As UN's Ban Leaves Sri Lanka, Questions Unanswered, Complicity in War Crimes?

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/untrip2may5srilanka052409.html

ABOARD UN PLANE, May 24 -- After Sri Lanka tried to compare the blown out "No Fire" zone with its barbed wire ringed interment camps for Tamils, and the UN's Ban Ki-moon offered praise and help, many troubling questions remained as the UN plane left Colombo. Is the UN assisting in war crimes?

At the canned press conference in Kandy, after meeting with Rajapaksa brothers who wear red sashes like blood across their chests, Ban's speech said "the Government is doing its utmost, I commend its tremendous efforts."

In the cut-off Q & A session, Ban took back what little criticism the UN had made of the killing of civilians, calling it a bloodbath. "I myself did not mention that the particular word, I want to make that quite clear," he said.

The Press was whisked by minibus from Kandy to the airport. (Inner City Press had asked for an extension of the two day visa given to cover Ban Ki-moon; it was never granted.) Along the route were hundreds of cult-like posters of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Everywhere there flapped Colombo's sword-wielding lion flag, as Tamil children in the Manik Farm IDP camp had been required to hold, along with UN flags while they sang an eerie song about Ban Ki-moon.

Imagine if Serbia had re-taken Kosovo, and invited the UN Secretary General to the retaken Pristina where it made Kosovar children save the Serbian flag.

At the airport the government had arranged another red carpet flanked by white-clad soldiers with machine guns with bayonets leading to the UN plane. Ban Ki-moon was late, having stopped with his entourage for a final dinner with the Rajapaska's.

Inner City Press paced the tarmac, threw questions at entourage members as they belated ran to the plane. The communications director said it could be a while, he would go to the plane to sleep. Vijay Nambiar's colleague confirmed that, yes, Nambiar would be leaving with the UN plane, his week-long clean up job complete. When finally he boarded, Inner City Press joked, welcome back. I haven't been on the UN plane in a while, Nambiar said with a smile.

Inner City Pres went to the front of the VIP terminal, where Sri Lankan functionaries waited with umbrellas in case the skies opened. A UN staffer said it might be a while, Ban was in the terminal doing interviews. When finally he emerged and saw Inner City Press, camera in hand, he asked, "Are you coming back with us?" Yes was the answer, due to denied visa extension, no help from UN.

Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the UN stopped and asked if Inner City Press had been "able to talk to people." To some degree, yes -- for example, the Sri Lankan civil society member whose application to teach reconciliation in Vavuniya and Mannar has not been acted on. In the camps, the Press could speak to some of those interred, both only under the watchful eye of armed soldiers and other government minders. Some reporters even concluded that it was the UN, more than the Sri Lankan authorities, which tried to dissuade approaches to those behind the barbed wire.

On the plane, just before takeoff from Colombo, Ban stopped and spoke to the assembled Press about the suicide of his former boss in Korea, about the letter and white flowers that he sent. Inner City Press listened -- South Korea in those days was cutting edge in interactive media -- and then asked Mr. Ban, "Did you hear anything about the three doctors?" Ban stopped. Oh yes, I did, he said. I think they will address this issue.

But what about answering the questions: Why doesn't his Joint Statement with the government mention the interred doctors, or press freedom, or even the blocked NGO access to the camps? In an Orwellian construction, it has that "The Government will continue to provide access to humanitarian agencies." Why didn't Ban meet with any in the Tamil opposition or civil society? This UN is prejudiced toward governments, even when some say they turn genocidal. And Ban's UN so desperately wants to be relevant that regimes like Rajapaksa's can call Ban's bluff again and again.

During the flight from Colombo, at first it was said that Ban would brief the gaggle of reporters during the refueling stop in Bahrain. With the lights on and the engines off, a group assembled. But Team Ban, apparently, went another way, summoning a few reporters for one on one interviews for their local markets. Such access can better be linked to positive coverage, they seem to feel. Inner City Press was told that a Ban briefing when the plane lands in Copenhagen is not possible, as Ban has to run straight to a conference, late because of his dinner with the Rajapaksas, on which he took no Press questions. We'll have more on this.

The Rajapaksa regime, fresh from shelling and killed thousands of Tamils, used Ban Ki-moon's visit as propaganda. And Ban did not protest. As was as if, as one observer fearing death told Inner City Press, Ban's UN is so desperate to be able to say that a country wants it, "even a regime with blood on its hands," that it allows the UN "to be turned into a joke."

