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On
Sri Lanka, UN Thinks Envoy's No Help, UK Will Not Punish
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: Exclusive Video
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 1, updated -- As
thousands of civilians were killed in Sri Lanka in the
month of April, the response of the UN Security Council was to hold a
series of closed door meetings in the basement of the UN. After each,
Ambassadors including of Sri Lanka and UN humanitarian officials came
out and spoke to the Press, filmed by UN Television cameras. On April
30, however, the UN did not send any UN TV camera to the basement.
When
Mexican
Ambassador Claude Heller, on the last day of his Presidency of the
Council, emerged from the meeting, there was only one member of the
media waiting to hear him: Inner City Press. You have a monopoly,
Heller joked. It's not something that Inner City Press wanted or
wants. Two other reporters finally arrived, and the interviews began.
Heller read a bland statement, then cryptically answered Inner City
Press that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon could “strengthen the
cooperation” with the Government of Sri Lanka, by sending a
dedicated special envoy. He did not answer Inner City Press' question
if the Council knows that the Sri Lankan Army continues to use
heavily weapons in the so-called No Fire Zone.
The UN's top
humanitarian John Holmes, on the other hand, told the Press that it
would not be “particularly helpful” for the UN to send “a
Special Envoy at this time.” Exclusive video here, at
Minute 6:18.
Inner City Press had gotten a leaked copy of
Holmes testimony to the
Council in its closed door meeting, and asked about a line in which
Holmes “expressed [the UN's] concern about a proposed Memorandum of
Understanding for NGOs providing humanitarian assistance.” Holmes
answered that the MOU would require the NGOs to share information
with the government, but he declined to say what kind of information.
Exclusive video here, at
Minute 3:50.
Inner
City
Press asked about reports that young men are being plucked from the
IDP detention camps and taken to an abandoned hospital in
Kilinochchi, interrogated and disappeared. Holmes responded that such
interrogations are “legitimate... for up to a year,” but conceded
that there is no monitoring. Exclusive video here, at
Minute 5:36.
Sri Lanka's
Permanent Representative Palihakkara told Inner City Press he was not
aware of the reports of events at the hospital in Kilinochchi. He
also said that he had not read the MOU that Holmes complained of, but
that “I can check that.” Inner City Press asked him how many
civilians the Government says there are in the conflict zone -- or
“Remaining Area,” as he called it. Palihakkara put the figure at
20,000. Exclusive video here.
UK's Sawers and Miliband earlier this year,
use of GSP Plus EU tariff not shown
Based an
interview earlier on Thursday with a senior advisor to Ban Ki-moon,
Inner City Press asked if the government would consider offering
amnesty to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam below the founder.
Palihakkara called that “sensitive... because some of them are
accused of crimes including the murder of the head of state of a
neighboring country.”
Inner City Press asked if the founder were
caught, would he get handed over to India, put on trial in Sri Lanka,
or what? Palihakkara called that “rich speculation.” Inner City
Press concluded, at Palihakkara walked away, by asking for the
Government of Sri Lanka's stance on the UN sending a special envoy to
the conflict. Palihakkara said, it depends on what. And that he was
gone.
The
UN sent a
special envoy to Zimbabwe, and the UK and others put Zimbabwe on the
agenda of the Security Council and proposed a sanctions resolution,
for fewer civilians dead, even knowing or having reason to know that
the resolution would be vetoed. Inner City Press asked UK Ambassador
John Sawers to explain the difference. Sri Lanka, he said, is a
legitimate democratically elected government fighting a terrorist
group. But for dead civilians, what is the difference?
In
Sawers'
previously appearance in this location in the UN's basement, Inner
City Press asked him if the UK would use Sri Lanka's pending loan
application at the International Monetary Fund as leverage to try to
save civilian lives. Then, Sawers said he saw no relation between the
deaths and the IMF loan.
On April 30, Inner City Press asked Sawers
if the UK would use the pending European Union tariff waiver for Sri
Lankan textiles, the GSP Plus dating to the time after the tsunami.
Exclusive video here, from
Minute 5:58.
“We're not
in the job of penalizing the government of Sri Lanka,” Sawers said
-- thus throwing away leverage and, some say, seriousness. US
Ambassador Susan Rice left without taking any Press questions, though
the U.S. Mission has put her comments
in the closed door meeting on
their web site. France, as they point out on the other hand, has
put online only Ambassador Ripert's comments to the press
outside the closed-door meeting.
We note that at the May 1 UN noon
briefing, Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe refused to give any response
about John Holmes statement about the Memorandum of Understanding the
government intends to require from NGOs, on the grounds that Thursday's
proceedings were closed and not a formal Council meeting.
Perhaps there is another explanation
of Sawers comment, perhaps the UK, France and UK will take actions
not described by Sawers. With Russia assuming the Security Council
presidency for May, action in the Council on Sri Lanka is decidedly
less likely. Watch this site.
Update of 12:42 p.m. -- at Friday's
UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Deputy Spokesperson Marie
Okabe why there was no UN TV camera, as there had been for previously
similar sessions on Sri Lanka in the basement. It was not a meeting of
the Security Council, Ms. Okabe said, insisting, you have to ask the
Security Council.
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
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