During Sri Lanka Visit by UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Questioning Confirmed, US Ambassador Power on Way

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 18 --  During the Sri Lanka visit of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, on November 11 Inner City Press asked the UN this question:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you a Sri Lanka question, while this grouping is still there.  There’s a UN working group on enforced disappearances that’s visiting Sri Lanka, including northern Sri Lanka.  Maybe this is not true, but the “Colombo Gazette” says that families whose people have been disappeared, who met with UN working group, including the widow of Prageeth [Eknaligoda], the cartoonist, were told, quote, by the UN not to speak to the media about their discussions with the working group.  It says “the UN.”  So it’s…

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:  I don’t…

Inner City Press:  Is there…

Spokesman Dujarric:  You can ask our colleagues in Geneva, who kind of help back up these independent working groups, but it’s not something I can answer from here. 

  No answer ever came in from the UN in Geneva -- too busy giving elite speeches in New York, some said.

On November 18, the Working Group's delegation of Bernard Duhaime, Tae-Ung Baik, and Ariel Dulitzky said, among other things, that "Some of the persons with whom we met have been questioned in relation to our visit. This is absolutely unacceptable in a democratic society."

 Their preliminary observations added, "The highest levels of the Government should take decisive actions to stop such acts and instruct all public officers that these actions will not be tolerated and will be punished accordingly. The Working Group calls on the State to guarantee the safety of those with whom it met, and to protect them against any form of reprisals, threat or intimidation. The success of any measures on truth and justice will depend on how safe the victims and relatives feel. Over the years, the Working Group has transmitted more than 12000 cases to the Government of Sri Lanka, of which 5750 are still outstanding. So now what? Their preliminary observations are here; they will present their report in Geneva in September 2016.

  Meanwhile US Ambassador Samantha Power is headed to Sri Lanka after India, where she arrives on November 23. She will visit Jaffna, "to meet with local government officials and organizations and communities affected by the conflict. There, she will meet with members of the local press corps, including by visiting the headquarters of Uthayan newspaper, which was targeted during the war. Ambassador Power will also participate in the inauguration of a new wing of Osmania College, which suffered significant damage during the conflict, as well as tour the Jaffna Library, where she will announce U.S. support for the local restoration of ancient Tamil manuscripts." Full announcement here.

 Back on October 22 when Bernard Duhaime, the Vice-Chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, held a press conference at the UN, Inner City Press asked him about his country visit to Sri Lanka set for next month, and about how the Working Group considers disappearances and worse by ISIS and other “non-state groups.”

    Duhaime said he will be meeting with civil society in Sri Lanka as well as with the government (regarding which he repeatedly emphasized “transition,” and called the timing of his visit “historic.”) He said one of the Working Group's roles is to give certainty to the families of the disappeared. There are certainly many of those, particularly in Northern Sri Lanka.  Inner City Press will have more coverage of the Working Group country visit.

  On ISIS, Duhaime said said the key would be to consider if there is a nexus to any state (there are neighbors one might wish to review) and that it will be reviewed at a conference next February. He politely declined to answer a country- and complaint-specific question Inner City Press posed. Watch this site.

When the UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez held a press conference on October 20, Inner City Press asked him for his view of the only partial release of the US Senate's report on CIA torture, about Guantanamo Bay and whether he thought President Barack Obama's visit to a prison might make his long-pending request to visit US prisons move faster. Video here.

   Mendez said there should be more release(s), and accountability. He said he had had to request the US' conditional offers to visit Guantanamo Bay and US prisons, as he would not be allowed to speak with all prisoners. He praise Obama's visit, but still - Mendez can't get in.

On October 16 when the Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Benyam Dawit Mezmur held a press conference at the UN, Inner City Press asked him about US President Barack Obama's decision to continue to provide military aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan, despite all four being on the UN's (and US') lists on children and armed conflict. Video here.  

    Benyam Dawit Mezmur said that while the US is the lone holdout on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the issue can still be gotten-at under the Optional Protocol. Inner City Press asked about the sexual abuse of children in the Central African Republic by French and UN peacekeepers.

   Benyam Dawit Mezmur replied that the Committee is asking France about the alleged sexual abuse of children, and will conduct a review in January. We aim to have more on this.

  At the press conference, there were only two correspondents, as there was an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Palestine at the same time. Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Benyam Dawit Mezmur for the briefing but suggested that in the future postponement of briefings, so that more journalists could attend, be considered. UNCA wasn't present at all; nor has it disclosed the extend of funding and connection by indicted David Ng and Frank Lorenzo and their affiliates.

 Also on the UN, when the UN find a staff member using the UN's email system to trafficking in sexual images of minors, a crime, what does it do? On October 16, Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about this paragraph from a UN report it had dug up:

“49. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, pornographic material, including pornographic material involving a minor, and failed to report that another staff member had sent the staff member inappropriate material though the Organization’s e-mail system. Disposition: dismissal.”

  Inner City Press asked, was that all that happened, dismissal? Such that the person could, for example, work in a day care center? Haq said in instances the UN waives immunity.

  Inner City Press asked, how would law enforcement know that the person had used the UN's email system for child porn? Haq said there have been cases in which the UN told local authorities. Inner City Press asked, did it do so in this case? Apparently, the UN will not answer this. For now. Here are other paragraphs:

46. A staff member stored pornographic material, including pornography involving a minor, on the staff member’s United Nations computer, distributed other pornographic material through the Organization’s e-mail system and failed to report that another staff member had sent the staff member inappropriate material through the Organization’s e-mail system. Disposition: dismissal.

47. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, and stored on the staff member’s United Nations computer, pornographic material involving a minor and, on other occasions, distributed, through the Organization’s e -mail system, other pornographic material. Disposition: dismissal.

 48. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, pornographic material involving a minor and, on three other occasions, distributed other pornographic material through the Organization’s e-mail system and stored pornographic material on the staff member’s United Nations computer. Disposition: dismissal.

 The report is entitled "Practice of the Secretary-General in disciplinary matters and cases of criminal behaviour, 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015."

We'll have more on this. Watch this site.