Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ban11srilanka030509.html
UNITED NATIONS, March 5 -- Even on a day when the UN belatedly notes the starvation of Tamils trapped in the conflict zone in Sri Lanka, it undercut this report Thursday by declaring the expulsion of NGOs from Darfur "the important issue of the day." At the UN's noon briefing in New York, Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson shifted directly from a read-out of press releases, including the statement on Sri Lanka, to a Q&A on Darfur, without taking questions on what she had read. Later on Thursday, Inner City Press asked the UN's Radhika Coomaraswamy if she thinks the UN is doing enough about Sri Lanka, and how to allocate blame for the deaths there, including of children and by starvation. Video here, from Minute 24:06.
Ms. Coomaraswamy said that the UN's focus is humanitarian, on the "ways and means of evacuation." She recited that the government of Sri Lanka has made a commitment not to use long range artillery, while noting that there are reports the continued use. For example, in Maaththa'lan on March 3. Still she called it a step forward, and said it was up to the Security Council to consider the "larger political issues" such as "whether to call for a ceasefire."
Ban has called, twice now, for a suspension of fighting. The Security Council held a single briefing -- explicitly on humanitarian and not political issues -- and now Sri Lanka is not on the Council's agenda for the month of March.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/ban11srilanka030509.html
