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As Sri Lanka Rejects UN's Ceasefire Call, No
Response from Ban, Help Mulled as Ceasefire Incentive While IMF Extends
Visit
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
March 31 -- As Sri Lanka's President
Mahinda Rajapaksa openly rejects UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's
call for a
cessation of fighting in northern Sri Lanka, on Tuesday in New York
Ban's
spokesperson Michele Montas had no reply to the rejection, calling it a
"media report" and focusing on unrelated reports that soldiers may
pull out of some of the government's controversial camps for Internally
Displaced People. Video here,
from Minute 14:57.
Inner City
Press asked for Ban's response to President Rajapaksa's statement, on a
government web site, that "We
will not cave into pressures from any
international quarters, locally and internationally, and will not stop
until
the war is completely over." This is directly at odds with the
public calls
by Ban and his top humanitarian official John Holmes for a suspension
of
fighting.
It also
calls into question the UN's new strategy, enunciated to
Inner City Press on Monday night by a senior official speaking on
condition of
anonymity, that the Sri Lankan government be offered "real help" if
it suspends bombing in the areas were civilians are trapped.
"Sri
Lanka could rejoined the world economy," the UN official told Inner
City
Press. "They have an attractive work force, for assembly, clothing."
He said that the UN was thinking how to convince the Tamil Tigers, too,
to let
civilians go, by allow the Tigers not to "lose face." He said on
Monday night, "Even a three or four day ceasefire might give rise to a
political process."
The next morning,
when President Rajapaksa rejected "international" even for a short
pause in military action, the UN had no comment other than happy talk
that
"we have been getting a little bit.. of protection of civilians,"
referring to soldiers leaving some camps. But the government has said
they will
"remain at
the camps for 'security reasons,'" and that freedom of movement
will not be afforded to the
IDP.
UN's Ban and Mexico's Claude Heller,
April's UNSC President, Sri Lanka reaction not shown
The
UN-affiliated International Monetary Fund has extended to a second week
its
consultations in Sri Lanka. A legal argument is being advanced that the
U.S.
government would violate applicable law if it did not vote, within the
IMF,
again Sri Lanka's request, since it would be used for "quasi
military" purposes. It has been noted that Sri Lanka has spend $1.6
billion on this offensive in the north, while it asks the IMF for $1.9
billion.
Even while it does not comment, one assumes the UN system can do the
math.
Footnote: on press
freedom, there has still been no
response from UNESCO, which committed to answer why it has spoken about
assault
on the media from the Philippines to Colombia, but not in Sri Lanka.
These last
two countries were named by African Union chief Jean Ping on Monday, as
countries in which the International Criminal Court should look for war
crimes
cases. Mexico takes over the Presidency of the UN Security Council from
Libya
on April 1; Mexican Ambassador Claude Heller, pictured above with Ban,
was the first requester for a Council session on Sri Lanka.
Watch this site.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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Other,
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