As
Sri Lanka Arrests Two UN Staff, UNHCR Offers Praise After Staying Silent
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 19 -- Two UN staff members were disappeared by the Sri
Lankan government six days ago in Vavuniya. For days, the UN said
nothing. An e-mail was sent to Inner City Press, along with a photo
of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon meeting with the staff in
Vavuniya on May 23. Those disappeared served as drivers for the UN
Office of Project Services and UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency.
After
some inquiries, the UN belatedly announced that two staff had been
arrested, leading to short articles in the Indian and Canadian press,
neither of which included the staff members' names. They are
Kandasamy "Saundi" Saundrarajan of UNOPS and N. Charles
Raveendran of UNHCR. They are Tamils.
Meanwhile
UNHCR's
country officer for Sri Lanka Amin Awar continued to praise
the government and the internment camps in Vavuniya. While in Sri
Lanka in May, Inner City Press published
a story about another UNHCR
staffer, detained by the government since last year.
Amin
Awar, who had not responded to an emailed request to comment on the
case, approached this reporter in the lobby of the Colombo Hilton on
May 23 and argued that the court system in Sri Lanka is complex, but
said he was advocating for the detained man.
No update has been
provided, and now two more staffers, including one from UNHCR, are
detained. How much more will the UN put up with, or as some say,
cover up?
The
email, lightly edited, is below.
UN's Ban and Vavuniya staff, standing up for them not shown
Subj:
2 UN Staff abducted 4 days ago and now believed to be tortured by Sri
Lankan Army Military Intelligence - Pls Help to Release them
From:
[Name withheld for fear of retaliation or worse]
To:
Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Sent:
6/19/2009
Dear
Matthew,
We
write this email in desperation seeking your help to put more
pressure on Sri Lankan Authorities and release 2 United Nations Staff
( I from UNOPS and 1 from UNHCR ) abducted by Sri Lankan Army
Military Intelligence Officials in Vavuniya four days ago and
currently detained. We have tried all the possible escalations within
UN, including an urgent message to our Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
but nothing has helped so far.
We
reliably learn that they are now being detained and tortured at a Sri
Lankan Army Military Intelligence interrogation camp in Kurumankadu,
Vavuniya and since it is weekend no one is taking it serious &
taking some bold action for their release or access to them &
ensure they are safe.
In
our May30th Sit Report, our ground officers have highlighted the
wide spread abductions and accounted for more than 13,310 missing
people in Vavuniya IDP Camps, compared to the previous count. But our
higher management in Colombo and Geneva has decided to downplay it
and reported it as, “decrease is associated with double counting.
Additional verification is required”. They never initiated a
project for additional verification. Now we feel the pain of
abduction when two of our colleagues are abducted.
Photo
of our Vavuniya UN Team Group Photo with Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon when he visited Vavuniya last month, attached.
We
don’t know when we will see our colleagues again and the same smile
... please help.
Due
to security issues we cant talk on phone and sending this email with
great difficulty & hope you will understand it.
Thanks
in advance.
Concerned
UN Staff, Sri Lanka
* * *
In
Sri Lanka Camps, UN Blind and Deaf Without Cameras or Cell Phones,
African Concern
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 19 --While it has been reported
that in the UN-funded
internment camps in Sri Lanka "UN officials have been stopped
from bringing in cameras and mobile phones," the Spokesperson
for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday told Inner City Press, "I
don't think the UN would accept that."
Since the UN did accept
the detention by the government of UN staff earlier this year, it is
not clear if the UN would accept being barred from exposing abuses
they see in the camps or even photographing them. The Spokesperson
said she would check. We'll be waiting.
Despite
these
reported restrictions the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes, who has
yet to respond to requests for comment on the government killing off
its investigation into the murder of 17 Action Contre La Faim aid
workers, is quoted that "We do have pretty much full access to
those camps at the moment."
Would
that be, access without cell
phones or cameras? What does OCHA do when it becomes aware of
abuses?
It claimed that it advocated quietly about its detained staff. But
the government said the issue was only raised once it was publicly
asked about by the Press at the UN.
UN's Ban speaks with envoy Fowler,
kidnapped in Niger, on cell phone not seen in Sri Lanka
At
a UN reception
Friday day on the topic of sickle-cell anemia, several African
Ambassadors expressed to Inner City Press their concern for what has
happened this year in Sri Lanka. An Ambassador from the Maghreb
asked, whatever happened to the Responsibility to Protect? Before
that final push, shouldn't somebody have stopped it?
