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In
Sri Lanka, Access UN Claimed
Nambiar Won Is Denied, Arrested Staff UNspoken For, IMF Loan and UK
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee
of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 27
-- While Sri Lanka's government's claim it had not
been using heavily artillery is called into question by its own
subsequent
admission, the United Nations' statements are also questionable. On
April 22,
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that his envoy Vijay Nambiar had
gotten a
commitment from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to allow a humanitarian
assessment
team into the conflict zone. Five days later, Ban's
Spokesperson acknowledged
that what was presented as a commitment has not been implemented:
Inner City
Press:
On Sri Lanka, I wanted to know in light of the Secretary-General’s
announcement
last week that there will be a mission into the conflict zone by a
humanitarian
assessment, is that going forward or has it, as some of the reports
have it,
been blocked by the Government?
Spokesperson
Montas: This is what John Holmes is
trying to arrange.
Inner City
Press:
Currently, it was announced that it had been agreed to.
Was it then un-agreed to?
Spokesperson Montas: It was agreed
to. We don’t know where things are at
this point. Mr. Holmes is there and he
is the only one who has the answer to your question.
UN's Holmes and Ms. Montas, the screen is
Gaza, not Sri Lanka
Inner City
Press: And just also on Sri Lanka, I
learned, and
maybe you won’t know this off hand, but that in late 2008 two UN staff
members
were arrested by the Government. It now
seems or I have been told and the UN didn’t say anything publicly, but
some think
they’re still being held. One is a UNHCR
protection officer in Vavuniya; and the other one is a UNOPS driver;
both
arrested by the...[inaudible].
Spokesperson
Montas: I don’t have that
information. We can certainly have it
for you. All I can say is that right now
we have 13 staff members who are in the zone of conflict; and that is
really
all I have. [Video here]
This last is another indication of why
the UN is not to be believed,
particularly when it comes to Sri Lanka. When the government detained
13 UN
system staff members and their families in "IDP" camps, the UN said
nothing publicly until after Inner City Press asked about it at a UN
noon
briefing. Of the two arrests alluded to, Inner City Press has been told
that the
mother of a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) staff member, the protection
officer for
Vanuniya, was charged with renting a room, unknowingly, to someone
allegedly
connected with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Both she and her
son were
arrested, and the mother reportedly died in prison.
The UN, local staff say, never spoke out on
this, nor on a UN system
driver from Kilinochchi who was arrested "for not speaking Sinhala."
UN local staff have been arrested and detained on an ethnic basis, and
the UN
for all of its "never again" bluster said nothing.
With the foreign minister of the UK, France and
Sweden slated for a whirlwind tour to Vavuniya on Wednesday, we
question again
the UK's
Ambassador to the UN's statement that there is no connection between
the $1.9 billion loan Sri Lanka is seeking from the IMF and the
government's behavior. Perhaps there's no connection in the UK's approach...
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 12 days 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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Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
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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.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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