On
Sri
Lanka, UN
Official
Bangura
"Worried"
About Rapes,
Raised to
Kohona
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 24 --
Amid reports
of rapes in
Sri Lanka
targeted at
Tamils, Inner
City Press on
April 24 asked
the UN's
Zainab
Bangura,
Special
Representative
of the
Secretary-General
on Sexual
Violence in
Conflict, what
if anything
the UN is
doing about
it. UN
video here
from Minute
15:15, Inner
City Press video here and embedded below.
Bangura
replied
that she is
"concerned,
worried" and
has spoken
with Sri
Lanka's
Permanent
Representative,
Palitha
Kohona, about
it, urging him
that Sri Lanka
designate a
"focal person"
on the issue.
Inner
City Press
asked about a
report
authored by
Yasmin Sooka,
who previously
served on one
of the UN's
panels looking
at war crimes
in Sri Lanka.
Bangura said
Yasmin will be
in New York
"next week"
and they will
meet.
Last
week, Inner
City Press asked
yet another
former UN
panelist on
Sri Lanka,
Marzuki
Darusman,
if he thought
the UN's
response to
his report had
been
successful.
Darusman cited
the example of
Cambodia, for
the
proposition
that justice
can take a
long time.
But how long?
The UN
can't even
keep track of
its own
statements. On
alleged rapes
by UN
peacekeepers
in Mali, the
UN told Inner
City Press in
January that
the
investigation
was finished.
Then on April
23, the UN's
Mali envoy Bert
Koenders said
it won't be
finished for
two or three
weeks, but
predicted or
pretold that
the UN
peacekeepers
will be
cleared.
Bangura, when
Inner City
Press asked,
didn't know
which was
true, or any
update on the
rape charges
against UN
peacekeepers
themselves.
Combined
with
the UN's
refusal to be
accountable
for, or even
acknowledge
service of
legal papers
on Ban Ki-moon
about,
bringing
cholera to
Haiti, how
can the UN
effectively
push for
accountability
by anyone
else? We'll
see. Watch
this site.
* * *
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