UNITED NATIONS, July 12 -- The UN commemorated the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre on Monday, as above Srebrenica itself a memorial points the finger at the UN's role in the genocide.
“The UN has to accept responsibility for not doing enough,” said President of the General Assembly Ali Treki, in a memorial ceremony featuring Permanent Representatives of countries ranging from Georgia through Ghana, India and Kazakhstan to Sri Lanka.
Moments later, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon put it differently, saying that the UN made “errors of judgment.” One wondered what he would say about Rwanda.
Ban Ki-moon spoke of accountability. Earlier on Monday, the International Criminal Court issued a supplemental indictment of Sudan's Omar al Bashir, for genocide. Mr. Ban sent both of his two top envoys to Sudan to Bashir's re-inauguration ceremony earlier this year.
After the ceremony, Inner City Press and a long time Balkan reporter called out to Mr. Ban, wanting to ask about the UN's invocation of immunity against lawsuits by the mothers of Srebrenica.
“No questions,” Mr. Ban said, politely it must be and was said. In his wake, the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka, facing accusations of war crimes, lobbied a UN Under Secretary General. There was no discussion of UN action and inaction on the case of the ethnics Uzbeks.
Back on July 2, Inner City Press has asked:
Inner City Press: can I ask about Kyrgyzstan? The French Minister for Human Rights, Mr. [inaudible], has said that he believes that what happened in southern Kyrgyzstan was a crime against humanity and should be investigated. I just wonder, obviously the Secretary-General has various forms of inquiries and proposals for inquiries outstanding. What’s the UN’s actual estimate of how many people were killed in southern Kyrgyzstan? And also, is there a move by the Secretariat to do anything beyond that in what seems to be at least 200, maybe, Rosa Otunbayeva has said 2,000 killings that were part of ethnic cleansing? What’s the UN’s follow-through on that?
Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq: In terms of our follow-through, we’ve been detailing what we’ve been doing both at the humanitarian level through efforts of UNHCR, OCHA [Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] and various others, and at the diplomatic level through the efforts, among others, of Mr. Miroslav Jenca. And that work on the ground is going on and we’re trying to do what we can to bring the communities of Kyrgyzstan together again, and to encourage community solidarity. As for the death toll — no, we, the UN, do not have any death toll of our own that we would confirm.
Inner City Press: What I want to say is it seems like in many of these conflicts the UN says all these things are all to the good, about building solidarity or humanitarian response, but this word like “accountability” has been used in a number of contexts by the Secretariat. Is there any thought of, whatever the number is, accountability for what took place? Whether it’s through Mr. Jenca’s office or through the Secretariat, or is that not a part of the follow-through?
Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq: Well, I don’t have anything specific to say about that at this point. Obviously, this is something that we would study. The needs on the ground at this stage are very great, and we’ve been focusing primarily on the needs of all the people who have been displaced by the fighting that occurred. In terms of the initial incidents, I believe my colleagues at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights have already made some remarks about this. Whether there will be any further investigation, some of that will depend on the attitudes of the parties on the ground. And of course, this will also be something that we ourselves will continue to look into, to see whether anything further is needed
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