In
Sri Lanka, UN Hires Lawyer for Arrested Staff, But Will It Protect
Anyone?
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, July 1 -- After more than a week of silence by the UN about
two
of its staff members grabbed up by Sri Lanka's government, on
July 1 Inner City Press again asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's
spokesperson Michele Montas about their fate. This time, Ms. Montas
had an answer. The UN has "hired a lawyer who has visited"
the UN staff, who are "still detained in Colombo." Video
here, from Minute 21:15.
The
head
of the UN
Refugee Agency in Sri Lanka Amin Awad issued a strange
statement
saying in essence that the government is free to detain
staff as long as
procedures are followed. But despite top UN humanitarian John Holmes'
statement that unlike international staff, national staff members of
the UN are not immune, the Staff Union disagrees. They criticize
Awad's statement, and counter that national staff have immunity
within the scope of their work.
Troublingly,
sources in Sri Lanka describe to Inner City Press even the torture of
UN staff, and of doctors disappeared by the government after
remaining in the conflict zone offering treatment and casualty
figures. A Red Cross worker who had been in the conflict zone has
been killed in Jaffna, where now newspaper editors face death
threats.
Is all
of this consistent with Ban Ki-moon and Majinda
Rajapaksa's Joint Statement? At the UN, answers like the hiring of a
lawyer to work on the case of grabbed-up staff are only given if the
questions keep being asked. Apparently, the UN would rather the
questions stopped.
UN's Amin Awad, grabbed-up UN staff not shown
In
fact, lawyers
in Sri Lanka who represent those accused of Tamil Tiger sympathies
have themselves been labeled as traitors by the country's military.
The UN has already shown it cannot protect its own staff in Sri
Lanka. Can it even protect the lawyers it hires for its staff? Watch
this site.
Footnote:
Inner City Press asked outgoing Turkish Ambassador and Security
Council president Baki Ilkin if he thought the Council's sessions on
Sri Lanka, held in the UN's basement, had helped in any way to
protect civilians in Vanni. "There is no gauge," he said,
but :"everything the Security Council does or says -- or doesn't
do or say -- has an impact." Video here,
from Minute 2:33.
In
one view, the
Council's refusal to put Sri Lanka on its agenda, and relegation of
the issue to ill-attended basement session has the impact of
emboldening the Rajapaksa government to make its final assault in the
Vanni, and to now use UN funds to detain Tamils in camps and grab up
UN staff. Everything not done or not said has an effect. Watch this
site.
* * *
Chile
on ICC and "Nationalist" Guerrillas in Sri Lanka, UN Mum on Camps It
Funds But Claims To Not Control
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 29 -- As Chile joined the International Criminal Court
on June 29, Inner City Press asked the Minister Secretary General of
the Presidency of Chile Jose Antonio Viera-Gallo if he thought the
ICC should investigate this year's surge of civilian death and
detentions in Sri Lanka. Viera-Gallo called it a situation of combat
against a "nationalist" guerrilla force which should in the
first instance be investigated by the government of Sri Lanka.
"If
the government cannot do it," he said, "it is easy -- a
member state should request it, or any person, to the prosecutor."
Video here,
from Minute 9:44.
But
far from being
"easy," the UN has not even been able to stop or comment on
Sri Lanka disbanding its own investigation into deaths before this
year, including of 17 Action Contre La Faim aid workers near
Trincomalee.
On June
26 Inner City Press asked the UN's top
humanitarian John Holmes, who has previously spoken about the ACF
killing, why he or his department OCHA had not commented on the
disbanding of the investigation. Holmes said it hadn't been
confirmed.
On
June 29, Inner
City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Michele
Montas about OCHA's disputed reports on the number and location of
those being detained in northern Sri Lanka. "Those are not UN
camps," Ms. Montas answered.Video here,
from Minute 23:57.
UN's Ban and Chile's Heraldo Munoz,
Sri Lanka investigations and value of UN funding for camps not shown
While
Inner City Press had not
called them UN camps, it gave rise to the question: what percentage
of the funding of the camps comes through the UN?
Ms.
Montas said
she would get that percentage. Inner City Press asked, if it is over
fifty percent, can they be viewed as UN camps? "That is a
hypothetical question," Ms. Montas said. For now. Watch this
site.
Footnotes: Chile's Viera-Gallo
said that in Latin America there have been no serious crimes of late,
and all governments have independent courts, oblivating the need for
ICC inquiry. This was said just after the Honduras court decisions
leading to the ouster of President Zelaya, and in the face of immunity
offers in Colombia.
Inner City Press
also asked Chile's Ambassador Heraldo Munoz about the three person
investigation he will head up for the UN of the murder of Benazir
Bhutto. Will the report of investigation be made public? He said he
will answer later. But here's a question for now: the UN can put
together a three person investigation for the murder of a political
leader, but nothing for tens of thousands of civilians?
* * *
UN
Runs Scared of Sri Lanka, Says National Staff Not Immune -- But
Genocide Suspects Are
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, June 26 -- As the Sri Lankan government locked
up an
astrologer who dared make predictions that President Rahinda
Rajapaksa didn't like, the UN in New York stayed silent. Inner City
Press asked, for the third time, what is being done about the two UN
staff members who were grabbed up by the government using unmarked
vehicles.
Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq said he was aware of the
question, but that they still have no answer. Inner City Press asked,
isn't it the UN's position that its staff members have immunity? Haq
acknowledged that it normally the position. But why not in Sri Lanka?
In
fact, the UN
Mission in Kosovo actively invoked immunity on June 26 in favor of a
person changed with genocide. When Agim Ceku was arrested in
Bulgaria, based on an Interpol warrant, it
is reported that a UN
documentary showing was made in order to get Ceku released. Inner
City Press asked Haq about this as well on Friday. Haq said to ask
the UNMIK mission.
Inner
City Press immediately put questions to
them, but has received no answer. Immunity for those charged with war
crimes and genocide, but no defense of immunity for UN staff in Sri
Lanka. Why not?
Kosovo's Ceku and UN flag, get out of jail free card
not shown in Sri Lanka
At
the Security
Council on June 26, speeches went on all day about the protection of
civilians. While the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes appeared to
downplay Sri Lanka in his initial testimony, other than saying that
"the weapons have finally -- and thankfully -- fallen silent in
Sri Lanka," the underlying report notes its in 30th paragraph
the
"repeated use of heavy
weapons by Sri Lankan armed forces in
attacks on area containing large numbers of civilians, including the
so-called 'no-fire zones,' with reports of multiple strikes on
medical facilities."
Even
though the
report went on about LTTE refusal to let civilians go, Sri Lanka in
the Security Council debate criticized the report. Holmes in his
rebuttal was conciliatory, but said that the definition of armed
conflict comes from international jurisprudence and applies to Sri
Lanka.
When
Holmes
emerged from the Security Council at 6:30 p.m., Inner City Press
waited to ask him a few questions. "You've got to be kidding,"
he began, before to his credit answering four questions.
Did
he or the UN
do anything about the MV Ali ship of humanitarian aid that was
blocked by Sri Lanka? No, Holmes said. But he's heard that it may be
unloaded in India and thence to Sri Lanka. This has yet to happened.
Any
update on the
detained doctors? No, Holmes said.
What
about the
disbanding of the inquiry into the killing of, among others, the 17
Action Contre La Faim aid workers? Holmes said the UN had yet to
receive formal notification of the disbanding, and might comment if
and when notification is provided.
What
about the
detained staff? Holmes said the UN is asking. Aren't they immune?
Only international staff are, Holmes said. We will have more on this.
, 
