Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/untrip4may3srilanka061009.html
UNITED NATIONS, June 10 -- With the UN Secretariat now refusing to comment or answer questions on the use of UN money for internment camps in Sri Lanka, Inner City Press on June 10 took the question across First Avenue, to UNICEF and a sample Permanent Representative to the UN, Switzerland's Peter Maurer.
Ambassador Maurer was just elected the chairman of the UN General Assembly's budget committee. This winning diplomacy was not match at the UN Human Rights Council, where the Swiss introduced resolution and amendments on Sri Lanka lost out to a resolution which congratulates Sri Lanka for its military campaign in the north and does not call for an HRC investigation of war crimes. Inner City Press asked Maurer for Switzerland's reflections on Sri Lanka and the Councils.
Maurer said that there are "strong indications that international humanitarian law was violated by both the government and the Tigers" or LTTE. He said that Sri Lanka should have been made a full agenda item of the Security Council. "If this is not an armed conflict with an impact on international peace and security," he asked, what is?
Maurer ridiculed the Council for having its meetings on Sri Lanka informally and in the basement, saying it seemed to reflect that the Council is uncomfortable having regular meetings. He wondered why countries sent four years working to get elected to the Council only to sit back and be dictated to by the Permanent Five members.
Maurer acknowledged that there was opposition, from advocacy groups he said, to the amendments Switzerland offered at the Human Rights Council. He said they were Switzerland's bottom line, a way they could have worked with the Sri Lankan government. He bemoaned the Sri Lankan government's win as "short sighted," a product of their connection with "the G-77 and the Global South."
With the Sri Lankan central bank now predicting approval by the International Monetary Fund of a $1.9 billion loan by the end of June, Inner City Press asked Maurer is he thought consideration of the loan should include what Maurer had called the violations of international humanitarian law. Maurer said, "as the IMF today, you can't disregard what the conditions are, where the money goes and how it is used."
Inner City Press asked Maurer, as it did UNICEF, whether UN system money should be used for internment camps. Maurer said that in cases of emergency, humanitarians will accept things they are not comfortable with. "That might change when you are out of the worst," he said. One might "accept more unfavorable conditions if people are dying." Ironically, the worse a government makes it for its people, by this logic, the more likely it will receive aid.
UNICEF had scheduled a June 10 press conference with its Executive Director Ann Veneman. Inner City Press went, to ask some Sri Lanka questions. Spokesman Chris de Bono said that Ms. Veneman was dealing with the death of UNICEF staff member Perseverando So in the bombing in Peshaware, Pakistan, that the question should not be asked at the press conference but rather later and in writing. Immediately after the press conference, Inner City Press asked
What does UNICEF say to a criticism that it is funding and enabling internment camps from which people, nearly all of them of the minority Tamil group and some swept up not from the "Conflict Zone" but elsewhere in Sri Lanka cannot leave, and are being screened for political beliefs? Does UNICEF deny each of the above conditions? If not, what is UNICEF doing to counter them, or not enable them?
Spokesman de Bono did provide an answer, just after 5 p.m. --
"UNICEF is delivering life-saving supplies to the estimated 300,000 IDPS generated by the conflict. It is delivering these supplies because vulnerable people desperately need them, and it is delivering them to whoever needs them most, wherever they are located, to the best of its ability to do so. This is UNICEF’s role and its humanitarian mission. Other parts of the UN system have different roles and duties. I suggest you direct your other questions, which are outside UNICEF’s mandate, to the relevant officials."
Apparently, UNICEF thinks it can outsource questions of the possible enabling of ethnic cleansing to unnamed other "relevant officials." Who might these be? Questions posted to the Spokespeople for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon are not given substantive answers, may not even be allowed.
Inner City Press asked asked, "from a recent June 5 OCHA situation report, a total of 217 child surrendees have been identified and registered in IDP camps in Vavuniya. 58 of them were transferred to Ambepussa rehabilitation center at the end of April. 69 (male) are currently accommodated at Nellukulam Technical College, together with over 1,721 male adults
"Question: is UNICEF aware of any other locations where surrendees or suspected LTTE supporters have been taken? any other surrendees or suspected LTTE supporters who were taken away before being registered?"
UNICEF's Mr. de Bono responded, "I am not aware of any such locations and UNICEF does not conduct registrations in the IDP camps....On your other questions I will need to consult my colleagues in the field." Watch this site.
Footnotes: the questions UNICEF did allow on June 10 were about Swaziland and Football Club Barcelona, which wears the UNICEF logo on its jersey and donates $1.5 million euros a year. Inner City Press asked how the global financial crisis is impacting given to UNICEF's programs, and the situation in Swaziland. UNICEF's representative in the country, Jama Gulaid, said that some promises are not materializing, and that costs for the poor are going up. He noted that Swaziland is considered a middle income country and therefore receives less aid.
UNICEF's head of private sector funding Philip O'Brien said corporate giving, purchase of cards and products, is down, but that many donors are staying the court. FC Barcelona President Laporta said that FCB may even expand its giving. He was asked about Samuel Eto and Manchester United, which recently switched the corporate logo on its jerseys from AIG to AON. On sports and politics, Sri Lankan cricketeers are facing protests. And so it goes.
Financial footnote: while the UN's budget committee continues to fight over the 2.5% cut in peacekeeping operations proposed by the US, Japan, South Korea and European Union, Inner City Press on June 10 asked Swiss Ambassador Peter Maurer, the incoming chair of the committee, for his country's thoughts on the controversy. Maurer confirmed that Switzerland had not joined the EU position, but then explained why not. "Sometimes it is allowed to sort of take a back seat," he said.
While he was standing for election as Fifth Committee chair, "it was not the right moment to express a position in a controversial discussion." Now that he is elected, he diplomatically let it be known that in Switzerland, there have been cuts of five, seven and even ten percent. "Administrations can take cuts," he said.
But was Colombo listening? Watch this site.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip4may3srilanka061009.html
