Sri Lanka fighting over, but much work remains- Ban

The Sri Lankan Government last month declared that its military operation against Tamil rebels has ended, but there remain a number of outstanding issues that if left unaddressed could lead more violence, stated Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
In his remarks at a gala at the Foreign Policy Association in New York, Mr. Ban said that he has made it clear to President Mahinda Rajapaksa that though the fighting might be over, “there is much more to do.”
Mr. Ban, who was honoured with an award in recognition of his efforts in tackling global humanitarian issues, expressed his deep concern over the situation in Sri Lanka’s refugee camps.
He got a first-hand look at the situation in the camps, which are housing over 280,000 people displaced by the recently-concluded conflict between the Government and Tamil rebels, when he visited the country from 22 to 23 May.
In recent days, he has said that the Government has addressed some concerns he raised over humanitarian access to the camps, and that he was encouraged by its commitment to return 80 per cent of those displaced in the fighting to their homes by the end of this year. Nevertheless, he has noted that the conditions in the camps remain difficult.
“People must be allowed to return to their homes. There must be reconciliation. The Government of Sri Lanka must hold out their hands to the minority,” he told last night’s gathering.
“If this is not addressed, there might be more violence,” he warned.
The Secretary-General also called for accountability for those who may have committed human rights abuses, as was agreed in the joint statement issued with the Government at the end of his recent visit.
Mr. Ban reiterated his commitment to continue his work for the people of Sri Lanka, and for all people suffering from breaches of humanitarian law and human rights, in a wide-ranging speech that also touched on the violence plaguing various parts of the world, the economic crisis, and climate change.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBDxtTpIDIo

‘Enter the Dragon’ after end of the ‘Tigers’

dailymirror

The Sri Lanka’s (SL) Ambassador in Geneva , Dayan Jayatileke recently , extolled China at the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) . He praised thus because China took steps to support the resolution in favour of Sri Lanka thereby defeating that brought against SL at the UNHRC. It is evident from this that China is not only assisting SL in the war , but is protecting it in the diplomatic front too.
Immediately prior to these enunciations of Jayatileke , at an interview with the Indian media, President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared that he fought India’s war. In other words , the annihilation of the Tamil Tigers who killed India’s leader and was a threat to India is a victory for India. In that case , it brings to question why China helped SL to win the war ?- A victory which was India’s necessity .The Indian media had reported that China provided arms, funds and even advice to SL to destroy the Tamil Tigers . According to some Indian media reports , China supplied six F 7 jets free of charge in 2008. It is indeed therefore baffling as to why China which considers India as its rival in the region went this far to help SL win the war, which victory India also was desirous.
It was only after China signed the agreement with SL for the construction of the Hambantota harbour that China went out of the way to help the SL Govt. in the war. If China is to establish its hegemony in the Indian Ocean , the Hambantota harbour will be a vital centre . Pakistan , Bangladesh and Myanmar harbours will be the other Centres to serve China’s objective. This constitutes the ‘ring of pearls’. What is most worth for China is the Hambantota harbour, because SL is described as the ‘crown’ of the Indian Ocean. But, if this ‘crown’ is to be owned by way of the Hambantota harbour, SL must become a protected Country absolutely free from terrorist threats whatsoever . Not only the SL Govt., even China became restless and distraught at the time when Hambantota came under Tamil Tiger threats .This was because China was opposed to Hambantota coming under terrorist threats . To China, not only Hambantota , the whole of SL’s security and its fortification are important for its regional hegemony . It is on this account China helped SL wholeheartedly to defeat the Tamil Tigers.
The majority of the inhabitants of Hambantota are Sinhala Buddhists. It is also the ruling Rajapaksa and his family’s political territory. Besides, it is JVP’s stronghold. The JVP , a left wing party is not well disposed towards India . Although China does not interfere with SL’s internal affairs , it has a close rapport with the JVP. The latter’s vigilance against India’s undue pressures gives solace to China though it may not perhaps be instigating the JVP. Above all ,China is assured of political security by the President Rajapaksa family from Hambantota.
Going by the profound links between the Rajapaksa Govt. and China , and latter’s relationship with the JVP , it is clear ,today these ties are stronger than the strength India wielded over the Tamil politics in SL during the period 1983 to 1987 . India during that period was manipulating SL politics via the Tamil politicians and the Tamil armed groups . However , China has not still reached this stage of manipulative politics in SL . Yet, in the backdrop of the close ties and rapport China has built within the SL politics and the media today , reaching that stage is not a distant or difficult task.
Following the liquidation of the Tamil Tigers , India is posed with a problem of renewed thinking to look out for avenues to manipulate SL politics. May be, India is getting down SL’s TNA politicians to console them with this objective in view.
Today, China is well ahead of India in its involvements in SL . It is apparent that the opinions of the Sri Lankans are not in disfavour of China’s stance towards SL. A majority of Sri Lankans are well disposed towards China for its contributions to the annihilation of the Tamil Tigers and China’s stance towards the development process of SL. But, a majority of the Sri Lankans are antagonistic to India’s insistence on a political solution for the Tamil community. Earlier, the majority were in favour of it despite their dislike . That was during the Tamil Tigers’ reign of terror, when they agreed to a political solution fearing the terrorism of the Tamil Tigers.
If India was to win over the Tamil politicians and the Tamil community for their political manipulations in SL, it should have found a political solution for the Tamils during the terror reign of the Tamil Tigers . But now it is too late. From every angle , India is now in a deep quandary unable to outwit China’s manoeuvres within SL.
At present, China has no cause to manipulate SL ‘s politics though it may be watchful in respect of the future elections in SL and the Govt. which may be elected to power . In the event of a new Govt. being installed in power following the change of the Rajapaksa Govt., the new Govt.’s posture towards the Hambantota harbour will be of prime importance to China . Prior to the Hambantota harbour construction , China had no concern about which Govt. was elected to power in SL. But now it is not so; because of the harbour , China in the future will be obliged to resort to manipulative politics in SL owing to the Hambantota harbour In any case , some sources say , China is more inclined to exert pressure on the SL Govt. and its Army rather than on SL politics . There seems to be a truth in this as China has been maintaining cordial and profound relations with SL’s Defense establishment during the war to crush the Tamil Tigers. As the SL’s Defense Establishment’s strength is growing progressively , so does the security relating to the Hambantota harbour conforming to China’s requirements . The new stringent measures taken by the SL’s defense Establishment to protect the Island’s coastal belt seems to be to the liking of China , for SL’s security is crucial for China’s ‘ring of pearls’

