www.innercitypress.com/un1may8srilanka050809.html
UNITED NATIONS, May 8 -- On whether UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon should go to visit Sri Lanka, "the House is quite divided," a senior Ban adviser told Inner City Press late on May 8. He said many think that a Ban visit would be "most useful after the dust has settled," apparently referring to a final assault by the Sri Lanka military. Ban's office has spoken with, among others, British Tamils and urged them to call for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to let out all civilians who want to leave. "They just can't do it," the Ban adviser said.
Inner City Press pointed out that if Ban waits to go until after the final assault, it might become a tour of a dead zone. The adviser agreed, saying, "people will be locked in concentration camps for five years." Some say that if the UN knows that the camps they are funding are concentration camps, perhaps a change is needed. They say Ban should go now, taking the Press, and demand entry into the conflict zone.
The UN adviser mused that the LTTE leader may already have escaped. It would be good if he died, the adviser said, "there's a list of leaders who could emerge." He said the British Tamils were pushing for an airdrop of food and supplies into the conflict zone; the UN, he said, cannot act like a cowboy.
Human rights groups, meanwhile, briefed the Russian mission on Friday. Russia's deputy permanent representative, they said, was surprisingly interested in hearing arguments about why the carnage in northern Sri Lanka is a threat to international peace and security, the technical standard for UN Security Council involvement. Just because it's an island, the human rights groups argued, and people die trying to leave on ships, doesn't mean it's not a threat. The groups have yet to meet with China. And so it goes at the UN.
Footnote: there was a Tamil protest Friday before Japan's mission to the UN. "Shame on Japan," people chanted. Envoy Yosushi Akashi assured the Sri Lankan government of continued support. Monday's session on Sri Lanka at the UN is "not even a Council meeting," Russia's Vitaly Churkin told the Press. It will probably be in the basement. New lows are hit every day.
