As Sri Lanka Bans NGOs' Work with Press, FIDH Condemns, UN's Ban Ki-moon Passed Buck

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 9 -- After Sri Lanka's Minister of "Defense and Urban Development" issued an order banning all non-governmental organizations from press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and dissemination of press releases which is beyond their mandate," and the UN declined comment or passed the buck, the US and now the human rights group FIDH have expressed concern.

  The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint program of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights said, "The Observatory is concerned by these attempts by the Sri Lankan Government to curtail the freedom of association, assembly, and expression of human rights defenders , which seem to be aimed at undermining the legitimacy of their peaceful activities. The Observatory calls upon the authorities of Sri Lanka to withdraw the above-mentioned notice immediately and to put an immediate end to the harassment against all human rights defenders."

   US State Department spokesperson on July 8 said, "We strongly urge the Government of Sri Lanka to allow civil society organizations and NGOs, which play a vital role in supporting Sri Lanka’s democratic values, to operate freely."

 Also on July 8, US President Barack Obama nominated his current Ambassador to Sri Lanka Michele Sison, to become the US' Deputy Ambassador to UN and its Security Council.

   On July 7,  Inner City Press  asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about it. Video here, on Inner City Press' YouTube channel.

  Inner City Press asked, since UN envoy Oscar Fernandez Taranco was recently in Sri Lanka, had he spoken to the Rajapaksa government about this crack-down, or did he have any comment now?

  Haq replied, "We'll have to study what this particular injunction was... we'll have to evaluate that."  

  But 24 hours later on July 8, after lead UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric had already belatedly begun the day's noon briefing -- and after 5 pm in Geneva -- the Spokesperson's Office sent Inner City Press this:

Date: Tue, Jul 8, 2014 at 12:18 PM
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Subject: Your question on Sri Lanka.
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Regarding Sri Lanka, please kindly direct your question from yesterday's noon briefing to OHCHR.

   So this was the result of the UN Secretariat's "evaluation" -- to pass the buck to Navi Pillay's office? 

  Meanwhile media in Sri Lanka had reported that Haq's (or Hak's) office would be making a comment; a press freedom organization there consulted by the Free UN Coalition for Access complained the order would chill the freedom to report. What was the purpose of the UN's Oscar Fernandez Tarando's trip to Sri Lanka? What does Ban's "Rights Up Front" policy, announced after systemic failure in Sri Lanka, really mean?

After UN official Oscar Fernandez Taranco visited Sri Lanka but has refused to take Press questions upon his return to New York, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on June 25 about a protest,video here:

Inner City Press: There’s a protest scheduled for today at 1 p.m. on 47th Street of mostly people from Sri Lanka and elsewhere about the violence there. And they’ve said that they intend to hand a letter to the Secretariat, seeking action against the action there. I wanted to know: is this going to be possible? Is Mr. [Oscar Fernandez-] Taranco... it’s great that Mr. Šimonovic will brief on Burundi. It seems like it’s a kind of a similar situation. And is the UN aware of this? And what has been the reaction to the upswing in violence in Sri Lanka?

Spokesman Dujarric: I think we’ve spoken about this from this podium. We’ve condemned the violence that we’ve seen recently. And obviously, the Secretary-General fully backs the efforts of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. As for the demonstration, I was unaware of it. If I have any information, I will let you know.

Inner City Press: That panel is about war crimes at the end of the conflict on both sides, whereas this is something that’s actually taking place currently. That’s why I’m sort of asking, like, did Mr. Taranco deal with this issue while he was there?

Spokesman Dujarric: As I said, I shared with you what I had on Mr. Taranco’s visit.

   The protest took place: see Inner City Press tweeted photo here.

  In a previous protest by Sri Lankan Tamils, the UN sent a lower level functionary who told the protesters the letter would be rejected if they told the Press about it. Dujarric said he would check. This comes amid much hypocrisy at the UN.  

 The UN has entirely stonewalled Press questions about the new White Flag killings report and the light it sheds on current UN official Vijay Nambiar and former UN official, now Sri Lankan Ambassador Palitha Kohona.

  It was about a past financial relationship between Kohona and the president of the UN Correspondents Association, who then agreed to an UNCA screening of a Rajapaksa government movie denying war crimes that UNCA tried to censor.

When Inner City Press reported on the background to Kohona getting the Rajapaksa government's denial of war crimes, “Lies Agreed To,” screened in the Dag Hammarjkold Library auditorium, the reaction from the then-president and executive committee of the United Nations Correspondents Association are summarized here.

  Now the new Free UN Coalition for Access opposes all of this, and attacks on media work both inside the UN both further afield and as close at 47th Street, west of First Avenue. Watch this site.

   

As UN Holds Event in Bahrain, Stonewalls on Human Rights & Roed-Larsen, UNPAS & HRW Silent

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 23 -- Despite the human rights issues in Bahrain, the UN has invited over 700 people to a four day event there entitled “Transformative e-Government and Innovation.” Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement which does not mention human rights.

