In
Sri Lanka, UN Pays for Camps But No Legal Protections, Nor for NGOs,
Will Council Hear?
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 8 -- The outgoing chief justice of Sri Lanka, Sarath
Nanda Silva, said before he left that those interred in the camps in
Menik Farm have no legal protections, cannot get justice for their
claims before the courts that he oversaw.
On June 8 in New York,
Inner City Press asked UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq if this is
the UN's understanding, given that the UN is largely paying for, and
had just bragged about, the camps. Haq replied that the UN is pushing
for freedom of movement, telling the government to speed up its
"screening and registration."
The screening is, in essence,
political screening, to gauge
whether people support not only the LTTE but also the cause of Tamil
rights. Since the UN is pay for this, it seems fair to ask what legal
protections are in place.
Inner City Press asked again, in response to
which Haq said, "I am not aware of the jurisdiction of the court
system. I think that’s a national issue." Transcript
here
and below; video here,
from Minute
16:38.
But if the UN pays to lock people up, the
non-existence of
safeguards cannot be considered only a national issue.
Inner City Press asked for the UN's response
to the visas denied
to international staff of CARE, Save the Children, NRC and others.
Haq said, we continue to stress the need for humanitarian access.
With whom? When NGOs were barred from Sudan, the UN Secretariat
shouted. And now?
UN's Ban in Manik Farm, legal protections for IDPs
not shown
While some reported that Ban Ki-moon on June
5 called for an
investigation, his actual
words were far more wishy -washy: if there
were violations, they should be investigated. This allows the Sri
Lankan government to claim there were no violations, just as they
insist against all evidence that not a single civilians was killed by
their assault on the "No Fire" Zone.
Nevertheless, when Inner City Press asked
Rosemary DiCarlo of
the U.S. Mission what may happen next at the UN about Sri Lanka, she
said that she and the U.S. expect Ban to continue to brief the
Council, on compliance with the Joint Statement he signed with
President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
More skeptical observers opine that
absent publicized event which shame the UN and Council into action,
the agenda will continue to include Haiti and Burundi, and even
Myanmar, but not Sri Lanka. We'll see.
From
the June
8 UN transcript:
Inner
City Press: on Sri Lanka, the Chief Justice there has been quoted as
saying that the people that are in the camps, including the 280,000
people on the Menik Farm camps were outside of the protection of the
law, that the Sri Lankan justice system has no jurisdiction over them
or their claims. Is that the UN’s understanding, given that it’s
paying in large part for the camps? And also, the NGOs -- CARE, Save
the Children, NRC -- all have had international staff refused visas,
and I wondered what OCHA is doing about that.
Associate
Spokesperson Haq: Well, first of all, regarding the Chief Justice’s
comments, the UN at the highest levels has been insisting on the need
for freedom of movement for the people in these camps since the end
of the conflict. Freedom of movement for people in the IDP camps is
essential. The Government is trying to expedite the screening and
registration of IDPs but this needs to be done faster. The
Government must allow family reunification and the issuance of ID
cards and facilitate freer movement in and out of the camps. The
Government needs to facilitate early return and resettlement of IDPs,
while ensuring the voluntary nature of such movements.
Inner
City Press: [inaudible] does the court system have jurisdiction over
their claims? Is that the UN’s understanding?
Associate
Spokesperson Haq: I am not aware of the jurisdiction of the court
system. I think that’s a national issue.
Again, if the UN pays
to lock people up, the non-existence of
safeguards should not be considered only a national issue.
At
UN, "Last" Sri Lanka Meeting Is Closed, "Just a
Briefing," Will Ban Finally Speak?
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 5, updated live blog
-- As the UN Security Council assembled in the
basement for what they say will probably be their last meeting on Sri
Lanka, three representatives of the Sri Lankan mission slipped into
Conference Room 6. Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador Rosemary
DiCarlo if there is any chance of an outcome to the meeting, even a
statement to the Press by the Council president, as April's president
Claude Heller of Mexico did. No, Amb. DiCarlo indicted, "this is
just a briefing."
Initially,
Amb. DiCarlo asked the Press, "Is this about North Korea?"
On that topic, considered upstairs in the Council chamber, Inner
City
Press was first to obtain and publish the new draft resolution, here.
Ban
Ki-moon arrived at 3:15 p.m., flanked by his advisors Vijay Nambair,
Kim Won-soo and his spokesperson Michele Montas. At Friday's noon
briefing, Inner City Press asked if Ban would speak to the Press
after his briefing. The question was not answered.
UN's Ban on "victory tour" in Sri Lanka
European
Council sources told Inner City Press is was hard even getting this
"unofficial" briefing. "The conflict is over,"
one said. But other say, the dirty war continues, now funded by the
UN. Watch this site.
Update
of 4:02 p.m. -- Russian Ambassador Churkin left the meeting, a crowd of
Japanese media chasing him up the stairs to ask about... the North
Korea resolution.
Chinese Deputy Lui left, jaunty as ever, but had no comment.
Mexican Ambassador Heller left, we're sad to say, to attend a
movie
in the conference room next door, "Between Fire and Water." The Mission
of Mexico was the sponsor, so ...
Update
of 4:32 p.m. -- France's Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert left the
meeting, heading straight upstairs as a reporter -- from Japnese media
this time -- called after him, "On Sri Lanka?" Ripert did not stop.
Some surmised that the Sri Lanka question was meant to lure Ripert in,
to answer questions about North Korea....
Update
of 5:04 p.m. -- one after the other, Ban Ki-moon, Japan's Ambassador
Takasu and Sri Lanka's Ambassador came to the stakeout microphone. Mr.
Ban said that he will push fro compliance with the Joint Statement he
and President Rajapaksa signed. Inner City Press asked, what about
reports of people being disappeared from the IDP camps (which are
UN-funded), and about the three doctors who remained in the conflict
zone offering treatment and casualty figures?
Mr. Ban said he had raised the issue of the doctors to President
Rajapaksa, and separately to Sri Lanka's foreign minister. Minutes
later, Sri Lanka's ambassador said that while the ICRC has been allowed
to visit the doctors, they will be subject to judicial process.
Sri Lanka's Ambassador said he didn't know the specifics of the
expulsion of the head of Norway-based NGO Forut. When Inner City Press
asked about the status of the Mememordum of Understanding with NGOs,
about which John Holmes in a closed door meeting (the script for which
Inner City Press obtained and put on line) said was a matter of concern
and would set a bad precedent, Sri Lanka's Ambassador disagreed, saying
Holmes had never said that, that the only concern is that NGOs which
sign may have difficulty raising money.
Clarification should be given by Holmes. At the time, he declined to
speak about the MOU, saying it had been put to the side. Apparently not
anymore, according to Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the UN.
Japan's
Ambassador said he would speak about North Korea, and proceeded to tell
the press not to mis-report that agreement has been reached among the
P-5 plus 2. For Inner City Press, which put online the P-5's most
recent draft, not a problem: the draft was sent to capitals of the P-5
plus 2.
Inner City Press asked Amb. Takasu, "A question on Sri Lanka?" No, he
indicated, he did not want to leave the Sri Lankan Ambassador waiting.
And so the question would have been, why did Japan abstain on
the
Human Rights Council's resolution -- does Japan favor in inquiry into
possible war crimes in Sri Lanka or not?
Watch this site.
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.
, 
