As UN Accused of Spying in Sri Lanka, Satellite Photo Withholding Continues

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1may2srilanka050409.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 4 -- With civilian deaths continuing in Sri Lanka's conflict zone, the UN says it cannot confirm the number or cause of casualties, nor formally release satellite photographs showing craters from shells dropped from the remaining air force on the island: the government's.

Last week, Inner City Press questioned top UN humanitarian John Holmes about why the UNOSAT photos of April 19 were withheld, when photos of Gaza were released in real time during that conflict. On May 4, after Inner City Press asked about it again at the UN noon briefing, the following arrived as an e-mailed response:

Subj: From OCHA, for you
From: Deputy Spokesperson at UN.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 5/4/2009 6:43:45 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time

UNOSAT produces a complex range of satellite–derived products and analyses in support of work of the UN in response to and recovery from natural disasters and complex emergencies. These are based on the interpretation of commercially available satellite imagery from medium to very high resolution.

As a matter of principle, UNOSAT publicly posts maps, data and analytical reports in order to facilitate access to geographic information by the international humanitarian community, in particular during natural disasters in order to facilitate planning.

In cases of conflict and complex emergencies UNOSAT follows the advice of the UN humanitarian entities in charge of operations on the ground to maximize the efficiency of humanitarian aid.

This approach was applied to the UNOSAT analyses of the situation within the conflict zone in northern Sri Lanka. Two specific maps were publicly posted by us in February and March 2009, which were intended to facilitate planning to receive the displaced.

As concern continued to mount about the situation of IDPs on the ground in the conflict zone, UNOSAT continued to commission imagery showing the position of civilians.

While appreciated, the response only raises more questions, or sharpens them.

Particularly if UNOSAT (and UNITAR, which runs it) released February and March photos, why did they not release the April 19 photos and analysis? Inner City Press was told by UNOSAT's interlocutors at the UN in New York that new photos will be released, but as the UN closed on May 4, they had not been released, as least not where and as earlier month's photos were.

In Colombo, the government was dispute the leaked photos, and pro-government press was accusing the UN and Ban Ki-moon of "spying." This has been raised to the UN; we'll see what they do next. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1may2srilanka050409.html

Sri Lanka Damage Satellite Photos Withheld by UNITAR, IOM Staff Detained

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/iom1unitar042909.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 29 -- A UN agency produced satellite photographs of damage to the conflict zone in Sri Lanka, but unlike in the Gaza conflict did not release them to the public. The UN Institute for Training and Research has a program known as UNOSAT which produced the attached April 19 photographic report on "Satellite Detected Damages and IDP Shelter Movement in CSZ, Mulattivu District, Sri Lanka." Unlike UNITAR's January 10, 2009 report on Gaza, however, the Sri Lanka report was not released by the UN, but rather was leaked. Click here for a copy.

Inner City Press asked UNITAR director Carlos Lopez on April 29 to explain why his agency did not release the Sri Lanka photos. Mr. Lopez launched into an overview of UNOSAT, and then argued that the Gaza photos were produced for a donors' group, and hence were released. But for whom where the Sri Lanka satellite photos produced, and why weren't they released?

Lopes went on to say that once the Sri Lanka photos were leaked, the agency responded by putting them briefly online. But why weren't the photos released in the first place? As with UN OCHA's casualty counts, why were they withheld and so had to be leaked? We aim to have more on this.

At the same event with Mr. Lopez, the International Organization on Migration's director William Lacy Swing spoke about involving diasporas in post-conflict peace building. Inner City Press asked him how this process works in Sri Lanka, and to confirm or deny that there are IOM staff detained in government IDP camps. Swing said he wasn't sure, he thought there might have been one or two staff members "briefly" detained.

One of Swing's colleagues seated in the audience stated that there are IOM staff members in detention, and clarified that they are still in detention. Why didn't IOM say anything? Perhaps more tellingly, why didn't IOM's director even know he had staff members still detained by a government? Swing noted that he has been on the job only six months -- before that, he was the UN's envoy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- but since these detentions took place this year, one would expect him to have been told about them, and to speak publicly about them. Video here.

Footnote: Inner City Press also asked Swing about the IOM passing out pamphlets in the Czech Republic of the government's offer of one-way tickets to repatriate immigrants and even refugees. Swing said IOM is not involved in forced or even "stimulated" repatriations. But if the payment of money to leave and promise to not come back is not "stimulated," what is it? Spain and Japan, among others, run similar programs.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/iom1unitar042909.html