Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News
Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, June 2 -- With the UN already under fire for
withholding and downplaying the number of civilian casualties in Sri
Lanka, another ongoing controversy has opened up concerning the number
of internally displaced persons detained in the IDP camps in northern
Sri Lanka. Between the May 27 and May 30 reports of the UN's Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 13,000 IDPs simply
disappeared from the camps.

   OCHA's May 30 report states that "276,785 persons crossed to the
Government controlled areas from the conflict zone. This represents a
decrease of 13,130 IDPs since the last report (Sitrep No.18) on 27 May
2009. The decrease is associated with double counting. Additional
verification is required."

   But earlier, OCHA had praised the "improved, systematic
registration being undertaken in the camps."

    UN sources in Colombo tell Inner City Press that senior UN
officials above them, Sri Lankan nationals who are Sinhalese, are
downplaying the 13,000 "missing" IDPs, which would otherwise be of
much concern given the reports of disappearances from the camps, the
seizing of teenage males for detention and females for other purposes,
UK Channel 4 asserted with on camera interviews.

UN's Pascoe and Holmes, head of OCHA, questioned by Press, missing
IDPs not shown

    These UN sources are surprised, since even Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon is under fire for downplaying what has happened to the Tamils,
that the UN would be so seemingly cavalier about 13,000 "missing"
persons from almost entirely Tamil internment camps.

    Meanwhile, in further fall out, journalist Poddala Jayantha,
secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists' Association, was
kidnapped near his home and severely beaten with sticks before being
dumped in a suburb of Colombo. The government had accused him of being
too sympathetic to the Tamil Tiger -- or just to the Tamils. The UN,
too, has its different way of trying to crack down on journalists.
Watch this site.

And see (June 5, 2009) Sri Lanka Denies IDP Reduction Reported by
Inner City Press, Raises to UN

On Sri Lanka, UN Insists It Stopped Counting the Dead, Silent on NGO
Expulsion, Blue Eyed Slander

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News
Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, June 1 -- Asked if the UN withheld its knowledge of
civilians deaths in Sri Lanka in May, as it withheld satellite photos
of the supposed "No Fire" Zone, the Spokesperson for Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon on Monday told the Press that "the 20,000 figure is not a
UN number."

   Despite some of the same doctors the UN previously relied on having
still been in the Zone until the Army's final assault, Spokesperson
Michele Montas said that in May there was "no way to know" how many
civilians were killed.

   But when Inner City Press asked for an update on the location and
condition of the doctors who remained in the Zone offering treatment
and casualty figures, they were called heroes by Ms. Montas. Heroes
that the UN refused to believe? Video here, from Minute 18:44.

   In the UN General Assembly, Mr. Ban categorically denied that the
UN downplayed civilian deaths. Ambassadors interviewed by Inner City
Press as they left the closed door briefing were generally not
impressed. Unrelatedly, Inner City Press asked several whether Ban
will give a more specific briefing about Sri Lanka to the Security
Council, which had a number of "informal inter-active dialogues" as
civilians died in the conflict zone.

  Austria's number one representative told Inner City Press he was
going to meet with this Turkish counterpart, the president of the
Council for June, to request just that. The U.S. number three
representative Rosemary DiCarlo said that a briefing of the Council by
Ban is "still possible." With the UN's credibility on the line, to
dodge such a briefing would be a new low.

UN's Ban in Kandy with Mahinda Rajapaksa, (c) M.Lee

   In Sri Lanka, alongside reports of Tamil-owned shops being
attacked, the Director of Sri Lanka's government Peace Secretariat
Rajiva Wijesinghe is now known to have told a press conference "there
are many blue eyed children in that [IDP] camp, you will know some
NGOs had a jolly good time." As a low level credit-war has emerged,
from who broke the 20,000 figure that the UN denies to who took the
photos of the conflict zone, we'll happily source and credit the
Wijesinghe quote to the Voice of America.

  Meanwhile, Sri Lankan defense sources crow that "Ranvei Tvetenes,
the Head of Norwegian NGO FORUT was deported on night of Saturday 29th
May, 2009." The UN screamed when some NGOs were expelled from Darfur.
But the UN was silent when a more systematic expulsion took place in
Sri Lanka. And now? We'll see.

From the UN's June 1 noon briefing transcript:

Inner City Press: Excuse me, but I wanted to get your response to
these things that were reported in Le Monde about Sri Lanka. I heard
your statement…

Spokesperson Montas: The SG has [inaudible].

Inner City Press: ...but there some very specific things. He quotes UN
sources in Colombo as saying, for example, that Mr. Nambiar told UN
staff and UN representatives to “keep a low profile”, that the UN
should be playing a sustaining role compatible to Government. Those
are quotes they ascribe to Mr. Nambiar. What I am wondering is, does
that mean he didn’t say that? I mean, having looked at the article, as
I am sure the UN has, and it also says that Neil Buhne, the country
director said that the death statistics should only go to him, and
should not be given to any other person. It sort of… it paints a
pretty, you know, I am sure you’ve seen it. The Times of London has
said, you know, Ban must do something, it’s like Srebrenica. So does
the specifics…?

