On
Sri Lanka, ICP Asks UN If
Feltman Will Address Attacks
on Muslims, Trip Pre-Planned
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
March 6 – The UN did little
during the killing of Tamils
in Sri Lanka in 2009. Then the
UN even accepted a military
leader implicated in the mass
killing, Shavendra Silva, as a
Senior UN Adviser on
Peacekeeping. On 5 March 2018,
Inner City Press asked long
time UN Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: now that
you've announced this Jeffrey
Feltman visit to Sri Lanka, is
it fair to say… there's been
wildly reported mass violence
against Muslims there, a state
of emergency declared, and
supposedly, the police
standing by as mosques and
Muslim businesses were
burned. Is this
something… what's the
relationship between his trip
and that? And do you
expect him to address this
problem? Spokesman:
Well, the trip… his trip was
obviously planned before the
recent state of
emergency. As planned,
the Under-Secretary-General is
expected to visit Kandy and to
meet religious leaders
there. We're obviously
concerned over the reports of
the ongoing communal violence,
and we welcome the
Government's commitment to
addressing the tensions and
achieve reconciliation.
We urge all Sri Lankans to
resolve their differences
through dialogue. Inner City
Press: And just one… on Mr.
Feltman, it seems that this is
his final month. Is
there… can you describe the
process, if not names?
Or do you expect to have an
officer in charge?
What's the current thinking in
terms of DPA [Department of
Political Affairs]?
Spokesman: The current
thinking is that the process
is ongoing. If there is
someone in time to take his
post, then the person will be
there in time. If there
isn't, as there always is,
when there is an
administrative vacuum of
leadership, there will be an
officer in charge to ensure
that the vacuum is filled.
Inner City Press: And that
would be Mr. Jenca?
Spokesman: Let's get…
cross that bridge when we
cross it if we ever… or when
we get to it." Back on 8
November 2017, Inner City
Press asked UN Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric about
torture that has continued
since. UN transcript
below. On November 29 the UN
in Geneva announced, "A
three-member delegation from
the UN Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention will carry
out an official visit to Sri
Lanka from 4 to 15 December
2017 to assess the country’s
situation regarding the
deprivation of liberty. José
Antonio Guevara Bermúdez,
Leigh Toomey and Elina
Steinerte will visit a variety
of places where people are
held, including prisons,
police stations and
institutions for juveniles,
migrants and people with
psychosocial disabilities, to
gather first-hand information
which will form part of their
overall assessment. The
delegation will visit Colombo
as well as western,
north-central, northern,
eastern, southern and central
provinces, where they will
meet Government officials,
civil society groups and other
relevant stakeholders.
The experts will share their
preliminary observations at a
press conference on 15
December 2017 at 14:00 local
time at the Bandaranaike
Memorial International
Conference Hall (BMICH),
Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo
07. Access will be strictly
limited to journalists. The
Working Group will present its
final report on the visit to
the UN Human Rights Council in
September 2018." From the UN's
November 8 transcript: Inner
City Press: torture in
Sri Lanka. They've
interviewed 50 individuals who
were applying for asylum who
give detailed accounts of
being tortured under the
current, not past, Government
of Sri Lanka and saying that
the military itself was
involved. So, I'm
wondering, one, if there's any
reaction given the UN's
involvement in the situation
in Sri Lanka but also, given
that the UN is increasingly
using Sri Lankan troops in UN
peacekeeping, what… what do
you… when… when detailed
allegations like this come
forward, what does the UN do
to ensure that the very people
who may have been engaged in
torture…Spokesman: As a
matter of course, there is
screening done in partnership
with DPKO [Department of
Peacekeeping Operations] and
DFS [Department of Field
Support] on ensuring that none
of the troops that are
committed to UN peacekeeping
have any human rights abuses,
allegations or issues hanging
over their head. So,
that's a screening process.
Inner City Press: Do they
self-certify? Or, given
that these are new allegations
published today… 50 people
were
interviewed…Spokesman:
I'm sure that our… my
colleagues upstairs are taking
these things into account."
We're not at all sure. On
October 23, Pablo de Greiff,
Special Rapporteur on the
promotion of truth, justice,
reparation and guarantees of
non-recurrence, said delays in
the implementation of
commitments undermined trust
and raised questions about the
Government’s determination to
undertake a comprehensive
transitional justice program.