But perhaps today's UN system is often such a mirthless joke, speeding around what dictatorships still exist in white UNDP four by fours, sucking up to governments and excusing their massacres, even offering to clean up the death sites.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip2may5srilanka052409.html

On Sri Lanka, UN's Holmes Tells Council to Speak with One Voice, Envoy Request

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/sc8srilanka043009.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 30 -- As the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes began a closed-door briefing of the Security Council in the UN's basement late Thursday, a copy of his presentation leaked to Inner City Press called on the members of the Council to speak with one voice and look for ways to end the fighting. Meanwhile, outside the room the Council met in there was not a single television camera. Even if outgoing Council president Claude Heller of Mexico became authorized to “speak with one voice” for the Council, it would not be recorded.

Inner City Press asked Heller if he and Mexico favor the appointment of a UN envoy to Sri Lanka. Two attendees of the Council's closed-door lunch with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said they remembered Heller making such a request. But a senior Ban advisor told Inner City Press the message was not received by Ban. This advisor said that the UN Secretariat's hope is to arrange some form of amnesty for most of the remaining Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam left in the conflict zone, but not the leader and founder. Inner City Press asked, just as an example, what about his son? That's what negotiations are for, was the answer. But the three brothers who run Sri Lanka, he said, have shown little interests. They feel they are about to win, he said.

The leverage points, then, are the pending IMF loan and the European Union's GSP Plus no tariff treatment of Sri Lankan textiles.

The senior UN advisor noted that while previously Sri Lankan presidents have been popular with Sinhalese nationalism, “when the economy tanks,” they lose elections and power. So the economic leverage, he said, is real. But will the EU even try to use it?

Holmes briefing also says that 13 UN staff, detained by the government and not commented on by the UN until the question was asked by Inner City Press, have been raised and fourteen, somehow, have been released. There is more to analyze about Holmes' statement, but for now Inner City Press as a public service puts it online, here. Live blogging will follow. Watch this site.

Update of 6:20 p.m. -- as US Ambassador Susan Rice left the still-ongoing meeting, one of her spokespeople said that should would not speak to the media -- well, there was no UN TV camera there -- but that her statement would be emailed to the press. Very strong, he called it. France's Jean-Maurice Ripert stopped and spoke, saying that Holmes said the government is still using heavy artillery, but that the LTTE must release the hostages.

Inner City Press asked if France supports the idea of a dedicated UN envoy. Ripert said that Nambiar has been there, Holmes has been there, Miliband and Kouchner have been there, there is no need for an envoy. He said that hopefully the Mexican presidency will come out with a statement for the Council at the end, but that since he had been in the building since 10 a.m., one of his colleagues would stay behind to work out that language. A direct request to the UN to send a UN TV camera down to make Heller's statement more official was rejected.

Update of 6:50 p.m. -- UK Ambassador John Sawers came out and took questions from three reporters. He was asked why the UK is not pushing for a "real" Council meeting, upstairs, and a real outcome. He answered that it is important that the Council speak with one voice. Inner City Press asked why the UK viewed Zimbabwe different, and pushed for a resolution even though it was vetoed. Sawers said that was different: Sri Lanka is a democratically elected government fighting a terrorist organization.

Then, when Inner City Press asked if the UK would use the EU GSP Plus tariff as leverage to make Sri Lanka hear the message, Sawers responded in a quote that will resonate:

"We're not in the job of penalizing the government of Sri Lanka."

Update of 7:15 p.m. -- In the closed-door meeting, they are negotiating the elements of remarks to the press. But now the two other reporters have left -- one, to be fair, promising to return. It's a progression downward: no UN TV camera, fewer reporters, less importance to what is said. Who decided not to send a camera this time? It's said it is a UN Secretariat decision.

Update of 7:24 p.m. -- Japan's Ambassador Takasu left the meeting, heads upstairs to the street. Inner City Press asks him, “Any elements to the press?” He answers, “They're still working.” And then he's gone.

Update of 8:02 p.m. -- Amb. Heller of Mexico, in his last act as Security Council president, emerged to find only one reporter waiting. A call went to summon a second, and after some time a third arrived. You can't have remarks to the press without the Press, he said. Heller made a statement nearly identical to what he said last time in the basement, and last week in the UN briefing room.. He was asked, is it true the Security Council is not prepared to penalize the Sri Lankan government in any way? Apparently not. Heller said these informal meetings have helped the situation.

Inner City Press asked, during the Mexican presidency the number of civilians killed in North East Sri Lanka rose, by the UN's count, from 3000 to over 6,500 -- so what did the meetings prevent. It could have been worse, Heller said.

John Holmes took questions.Inner City Press asked about reports of the use of an abandoned hospital in Kilinochchi as an interrogation center for young men selected from the IDP camps. Holmes said that interrogation and incarceration for up to a year is okay. Who is monitoring this process? No one, he said.

Inner City Press asked Holmes, are you in essence the UN's envoy to Sri Lanka? He said he doesn't want that post, that another one is not needed. You're the man, then....

Inner City Press asked Holmes about his comment, in his statement leaked to Inner City Press, about a new memorandum of understanding the government will require NGOs to sign. Inner City Press asked, what are your and the UN's concerns? The sharing of information, Holmes answered, in ways the NGOs can't live with.

