By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/untrip8may8srilanka092609.html
UNITED NATIONS, September 26 -- Sri Lanka's prime minister read a long triumphal speech Saturday afternoon before a UN General Assembly Hall that was well less then half full. In the audience, however, were the country's Foreign Affairs and Defense Minister, the latter being Presidential brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. They sat with their head in their hands as Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka droned on, his image projected in a large TV screen above him.
Wickramanayaka said, "we have shared our hopes and concerns with the United Nations." He might have added, we use each trip by a UN official as support for interning people in camps. His speech spoke of landmines and "self-confessed ex-LTTE cadres... mix[ed] with the IDPs." There was no mention of freedom of the press, reporters killed and imprisoned, nor of the UN system staff detained and, they say, tortured.
On September 25, Inner City Press asked three separate UK spokespeople for a read-out of David Miliband's meeting with Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on September 25. One responded, that she was not in the meeting, only Miliband, Bogollagama and Bernard Kouchner were. Therefore not even a summary was released.
Norway's foreign minister, when asked by Inner City Press what if anything Norway is now doing about about the situation in Sri Lanka, stammered that "it is up to them." Norway now seems to be running scared.
On Saturday, less than twenty yards from the Sri Lankan delegation sat that of the United States, showing little interest in or reaction to the Sri Lankan speech. The U.S. State Department was asked about its war crimes report that was due September 21 in Congress. It now appears the report is late -- some allege some Gotabhaya Rajapaksa involvement -- and will be filed in mid October. Watch this site.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip8may8srilanka092609.html
