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At UN, Sri Lanka
Briefing Chased Into Basement by China, Swede's
Exclusion Raised
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 29 -- With the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes just returned
from a trip to Sri Lanka that even he has called “disappointing,”
many Security Council members thought it obvious that he would
provide a briefing, if only in the “informal interactive dialogue”
format under which the two previous Council sessions have been held.
Inner City Press was told by Council sources that the Holmes
briefing, to include the government's reneging on a pledge to
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's envoy Vijay Nambiar to allow a UN
humanitarian assessment team into the conflict zone, was slated to
occur on Thursday, April 30 after a Cyprus agenda item, under the
rubric “Other Matters.” To some, that seemed the least the
Council could do, although one wondered if the Council would adjourn
and move down to the basement, to drive home the point that Sri Lanka
is not on its formal agenda.
On
Wednesday
morning, however, well placed sources told Inner City Press that
opposition, led by China, has put even this stealth briefing into
question. “It's not that China is not as humanitarian” as the
others, Beijing's Ambassador argued. But they insist that no matter
how many people are killed, the conflict in Sri Lanka is an internal
matter.
With
Russia
slated to take over the Council presidency on Friday, May 1, it will
become less likely that the Council will receive any briefings about
Sri Lanka.
Chinese delegation huddles in Council, map to
basement not shown
As of 11:42
a.m. on April 29, at least two Western countries, a Permanent and a
non-Permanent member, believe that the Holmes briefing on Sri Lanka
is on tap for Thursday, under other business. A better placed source
said this is not agreed. At deadline it appears that following
China's objection about location, Holmes may brief in the basement.
Location, location, location. Watch this site.
Footnote:
while
Sri Lanka's refusal to grant a visa to the foreign minister of
Sweden, the incoming president of the European Union, has apparently
not been raised in the Council as such, one European Permanent
Representative raised it to Ban Ki-moon. Inner City Press asked Mr.
Ban about Sri Lanka outside the Security Council Wednesday morning.
He responded, you have a briefing from John Holmes this afternoon.
And about the Council, tomorrow afternoon? Watch this space.
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
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