By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 14 – When the UN Human Rights Council featured two minute statements on March 14, some countries went beyond the much-discussed issues to cite countries such as Turkmenistan, while Venezuela brought up the Czech's treatment of the Roma. Similarly Egypt shot back at the UK's impunity for former officials - can you say, Tony Blair? - and Northern Ireland. Apparently not mentioned by anyone, certainly not by the UK, was Cameroon's treatment of those in its Anglophone areas, where the Internet has been cut for 57 days and counting. The Swiss brought up Vietnam, the Dutch the DRC. But what about the mounting abuses in Cameroon? We'll have more on this.
The HRC started its 34th on February 27 session under the threat of the US mulling quitting the Council, official Oscar Fernandez-Taranco offered unalloyed praise of UN support to Sri Lanka. As Inner City Press has reported, just earlier this month, UN systemsupport has included to Sri Lanka's National Authority for Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses which includes, among others, a person accused by the UN's own Special Rapporteur of torture. Inner City Press has asked the UN Spokespeople, two weeks ago, without answer.
Meanwhile UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid hearkened back to the League of Nations, whose dissolution he blamed on, among other things, "the absence of the United States." These days, Zeid has retaliated against at least three whistleblowers (Anders Kompass, Miranda Brown and now Emma Reilly, who has been banned from speaking even as Zeid's spokesperson Rupert Colville trashes her (and Inner City Press and GAP) in a press release. Nor has Colville answered simple written questions from Inner City Press. Arrogance, too, can undermine an organization. We'll have more on this.
As to Sri Lanka, the wider UN, which half-admitted systemic failure under Ban Ki-moon while tens of thousands of Tamils were killed, has been supporting something called the National Authority for Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses.
But now that the body has been shown to include, among others, a person accused by the UN's own Special Rapporteur of torture, what does the UN do? Nothing, it seems.
The issue was raised again on February 20 in the 66th Session of Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Video here. This came, as it happens, hours after the son in law of just-left UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Siddharth Chatterjee, dodged again on his connection to alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. He wrote: "The fact is that I arrived in Sri Lanka having cut short a specialized combat under water diving course with the Indian Navy on October 16, 1987. The raid at Jaffna University took place on 12 October 1987." But it was after the failed October 12 raid - and after Chatterjee's now specified October 16 arrival - that the alleged reprisals took place. We'll have more on this, including in light of the new human rights self-attestation promulgated in the UN.
On February 14, Inner City Press asked UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq about it. He had no answer, and later in the briefing, regarding Ban Ki-moon who has had two relatives indicted for real estate fraud involving the UN, called Inner City Press "obsessive" then an a*hole.
(This same Haq in 2016 cut off Press questions about a protest in Jaffna of Ban Ki-moon's unilateral eviction from the UN of Inner City Press, where it remains restricted as "non-resident correspondent.")
Here's from the February 14 UN transcript, on Sri Lanka:
Inner City Press: I want to ask you about Sri Lanka, and I'll say why. There's a report out by the International Truth and Justice Project run by Yasmin Sooka, who was one of the named panellists. And they've basically said that there's a Sri Lankan body called the National Authority for Victim and Witness Protection, and they've named a member of the body, put on by the Government, who's named in a UN report as having been accused of torture by a Special Rapporteur on Torture. And the reason I'm asking is the UN is apparently providing financial support to this National Authority for Victim and Witness Protection. There's a… a… they've… they've hired a management consultant. And I wanted to know, is the UN, given its previous role in Sri Lanka, aware that it's financially supporting a body that has, in fact, torturers on it? And, if so, what happens to the financial support?
Deputy Spokesman: We'd have to check and see what sort of financial support is being provided. I'm not aware of what support is given to this group and whether that would need to be conditioned on any particular set of circumstances.
Deputy Spokesman: We'd have to check and see what sort of financial support is being provided. I'm not aware of what support is given to this group and whether that would need to be conditioned on any particular set of circumstances.
Haq, after calling Inner City Press an obsessive a*hole, left his office hours later having provided no answer. Here is the report, and here a sample UN system recruitment, showing support.
40,000 dead Tamils, UN failure? Get over it.