"These delays contribute to
the further politicization of
discussions on transitional
justice," he said. The UN
should know - even before the
killings of 2009, the IPKF
killed Tamil civilians - and
one UN connection involves Ban
Ki-moon's son in law, whom he
made the UN's resident
coordinator in Kenya. This UN
Resident Coordinator, like the
previous one in Cameroon, even
as Inner City Press reports on
the Kenyan elections, blocks
it on Twitter and deploys proxies;
now this blocking has been
picked up on October 20 by the
UN's Department of Public
Information deputy Maher
Nasser, who used DPI to that
day threat
Inner City Press'
accreditation. There were
appreciated protests when the
UN did this in 2016. But the
UN, apparently, is fully
committed to censorship, while
it has Special Rapporteurs
speaking and meaning
otherwise. On October 24,
Inner City Press asked
Guterres' (and Ban's) deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq: Inner
City Press: Pablo de
Greiff, the… on transitional
justice, spent a two-week
visit to Sri Lanka. And,
since the UN Secretariat and
DPA (Department of Political
Affairs) have worked on it,
basically said the… the… the
commitments to transitional
justice and accountability
have not… have yet to be
concluded with and that it's
going to lead to political
problems. So, I
wondered, does the UN
Secretariat see an ongoing… a
need to follow up, given that…
I know Mr. [Jeffrey] Feltman's
visited twice; the
Secretary-General… previous
Secretary-General
visited. What's the
response to this finding that…
what was… things that were
committed to have not, in
fact, taken place and… and the
underlying need for… for
preventative… prevention of
conflict remain? Deputy
Spokesman: Well, we
don't comment, as you pointed
out, on the work of Special
Rapporteurs. But, beyond that,
we have made our concerns
known about the need… the
regular need for follow-up by
the Sri Lankan authorities to
make sure that there is
accountability, and we'll
continue to do that." We'll
continue to follow this. Inner
City Press pursued
the question and asked
Ban why he did it; later Ban
had Inner City Press evicted
from the UN, where
restrictions remain still. Now
Inner City Press has asked -
without answer - the top three
spokespeople of Ban Ki-moon's
successor Antonio Guterres
about the war crimes case
against Sri Lankan general /
diplomat Jagath Jayasuriya.
Notably, "Radhika
Coomaraswamy, who was the
Under-Secretary-General of the
United Nations, Special
Representative for Children
and Armed conflict… told me
that that there is 'nothing
against you,'" Jagath
Jayasuriya has said. On
September 5, Inner City Press
asked Antonio Guterres' top
three spokespeople in writing:
"In Sri Lanka, war crimes
defendant Jagath has been
quoted that Radika
Coomaraswamy, while a UN
official, told him not to
sorry about war crimes
charges. Given that timing,
and UN's admittedly
systemically failing role in
Sri Lanka, please confirm or
deny, comment and state what
the UN's action will be." More
than three days later, no
answer, no confirmation of
receipt, nothing. So Inner
City Press asked Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, UN
transcript
here: Inner City Press:
on Sri Lanka, again, maybe you
may have been overwhelmed by
the question, but there's a
former general, Jagath, who's
been charged with war
crimes. He fled back to
Sri Lanka from Brazil.
Since he got back to Sri
Lanka, he said that then-UN
official Radhika Coomaraswamy
told… quote, “told me that
there is nothing against you
in terms of war crimes.”
So I understand that she's no
longer a UN official, but
given that he is explicitly
saying that she said it as a
UN official, does the UN have
anything to… is it… was the
case that… Spokesman:
Well, I mean, it's not… I
don't know anything about the
veracity of the quote, but
it's… these sorts of charges
are put forward by judicial
bodies. Inner City
Press: And does that
charge have any impact on the
continued use and deployment
of Sri Lankan… Spokesman: " I
think as we said, all Sri
Lanka troops go through unit
vetting and individual
vetting." The UN is a
shamelessly corrupt censor.