  Often in Bahrain, presenting himself as Ban Ki-moon's main adviser, is Terje Roed-Larsen. He is not even a full time UN employee: his main job as as director of the International Peace Institute, which has opened an office in Bahrain that is funded by the government.

   Inner City Press repeatedly asked the UN to confirm or deny that Roed-Larsen took his UN-paid staffer with him to Bahrain on what he called a “personal” trip. The UN belatedly confirmed it, without explaining the use of UN funds on a personal trip. 

  Nor has the UN explained how this is not a conflict of interest: a part-time UN Under Secretary General taking money from a government to open an office the NGO he heads in that government's capital.

  On May 23, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's three top spokespeople:

“because I'd rather ask it in this format than at a noon briefing: can you confirm or deny that a staff member of Terje Roed Larsen in his role under Resolution 1559 was the subject of legal (criminal) problems and has left the US, where he was based at UN HQ? If confirm, is he still a UN staff member?”

  Ban's spokespeople answered other questions in that e-mail, but not this one. And so on June 1 and on June 8, Inner City Press posed it again. Other questions were answer but not this one. Apparently, the UN thinks if it just ignores some questions they will go away.

  The new Free UN Coalition for Access has begun exploring differences in responsiveness of various parts of the UN system. 

  For example, while the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and Ban's Spokesperson's Office have refused to answer on who killed an Ethiopian UN peacekeeper in Sudan on June 14, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has stated it was the SPLM-North rebels, and has replied to @FUNCA_info to this effect.

  Now @FUNCA_info has asked the UN Public Administration Network, which is blithely promoting the event in Bahrain with photos of woodwork at its National Theater “did UN consider or speak on human rights in Bahrain before putting this event there?” But UNPAS has not responded, at least not yet. Watch this site.

Footnotes: Not only FIDH but also Human Right Watch last week issued scathing reports about Bahrain's human rights record, including that “unregistered organizations are 'illegal' and joining one is a criminal offense under the penal code. In May, parliament amended the Public Gathering Law to ban demonstrations near 'lively places, and places that have a security nature.'”

  But HRW, whose Ken Roth meets with Ban Ki-moon then refuses Press requests that he disclose even just a list of the issues he and HRW raised, has had little to say about the UN holding this PSA event in Bahrain. Has the UN sunk so low that less is expected of it on human rights then, for example, the Formula 1 auto racing circuit?

  Finally, for now, the UN Department of Public Information's most recent move appears to be to in essence declare the Free UN Coalition for Access an “unregistered” organization and try to force the take-down of its sign, while leaving up two signs of the favored UN Correspondents Association (also known as the UN Censorship Alliance). Is this the type of governance the UN is going to Bahrain to learn?

At UN, FIDH Funded by France Declines to Answer on W. Sahara, Haidar

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 24 -- When the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) held a press conference at the UN on Monday, they said it was sponsored by the French Mission to the UN.

Inner City Press asked the five person FIDH panel, then, about France's opposition to including any human rights mandate in the UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, MINURSO, and about the mistreatment of prominent human rights defender Aminatou Haidar. Video here, from Minute 42:54.

The five person panel had nothing to say on this. Only panelist Gerald Staberock even reacted to the question, and then only to say, "on the question of Western Sahara, on the question on Security Council membership, we would like member states to take a look at our report."

But notably Ms. Haidar, and for example Sidi Ahmed Lamjeid who is imprisoned in Sale and not allowed to be visited, do not appear to be mentioned in the report.

Mr. Staberock went on to tell Inner City Press that while you mention "Morocco as an example, I think in the last election cycle" there is also Kyrgyzstan. Video here, from Minute 46:11. But Kyrgystan lost, to Pakistan, while Morocco won and will now be on the Security Council.

Most notably, there was no response at all on the question about France using its Permanent veto wielding seat on the Council to block any human rights mandate for MINURSO, the peacekeeping mission.

Now Herve Ladsous is the fourth Frenchman in a row to hold the top post in UN Peacekeeping. He was given the post despite most recently serving as chief of staff to French foreign minister Michele Aliot-Marie when she flew on the private plane of cronies of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali. The panelists spoke about Tunisia, but not the French connection.

From the audience, the second question went to Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, which gets 41% of its income from subscriptions from the French foreign ministry, as is being investigated by the EU. The question was in context an open-ended softball for any other "blatant examples" the panels, who had already spoken for 40 minutes, wanted to give. The answer to that was, again not surprisingly, about Algeria.

Panel at UN on Oct 24, response on W. Sahara & Haidar not shown (c) MRLee

There were mentions of human rights defenders in Belarus and Democratic Republic of Congo; there is certainly work being done. But the failure to even attempt to answer the question about France and its opposition to a human rights monitoring mandate in Western Sahara was a "blatant example," particularly given the FIDH lists France as a supporter, with a link that leads to the French foreign ministry's website where no financing disclosure is made. We hope to have more on this.

Footnotes: On the critique of human rights defender Tawakkul Karman of the Security Council's passage October 21 of a resolution "on the basis of" the Gulf Cooperation Council's immunity deal with Yemen strongman Ali Saleh, the same Agence France Presse correspondent Tim Witcher's report did not even mention France. Watch this site.