UNITED
NATIONS, May
14, updated --
The UN gets a
lot of mail,
sure. And so
it might
take hours to
go back and
see if a
particular
letter was
received.
But some
issues fall
off the table
of this UN
that probably
shouldn't.
Take
Sri
Lanka, for
example. Take
the specific
issue of
attacks on
Muslims in Sri
Lanka. At the
May
13 noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky:
Inner
City Press: a
Muslim leader
in Sri Lanka,
Azath Salley,
he’s
recently been
arrested under
anti-terrorism
charges. He
may be
released
having issued
some kind of
statement, but
the news there
is
that he says
that he wrote
recently to
Ban Ki-moon
asking him and
the
UN system to
look into the
crackdown on
Muslim
community...
was the
letter
received, is
there any
response or
comment?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
We’ll have a
look. I think,
as we have
said many
times —
either I have
said it or
colleagues
have said —
many letters
are
received, and
they are
logged. I
don’t
automatically
have
immediate
knowledge of
the letters
being
received, but
when people
ask, we check
whether they
have been.
Inner
City Press:
Beyond just
the letter, is
there concern
on the part,
as
about Myanmar…
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
No, I
understand,
but first of
all, I would
like to see if
we have
received the
letter and
then we can
respond to it.
Inner
City Press:
Okay.
This
exchange took
place at
Monday's noon
briefing, and
three hours
later
Inner City
Press was
again told
that it was
being looked
into. And
perhaps there
is already an
answer (the UN says its
review of Sri
Lanka is
important to
it.) But
none has yet
been provided
to
Inner City
Press.
In
the interim
linking to the
UN webcast (video
here from
Minute 23),
the press in
Sri Lanka have
reported the
question, and
Nesirky's
answer,
here, under
the headline,
"UN unaware of
letter from
Salley."
If the
UN is
in fact
aware, it'd be
nice if they'd
say so, as
quickly as
they can.
On
the reference
to Myanmar and
mistreatment
of Muslims
there, in
Meiktila and
of course
Rakhine State,
now another
cyclone is
bearing
down, and the
government is
doing...
almost
nothing. Could
this
ethnic
cleansing be
blamed on
global
warming? Watch
this site.
Update:
On May 14, UN
spokesperson
Nesirky said
of Salley's
letter, if it
has been
received, "no,
or not yet."
Inner City
Press asked
about Cyclone
Mahasen
heading to
Myanmar -
we'll have
more on this.
, 
