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On Sri Lanka, France Requests
UN Briefing, Nambiar's Slow Return, Ban's Tilt
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 20 -- With the Sri Lankan
government speaking of
expanded military action on Tuesday in the "No Fire" Zone, the UN
Security Council behind closed doors on Monday discussed getting a
briefing
from Ban Ki-moon's envoy Vijay Nambiar. On camera, United States Deputy
Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff told Inner City Press that the
U.S.
"supports the call" by the United Kingdom for a briefing on Sri
Lanka. Video here,
from Minute 9:17.
Sources tell Inner City Press that in the
closed-door meeting, it was
France which made the request for the briefing. Outside the chamber,
Inner City
Press asked UK Permanent Representative John Sawers if his country's envoy to
Sri Lanka Des Browne, rejected by the government there, is already in
New York.
Yes, Ambassador Sawers said.
Security Council President Claude Heller of Mexico
told Inner City Press
that as of mid-day on April 20, Browne had not visited to the Council,
but that
"the general sense of the members of the Security Council" is to get
a briefing from Nambiar. "We know that Sri Lanka is a very special
case," he said, but "there is an interest to be briefed."
This reference to Sri Lanka's "special" status
highlights the
Council's disparate treatment of the "bloodbath on the beach" in
Northern Sri Lanka. While less intense fighting, at least now, in the
western
Sudan region of Darfur gives rise to numerous Council meetings, even
large
scale military action in areas packed with civilians in Sri Lanka is
kept from
the Council's formal agenda.
UN's Ban on private jet with deputy
chief of staff and spokesperson, Nambiar and Council briefing not shown
A well-placed Council source tells Inner City Press
that in Monday's
closed-door consultations, China said that the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam
"use" any Council briefing to legitimate themselves, and that the
Council should beware. This is a argument straight from the Sri Lankan
government. It is also one that Sudan for example has advanced without
success
regarding the emboldening of the Justice and Equality Movement rebels
by the
Council's attempted micro-managing of events in Darfur. But, as
Ambassador
Heller said, Sri Lanka is "a special case."
Some point to Ban Ki-moon's
prepared statement on Monday, criticizing
the LTTE but not saying who is doing the deadly shelling of the No Fire
Zone,
and say it reflects a lack of balance, even complicity. There was no
opportunity to ask Ban or his spokespeople about it on Monday, as the normal
noon briefing was cancelled and replaced by a one-way television hook
up with
Geneva, where Ban denounced an anti-Israel statement made at the
Durban
Follow-up Conference in Geneva.
The Office of the
Spokesperson for the Secretary General said that
coverage of Ban's position on this was more important or newsworthy
that the
day's other events, including in Sri Lanka.
Inner City Press asked where Nambiar is, since the
Council can't be
briefed until he returns. Sources tell Inner City Press he stopped in
India on
his way back. Ban's office says Nambiar will be back in New York on
Tuesday
morning, but Council sources think it won't be until Wednesday, and
that the
briefing will take place them, more than 24 hours after the expiration
of the Sri
Lankan government's ultimatum. 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 five days 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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