Sri Lanka's Ambassador Palihakkara came last to take questions. Inner City Press asked him about the allegations about interrogations in the abandoned hospital in Kilinochchi. He said he was not aware of it. Nor, he said, has he read the proposed MOU that Holmes complained off, he said we could look into it. We'll be waiting. Inner City Press asked about something raised earlier in the day by a senior Ban adviser: amnesty for LTTE fighters before the rank of founder. That is being considered, Palihakkara said, but it is very sensitive, the LTTE killed the leader of a neighboring state. As the last reporter left, Inner City Press asked Palihakkara what the plan would be for the founder of the LTTE: transfer to India? Trial in Sri Lanka? Palihakkara wouldn't answer.

As Palihakkara walked away through a near empty UN basement, Inner City Press asked for Sri Lanka's position on a possible UN envoy to Sri Lanka, which it is said Mexico -- and the US -- have proposed. Palihakkara said, it depends for what. And then he was gone.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/sc8srilanka043009.html

Sri Lanka Disputes UN's Lack of Access, EU's Tariff Investigation as "Hype"

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ocha8srilanka042909.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 29 -- The capture of the UN by Sri Lanka became clear Wednesday in back to back interviews with the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes, followed by Sri Lanka's Ambassador Palihakkara. Inner City Press asked John Holmes about Sri Lanka's arrest of UN staff, and cut off of pay to doctors in the conflict zone. Holmes said he wasn't aware of the arrests, and that the doctors, according to the government, might be "under pressure from the LTTE." Video here, from Minute 27:28. Holmes nevertheless complained for the record about Sri Lanka reneging on its promise to UN envoy Vijay Nambiar to allow a humanitarian assessment team into the conflict zone.

Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN Palihakkara, on the other hand, told Inner City Press that lack of access to the zone was the UN's fault. "They have to go on the ship" of the ICRC, he said, "security experts first." Palihakkara also dismissed the European Union's complaints about the exclusion of the foreign minister of Sweden, the next EU president. It is "a bit over-exaggerated," Palihakkara said, stating that the minister of Sweden has been "invited in May. "Everything about Sri Lanka is a bit hype now," he said.

The European Union, after the tsunami, granted Sri Lanka favorable tariff status under the GSP Plus program. When it expired in December, the EU said that a human rights investigation would be necessary to continue the favorable treatment. Sri Lanka refused the investigation team, but the status by some EU incompetence or loophole continues.

Palihakkara disagreed, saying that "it doesn't expire... there are technical criteria, twenty one core conventions. "All IMF loan questions, he referred to Washington, expressing surprise at French Ambassador Ripert's comments to Inner City Press that "the Americans are playing with the IMF loan," republished with attribution in the Times of London, click here for that.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/ocha8srilanka042909.html

On Sri Lanka at UN, Mere "Remarks to the Press," UK Says IMF Loan Not Relevant

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/sc1srilanka042209.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 22 -- Despite the UN having warned of a "bloodbath on the beach" in northern Sri Lanka, and despite the UK and France having spoken loudly of what they would push for in the Security Council, Wednesday's informal Council session ended with mere "remarks to the press" by this month's president, Claude Heller of Mexico.

As Heller spoke at a microphone in the UN's basement, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's envoy Vijay Nambiar slipped quickly past the press. He left the UN's humanitarian deputy Catherine Bragg, who did not visit Sri Lanka, to speak for the Secretariat. Inner City Press asked Ms. Bragg to provide an update to the UN's figure for civilians killed between January 20 and March 7, 2683, which only became public because leaked to and published Inner City Press. Ms Bragg answered that

"We don't have any official numbers at all of the casualties. Unlike in other conflict situations where the government would have provided us with casualty numbers and that we would verify with other sources, we have not been provided with those numbers by the government so we cannot verify them. We only have estimates."

But she would not give a new estimate. This creates a situation in which it is in a government's interest to not provide information to the UN, because then the UN will be silent.

The Ambassador of the UK, John Sawers, spoke even before Heller. He was asked why the Council could not even come up with a Presidential Statement, as it did on the North Korean launch. He answered that the unanimity of the Council is important. Inner City Press asked Sawers about the UN's access to the screening points for those leaving the conflict zone, and for the UK's position on Sri Lanka's application to the International Monetary Fund for a $1.9 billion loan that would, many say, replenish the war budget and build detention camps in the north.

Sawers said that the UN does not have sufficient access to the "reception" points. He said that "the question of an IMF loan to Sri Lanka is not directly relevant." Earlier on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch had called the delaying of Sri Lanka's IMF loan application the only positive step taken by the countries who say they are concerned.

