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Sri
Lanka Disputes UN's Lack of Access, EU's Tariff Investigation as "Hype"
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 29
-- The capture of the UN by Sri Lanka became clear
Wednesday in back to back interviews with the UN's top humanitarian
John
Holmes, followed by Sri Lanka's Ambassador Palihakkara. Inner City
Press asked
John Holmes about Sri Lanka's arrest of UN staff, and cut off of pay to
doctors
in the conflict zone. Holmes said he wasn't aware of the arrests, and
that the
doctors, according to the government, might be "under pressure from the
LTTE." Video here,
from Minute 27:28. Holmes nevertheless complained for
the record about Sri Lanka reneging on its promise to UN envoy Vijay
Nambiar to
allow a humanitarian assessment team into the conflict zone.
Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN
Palihakkara, on the other
hand, told Inner City Press that lack of access to the zone was the
UN's fault.
"They have to go on the ship" of the ICRC, he said, "security
experts first." Palihakkara also dismissed the European Union's
complaints
about the exclusion of the foreign minister of Sweden, the next EU
president.
It is "a bit over-exaggerated," Palihakkara said, stating that the
minister of Sweden has been "invited in May. "Everything about Sri
Lanka is a bit hype now," he said.
Sri Lanka's Palihakkara
at right, IMF loan delay not shown
The European Union, after the tsunami, granted Sri
Lanka favorable
tariff status under the GSP Plus program. When it expired in December,
the EU
said that a human rights investigation would be necessary to continue
the
favorable treatment. Sri Lanka refused the investigation team, but the
status
by some EU incompetence or loophole continues.
Palihakkara disagreed, saying that "it doesn't
expire... there are
technical criteria, twenty one core conventions. "All IMF loan
questions,
he referred to Washington, expressing surprise at French Ambassador Ripert's
comments to Inner City Press that "the Americans are playing with the
IMF
loan," republished with attribution in the Times of London, click here
for
that.
The UN's "informal interactive dialogue" on the Sri
Lanka
crisis is now slated for April 30 at 5 p.m. in
the UN's basement. 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 two weeks later, the formal answer has been
referral to Minister
Miliband's April 12
statement, and this.
On April 21, Inner City Press put the question to U.S. Ambassador Susan
Rice, whose spokesman the following day cleared this response:
"UN personnel should have freedom of movement and be treated with
respect." But they are still detained as of this writing. As more
answers arrive or are released we will report them on 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
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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