Sri Lankan government evicted UN diplomat during Tamil Tiger endgame
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/11/sri-lanka-tamil-tigers-un
Field operative Peter Mackay forced out for briefings that challenged
official death toll, Guardian hears
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Randeep Ramesh in Colombo
guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 September 2009 22.58 BST
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A senior UN diplomat was expelled from Sri Lanka for providing
detailed rebuttals of government "wartime propaganda" during the final
battles against Tamil Tiger rebels, the Guardian has learned.
In July Peter Mackay, an Australian citizen, was given two weeks to
leave the country, despite having a visa that ran until the summer of
next year.
The diplomat, who was monitoring the conflict, had put together
briefings for embassies in Colombo that challenged Sri Lanka's
official civilian death toll and its arrangements for relief
operations.
News of his expulsion comes days after the UN chief, Ban Ki-Moon,
denounced Sri Lanka's decision to expel Unicef's communications
officer, James Elder, from Colombo for "supporting terrorism".
Elder had spoken out on child casualties and malnutrition rates during
the fighting and criticised the inadequate provisions for war refugees
once the battles were over.
Mackay, a field operative who worked for Unops – the technical arm of
the UN – was a less familiar face to the media. But he played a key
role in keeping the outside world informed about the number of
civilians killed in the final months of the war – deaths that Sri
Lanka was keen to play down.
Mackay collected high-resolution satellite images showing that the
number of people trapped on beaches where the Tigers made their last
stand was far higher than that claimed by the government.
The data showed that not only were more people in danger than the
government admitted, but that the food and medicine sent to the "no
fire zone" were inadequate.
Mackay was also in touch with local staff and put together briefings,
using eyewitness reports of the war, which led the UN to warn of a
"bloodbath" in the final weeks of fighting.
The diplomat is seen as a legal timebomb by the Sri Lankan government
as he could personally take the stand and testify that the army
shelled non-combatants – action considered to bea war crime under
international law.
Mackay's experience and knowledge of rebel territory made him the
ideal UN candidate to record how the war was being fought. He was
stranded behind Tamil Tiger lines on a mission to rescue 100 local
staff and their families and was repeatedly bombed for 10 days in
January, despite desperate calls to army commanders by his superiors
imploring them to stop firing.
His presence, however, attracted the attention of Sri Lanka's
military. In a letter sent in late July, the authorities gave him two
weeks to pack up, saying that his "adverse activities had come to the
notice of the intelligence services".
A senior UN source confirmed that Mackay had been asked to leave,
adding that "the issue was taken up through diplomatic channels with
the government, but their decision remained unchanged".
The expulsion of two UN officials in the matter of a few weeks sets an
unprecedented record for the Sri Lankan government, which is still
smarting from criticism of its "take no prisoners" approach to
defeating the Tamil Tigers in May – ending 26 years of civil war.
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