Another
referred to
reports that LTTE officials who tried to surrender by waving the
white flag, after communications via UN envoy Vijay Nambiar, had
reportedly been shot and killed. "That is not good," said
the outgoing Permanent Representative of a country that itself
suffered a genocide. Ironically, these African Ambassadors who are
portrayed as more callous than their Western counterparts appear more
genuinely concerned. But politics has dictated what has happened, and
what is happening. Watch this site.
* * *
UN's
Ban Says Sri Lanka Was Not Initially In His Speech, As UNDP Goes Off
the Record on Sexual Violence
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 18 -- Less than 24 hours after UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon was protested as "covering up genocide in Sri Lanka"
by a crowd in front of Manhattan's St. Regis Hotel where he received
a humanitarian award, Inner City Press at the June
18 noon briefing
asked Ban's spokesperson if he'd changed his acceptance speech
because of the protest.
Ms. Montas replied
that "it was going to
be in his speech, but he put it in front when he saw the
demonstration and he was sensitive to the issues they were raising."
Eight
hours later at a UN reception following the premiere of
HBO's
documentary "Sergio" -- click here
for this publication's review -- Inner City Press asked Ban the same
question, if the speech was changed by the protest. "I heard you
were there," Mr. Ban replied. "It was not in my speech
text."
Inner
City Press said that the protesters had included women and children.
"It is a free society," Ban said. "I am very much
concerned.." Later he returned and added, "I think you
journalists, you have a very important duty to send out all the
messages." Hence this story. Ban lamented that while people will see a
film like
"Sergio" and say, let's do something, there is less
response "when it comes to real negotiations."
Inner City
Press recounted that earlier on Thursday at a UN briefing about
sexual violence, when Inner City Press asked about Sri Lanka, the
speaker from the UN Development Program answered and then said "that
is all off the record."
"I
don't know why [it is] off the record," Ban said. In entering
the reception with the others who'd seen the film screaming, a UN
security officer blocked Inner City Press' way. "What are you
going to ask the S-G?" he demanded. Later when Inner City Press
pointed out the double stands, he related and said, but "take it
easy." What -- easy questions only?
UN's Ban, changes speech out of respect, Team
Ban blockages not shown
At
the day's noon briefing, Inner
City Press had asked Ban spokesperson
Inner
City Press: he said in his speech, he said that, while he was there,
he met with opposition figures and Tamil leaders. There seems to be
some dispute; I think at the airport, as we were leaving, some Tamil
leaders were supposed to be led into the airport and weren’t. Is
there some way, maybe not from this podium, can we…? What
opposition leaders and Tamil leaders did he meet with while he was
there?
Spokesperson:
I can try to find that out.
Twelve
hours later, no information had been provided. Inner City Press also
asked
Inner
City Press: In Sri Lanka, this Presidential Commission of
Investigation that was set up to look into abuses prior to this
year’s upsurge in fighting has been disbanded without imposing any
accountability, including for Action Contre la Faim, NGO workers who
were killed. What’s been the UN’s, OCHA’s or Mr. Ban’s
response to that?
Spokesperson:
Well, you know, you heard Mr. Ban’s response about accountability. He
said it on Monday during the stakeout; he said it again, was it
Monday? He said it here, I think, in his press conference, and you
know, that statement stands, you know. He is demanding and asking
for accountability. So that stands. I don’t have a reaction to a
specific event. But I can stress what I stressed earlier and the
remarks he made last time.
Inner
City Press: I guess I was also thinking about OCHA. I mean OCHA,
John Holmes, has said that the UN is waiting for the findings of this
Commission. Now the Commission is disbanded. So this is why…
Spokesperson:
I’ll try to see whether we have further reaction to that.
Despite
a request sent Tuesday morning to Holmes spokesperson, no response
has been provided. Ban says that journalists are to tell the story.
But which story? Watch this site.
* * *
UN's
Ban Tips Hat to Protesters from High Above NY, Claims He Met With
Tamils
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 17, updated --
It was projected as a light evening of honor for
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, to receive from the Foreign Policy
Association a Global Humanitarian Award, along with former US
president Bill Clinton.
