In
Sri Lanka, Red Cross Barred from "Interment" Camps Despite
UN's Rosy Picture
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, May 27 -- While the International Committee of the Red Cross
went
public Wednesday in Geneva with the fact that the Sri Lankan
government is running interment camps to which Red Cross workers do
not have access, in New York the UN's Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe
said that "since the Secretary General's visit to Sri Lanka, an
interim measure has been agreed" in which aid agency vehicles
including trucks are allowed into all Manik Farm zones, only not in
convoys and not with agency flags. Video here,
from Minute 2:30.
Inner
City Press asked Mr. Okabe to square to the two statements, if there
are camps that the UN has access to that the Red Cross does not. Ms.
Okabe claimed that Inner City Press hadn't heard the statement by the
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs -- in fact, it
was that very positive report that Inner City Press was questioning
-- and then said that OCHA's John Holmes had spoken about food needs,
to the "follow
up with OCHA." Video here,
from Minute
15:53.
The
question is not whether the UN has and can deliver food. The question
is, even as to the camps it can visit is the UN enabling and blessing
interment camps by providing funds and materiel? And what about the
camps that the Red
Cross has now said publicly it is being blocked
from visiting -- is the UN there? Or does the UN not care, or not
care that the public knows?
From
the phrasing of OCHA's update -- "since the Secretary General's
visit an interim measure has been agreed" -- many infer that UN
OCHA is more concerned about making Ban Ki-moon look good than about
raising the red flag when civilians are being cut off from aid and
monitors. The usually silent Red Cross is complaining, and the UN is
saying the government is going a great job, just needs more
resources. More resources for interment?
Guard in Manik Farm camp, (c) M. Lee May 2009
Also
in Geneva, the Human Rights Council's procedures allowed Sri Lanka to
claim the upper hand in the debate about whether its conduct in its
military offensive in the north should be investigated. Sri Lanka
rushed and was the first to table a draft resolution, congratulating
itself for its conduct and calling for more money. In a move that
left many of the supporters of the US's joining the Human Rights
Council shaking their heads, US diplomat Mark Storella urged the
47-member Council to reach a compromise, saying the United States
"believes there is a basis for consensus."
The
consensus reached omitted any outside investigation, and calls for
more funding for Sri Lanka. Some wondered, wasn't the US joining the
Human Rights Council supposed to raise human rights standards, not
just demonstrate that the Obama administration calls for consensus
everywhere?
While
Tamils imprisoned in UN-funded camps in Sri Lanka want to be let go,
and to live without threat of ethnic violence or oppression, Obama
wants to be a friend of all the world and the UN's Ban wants so much
to be relevant that he praises the Sri Lankan government efforts and
funds them.
Inner
City Press has heard from local sources of Tamil store owners, for
example, being besieged by Sinhalese demands for money "since
you lost." The UN, which is supposed to be watching for such
dangerous signs and trends, is at least publicly and at the highest
levels blissfully unaware. As one source told Inner City Press, if
this is the way the Sri Lankan government and majority acts while the
world is (half) watching, imagine what they'll go later. Watch this
site.
Back
from Sri Lanka, UN's Holmes Admits NGO Killings and Restrictions Not
Raised
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, May 26 -- Just back to the United Nations from Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon's surreal tour of Sri Lanka, Inner City Press
asked UK Ambassador John Sawers if the UN paying for interment camps
for Tamils rounded up from throughout northern Sri Lanka compiles
with international humanitarian law.
Ambassador Sawers, rather than
answer, said that there has been a "high level of attention"
to the issue by the UN, by envoy Vijay Nambiar, humanitarian chief
John Holmes and the visit of the Secretary General over the weekend.
There's been not report to the Security Council yet, Sawers said, we
look forward to that and "we'll have to consider steps after
that." Video here,
from Minute 6:15.
Ban
Ki-moon is still out of New York. John Holmes took questions by
phone, since he was outside of the UN (some said in Upstate New
York). Inner City Press asked Holmes about the people looked up in
the camps who were not in the final conflict zone. "I was not
aware of that," Holmes said, arguing that "the whole Vanni"
or jungle area was under Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam control "so
in a sense was the conflict zone." Video here,
from Minute
21:15.
