In
Sri Lanka 13,130 Missing IDPs Reported But Downplayed By UN,
Journalist Beaten
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 2 -- With the UN already under fire for withholding and
downplaying the number of civilian casualties in Sri Lanka, another
ongoing controversy has opened up concerning the number of internally
displaced persons detained in the IDP camps in northern Sri Lanka.
Between the May 27 and May 30 reports of the UN's Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 13,000 IDPs simply
disappeared from the camps.
OCHA's
May 30 report states that "276,785 persons crossed to the
Government controlled areas from the conflict zone. This represents a
decrease of 13,130 IDPs since the last report (Sitrep No.18) on 27
May 2009. The decrease is associated with double counting. Additional
verification is required."
But earlier,
OCHA had praised the "improved, systematic registration
being undertaken in the camps."
UN
sources in Colombo tell Inner City Press that senior UN officials
above them, Sri Lankan nationals who are Sinhalese, are downplaying
the 13,000 "missing" IDPs, which would otherwise be of much
concern given the reports of disappearances from the camps, the
seizing of teenage males for detention and females for other
purposes, UK Channel 4 asserted with on camera interviews.
UN's Pascoe and Holmes, head of OCHA,
questioned by Press, missing IDPs not shown
These UN
sources are surprised, since even Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is
under fire for downplaying what has happened to the Tamils, that the
UN would be so seemingly cavalier about 13,000 "missing"
persons from almost entirely Tamil internment camps.
Meanwhile,
in further fall out, journalist Poddala Jayantha, secretary of the
Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association, was kidnapped near his
home and severely beaten with sticks before being dumped in a suburb
of Colombo. The government had accused him of being too sympathetic
to the Tamil Tiger -- or just to the Tamils. The UN, too, has its
different way of trying to crack down on journalists. Watch this
site.
And see (June 5, 2009) Sri
Lanka Denies IDP Reduction Reported by Inner City Press, Raises to
UN
On
Sri Lanka, UN Insists It Stopped Counting the Dead, Silent on NGO
Expulsion, Blue Eyed Slander
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 1 -- Asked if the UN withheld its knowledge of
civilians deaths in Sri Lanka in May, as it withheld satellite photos
of the supposed "No Fire" Zone, the Spokesperson for
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday told the Press that "the
20,000 figure is not a UN number."
Despite some of the same
doctors the UN previously relied on having still been in the Zone
until the Army's final assault, Spokesperson Michele Montas said that
in May there was "no way to know" how many civilians were
killed.
But
when Inner City Press asked for an update on the location and
condition of the doctors who remained in the Zone offering treatment
and casualty figures, they were called heroes by Ms. Montas. Heroes
that the UN refused to believe? Video here,
from Minute 18:44.
In
the UN General Assembly, Mr. Ban categorically denied that the UN
downplayed civilian deaths. Ambassadors interviewed by Inner City
Press as they left the closed door briefing were generally not
impressed. Unrelatedly, Inner City Press asked several whether Ban
will give a more specific briefing about Sri Lanka to the Security
Council, which had a number of "informal inter-active dialogues"
as civilians died in the conflict zone.
Austria's number one
representative told Inner City Press he was going to meet with this
Turkish counterpart, the president of the Council for June, to
request just that. The U.S. number three representative Rosemary
DiCarlo said that a briefing of the Council by Ban is "still
possible." With the UN's credibility on the line, to dodge such
a briefing would be a new low.
UN's Ban in Kandy with Mahinda Rajapaksa, (c) M.Lee
In
Sri Lanka, alongside reports of Tamil-owned shops being attacked, the
Director of Sri Lanka's government Peace Secretariat Rajiva
Wijesinghe is now known to have told a press conference "there
are many blue eyed children in that [IDP] camp, you will know some
NGOs had a jolly good time." As a low level credit-war has
emerged, from who broke the 20,000 figure that the UN denies to who
took the photos of the conflict zone, we'll happily source and credit
the Wijesinghe quote to the Voice of America.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan defense
sources crow that "Ranvei Tvetenes, the Head of
Norwegian NGO FORUT was deported on night of Saturday 29th May,
2009." The UN screamed when some NGOs were expelled from Darfur.
But the UN was silent when a more systematic expulsion took place in
Sri Lanka. And now? We'll see.
From
the UN's
June 1 noon briefing transcript:
Inner
City Press: Excuse me, but I wanted to get your response to these
things that were reported in Le Monde about Sri Lanka. I heard your
statement…
Spokesperson
Montas: The SG has [inaudible].
Inner
City Press: ...but there some very specific things. He quotes UN
sources in Colombo as saying, for example, that Mr. Nambiar told UN
staff and UN representatives to “keep a low profile”, that the UN
should be playing a sustaining role compatible to Government. Those
are quotes they ascribe to Mr. Nambiar. What I am wondering is, does
that mean he didn’t say that? I mean, having looked at the
article, as I am sure the UN has, and it also says that Neil Buhne,
the country director said that the death statistics should only go to
him, and should not be given to any other person. It sort of… it
paints a pretty, you know, I am sure you’ve seen it. The Times of
London has said, you know, Ban must do something, it’s like
Srebrenica. So does the specifics…?