US Ambassador Susan Rice stopped at the microphone, but said at the outset that she would not take any questions, that she had somewhere to go. One would have liked to know her and the US's position on Sri Lanka's IMF loan application. The previous day, when Inner City Press asked her if the US is concerned about the ethnic aspect of the violence and detentions, she said, "The priority needs to be the physical protection of innocent civilians." Wednesday she specified that both sides are shooting at civilians as they leave the conflict zone, and that the International Committee of the Red Cross does not have adequate access.

Sri Lanka's Ambassador Palihakkara directly disagreed with this point, saying that both the ICRC and Caritas have full access. Palihakkara was seen talking with Ambassador Rice's colleague Rosemary DiCarlo after the Council session, perhaps on this point.

Inner City Press asked Palihakkara a series of questions, quickly transcribed afterwards:

Inner City Press: The UN has said staff is held in these camps without being able to leave. UN says they've been complaining since February. Why aren't these people released?

Amb. Palihakkara: First of all, UN staff are not held anywhere. These are our nationals, Sri Lankan nationals employed by the UN who have come out of the LTTE hold and now, like any other normal civilians, they are in the IDP centers, and they are not held like in a detention camp, but they need to be screened like others, and I agree that it has taken too long to do that screening. ... I have myself strongly recommended that when the UN takes responsibility they be allowed to leave. They are working on that. It's not a policy issue. It's just taking a little too long. But we are working on that.

Inner City Press: Your country has been barring some journalists from going to the conflict zone or even the country at all. Why?

Amb. Palihakkara: I don't think anyone is banned. People going to the conflict area are taken when the conditions are [garbled]. I believe recently some journalists were taken and I think the Reuters correspondent went to the frontline area some weeks ago. ... I believe CNN correspondent filed a report. But perhaps we should broaden that access area.

Inner City Press: What was your view of Desmond Brown being sent by the UK as an envoy? And would IMF funds be used for IDP camp maintaining?

Amb. Palihakkara: Well, about Mr. Des Brown, I think our government has made our position clear that they were concerned about the procedure, not necessarily anything about the credentials of Mr. Des Brown or anything. So I don't want to add to that government's statement. ... [On the] IMF loan, I have to ask my colleague in Washington. ...

Finally, for this report, Inner City Press asked Claude Heller if the Council had gotten a broad enough range of information. He spoke of "appropriate channels" that he would not discuss. His statement, or "comments to the press" --

As you know, the members of the Security Council, we had an informal meeting this afternoon in order to consider the situation in Sri Lanka. The members of the Security Council, we heard a briefing from Mr. Vijay Nambiar on his recent visit to Sri Lanka including his discussions with the government of Sri Lanka. We expressed, all the members of the Security Council, our gratitude to Mr. Nambiar and our strong support to the Secretary-General for his ongoing efforts on Sri Lanka.

The Security Council members, we expressed our deep concern about the humanitarian situation in the Vanni region and the plight of the civilians trapped within the conflict area and we call on all member states to provide urgent humanitarian assistance. The Security Council members, we strongly condemn the LTTE terrorist organization for the use of civilians as human shields and for not allowing them to leave the area of conflict.

In this regard, the Security Council members, we demand that the LTTE immediately lay down arms, renounce terrorism, allow a UN assisted evacuation of the remaining civilians in the conflict area, and join the political process through dialogue in order to put an end to the conflict. The Security Council members, we urge all parties including the government of Sri Lanka to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and to allow international and humanitarian agencies access to those affected by the fighting.

The Security Council members, we welcome the news that the tens of thousands of civilians have escaped from the conflict area in the past few days and urge that further steps be taken to allow the safe evacuation of the remaining civilians to provide to them the necessary protection and assistance. We express also the importance of the UN role in assisting the Sri Lankan government in attending the present humanitarian crisis under the present dramatic circumstances, looking forward to the conclusion of the conflict. And we expect also that the Sri Lanka government will support the UN team that is in the field. That's the main elements of the conversation of the informal consultations that the Security Council members had this afternoon.

This will be updated, watch this site. One development was praised at Wednesday's NGO briefing, the delay at the International Monetary Fund of Sri Lanka's request for a $1.9 billion loan. It was supposed to be approved weeks ago, HRW's Anna Neistat said when asked by a correspondent from Xinhua. Video here from Minute 49:09. In mid-March, when Inner City Press asked the IMF's spokesman if any conditions would be attached, he said it was still being negotiated.

While Neistat said that human rights conditions can't be attached to loans, early in the the week at the UN, Jo-Marie Griesgraber from New Rules for Global Finance responded to Inner City Press' question about Sri Lanka's loan request by noting that under Michel Camdessus, military over-expenditure can be to considered a "non productive expenditure." Video here, from Minute 33:14.

And is the building of detention camps, now being funded by the UN, a legitimate "humanitarian" expenditure? To be continued.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/sc1srilanka042209.html