Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/untrip1may2srilanka052209.html
FRANKFURT, May 22 – In the last of the UN Security Council's closed door basement meetings on Sri Lanka, the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes told Council members about a proposed Memorandum of Understanding the Rajapaksa Administration wants non-governmental organizations to sign. When Inner City Press asked Holmes to explain on camera the problems with the agreement, he declined.
NGOs contacted Inner City Press and complained that they were ill-positioned in Sri Lanka to stand up for changes to the proposed MOU. They expected the UN, specifically Holmes' OCHA, to do so. It has yet to happen.
Inner City Press has obtained a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding and is putting it online, here. Among other things, it would require NGOs to allow the government access to all information, as summarized by a senior UN official who spoke to the press on condition he not be named. Why isn't the UN fighting this precedent?