Its dismissive approach to
Tamils and the North has
become public
again: "Northern Province
Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran
noted he had differences of
opinion with Subinay Nandy,
the former United Nations
Country Representative for Sri
Lanka. Wigneswaran says the
differences of opinion arose
as Nandy had pushed him to
fall in line with the
Government. 'We were not
prepared to do so,'
Wigneswaran said. He said this
when he met the UN country
team headed by Una McCauley,
the current UN Resident
Coordinator and UNDP Resident
Representative. Wigneswaran
says the perceptions of the
Northern Provincial Council
were not taken into
consideration by Subinay
Nandy. 'We had told Mr. Nandy
that many matters that needed
consideration by the UN at
that time were not considered
by him,' Wigneswaran said."
But is Una McCauley more
responsive? She covered
up for the UN's attack
on the Press; she's promoted
without sufficient vetting the
deployment of veterans of the
2009 campaign into UN
peacekeeping missions. Last
month, just as an
under-publicized visit to Sri
Lanka by the UN's head of
Political Affairs Jeffrey
Feltman begins, UN Special
Rapporteur Ben Emmerson has
found that torture continues
and reforms have stalled.
After Sri Lanka Foreign
Minister Ravi Karunanayake was
quoted that “some erroneous
remarks by Emmerson were
raised with Feltman and the
matter sorted out," Inner City
Press on July 24 asked UN
Spokesman Farhan Haq for
Jeffrey Feltman, who ended his
trip to Sri Lanka on July 21,
to hold a press conference to
answer. Instead there was a
canned statement, which should
go up on the UN's website,
without regard to Emmerson.
But the UN prepares to send
Sri Lankan soldiers to Mali.
And now, seemingly to
ingratiate Feltman with
President Sirisena so he
doesn't get snubbed as the
UN's Miroslav Jenca reportedly
did in Myanmar, the UN on July
20 cravenly issued a statement
that Antonio Guterres
"commends the Government of
Sri Lanka for establishing the
Office of Missing Persons." On
July 21, Inner City Press
asked Guterres' Deputy
Spokesman Farhan Haq about it,
UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: the
statement on Sri Lanka and I
asked you a couple days ago
about Ben Emmerson's findings
of continued mass torture in
the country and I didn't
really hear much of a
response. What is the
relationship between this
statement, praising the
Government for a forward going
action and what was just found
as to actual torture and what
is the relationship of this
statement to Mr. [Jeffrey]
Feltman's visit to the
country?
Deputy Spokesman: Part
of the point is that Mr.
Feltman does intend to follow
up and make sure that we can
get the Government of Sri
Lanka to move forward on
issues, including issues of
human rights concern.
This was a major rights
concern, the issue of missing
persons, and we have been
pressing on this for about a
year and a half, so the
establishment of this office
is a welcome step
forward. It's not the
only step forward. As
Mr. Emmerson points out, there
are concerns on the ground but
not enough progress has been
made on human rights, and so
these are some of the issues
that Mr. Feltman will be
talking about with the leaders
while he is there.
We'll see.
On July 18 Inner City Press
asked UN Deputy Spokesman
Farhan Haq, UN transcript here: Inner
City Press: the Special
Rapporteur Ben Emmerson
recent… has visited… concluded
a visit to Sri Lanka, and he
issued a report where he said
that torture is wide-spread
today, not in the past, but
today, and that the reforms
that were called for by the
Human Rights Council have not…
that… that progress on them
have… has “ground to a
halt”. So, I wanted to
know two things. One is,
with Mr. [Jeffrey] Feltman
going there, is he going to
raise this issue of ongoing
torture? And, number
two, the UN is still
continuing, I've seen
pictures, to recruit Sri
Lankan troops to serve in [the
United Nations
Multidimensional Integrated
Stabilization Mission] in Mali
(MINUSMA). Given this
new finding by the UN that the
security forces in Sri Lanka
are engaged in torture, what
particular safeguards are in
place to make sure that those
involved in the abuse aren't,
in fact, just shipped to Mali
to continue it?
Deputy Spokesman: Well,
wherever we recruit soldiers
from, in every country, we try
to vet the peacekeeping
troops… the incoming
peacekeeping troops, to make
sure that they're not involved
in any problems like that in
their home country. And,
of course, we would do that
sort of vetting for Sri Lankan
troops as we would for any
other country. Regarding
Mr. Feltman's travel, of
course, we'll try to provide
details on that once it's
happened.