Interviews
in the camps, even under the watchful eyes of Sri Lankan soldiers and
seemingly pro-government UN personnel nevertheless revealed that
people were swept into the camps. The goal, if not to move members of
the Sinhala majority into the now-vacated areas, is to screen anyone
who lived under the LTTE for whether they support Tamil separatism or
autonomy. Should the UN be assisting in such ideological if not
ethnic cleansing?
Holmes
insisted that "there is no question of the UN funding the
sweeping up," the UN is "only providing emergency relief in
the camps." But if the camps are being used, not as a temporary
fix to a natural disaster but to ethnic and ideological screening,
providing food and money -- and in the case of UNOPS, planning the
camps and helping build them -- makes the UN's role more direct, and
problematic.
Inner
City Press asked Holmes if Ban Ki-moon, in his meeting with President
Mahinda Rajapaka, has raised the issue of press freedom, including of
the editor will last year, and other reports who have been harassed,
arrested and disappeared, and of the aid workers, including from Action Contre la Faim,
who have been killed, allegedly by
pro-government militias. No, Holmes said, neither issue was raised
by Ban in his meetings. He did not say, why not?
The
government's proposed Memorandum of Understanding it wants NGOs to
sign would require them to provide information on all their clients,
which these NGOs don't do anywhere in the world. Since a number of NGOs
have told
Inner City Press that they are not in the best position to fight the
proposed MOU, as they are working in Sri Lanka; they would like to see
John Holmes and OCHA take the lead in fighting back the intrusive
NGO. Holmes admitted that the "MOU was not raise by the
Secretary-General," and said that the issue had been set on the
side. He did not say, by whom?
Tamil IDPs in Manik Farm await UN's Ban with baited
breathe, May 23 (c) M.Lee
Since
some NGOs have expressed concern about the publication statements
about what they expect from Holmes' OCHA -- to fight back against the
MOU, for example -- and in light of major NGOs' summary from last
week that John Holmes "had objected to the trip, as many of you
know," Inner City Press asked Holmes about this position, and to
explain it. Holmes replied that "I did not say to the NGOs that
I was against the visit, I simply said that there were some tricky
presentational aspect about which we were very well aware and that we
would be dealing with while there, and which I think we did
successfully."
Apparently,
Holmes was comfortable with the "presentational aspects" of
children in the camps being forced to sing "Ban Ki-moon" to
the Secretary General, and of Ban acceding to Rajapaksa's demand that
they meet not in the capital but in the Buddhist shrine town of
Kandy, which many say was a message to Tamils, we win, you lose. In
fact, there are reports of Tamil shopkeepers in Colombo being
besieged by Sinhala mobs and told to pay money, since "you
lost." The UN should be countering such trends, not covering
them up or, worse, stoking them.
Lynn
Pascoe was also at the briefing, but said less. When Inner City Press
asked about reports that Tamil MPs were barred by the government from
entering the Colombo airport's VIP lounge for the meeting they had
been promised with Bank Ki-moon, Pascoe said he is investigating
those reports and will "pass on to Maria" [Okabe, the
Deputy Spokesperson] what he learns. Inner City Press asked about the
symbolism of the visit to Kandy. Pascoe said it was a misperception
and that "when a government says where, it's their decision."
Inner
City Press asked both Pascoe and Holmes if they thought the forcing
children in the camps to sing to Ban Ki-moon was appropriate. Pascoe
said that he's seen children waiting in the sun for longer than he
could put up with, and not only in camps. Video here,
from Minute
34:34. Holmes did not answer about the appropriateness of the forced
signing and flag waving in the UN-funded camps. Watch this site.
Footnote:
as the Human Rights Council in Geneva takes up the question of Sri
Lanka, not only is there a pro-Rajapaksa resolution, now there is a
Swiss proposed compromise, which would ask the Rajapaksa
administration to investigate itself...
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