Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/untrip1may4srilanka052209.html
UN PLANE, BAHRAIN, May 22 – Speeding toward Sri Lanka in the UN's Sudan plane, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described to the Press his mission as listening to President Mahinda Rajapaksa's “plans and visions.” Asked if he would “meet with the Tamil minority,” Mr. Ban said, “I am discussing with the Sri Lankan government.
"As you know, I am visiting only twenty four hours. I have to spend a lot of time on the road, traveling. Therefore as for detailed programs, [chief of staff Vijay] Nambiar is discussing with the Sri Lankan authorities.” With that, Ban referred the Press to his “very senior advisors” John Holmes and Lynn Pascoe, directors of the UN's humanitarian and political operations respectively.
Holmes, speaking on the record, chided a report who said the UN “hasn't had access for ten days.” He said, “we have had, all the way through, access to the camps.” He said that a few days ago, the government stopped letting the vehicles of the UN as well as non-governmental organizations go into the camps.
Is access on foot the “unimpeded” access that Ban says is the key “deliverable” he expects from this whirlwind trip? Well, said one wag, the meme “ped,” meaning foot, is in the word “unimpeded.”
Inner City Press asked Holmes what the UN has done in light of the expose on UK Channel 4 in which people detained in the government camps spoke of women being disappeared and then their bodies dumped. “We don't have hard evidence of that,” Holmes said, adding wisely that it doesn't mean it isn't true. He said that disappearances are not as much of a problem as they were before.
Holmes said that there are no more civilians in what was the conflict zone. Lynn Pascoe jumped in and specified that this UN position is based on the visual observation of Vijay Nambiar, who was taken by the government on a fly-over of the conflict zone. Then Holmes qualified that no large groups of civilians remain. He might have added: over-ground.
Inner City Press asked if the UN would provide aid to Sri Lanka without conditions. Holmes first said that “the political situations has to be right,” and the camps in compliance with international law. Then he spoke of raising more money from donors. It was, inevitably, a mixed message. Or as several close Sri Lanka observers have told Inner City Press, the Rajapaksas know that the UN will never stop funding, will never stand up, and so they ignore what the UN says.
The government has confirmed that it has arrested doctors who stayed in the conflict zone offering treatment and casualty figures. Inner City Press asked Holmes if Ban would raise the issue of these arrests to President Rajapaksa. I'm sure he will, Holmes said. We'll see. Ban told the Press that, in the run-up to the trip, he spoke with Golden Brown, Hillary Clinton and Bernard Kouchner. None now seems able to block or even delay the $1.9 billion loan the International Monetary Fund wants to give to Sri Lanka. So why should the Rajapaksa's listen?
As Holmes and Pascoe left, going back up to the first class section in front of the UN plane behind the Velcro-ed curtain, Inner City Press asked Pascoe for the UN's view of the Sri Lankan Constitution's 13th Amendment. It was enacted in 1987 as part of the Indo-Lankan Accords, and provides for some devolution of powers to local, Tamil areas.
A senior Ban adviser, not present on the trip, told Inner City Press that while Amendment 13 “does not go far enough,” the Rajapaksa are thinking of going back on it. Inner City Press asked Pascoe to comment on this and Pascoe agreed that some say Amendment 13 doesn't go far enough. But are the Rajapaksa's trying to back away even from it? Are these the “plans and visions” that Ban has come to listen to? Watch this site.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip1may4srilanka052209.html