Inner City Press: So will the
[Department of Peacekeeping
Operations] get this report
just came out today, and the
recruitment has already taken
place. The Resident
Coordinator has been meeting
with the military. The
military has been bragging
about it. I guess what I
want to know is, in light of
this new UN founding released
today, will this be
information be incorporated
before people get off the
plane in Mali to begin serving
the UN?
Deputy Spokesman: If
there's new relevant
information of… regarding the
peacekeeping troops that
they're dealing with, then our
Department of Field Support
would look into that.
Will they?
Emmerson said, "The Tamil
community has borne the brunt
of the State’s well-oiled
torture apparatus, as the law
is used disproportionately
against them. The use of
torture is deeply ingrained in
the security sector. I heard
deeply disturbing, first-hand
accounts of brutal torture.
These included beatings with
sticks, stress positions,
asphyxiation using plastic
bags drenched in kerosene,
pulling out of fingernails,
insertion of needles beneath
the fingernails, various forms
of water torture, suspension
for several hours by the
thumbs, and mutilation of the
genitals.” Emmerson cited the
watered down UN Human Rights
Council resolution and said,
"more than two years on,
progress seems to have ground
to a virtual halt." So what
will Feltman do? And why is
the UN sending Sri Lankan
soldiers to Mali? On June 5
after an expose of Sri Lankan
"peacekeepers" rapes in Haiti,
when Ban's successor Antonio
Guterres met Lankan Prime
Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe
he did not have with him the
UN Peacekeeping chief
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, nor
Lacroix' deputy or anyone from
DPKO. So can the UN even
pretend it is taking the
peacekeepers' rapes issue, or
wider accountability issues,
seriously? On May 26, Inner
City Press asked the UN,
transcript here:
Inner City Press: I've
heard that at the Office of
the [United Nations] High
Commissioner of Human Rights
(OHCHR), that they had an
assigned staffer that was
vetting Sri Lankans being
deployed, for example, to Mali
and other missions where
they're being taken by the UN
and that that person has
recently been reassigned such
that there is no staff member
handling this. I'm
wondering, is the policy that
you read out today, is this a
response to the AP
story? How does it
relate to actually reassigning
the person who had been, until
recently, in charge of vetting
soldiers?
Deputy Spokesman: No,
no, this is not a
response. This is the
policy that we've had in place
because of the exceptional
needs in terms of how we deal
with peacekeeping
contributions from Sri
Lanka. Obviously,
there's a self-certification
process that’s standard for
troops and police
contributions by Member
States. And in that, the
Department of Peacekeeping
Operations works closely with
the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights
to tailor their approach and
put in place mitigating
measures as needed. With
Sri Lanka, the measures are as
I've been spelling out just
now.
Question: So when they
sent Shavendra Silva, a
well-known military commander,
this same country sent him as
a senior adviser on
peacekeeping, would it have
passed this policy if they'd
said that he didn't commit any
crimes?
Deputy Spokesman:
Obviously, like I said, you
know, any… the content of any
policy, you know, of any
review or investigation, needs
to be done in a precise
manner. We are not the
ones who nominated Mr.
Silva. You would have to
ask the Government of Sri
Lanka why they nominated him.
On March
30, laundered by Ban Ki-moon
and the UN, Shavendra Silva
has been named Adjutant
General of the Sri Lankan
Army, photos
here. On April 3, Inner
City Press asked the UN
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
who served Ban Ki-moon and now
Antonio Guterres about Silva,
UN transcript
here:
Inner City Press:
in Sri Lanka, there's a
military figure called
Shavendra Silva that you may
remember. He was
appointed as a senior…
Spokesman: Yes.
Yeah, I know who he was.
Inner City Press:
Okay. So, there was some
controversy, and he ended up…
even the UN Secretariat seemed
to acknowledge that there was
a controversy under Ms.
Frechette. He's recently
been named the chief
administrative officer of the
Sri Lankan military. So,
I wanted to know, one, if you
have a comment, but, two, how
this may relate to the vetting
of Sri Lankan peacekeepers,
which I've asked about in
writing, being deployed to UN
peacekeeping missions.
Is the military…?
Spokesman: I think the…
I… the vetting of peacekeepers
will remain the same along our
procedures. And I have
no specific comment on him.
