Sri Lanka's UN Delegation of 39 "Feels Invisible," Of Child Soldiers, Aid Workers, and MIG-27 Jets

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, September 26 -- Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for aid workers. The UN's John Holmes said this, and was then called a "terrorist" by a Sri Lankan government minister. On Wednesday Inner City Press asked Sri Lanka's foreign minister about the safety of aid workers, the comment, and the recruitment of child soldiers by the so-called Karuna faction. Inner City Press also asked about the size of Sri Lanka's delegation to the UN General Assembly, reportedly a full 65.

            Rohitha Bogollagama answered, "When I was walking through the corridors there, I was thinking we are very much invisible in this environment... If I say our delegation is comprised of thirty nine, do you think this is too high?"

            "I'm just asking," Inner City Press replied. Video here, from Minute 26:08.

Sri Lanka's delegation in GA in 2004: now 39?

    Another question concerned a journalist on whom the Sri Lankans reportedly cracked down, after his reports on Sri Lanka's moves to purchase MIG-27 jets from Ukraine. That should have been addressed "through the Editors' Guild," Bogollagama replied. He emphasized that a government minister had attended the commemoration for the killed aid workers, which is "like a government endorsement," he said. But he also said that the minister who called "Sir Holmes" a terrorist had not been endorsed. So ministers' acts are endorsed if they help Sri Lanka's external relations, but can be disavowed if they result in fight-back as the accusation of Holmes did.

            On child soldiers, Min. Bogollagama unprompted invoked the name of Radhika Coomerswamy, the Under Secretary General who, because she is Sri Lankan, had Canadian Allan Rock visit Sri Lanka in her stead. On Wednesday, Bogollagama was handed a note to answer Inner City Press' question. "We have already set up a commission of inquiry," was his answer to this and many other questions. And so... developing.

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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 by this correspondent about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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