By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/untrip8may1srilanka091609.html
UNITED NATIONS, September 16 -- In Sri Lanka, the UN funds and works in what the government calls welfare centers and others characterize as internment camps. From these camps, the government removes people it thinks have supported the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels. Also, according to BBC and others, pro-government militia groups "disappear" internees in what are called dolphin vans. The UN's positions on these issues are not clear.
At a Wednesday news conference, Inner City Press asked top UN humanitarian John Holmes if there are militias in the camps, and if it knows and tries to raise toward international standards the government's protocols for grabbing, arresting and taking away people in UN-funded IDP camps. Video here, from Minute 31:58.
Holmes said that while allegations about disappearances are made in the media, they are not heard from UN agencies or "from NGOs." This last seemed strange, since Inner City Press has been told about the disappearances by just such civil society sources. Given the government's willingness to deport NGO staff and even UNICEF's Colombo based spokesman, these groups are afraid to speak.
So is the UN itself investigating the troubling allegations? It is not clear. Even on the incontrovertible process of "screening" and removing people from the IDP camps, Holmes said the UN can do little. It is their right, he said, referring to the Sri Lankan government.
In fact, Holmes seemed to only be asking that the detentions and removal proceed more rapidly, so that "legitimate" IDPs can go and stay with host families.
He said there are at least 10,000 people in "rehabilitiation" camps, and he claimed that the Red Cross can visit all of them, something that's disputed on the ground.
Clearly, the Sri Lankan government has vigorously pressed the UN to acknowledge that can do whatever it wants, up to and reportedly including detaining and torturing UN system staff members. Now we have reached a point where the UN defers from even commenting on due process for people in UN-funded IDP camps, and only says that the government should do its culling more speedily -- that is, in a sense, with even less due process. Send in the dolphin vans!
And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip8may1srilanka091609.html