UN says two staff members arrested in Sri Lanka

Sat Jun 20, 4:46 AM
COLOMBO (AFP) - The United Nations said on Sunday that two of its employees working among tens of thousands of war-displaced civilians had been arrested by Sri Lankan authorities.

The two men, both ethnic Sri Lankan Tamils, were reported missing eight days ago and were subsequently discovered to have been taken into custody by Sri Lankan officials, the UN office in Colombo said in a statement.
"We are not aware which, if any, charges have been laid, and nor are we aware of the details of any accusations," the statement said.
The two men were working for the UN refugee agency and the UN office for Project Services in the northern region of Vavuniya
Human rights organisations have reported that thousands of Tamils had been taken from the state-run camps for people displaced by the recently ended war between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.
The UN has often been at odds with the Sri Lankan government over Colombo's handling of the final days of battle against the rebels and the treatment of 300,000 people displaced by the fighting.
The separatist Tamil Tigers were defeated last month when they lost the remaining territory under their control and their founder and chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed.

In Sri Lanka Camps, UN Blind and Deaf Without Cameras or Cell Phones, African Concern

[ InnerCity Press ][ Jun 20 03:18 GMT ]
While it has been reported that in the UN-funded internment camps in Sri Lanka "UN officials have been stopped from bringing in cameras and mobile phones," the Spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday told Inner City Press, "I don't think the UN would accept that." Since the UN did accept the detention by the government of UN staff earlier this year, it is not clear if the UN would accept being barred from exposing abuses they see in the camps or even photographing them. [ full story]

Sri Lanka standby loan still not ready for board approval: IMF official

Sri Lanka standby loan still not ready for board approval: IMF official[ LBO ] - [ Jun 20, 2009 03:12 GMT ]
June 20, 2009- An International Monetary Fund loan for Sri Lanka is still not ready for approval for its executive board, an official said, though the country is rapidly emerging from a balance of payments crisis.
IMF spokesperson Caroline Atkinson said Friday "whenever there is final agreement, then a program would go to the Executive Board."
Last month Atkinson said she expected the loan of at least 1.9 billion US dollars to be approved within "weeks".
The loan had been delayed as it awaited approval from the US Treasury, which also consults other agencies, including the State Department, which is yet to approve the loan.
The US executive director votes on the loan after receiving a report from the international monetary affairs office of the Treasury. The US has to biggest share of votes in the IMF.
In March Sri Lanka floated the rupee as a prior action to the loan and the country's balance of payments has since turned.
Balance of payments crises are caused when a central bank sells foreign exchange to keep an exchange rate peg and prints domestic money at the same time, undermining the same objective.
The vicious cycle can rapidly deplete foreign reserves backing the local currency issue. Net foreign assets of Sri Lanka's central bank fell from about 3.0 billion dollars to 830 million US dollars during the peg defence period.

