Sri
Lanka Banning
Families of
Disappeared in
North OK with
Ban's UN
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
7 -- When the
Sri Lankan
government
bans families
of
the
disappeared
from traveling
from Vavuniya
to Colombo to
petition
the UN office
there, one
might expect
the UN to be
concerned, at
least as much
as some member
states, if not
as “deeply
concerned”
as about, say,
North Korea.
But
as to Ban
Ki-moon's UN,
you'd be
wrong.
Thirteen
days
after Ban
accepted a
“whitewash”
report about
Sri Lanka
and
went
on to praise
it in Geneva,
without
releasing the
report,
Inner
City Press asked
Ban's chief
spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky:
Inner
City Press:
There was a
group of
families of
disappeared
people
seeking to go
to Colombo, it
said to
actually go to
meet the UN
country team
with
information,
see about
their
relatives, and
they
were stopped
by the
Government in
Vavuniya, not
allowed to
reach
Colombo or to
speak to the
UN, and I am
wondering if
the UN [is]
saying that
they shouldn’t
have been
blocked. Is
the UN aware
of
this? Do they
believe people
should be able
to pass this
whatever
information
they have to
the UN, and
what’s going
to happen with
them?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well, there
would be other
conduits to be
able to
provide
information if
people feel
they have
information
that they wish
to
hand over to
the United
Nations. There
are other ways
to do it if
they cannot
reach Colombo.
So I am sure
that that
would be
possible,
to be able to
receive
information
and not just
via the
country team
in the
country.
From
this answer it
sounds like
blocking or
banning the
families of
the
disappeared up
in Vavuniya,
keeping them
from access to
the UN
Country Team,
is fine with
the UN.
What
ARE these
“other
conduits”?
What was in
the “whitewash”
report
that Ban praised
in Geneva?
There are many
questions
about Ban
Ki-moon and
Sri Lanka and
they should be
asked and
answered.
Maybe
Team
Ban will again
find a way to
give the
answers to
other,
friendlier
scribes.
Watch this
site.
, 
