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In Sri Lanka, UN Turns Away from Conflict Zone as Ban Visit Approaches

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

UNITED NATIONS, May 18 – While from northern Sri Lanka local reports persist of wounded and dying civilians in the “No Fire” Zone, in New York on Monday the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes said the UN has come to believe that all or nearly all civilians are out of the zone. While this may be based on government provided imagery from drones or UAVs, it's said that many of the wounded are in bunkers that they dug, without food or medical care.

   Inner City Press asked Holmes if the ICRC ships, off the coast for days now, have been allowed to land. No, he said. Inner City Press followed up, what could be the rationale for continuing to exclude the Red Cross, if the claim is that all fighting is over and no civilians remain? Another UN officials told Inner City Press, why don't you ask them, the Sri Lankan government?

While the UN declined to confirm it, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama announced Monday in Colombo that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be visiting the city on Friday, for 24 hours. Accordingly, Inner City Press has put in a request to, as other UN accredited media do, accompany the Secretary General on this trip in order to cover it in real time. The request has been made, among others, to Ban's chief of staff and envoy Vijay Nambiar, who is at present in Sri Lanka.

John Holmes said that Nambiar will be traveling to the IDP camps the government has established, which Holmes called “the largest in the world.” Local sources tell Inner City Press that these camps are being “cleaned up” in preparation for a UN visit. Holmes acknowledged that while the UN system now has a presence at the Omanthai screening center, it has no presence before then.

UN's Ban and Holmes, trip to Sri Lanka this Friday not shown

Inner City Press asked Holmes about the doctors who remained providing services and information in the conflict zone, and who have now gone missing, allegedly taken for interrogation or worse by the government. Holmes said he was aware of the allegations, but had no way to confirm them.

  Asked how many civilians have been killed this year, beyond the 7000 in the UN documents Inner City Press obtained and put online some time ago, Holmes said “several thousand” had been killed. But that's less than seven thousand, a reported noted. Holmes said that seven fell within his definition of several.

As previously reported by Inner City Press, the UN withheld its analysis of satellite photos of the conflict zone. Now, reports come that the UN stopped taking or acquiring satellite photos on May 10 at the request or demand of the government. Holmes said that in the past, photos were available, just not the analysis, adding that Inner City Press usually has been information on these matters than he does. So... see you in Sri Lanka? Watch this site.

Ambulance aflame in "No Fire" Zone, May 13, 2009

In the final week of fighting we ran this message, from Dr. Sathiyamoorthy

13 May 2009

Dear Sir / Madam,

Heavy battle started since 5.30 am. Many wounded civilians were brought to hospital and hospital is not providing services because hospital was under shell attack. Few staff reported duty. nearly thousand patients are waiting to get daily treatment. But even simple wound dressing and giving antibiotics problems. So many wounded have to die. In the ward among patients many death bodies are there.

Looking hospital seen and hearing the civilians cry really disaster. Did they make any mistake do the world by the innocent. But the important sta[keholders] are just listening the situation and not helping the people.

Dr.T.Sathiyamoorthy

Regional director of Health Services

Kilinochchi (Now at No Fire Zone)

  From the UN's May 14 transcript:

Deputy Spokesperson Okabe:  ...the very fact that he’s sending his Chef de Cabinet again to underscore his message I think speaks loudly on what the Secretary-General in his personal capacity is trying to do to bring an end to the situation on the ground.

Inner City Press: A follow-up on the Chef de Cabinet.  There has been substantial criticism, not just that because Mr. Nambiar comes from India, but because his brother, an Indian General [Satish] Nambiar recently wrote an op-ed praising the offensive of the Sri Lankan Army in the north and General [Sarath] Fonseca who’s led it.  Is the Secretariat aware of this criticism and how does it address it?  Also, that Mr. Nambiar went before he got a commitment to visit an open conflict zone and it never took place.  What’s the, I guess, the response and why isn’t Ban Ki-moon himself going if he’s invited and the French and others have said he should go ASAP?

Deputy Spokesperson Okabe:  Matthew, as you know the Secretary-General’s position on going to Sri Lanka has been reiterated from this podium many times this week.  And the fact that Mr. Nambiar happens to be of a nationality does not in any way get in the way of his work as a UN official.  As you know, everybody from the UN does come from one country or another; but once they sign on to work at the UN they go as UN officials.

Inner City Press: Isn’t there generally a sort of an unwritten rule of not, for example, I mean, when Mr. Gambari was going to do Nigeria, are you unaware that they see that... within diplomats in the UN often say that a person from a country too close to a conflict is not the right person to be sent.

Deputy Spokesperson Okabe:  Mr. Nambiar is not from Sri Lanka.

  No, he's from India which has a major stake in the Sri Lanka conflict. Watch this site.

 On Thursday May 7, Inner City Press asked Associate UN 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.

* * *

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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