Sri
Lanka Denies IDP Reduction Reported by Inner City Press, Raises to
UN
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 5 -- The Sri Lankan government has denounced a story
about "missing" internally displaced people which Inner
City Press, based on discrepancies in UN documents and statements
from UN sources, published this week.
Beyond denying that any IDPs
have been removed from the UN-funded camps in Vavuniya, which Inner
City Press visited on May 23, the government has said
that it is
raising the matter with the UN. "Minister of Human Rights and
Disaster Management, Mahinda Samarasinghe is expected to take up the
issue with United Nations," according to a pro-government web
site.
On
June 2, Ban Ki-moon's Spokesperson publicly denounced Inner City Press
for its reporting, but denied
she had discussed "complaining to Google
News" about it, presumably to stop its distribution or censor it.
The next
day she recanted, click here. Click here
for Inner City Press (on NYTimes.com) on tensions in Sri Lanka.
Inner
City Press' story noted that even the UN, in a May 30 report,
acknowledged that its number of IDPs in the camps decreased by over
13,000.
While the public report by UN OCHA ascribed this sudden drop
-- from May 27 -- to "double counting," local UN sources,
on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation not only by the
Sri Lankan government but also by the UN, told Inner City Press that
as with the satellite photos of the conflict zone and casualty
figures, some in the UN were seeking to downplay this potentially
troubling information.
In Vavuniya IDP camp, UN's Ban on government's banner
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."
The
article
continued that 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, as UK Channel 4 asserted with on camera interviews
Shouldn't the UN look into this more closely, given
multiple and credible reports of people being "disappeared"
from the UN-funded IDP camps? The UN so far has done nothing in this
regard.
To expedite matters, one hopes, Inner City Press now
publishes a list of some of the places where the UN -- or perhaps a
less compromised body -- should look for missing people:
Pallekelle
near Kandy; Ambepussa, Boosa and, it is said, the Army training camp
at Diya-talawwa.
On June 2, Ban Ki-moon's Spokesperson while again publicly denouncing
Inner City Press for its reporting, denied
she had discussed "complaining to Google News" about it, presumably to
stop its distribution or censor it.
The next day, Ms. Montas
confirmed
that both legal action and "complaining to Google News" were
discussed at a meeting she had with four top UN officials,
including
Mr Ban's speech writer, who also traveled to Sri Lanka on May 23, the
UN's top lawyer Patricia O'Brien, Angela Kane and the head of UN
"Public Information," Kiyotaka Akasaka, previously of the
Japanese foreign ministry.
Following a failure by these officials to respond to requests that they
explain how the strategy they discussed comports with the free press
Article 19 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Inner City
Press has asked for action from UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights Navi Pillay, click here.
Footnotes:
During this week's back and forth about the UN threatening legal
action against the Press, and to complain to Google News about Inner
City Press' coverage, a high UN official, again anonymous due to
fear of retaliation even at his level, approached Inner City Press to
say that the attempt at censorship or expulsion was being pushed by
what he diplomatically called "a member state." Asked if
this meant Sri Lanka, he nodded.
Meanwhile,
in a show of retaliation, the UN has taken the step of seizing and
checking the UN e-mail of staff members who they believe have been
sources for Inner City Press. Some say that when the UN went to Sri
Lanka, rather than seek to hold the government to a high standard of
human rights, the effect was to make the UN
(even) more like the
administration of the Rajapaksas...
Guard
in Manik Farm camp, (c) M. Lee May 23, 2009
The
article below quoting that "Minister of Human Rights and
Disaster Management, Mahinda Samarasinghe is expected to take up the
issue with United Nations" takes issue with Inner City Press
quoting that
"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, [as] UK Channel 4 asserted with on camera interviews."
Contrary
to the (intentional?) misinterpretation below, Inner City Press was
not saying that all Sri Lankan nationals are Sinhalese -- rather,
that within the UN's staff in Sri Lanka, those who are of the
majority Sinhalese group are seen by their Tamil colleagues as in
some cases using their positions in the UN to advance, as some phrase
it, "the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist cause." Inner City
Press did not invent these divisions, and the article's and
minister's statement that all is now well in Sri Lanka is, at best,
wishful thinking. Within the UN, some recall the way in Rwanda a Hutu
staff member named Callixte Mbarushimana was allowed to use his UN
position and materiel to further the Hutu extremist cause which has
since been acknowledged as genocide. The UN continued employing and
paying Callixte Mbarushimana for many years. Some wonder, will that
happen with the UN in Sri Lanka?
On
June 5 outside the UN Security Council, Inner City Press asked the
Special Adviser of the Secretary General on the Prevention of
Genocide, Francis Deng, if his Office will do any work on Sri Lanka.
"We try to follow what is going on, the post-conflict
developments," he said. "It's been going on for twenty five
years, you don't just...." His voice trailed off. "One
phase ended, presumably, but....". And his voice trailed off
again. Of course, it's been "going on" for far longer than
25 years.
The
article:
Sri
Lanka rejects ICP report on IDP disappearance
Fri,
2009-06-05 18:06
By
our Colombo Correspondent
Colombo,
05 June, (Asiantribune.com): The Sri Lankan government today totally
rejected a claim in a Inner City Press (ICP) quoted by a pro LTTE
website, that 13,000 people from Internally Displaced camps have
disappeared, and described it as a malicious attempt to discredit the
Colombo government.
Highly
placed government sources said that the Tamil Diaspora overseas
working for the LTTE were now engaged in a disinformation campaign to
discredit the Government unable to bear the crushing defeat of the
LTTE and its' terrorism.
Rehabilitation
Ministry sources expressed anger and surprise over the pro-LTTE
canard that is being spread through internet websites misquoting
figures of the number of displaced persons.
They
said the ICP report was aimed at creating a rift between communities
now living peacefully as one people of one country." That is why
they have quoted Sinhalese as Sri Lankan nationals knowing well that
Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic country", they added.
Explaining
further about the contents of the ICP report quoted by a pro-LTTE
website, a ministry source said that if Sri Lanka nationals were only
Sinhalese as claimed, there could be no Tamil displaced persons in
the country.
Meanwhile,
the Minister of Human Rights and Disaster Management,Mahinda
Samarasinghe is expected to take up the issue with United Nations as
the ICP report from the pro-LTTE website had quoted unnamed UN
sources in Colombo to claim such disappearance of a large number of
displaced persons, which, the Sri Lankan government has totally
rejected.
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
June 3, Inner
City Press 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.
, 