Clinton, however, canceled his appearance due
to "family health issues" -- word on the street, literally
55th Street in front of the St. Regis Hotel, was that Hilary was in a
car crash. [Update: the man in the
street, as is so often the case, was half-right: Hilary broken her
elbow on the way to the White House, but there was no vehicle involved.]
And Ban himself was protested, for hours, with chants
urging him to resign, or to "go home," or at least to feel
shame.
The
protesters, it must be said, were nearly entirely ethnic Tamils.
Despite the tens of thousands of people killed in the war in Sri
Lanka, unlike Darfur, Myanmar or the Middle East, the victims have
yet to gain noticeable solidarity from non-Tamils. This feels of
abandonment was palpable Wednesday night in front of the St. Regis
Hotel.
Picketers of Ban in front of St. Regis, June 17, 2009 (c) M.Lee
Inner City Press, which has asked questions at the UN which
have cut both ways but focused on civilians, was filming the
photographing the protest. Several of the participants asked, where
is the rest of the media? A television producer known to Inner City
Press stopped by, gave congratulations for having found the news, but
emerged from a cell phone calls saying that "there is no crew."
One
of the protesters asked, "No clue?"
The producer continued
along. Later two Turkish journalists stopped by, on their way to
covering Ban Ki-moon's speech. They urged Inner City Press to come
upstairs and hear it. Since Ban had slipped by the protesters --
click here
for the blow by blow report filed in real time with
wireless Internet from the street -- there was little left to do but
to go up and hear him.
A
half-dozen seats had been set in the back of the ballroom for the
press. There had been a reception; dinner had been served. Now Ban
Ki-moon arose, and to his credit made a joke. "I was impressed
and encouraged," he began, "I know there were hundreds of
people who were welcoming me or some other person in front of the
hotel."
The audience, a mix of Ambassadors and business people,
laughed. Several had been shouted at as they entered. Claude Heller,
the Ambassador of Mexico who had at least tried to get the Security
Council to consider the plight of civilians in Sri Lanka, had stopped
and told Inner City Press, "this is good." But others
hurried back the protest, as in finding the mention much less
chanting of the word genocide in Midtown Manhattan distasteful.
Ban
said of the protesters, "I am aware of their concerns, their
pride, their challenges... that is exactly why I went to Sri Lanka
four weeks ago." It was May 23, and Inner City Press was with
him. Ban said he had visited the IDP camps, "met with government
leaders, with representatives of the opposition, representatives of
the Tamil minority."
About this last, doubts exist. As the press
corps sat waiting on the UN plane at Colombo's airport, Inner City
Press was told that Tamil MPs who had been promised a meeting with
Ban were barred from the airport.
Inner
City Press asked UN officials Lynn Pascoe and John Holmes about this,
and was told an answer was been forthcoming. None has been provided.
Neither was visibly in attendance on Wednesday night, but seated with
Ban was his chief of staff Vijay Nambiar.
Sign in front of St. Regis Hotel, June 17, 2009, (c) M.Lee
Down on 55th Street, a
protesters displayed a sign, "$ for the Nambiyar brothers,"
meaning Vijay and Satish, a former Indian general part of the Indian
Peace Keeping Force which occupied northern Sri Lanka in the late
1980s, strafing the population and losing 1500 troops before
decamping.
Many,
including some of Ban's own senior advisors, say that sending Nambiar
at the UN's envoy was unwise. Nambiar has been quoted that the doubts
are beneath contempt. If so he better look around himself, as the
doubts extend to the UN's 38th floor around him. Ban moved from Sri
Lanka to the climate change issue, urging the Foreign Policy
Association to help him "seal the deal in Copenhagen."
The
FPA, whose board members include former AIG big wig Maurice Greenberg
and the CEO of Santander, a bank which allegedly laundered money for
Augusto Pinochet, on Wednesday also gave an award to the CEO of an
Italian oil company. These hypocrisies are beyond the scope of this
article.
Inner
City Press had waited outside the St. Regis from six to 8:30 p.m.,
seeking to get from Ban himself a reaction to the protest. After the
speeches and the dinner, Ban was spirited out by a side door, and
faced neither the protesters nor the Press. A swag bag was passed
out, with publications about oil.
Down on 55th Street, the protesters
had been told to leave at 8:30 by the police, who said that hotel had
cooperated at much as it would. Ban said he heard the protesters, but
he never faced them. His spokespeople have told Inner City Press that
they will not comment on "what you read in the news about Sri
Lanka." How about mass internment? Watch this site.
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