed – various things
were going
on - are you calling for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka, as you have in Gaza
and the
DRC and elsewhere? And if you're not calling for a ceasefire, can you
explain
why?
S-G Ban Ki-moon: On this issue,
as you may know, I have discussed with the [Sri Lankan] Presidential
Special
Envoy who visited New York, about two and a half weeks ago. And I
discussed
this matter very seriously over the telephone with President Rajapaksa,
that he
should avoid civilian casualties and also help those people caught in
the
fighting, so that they can be transferred into a very safe zone, and
ensure the
safety of United Nations humanitarian workers there. He assured me he
would
give his best effort. There is too much loss of life and that should be
the
thinking of all sensible people. The Sri Lankan issue is not, in fact,
on the
Security Council agenda and the respect for the sovereignty of Member
States is
another principle I firmly bear in mind. However, both the situation in
Gaza
and Sri Lanka are governed by international humanitarian law. I have
consistently expressed my strong concern regarding violations of
international
standards. First of all, I have expressed consistently my concern at
the
ongoing violence and drawn attention to the need for a political, and
not a
military, solution, and also specifically drawn attention to the plight
of
civilians. To some extent, the situation in Sri Lanka has been
under-reported,
I think. In any conflict situation, the first thing you want to do is
to
understand the facts on the ground. I have dispatched, in fact, my
political
director to the region, to Sri Lanka and I am also considering
dispatching some
humanitarian assessment team whenever I think it's appropriate.
And when would that be?
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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