Spokesperson: These statistics that you mention, these statistics were
estimates. As you know, starting in the month of May, absolutely no
numbers could be verified, because the numbers we had were from the
hospital people, and health people who were on the ground and were
communicating with us, or our own people on the ground. In the month
of May we had absolutely no way of knowing what the casualty figure
was. The number of 20,000 is not a UN number.

[The Spokesperson later added that as regards to the media reports on
the figure of 20,000 civilian casualties in Sri Lanka, it was verified
with the concerned United Nations staff who were present at meetings
of United Nations senior officials that no such internal report was
made at those meetings. She emphasized that the United Nations had
never underestimated the casualty numbers, nor engaged in any manner
in manipulating them nor in soft-peddling the message that was
communicated to the Sri Lankan Government on the necessity of avoiding
civilian casualties.]

Inner City Press: Both the Times of London and Le Monde cite this to
UN sources in Colombo.

Spokesperson: Well, actually, we checked. This morning, I was in touch
with Colombo and they have absolutely no idea where that number came
from, the 20,000 number.

Inner City Press: Okay. So I guess I mean, what, the quote they
ascribed to Mr. Nambiar, I guess that the idea is somehow that staff
there feel that from Headquarters the message is keep a low profile. I
mean, unless both newspapers made up the quotes, somebody there said
them. So I am just wondering…

Spokesperson: Well, I want you to really read what the SG said this
morning. You had this text earlier…

Inner City Press: Okay.

Spokesperson: …and where he categorically, I can give you the exact
quote, in fact you can get it yourself. He categorically dismissed
some of those allegations.

Inner City Press: Okay. I know on Friday he met with the Turkish
Ambassador and I was told one of the topics was whether he wants to
brief the Security Council about Sri Lanka. That was an issue that was
going to be resolved in that meeting. Does he want to? I understand
some…

Spokesperson: Well, whether it’s going to be something that the
Security Council is going to ask him. If the Security Council asks him
to, he will. The way he did for the General Assembly today, of course.

Inner City Press: But it was said there that they sort of wanted to
feel him out to see if he wants to do it. See what I’m saying? Because
he did meet with…

Spokesperson: Well, if he met with the General Assembly on this, he is
of course willing to meet with the Security Council on it.

Inner City Press: And then just one practical thing?

Spokesperson: Sure.

Inner City Press: There is this issue that I know he raised when he
was there, of the doctors that were in the conflict zone and reported
the numbers. Has there been any, has he heard anything back? Has there
been any development on the status of the doctors who were detained by
the Government?

Spokesperson: Well, as far as we know we understand they’re in good
health for now. And we noted that they have been detained. And what
I’d like to add is that these men are heroes, who have saved lives in
some of the toughest conditions imaginable. And they should be
receiving the maximum care and assistance possible. And the Secretary-
General made clear during his visit that detaining them is not
appropriate. And I think he is hoping that they will be released soon.

On Sri Lanka, UN's Dodging Comes Home to Roost, UK Could Have Put on
Council Agenda

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News
Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, May 29 -- As UN sources in Sri Lanka were quoted that
beyond the 7000 civilian killings in the leaked UN estimates that
Inner City Press obtained and published at the end of April, one
thousand more civilians were being killed every day in May, responses
at the UN in New York grew ever more muted.

   Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Deputy
Spokesperson Marie Okabe if Mr. Ban will push to brief the Security
Council about the May 23 tour of Sri Lanka. Ms. Okabe would not
answer, saying "I have nothing to announce." Because Sri Lanka never
by vote put on the Council's agenda, all members including Russia,
China, Libya and Vietnam would have to agree, to hear from Ban. But is
he even asking?

Inner City Press asked UK Ambassador to the UN John Sawers would what
the Security Council did and didn't do as civilian casualties mounted
in north Sri Lanka. Sawers responded that "we had the votes" to put
Sri Lanka on the Council's agenda, but chose not to, to preserve
"unanimity." He claimed that the Sri Lankan government felt pressure
from the Council and the Ban administration's visits. Apparently they
would have killed even more.

In No Fire Zone, burned trees, blasted ship, (c) M.Lee 5/23/09

   At a reception at the Russian Ambassador's residence on May 28,
Inner City Press asked Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN
about reports of Sinhalese mob violence against Tamils. He responded
that while the fears are real, the country hadn't had a death by
communal violence since 1983. He said that the newspaper editor
arrested after the Tamil Tigers' last attempted plane bombing of
Colombo has been released. The UN says that the doctors who remained
in the conflict zone offering treatment and casualty figures are still
in government detention.

   On civilian death figures, at Friday's UN noon briefing, Inner City
Press asked the UN's Marie Okabe is, beyond the previously leaked and
published figures of 2600 by March 7 and 7000 by the end of April, the
UN had compiled any figures at all in May. Ms. Okabe, alongside
reading a long and convoluted answer, said "ask OCHA." And thus the
run-around continues. We will continue to follow these issues -- watch
this site.