On
Sri Lanka, No Answer on Nambiar's Role in Deadly Surrender, IDP
Counting Questioned
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 3 -- As doubts grow about what the UN did and didn't do
in Sri Lanka's killing fields, the UN left a simple factual question
unanswered on
June 3. Inner City Press asked, at the day's UN media
briefing in New York
Inner
City Press: There are media reports quoting Vijay Nambiar on 17 May
as having said that he spoke with these two LTTE leaders, not the
founder, but the two that tried to surrender, that he spoke to them
through this one person called KP and conveyed it to the Government
and conveyed back through KP that they should come out with a white
flag. By all accounts, they were then shot. And what I am wondering
is whether… In this media account it says that Vijay Nambiar was
invited to go and witness this surrender, somehow to go to northern
Sri Lanka and become more involved. Can you confirm that these
communications, you know, there are quotes that are out there, so the
UN can either deny or confirm them? But did it take place and what’s
its role?
Spokesperson
Michele Montas: Let me… I’ll ask Mr. Nambiar.
Nine
hours later, no response has been provided. The UN's Vijay Nambiar
has been quoted that "as for the insinuations in a section of
the Press about me and my brother, I do not deem it warrants even a
response." While Vijay's brother Satish has written an op-ed
praising the Sri Lankan general who conducted the controversial
offensive in northern Sri Lanka, the more fundamental question is
whether given Sri Lankan history Ban Ki-moon should have sent a
former Indian diplomat as his envoy. Even some of Ban's closest
advisers think not.
UN's Kofi Annan in 2004 with Vijay Nambiar,
then India's Ambassador
And
now, no answer in nine hours about possible involvement in a
violation of the Geneva Conventions, to whit, the shooting of people
surrendering waving white flags. Some UN sources describe the
additional involvement of presidential brother Basil Rajapaksa, who
met with Ban Ki-moon in January in New York and on May 23 in Kandy,
the Buddhist shrine town where Ban consented to meet President
Mahinda Rajapaksa.
On
June 3, Inner
City Press also asked
Inner
City Press: on Sri Lanka, there are these OCHA reports they put out,
you know, situation reports. And the one
of 30 May says that, you
know, in essence it says that, it decreases the number of IDPs in the
camps by 13,000 and it says, in a single line it says this decrease
is associated with double-counting. In the previous
report [27 May], which
had 13,000 more IDPs, it said that the system was improved systematic
registration. So what is the UN doing to make sure that people
aren’t actually disappearing from the camps when its own numbers
reflect 13,000 people missing?
Spokesperson
Montas: Well, I have to say that it is a rather an unusual
situation. There is such a massive influx of people, which can
explain that the registration process -- which is still ongoing, by
the way -- there was some double counting that was involved. And, as
soon as they found out they rectified the numbers to reflect that. So,
the UN can, you know, we’re there… They’re not our camps,
you know. We’re there to assist for better treatment of the IDPs.
Inner
City Press: Since the numbers were so specific, can the… is the UN
then by saying that the entire 13,130 that are missing are just
double counting, is it saying that no one has been taken out of the
camps?
Spokesperson
Montas: That is what OCHA is saying. It is double counting, they
went through it several times, and it is double counting. It is not
about people missing.
We'll
see -- watch this site.
On
Sri Lanka, Ban Will Brief in UN Basement June 5, Of "Missing"
IDPs and Ms. Butenis
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS, June 2, 11
am --
Two weeks after his fly-over the shattered "No Fire" Zone
in Sri Lanka, on June 5 Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will finally
brief the UN Security Council, albeit in the basement, on par with
Sri Lanka's ambassador. The format will be an "informal
interactive dialogue" of the Council, of the type held before
Mr. Ban's one-day trip.
Now,
with public reports of the number of civilian dead climbing past
20,000 and Mr. Ban fending off allegations in mainstream newspapers
that he and his envoy Vijay Nambiar downplayed the carnage in Sri
Lanka, Ban will descend to the basement and give a closed-door
briefing, as Mr. Nambiar previously resisted.
In Sri Lanka, UN's Ban's banner, some IDPs not shown
The
UN seems to hope that this will be the final briefing, at least at
the Security Council. But with the UN now on the hook to fund what
some call ethnic cleansing camps, and a new controversy about over
13,000 camp detainees suddenly gone "missing" in the UN's
own reports -- click here
for Inner City Press' exclusive story --
the UN will be under pressure to do something, anything. If the
recent past is any guide, it will try to resist this pressure, and
even to attack the messenger.
In Washington,
President Obama has put forward a nomination for the next US Ambassador
to Sri Lanka, Patricia A. Butenis of Virginia. More on to follow --
watch this site.
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 interment 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.
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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