It is an outrage - but one in
which the UN has played a
shameful part. (There was also
Shavendra Silva as a speaker
at a "UN screening" of a war
crimes denial film, here.)
Not only does the UN remain
silent on human rights abuses
like this year in Cameroon:
it actively launders war
criminals, and remains silent
when they get promotions,
accepts their troops as
peacekeepers. Last week Inner
City Press formally asked the
UN Spokesman to describe the
UN's vetting and due diligence
of the Sri Lanka military
figures it is deploying to
peacekeeping missions, without
response. We'll have more on
this.
Now that Sri Lankan president
Sirisena has said, No foreign
judges, Inner City Press on
March 3 asked Stephane
Dujarric, the spokesman for
Ban Ki-moon and now Antonio
Guterres, for the new
Secretary General's reaction.
Video
here; UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press:
the President of Sri Lanka,
Mr. Sirisena, has said in Sri
Lanka that there will be no
foreign judges, no hybrid
court. I know this was
an issue that the former
Secretary-General had kind of
a personal interest in, this
idea of following up on the
2009 events. What's the
response of the UN system to
essentially a flat “no” by the
President?
Spokesman: The situation
remains one that we're
following. I think I
would encourage you to ask the
human rights… our colleagues
in the Human Rights Office who
are on the lead on this issue.
(Of
course, the spokesman of the
UN Human Rights Office, Rupert
Colville, has refused
to answer written
questions from Inner City
Press.)
The UN,
which half-admitted systemic
failure under Ban Ki-moon
while tens of thousands of
Tamils were killed in Sri
Lanka, has been supporting
something called the National
Authority for Protection of
Victims of Crime and
Witnesses.
But now
that the body has been shown
to include, among others, a
person accused by the UN's own
Special Rapporteur of torture,
what does the UN do? Nothing,
it seems.
The issue
was raised again on February
20 in the 66th Session of
Committee on Elimination of
Discrimination against Women.
Video
here. This came, as it
happens, hours after the son
in law of just-left UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon,
Siddharth Chatterjee, dodged
again on his connection to
alleged war crimes in Sri
Lanka. He wrote: "The fact is
that I arrived in Sri Lanka
having cut short a specialized
combat under water diving
course with the Indian Navy on
October 16, 1987. The raid at
Jaffna University took place
on 12 October 1987." But it
was after the failed October
12 raid - and after
Chatterjee's now specified
October 16 arrival - that the
alleged reprisals took place.
We'll have more on this,
including in light of the new
human rights self-attestation
promulgated in the UN.
On February
14, Inner City Press asked UN
deputy spokesman Farhan Haq
about it. He had no answer,
and later in the briefing,
regarding Ban Ki-moon who has
had two relatives indicted for
real estate fraud involving
the UN, called Inner City
Press "obsessive"
then an a*hole.
(This same Haq in
2016 cut off Press questions
about a protest in Jaffna of
Ban Ki-moon's unilateral
eviction from the UN of Inner
City Press, where it remains
restricted as
"non-resident correspondent.")
Here's
from the February 14 UN
transcript, on Sri
Lanka:
Inner City Press:
I want to ask you about Sri
Lanka, and I'll say why.
There's a report
out by the International Truth
and Justice Project run by
Yasmin Sooka, who was one of
the named panellists.
And they've basically said
that there's a Sri Lankan body
called the National Authority
for Victim and Witness
Protection, and they've named
a member of the body, put on
by the Government, who's named
in a UN report as having been
accused of torture by a
Special Rapporteur on
Torture. And the reason
I'm asking is the UN is
apparently providing financial
support to this National
Authority for Victim and
Witness Protection.
There's a… a… they've… they've
hired a management
consultant. And I wanted
to know, is the UN, given its
previous role in Sri Lanka,
aware that it's financially
supporting a body that has, in
fact, torturers on it?
And, if so, what happens to
the financial support?
Deputy Spokesman: We'd
have to check and see what
sort of financial support is
being provided. I'm not
aware of what support is given
to this group and whether that
would need to be conditioned
on any particular set of
circumstances.
Haq, after
calling
Inner City Press an obsessive
a*hole, left his office hours
later having provided no
answer. Here
is the report, and here
a sample
UN system recruitment,
showing support.
40,000 dead
Tamils, UN failure? Get over
it.
***
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