As
ICP
"UNredacts"
Report on Sri
Lanka, Hiding
of Casualties
Comes to Light
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 14 --
Why did the UN
black out
portions of
its
report on its
actions and
inaction in
Sri Lanka, and
then take the
report
off-line once
asked about
the
redactions, by
Inner City
Press?
Well,
Inner City
Press has
re-posted the
report as
it appeared
with
redactions,
and is going
behind the
redactions.
The first one
occurs
on Page 11 in
Paragraph 26.
The material
the UN blacked
out, but is
now being
"liberated" by
Inner City
Press, appears
in
brackets,
followed by an
explanation.
26.
Three
days later, on
12 March, at a
UNHQ meeting
of the Policy
Committee to
discuss Sri
Lanka [several
USG
participants
and the RC did
not stand by
the casualty
numbers,
saying that
the data were
‘not
verified’.
Participants
in the
meeting
questioned an
OHCHR proposal
to release a
public
statement
referencing
the numbers
and possible
crimes.]
The next day,
after
receiving a
draft of the
statement, the
Chef de
Cabinet, the
USG-Humanitarian
Affairs, and
the RC all
wrote to the
OHCHR
leadership
urging that
the statement
be changed to
exclude
specific
reference to
the number of
casualties and
possible
crimes
and violations
of
international
law by the
Government."
Inner
City Press covered this
at the time,
in March 2009,
and in fact
obtained and
exclusively
published the
casualty
figures, click
here
for that.
Those who
urged that the
figures not be
made public
with
the "Chef de
Cabinet" --
Vijay Nambiar,
still with the
UN
on Myanmar --
and John
Holmes, now
out of the UN
but defending
it and
himself.
We
will have more
on the other
redactions.
Watch this
site.
, 