Spokesperson:
These statistics that you mention, these statistics were estimates. As
you know, starting in the month of May, absolutely no numbers
could be verified, because the numbers we had were from the hospital
people, and health people who were on the ground and were
communicating with us, or our own people on the ground. In the month
of May we had absolutely no way of knowing what the casualty figure
was. The number of 20,000 is not a UN number.
[The
Spokesperson later added that as regards to the media reports on the
figure of 20,000 civilian casualties in Sri Lanka, it was verified
with the concerned United Nations staff who were present at meetings
of United Nations senior officials that no such internal report was
made at those meetings. She emphasized that the United Nations had
never underestimated the casualty numbers, nor engaged in any manner
in manipulating them nor in soft-peddling the message that was
communicated to the Sri Lankan Government on the necessity of
avoiding civilian casualties.]
Inner
City Press: Both the Times of London and Le Monde cite this to UN
sources in Colombo.
Spokesperson:
Well, actually, we checked. This morning, I was in touch with
Colombo and they have absolutely no idea where that number came from,
the 20,000 number.
Inner
City Press: Okay. So I guess I mean, what, the quote they ascribed
to Mr. Nambiar, I guess that the idea is somehow that staff there
feel that from Headquarters the message is keep a low profile. I
mean, unless both newspapers made up the quotes, somebody there said
them. So I am just wondering…
Spokesperson:
Well, I want you to really read what the SG said this morning. You
had this text earlier…
Inner
City Press: Okay.
Spokesperson:
…and where he categorically, I can give you the exact quote, in
fact you can get it yourself. He categorically dismissed some of
those allegations.
Inner
City Press: Okay. I know on Friday he met with the Turkish
Ambassador and I was told one of the topics was whether he wants to
brief the Security Council about Sri Lanka. That was an issue that
was going to be resolved in that meeting. Does he want to? I
understand some…
Spokesperson:
Well, whether it’s going to be something that the Security Council
is going to ask him. If the Security Council asks him to, he will. The
way he did for the General Assembly today, of course.
Inner
City Press: But it was said there that they sort of wanted to feel
him out to see if he wants to do it. See what I’m saying? Because
he did meet with…
Spokesperson:
Well, if he met with the General Assembly on this, he is of course
willing to meet with the Security Council on it.
Inner
City Press: And then just one practical thing?
Spokesperson:
Sure.
Inner
City Press: There is this issue that I know he raised when he was
there, of the doctors that were in the conflict zone and reported the
numbers. Has there been any, has he heard anything back? Has there
been any development on the status of the doctors who were detained
by the Government?
Spokesperson:
Well, as far as we know we understand they’re in good health for
now. And we noted that they have been detained. And what I’d like
to add is that these men are heroes, who have saved lives in some of
the toughest conditions imaginable. And they should be receiving the
maximum care and assistance possible. And the Secretary-General made
clear during his visit that detaining them is not appropriate. And I
think he is hoping that they will be released soon.
On
Sri Lanka, UN's Dodging Comes Home to Roost, UK Could Have Put on
Council Agenda
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, May 29 -- As UN sources in Sri Lanka were quoted that beyond
the 7000 civilian killings in the leaked UN estimates that Inner City
Press obtained and published at the end of April, one thousand more
civilians were being killed every day in May, responses at the UN in
New York grew ever more muted.
Inner City Press asked Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon's Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe if Mr. Ban will
push to brief the Security Council about the May 23 tour of Sri
Lanka. Ms. Okabe would not answer, saying "I have nothing to
announce." Because Sri Lanka never by vote put on the Council's
agenda, all members including Russia, China, Libya and Vietnam would
have to agree, to hear from Ban. But is he even asking?
Inner
City Press asked UK Ambassador to the UN John Sawers would what the
Security Council did and didn't do as civilian casualties mounted in
north Sri Lanka. Sawers responded that "we had the votes"
to put Sri Lanka on the Council's agenda, but chose not to, to
preserve "unanimity." He claimed that the Sri Lankan
government felt pressure from the Council and the Ban
administration's visits. Apparently they would have killed even more.
In No Fire Zone, burned trees, blasted ship, (c) M.Lee 5/23/09
At
a reception at the Russian Ambassador's residence on May 28, Inner
City Press asked Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN about
reports of Sinhalese mob violence against Tamils. He responded that
while the fears are real, the country hadn't had a death by communal
violence since 1983. He said that the newspaper editor arrested after
the Tamil Tigers' last attempted plane bombing of Colombo has been
released. The UN says that the doctors who remained in the conflict
zone offering treatment and casualty figures are still in government
detention.
On
civilian death figures, at Friday's UN noon briefing, Inner City
Press asked the UN's Marie Okabe is, beyond the previously leaked and
published figures of 2600 by March 7 and 7000 by the end of April,
the UN had compiled any figures at all in May. Ms. Okabe, alongside
reading a long and convoluted answer, said "ask OCHA." And
thus the run-around continues. We will continue to follow these
issues -- watch this site.
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