Journalist
Disappeared
by Sri Lanka,
Media & UN
Disinterested,
Attacks
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNdislosed
Location,
June 7 --
Three years
after the
government of
Sri Lanka
killed 40,000
civilians,
nearly all of
them ethnic
Tamils, the
country's
former
attorney
general on
June 6
admitted he
had mislead
the United
Nations
Committee on
Torture when
he claimed
that he knew
that journalist
Prageeth
Ekneligoda
was alive, and
not as some
press
freedom groups
assert,
disappeared by
the
government.
Meanwhile
a
group of Tamil
prisoners
complained,
with little
traction with
the
UN or
international
media, of
illegal
transfers "to
the
notorious
Boosa
detention camp
from various
prisons in
Vavuniya,
Batticaloa and
Colombo, where
they are
currently
being held for
a
long period of
time as
political
detainees
without any
charges being
brought
against them."
In
London,
thousands of
protesters
greeted Sri
Lanka's
president
Mahinda
Rajapaksa when
he arrived to
give a speech
before the
UK's Queen
Elizabeth,
shouting "war
criminal." The
speech was
canceled, but
major wire
services who
were present
covering the
so-called
Diamond
Jubilee did
not even
report it.
Ironically,
one
of these media
is owned by
the US
government,
which elsewhere
has
made
Prageeth's
disappearance
or murder and
the Sri Lankan
government's
misinformation
one of its
lead examples
in "Free
The Press:
Supporting
Journalists
Under Duress,"
along with
Mazen Darwish
in Syria.
But
at the United
Nations of
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon,
little to
nothing is
said about
continued
repression in
and government
abuse by
Sri Lanka, and
even raising
questions
results in the
targeting of
the
question-raiser.
Ban
Ki-moon yelled
at his own
staff in front
of Mahinda
Rajapaksa,
berating them
for not
treating Sri
Lanka well
enough. Ban
saw the
government's
rebuttal film,
"Lies Agreed
To," when
given a
copy by
Permanent
Representative
to the UN
Palitha
Kohona, while
not
watching the
underlying UK
Channel Four
documentary
"Killing
Fields of Sri
Lanka,"
depicting war
crimes.
Click
here for
Inner City
Press' YouTube
video on this.
Inner
City Press has
closely
covered Ban's
(non) response
to war crimes
and
attacked on
the media in
Sri Lanka, for
example
recently asking
about
the
disappearance
of Prageeth in
a "Protect
Journalists"
panel
discussion
held by the
French Mission
to the UN,
then asking
Ban's
spokesperson's
office about
it, neither
time receiving
any
response.
In
fact, when
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's head of
peacekeeping
Herve
Ladsous, on
camera, why he
and Ban accept
as an adviser
the alleged
war criminal
Sri Lankan
general
Shavendra
Silva, Ladsous
refused to
answer ("Sri
Lanka style,"
as one wag put
it), telling
Inner City
Press: "Well,
Mister,
I will start
answering your
questions when
you stop
insulting
me and making
malicious and
insulting
insinuations."
Video
here,
at Minute
28:10.
Then
on June 3 the
largest
English
langauge
newspaper in
Sri Lanka
reported, "if
the
allegations
against Lee
are proven,
the UN
headquarters
will be made
out of bounds
for him. If
the harassment
charges are
proven he
could face a
jail term of
up to six
years."
See, http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2012/06/03/new11.asp
Most
recently,
after Ban's
Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit three
times said it
would renew
Inner City
Press
accreditation
to cover the
UN, including
in this
context, on
June 4 it
reverse course
and said
no. What has
the response
to this been?
Watch this
site.
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