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Sri Lanka Denies
UN's Claimed Advocacy for Detained Staff, UK's Des Browne Said on Way
to NYC
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 18, 1:36 pm, updated -- As in Sri Lanka the
“bloodbath on the beach”
progresses, the United Kingdom is proclaiming its own diplomatic push
at the UN. Sources tell Inner City Press that Gordon Brown's envoy to
Sri Lanka, whom the government rejected, is headed to New York to “to
visit the UN to speak both with UN spokespersons, whose public
statements have been very much in step with ours, as well as with
those who do not share all of our views.”
The
latter
group includes Security Council veto-wielding members China and
Russia, both of which have fought to not have Sri Lanka put on the
Council's agenda, and confined the last “informational” briefing
by top UN humanitarian John Holmes to the basement of the UN, not the
Council chamber or consultation room. Diplomatic protocol being what
it is, one would at least expect the Permanent Representatives of the
two countries to meet with Mr. Browne and hear him out. Some wonder
if it is Des Browne who might finally get the US Obama
administration's mass crimes expert Samantha Power involved.
[Update: four hours after this
report went online, the UK issued a statement announcing Des Browne's
trip, here.]
If it is true
that the UN through its spokespersons are “in step” with the UK,
then the UK is not asking for a cease-fire. Inner
City Press asked
Ban Ki-moon if he was making such a call, and he did not. On April
17, Ban's Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq responded to Inner City
Press' question if Ban's envoy Vijay Nambiar was asking for a
cease-fire by saying that the UN is
only asking that heavy weapons
not be used.
The UN has
also dissembled, it seems, on its advocacy with the Sri Lankan
government for its own staff members. On April 13, Inner City Press
began asking why the UN had not spoken up about its staff members
detained without freedom of movement in the government's camps. Both
Haq and then Holmes
said that they had been pushing hard with the
government.
But now Sri
Lankan “Resettlement” Minister Rishad
Baduideen has said that the
first the government heard from the UN about the issue was on April
15 -- two days after Inner City Press wrote
and asked about it.
UK's Browne and UN's Ban, cease-fire call not
shown, nor answers on detentions
Then,
UN resident and humanitarian coordinator Neil Buhne finally wrote a
letter to the government, and his office admitted that 11 UN staff
members and their families are being detained in camps in Vavuniya.
Until
then,
“Minister
Baduideen said he had not received a letter from the UN
and unless they receive a formal complaint that they cannot look into
it, and as and when they do they will discuss it with the military
officials.... Meanwhile [the spokesman for] UNCEF director Ann
Veneman was quoted by the Inner City Press as saying the UNICEF and
UN systems staff visiting the area were in contact with their staff
in the camps and that they have been prevented from leaving the
camps.”
So
the
government denies that the UN raised the issue until April 15. Who is
to be believed? Watch this site.
Footnote:
We continue to wait for the UK's formal answer to the first of the two
questions which Inner
City
Press asked the UK Mission to
the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on April 15:
Does the UK
believe that international law and the
rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the
now-acknowledged
detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported
this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the
British
Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would
continue to
consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the
accuracy
of that, and of this
and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that
an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin?
What did
the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As
of
this press time more than 72 hours later, the formal answer has been
referral to Minister
Miliband's April 12
statement, and this.
As more answers arrive we will report them on this site.
Click here
for a new YouTube video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
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
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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