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At UN, UK's Miliband Decries Sri Lankan Bloodbath, IMF Loan Linked, No Resolution

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

UNITED NATIONS, May 11, updated -- After a weekend of bombing and “bloodbath” in Sri Lanka, the first official to speak out at the UN in New York was UK minister David Miliband. He stopped to speak to the Press on his way into the UN Security Council's meeting on the Middle East. He said he has arranged to speak with Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama later in the day. Inner City Press asked if the UK will be proposing a Security Council resolution on Sri Lanka, and for the UK's position on Sri Lanka's application to the International Monetary Fund for a $1.9 billion loan.

  “As you know, the issue has not yet been allowed onto the formal UN Security Council agenda. That's why we'll be having a range of meetings on the side of the formal meeting on the Middle East... merits the attention of the UN at all levels. The Secretary General has already sent his rep to Sri Lanka, the lack of access for the UN and its agencies remains a major concern.”

   Inner City Press twice followed up on the IMF loan question. Video here.

UK's Miliband and UN's Ban earlier this year, action on bloodbath not shown

   Pausing as he walked away from the microphone, Miliband returned and said, “sorry, in respect to the IMF, I think you'll find that the issue is not coming up at the IMF today...it's essential that any govt is able to show that it will use any imf money in a responsible and appropriate way, and as I explained in the House of Commons last week, I don't that that's here the case.”

Watch this site.

Update of 12:03 p.m. -- a staffer of a Permanent Five member said the Sri Lanka meeting will not be in the basement -- "there was no room" -- but rather in a conference room upstairs. Apparently, the Press will not be able to stake the meeting out. NGOs, OCHA, but neither Russia nor China, says the staffer...

Update of 12:07 p.m. -- Miliband and entourage charge into an elevator and head upstairs. The Sri Lanka meeting was supposed to start at noon. Where is Kouchner? Who will attend for the U.S.? Will Ban Ki-moon attend? It's said that Kouchner's and Miliband's stakeout will be sometime after 1.

 On Thursday May 7, Inner City Press asked Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask about this invitation that’s been made to the Secretary-General to visit Sri Lanka. First I wanted to ask if on Monday when he met with the Ambassador of Japan, whether he was briefed on a visit by Mr. [Yasushi] Akashi to Sri Lanka and was urged by Japan that he should take this visit. And I also wanted to know whether he would be in New York 11 May for the Middle East debate, and 15 May to meet with the Chinese diplomats, that in fact this is one reason that he is considering not going, as I have been told by senior Secretariat staff.

Associate Spokesperson Haq: Well, first of all, we don’t announce the trips of the Secretary-General until they are close to occurring. And in that regard, I don’t have anything to announce about a trip to Sri Lanka at this stage. At the same time, as Michèle told you yesterday, and is still true for today, if the Secretary-General believes that visiting Sri Lanka can have an impact in terms of saving lives there, he will certainly try to go. So he is considering that. But part of what he is studying is what the impact of a potential trip would be.

Inner City Press: But if he had that belief, that would be without regard to attending the 11 May Middle East thing or the 15 May meeting with the Chinese diplomats? I am told that’s a major factor in his planning.

Associate Spokesperson: Scheduling is a separate issue. What we’re talking about is the decision of whether or not to go. And certainly if he can make a difference and can save civilian lives, which is what his priority has been on this case, then he will go. At present, we don’t have anything to announce at all in this regard, though.

Question: Just one last one on that. I wanted to know, can you at least confirm that he met with Ambassador Takasu on Monday in his office inside the Security Council? Can you give a read-out of that meeting and say why it wasn’t on his public schedule?

Associate Spokesperson: I can confirm that he met with the Permanent Representative of Japan. He did that, yes. It was in his office in the Security Council. We don’t provide readouts of meetings with ambassadors.

Question: And why wasn’t it on the schedule?

Associate Spokesperson: It came up all of a sudden when he had a bit of free time in between other appointments on a fairly hectic day.

  While Ban Ki-moon is working on his issues as a trip to Manama, Bahrain, after a news-less trip to Malta, the killing of civilians accelerates in Sri Lanka. On Friday May 8, Inner City Press asked Deputy Spokesperson Okabe:

Inner City Press: On the invitation by the Government of Sri Lanka to the Secretary-General to visit, is there any progress in thinking? In the alternative, is the Secretary-General, is he considering invoking Article 99 or responsibility to protect or making some other move of some type on the situation in Sri Lanka?

Deputy Spokesperson: I have nothing beyond what we’ve been saying from this podium this week on Sri Lanka, including what the Secretary-General himself has said earlier this week.

   What Ban said did not involve calling for a cease-fire, did not respond to the invitation to visit Sri Lanka, or the accelerating rate of civilians death over the weekend, during which no statement issued about Sri Lanka. Watch this site.

 Channel 4 in the UK with allegations of rape and disappearance

  Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate

Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

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These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

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 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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