Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
www.innercitypress.com/untrip3may7srilanka060509.html
UNITED NATIONS, June 5 -- The Sri Lankan government has denounced a story about "missing" internally displaced people which Inner City Press, based on discrepancies in UN documents and statements from UN sources, published this week.
Beyond denying that any IDPs have been removed from the UN-funded camps in Vavuniya, which Inner City Press visited on May 23, the government has said that it is raising the matter with the UN. "Minister of Human Rights and Disaster Management, Mahinda Samarasinghe is expected to take up the issue with United Nations," according to a pro-government web site.
On June 2, Ban Ki-moon's Spokesperson publicly denounced Inner City Press for its reporting, but denied she had discussed "complaining to Google News" about it, presumably to stop its distribution or censor it. The next day she recanted, click here. Click here for Inner City Press (on NYTimes.com) on tensions in Sri Lanka.
Inner City Press' story noted that even the UN, in a May 30 report, acknowledged that its number of IDPs in the camps decreased by over 13,000.
While the public report by UN OCHA ascribed this sudden drop -- from May 27 -- to "double counting," local UN sources, on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation not only by the Sri Lankan government but also by the UN, told Inner City Press that as with the satellite photos of the conflict zone and casualty figures, some in the UN were seeking to downplay this potentially troubling information.
OCHA's May 30 report states that "276,785 persons crossed to the Government controlled areas from the conflict zone. This represents a decrease of 13,130 IDPs since the last report (Sitrep No.18) on 27 May 2009. The decrease is associated with double counting. Additional verification is required."
But earlier, OCHA had praised the "improved, systematic registration being undertaken in the camps."
The article continued that UN sources in Colombo tell Inner City Press that senior UN officials above them, Sri Lankan nationals who are Sinhalese, are downplaying the 13,000 "missing" IDPs, which would otherwise be of much concern given the reports of disappearances from the camps, the seizing of teenage males for detention and females for other purposes, as UK Channel 4 asserted with on camera interviews
Shouldn't the UN look into this more closely, given multiple and credible reports of people being "disappeared" from the UN-funded IDP camps? The UN so far has done nothing in this regard.
To expedite matters, one hopes, Inner City Press now publishes a list of some of the places where the UN -- or perhaps a less compromised body -- should look for missing people:
Pallekelle near Kandy; Ambepussa, Boosa and, it is said, the Army training camp at Diya-talawwa.
On June 2, Ban Ki-moon's Spokesperson while again publicly denouncing Inner City Press for its reporting, denied she had discussed "complaining to Google News" about it, presumably to stop its distribution or censor it.
The next day, Ms. Montas confirmed that both legal action and "complaining to Google News" were discussed at a meeting she had with four top UN officials, including Mr Ban's speech writer, who also traveled to Sri Lanka on May 23, the UN's top lawyer Patricia O'Brien, Angela Kane and the head of UN "Public Information," Kiyotaka Akasaka, previously of the Japanese foreign ministry.
Following a failure by these officials to respond to requests that they explain how the strategy they discussed comports with the free press Article 19 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Inner City Press has asked for action from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, click here.
Footnotes: During this week's back and forth about the UN threatening legal action against the Press, and to complain to Google News about Inner City Press' coverage, a high UN official, again anonymous due to fear of retaliation even at his level, approached Inner City Press to say that the attempt at censorship or expulsion was being pushed by what he diplomatically called "a member state." Asked if this meant Sri Lanka, he nodded.
Meanwhile, in a show of retaliation, the UN has taken the step of seizing and checking the UN e-mail of staff members who they believe have been sources for Inner City Press. Some say that when the UN went to Sri Lanka, rather than seek to hold the government to a high standard of human rights, the effect was to make the UN (even) more like the administration of the Rajapaksas...
Guard in Manik Farm camp, (c) M. Lee May 23, 2009
The article below quoting that "Minister of Human Rights and Disaster Management, Mahinda Samarasinghe is expected to take up the issue with United Nations" takes issue with Inner City Press quoting that
"UN sources in Colombo tell Inner City Press that senior UN officials above them, Sri Lankan nationals who are Sinhalese, are downplaying the 13,000 "missing" IDPs, which would otherwise be of much concern given the reports of disappearances from the camps, the seizing of teenage males for detention and females for other purposes, [as] UK Channel 4 asserted with on camera interviews."
Contrary to the (intentional?) misinterpretation below, Inner City Press was not saying that all Sri Lankan nationals are Sinhalese -- rather, that within the UN's staff in Sri Lanka, those who are of the majority Sinhalese group are seen by their Tamil colleagues as in some cases using their positions in the UN to advance, as some phrase it, "the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist cause." Inner City Press did not invent these divisions, and the article's and minister's statement that all is now well in Sri Lanka is, at best, wishful thinking. Within the UN, some recall the way in Rwanda a Hutu staff member named Callixte Mbarushimana was allowed to use his UN position and materiel to further the Hutu extremist cause which has since been acknowledged as genocide. The UN continued employing and paying Callixte Mbarushimana for many years. Some wonder, will that happen with the UN in Sri Lanka?
On June 5 outside the UN Security Council, Inner City Press asked the Special Adviser of the Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide, Francis Deng, if his Office will do any work on Sri Lanka. "We try to follow what is going on, the post-conflict developments," he said. "It's been going on for twenty five years, you don't just...." His voice trailed off. "One phase ended, presumably, but....". And his voice trailed off again. Of course, it's been "going on" for far longer than 25 years.
At the UN noon briefing on June 5, Inner City Press asked Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq if the UN has received any communications from the Sri Lankan government about report based on OCHA's May 30 and May 27 figures. Haq said to ask Sri Lanka's mission to the UN. Inner City Press asked if Ban Ki-moon would speak about Sri Lanka with the Press after his closed door informal (or "unofficial") briefing to the Security Council slated for June 5 and 3:15 p.m.. Haq did not say yes. Watch this site.sir lank
And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip3may7srilanka060509.html
