Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/unscsri4lanka040309.html
UNITED NATIONS, April 3 -- Weeks after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for a suspension of fighting in Sri Lanka, his Office's follow-up statement on April 3 omitted the request. Rather, apparently implementing the UN's new strategy of putting more pressure on the Tamil Tiger rebels than the government, Ban's Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq read out a statement that the Tamil Tigers are violating international humanitarian law, while the government is merely "reminded of its obligations."
Inner City Press asked, what happened to the call for a suspension of fighting? Video here, from Minute 15:45. Mr. Haq pointed to the statement he had just read out, which did not refer to a suspension of cessation of fighting, much less to a ceasefire. When Inner City Press first asked Ban about the killing in Sri Lanka, Ban said he could not call for a ceasefire because Sri Lanka was not on the Security Council's agenda.
After then-President of the Council Yukio Takasu told Inner City Press that Ban's statement is not what the UN Charter says, Ban called for a suspension of fighting. But Sri Lanka's president has said he will not give in to international pressure and that the fighting will continue. Inner City Press asked for a reply from Ban, but none was given. Then on April 3 there issued a prepared statement omitting any call for a suspension of fighting.
Ironically, Haq then read out a statement by the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs which described "aerial bombing of the No-Fire Zone" in northern Sri Lanka. Particularly given the reports that the Tamil Tigers' rag-tag air force has been destroyed, to say "aerial bombing" is to say "Sri Lankan government," but to omit saying those words. Why? To jibe with Ban's new strategy of accusing the Tigers of law-breaking and merely reminding the government of obligations?
A senior UN official has told Inner City Press that this is the UN's strategy, since the government of Sri Lanka has so openly ignored Ban's calls: to pressure instead the Tamil Tigers and their supporters overseas, threatening prosecutions, and to "lay off" the government. Given the number of deaths that have been caused by shelling and aerial bombing by the government, to "lay off" is to be complicit.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/unscsri4lanka040309.html
