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Sri
Lanka Lobbies at UN To Be De-Listed Despite Child Soldiers Recruited,
Others Barred
from School, Lanka's Inside Man
By
Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS, February 4 -- Two months after the UN sent retired Major
General Patrick Cammaert to Sri Lanka, his report on Children and
Armed Conflict in the country was presented to that sub-committee of
the UN Security Council, in a closed meeting in the UN's basement.
The
report, a copy
of which Inner City Press obtained and
exclusively puts online here, notes among other things the
re-recruitment of children by a "commander named Iniya Barrathi
who was part of the TMVP breakaway faction under Karuna's
leadership." Cammaert recommends that that government take
action.
But
in the meeting,
a move was afoot to "de-list" Sri Lanka, from its one
connection to the UN Security Council. During the bloodbath on the
beach in 2009, despite tens of thousands of cilivians killed, Sri
Lanka was never put on the Council's main agenda. A few meetings were
held, informally, in the basement.
Children
and Armed
Conflict, a committee of the Security Council, retained Sri Lanka on
its list. It was in this context that Cammaert belatedly went to the
country. His report also calls for wider accountability and
investigations. But even the UN's Ban Ki-moon, who visited Sri Lanka
in May for what many called a "victory tour," has not
called for or begun any investigation.
The
report has
other examples of children still impacted. Cammaert writes of a
"visit to the Poonthotam primary school [in Vavuniya]. Half of
the classrooms are currently being occupied by the Sri Lank Army
(SLA) to host adult surrenderees, disrupting the education of more
than half the student population."
With
all this
unaddressed, Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the UN Palitha Kohona was seen
on February 4. He spoke to BBC, he was congratulated in the closed
door meeting on Children and Armed Conflict. While he has been
missing from the UN in New York for some time, he was still working,
calling Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar to try to get
canceled a press conference on Sri Lanka by UN Special Rapporteur on
Executions Philip Alston.
UN's Ban and Sri Lanka's Kahona, CAAC report and
investigation not shown
Ban
later
distanced himself from Alston and his call that Ban start an
investigation. Why cancel the Children and Armed Conflict meeting, if
it was to be a venue for celebrating the bloodbath on the beach and
lobbying to de-list Sri Lanka from this last UN list? Watch this
site.
* * *
On
Goldstone, UN's Ban Files Only 4 Paragraphs of Observations,
on Sri Lanka, Nothing
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, February 4 -- The Goldstone
Report filing by UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon has been asked about for days at the UN. When it
became available on the evening of February 4, it was a let down and,
some
say, a lie.
The
letdown part is
easier to describe. Ban's submission is a mere 11 paragraphs, mostly
boilerplate recitations, of which Ban's "Observations"
comprise only four paragraphs. It is not even a cover letter, one
involved source told Inner City Press. It is more like a fax cover
sheet.
The
word "lie," when
raised to Inner City Press, was directed at paragraph 9, which in
full reads:
"9.
I believe that, as a matter of principle, international humanitarian
law needs to be fully respected and civilians must be protected in
all situations and circumstances. Accordingly, on several occasions,
I have called upon all of the parties to carry out credible domestic
investigations into the conduct of the Gaza conflict. I hope that
such steps will be taken wherever there are credible allegations of
human rights abuses."
Despite
this claim
of belief that "civilians must be protected in all situations
and circumstances," during the bloodier Sri Lanka conflict in
2009, when tens of thousands were killed by air assault by the Sri
Lankan government, Ban has not similarly called for credible
investigations.
UN's Ban runs in Gaza -- from, some
say, duty
Most
recently,
when the UN's own Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions Philip
Alston called on Ban to order an investigation of executions in Sri
Lanka, Ban and his spokespeople went out of their way to say they
have nothing to do with Alston.
After
Ban's 11
paragraphs are the submissions by Israel, the Palestinian Authority
and Switzerland, each going up on the web site of the President of
the General Assembly. Watch this site.
Click
here
for an Inner City Press YouTube channel 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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
UN
Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's
mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
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