POLITICAL SOLUTION – MISSING IN ACTION

by-m.s.m.ayub
[ Daily Mirror ]

The focus of Tamil media has shifted from people entrapped in the one time LTTE held areas in Mullaitivu to the people in camps which are called welfare camps by the Government and detention camps by the anti-government elements. Tamil media or for that matter the Tamil politicians do not seem to place much emphasis after the physical decimation of the LTTE on the political solution to the ethnic problem that was once much talked about.
However, this surely does not mean that the politically conscious Tamils consider that the political solution they were fighting for is no more needed with the defeat of the Tigers. They seem to be nervous to speak about matters that would upset the euphoric psyche of the southern people. Occasionally some Tamil politicians are being heard meekly grumbling over the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Government to find a political solution to the ethnic problem. Otherwise Tamil media and politicians are obsessed now with the situation in the camps where the people displaced from all over the Wanni are housed.
It is clear that the Government cannot and would not hold them in camps forever or at least for years. Once the infrastructure including electricity and water supply is restored, roads, paddy fields, vegetable plots, surroundings of schools and houses, lakes and irrigation canals are cleared of landmines and booby traps and also once the houses damaged and destroyed by the war are repaired or rebuilt, people have to be resettled. Authorities might take steps to screen these internally displaced people (IDP) for possible LTTE cadres and sympathizers in the meantime.
Irrespective of the fact where these people live, in camps or in their original places, people would tend to talk politics and concentrate on the lethargy in the state machinery and again will begin to paint things in ethnic colours, once they begin to bury the harrowing memories of cruelty and the barbarity of the war. Even if the ordinary people do not want to see things in ethnic colours politicians in the South as well as in the North would show the things to them in such colours. Then again Tamil politicians will cry for political solutions and go on pilgrimages to Chennai, Delhi and Western capitals.
Under the present circumstances where the euphoria over the war victory coupled with majoritarian triumphalism reigns, the people in the North as well as the South, no one would dare to press the Government hard for a political solution since it would earn the wrath of the majority. But the question is what is the government going to do in this regard? One may argue that there is no need for a political solution or for that matter a pacification process now that the LTTE has been crushed, their leaders have been killed, every inch under their writ has been recaptured by the troops and the vast arsenal the outfit possessed has been confiscated by the state.
Also one may argue that even if the LTTE or any other Tamil group resumes another rebellion, it can be crushed as the LTTE, the most ruthless and powerful terrorist outfit in the world according to some analysts was decimated and that therefore, there is no point in wasting time and energy in finding political solutions to the Tamil grievances.
There have been controversies over many Tamil demands, but some of their demands such as the right to work in their own language are uncontestable. Those are the rights that cannot be given by any other community. They are birth rights of communities. Talking about giving rights to another community is itself a term soaked with racism. Any community can plunder rights of other communities if they have power, but no community can offer rights as the rights are natural. Only thing other communities can do is to recognize them and act accordingly. Likewise what the Tamils (not some of the Tamil parties) expect the rulers and the other communities is not to give them their rights, but to recognize them.
No one for the moment denies that the Government troops would crush any powerful or ruthless insurgency as they did in respect of the LTTE. But the important question one may pose in response to that is whether we should create a situation which can in turn present a bloody insurrection for us to test our military prowess destroying thousands of lives and property worth billions in the decades to come. Some form of reconciliatory process therefore must be in place to avert a re-emergence of ethnic animosities and recurrence of bloodshed. You may call this a political solution while another may treat it as a corrective measure. Even the stance of the JVP that is dead against the political solutions and devolution of power is that bringing about equality among communities would solve the current problem. It is an admission that there are inequalities among communities and the need for corrective measures.
However, the “universally” accepted term for the remedy for the Sri Lankan ethnic issue seems to be political solution or more specifically the devolution of power. The UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon, the Japanese special envoy Yasushi Akashi and various foreign leaders have been referring to a political solution to the ethnic problem during their recent visits to Sri Lanka. Indian leaders too are invariably calling for political solutions.
Government’s stance in this regard is extremely vague. President Mahinda Rajapaksa while addressing the nation to announce the defeat of the LTTE said in parliament on May 19 that, “it is necessary that the political solutions they need should be brought closer to them faster than any country or government in the world would bring.” This manifests that he has understood the need of corrective measures to the mishandling of issues by the past governments.
Also the joint communiqué issued by the Sri Lankan Government and the United Nations at the end of the UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon’s visit to Sri Lanka last month said that “President Rajapaksa and the Secretary-General agreed that addressing the aspirations and grievances of all communities and working towards a lasting political solution was fundamental to ensuring long-term socio-economic development.”
However, Government does not seem to have a concrete programme to evolve any political solution other than the over dragged APRC process. On the other hand parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa a close ally of the Government ridiculed APRC Chairman Professor Tissa Vitharana openly claiming that President Rajapaksa had found fault with Vitharana for mentioning about the political solution at a meeting held to pay tribute to the security forces. This casts doubts on the credibility of the government.
Even if we agree on the need for a political solution, it is high time for the experts to survey whether devolution of power is the only structural setup that can ensure the rights of the various communities, since Sri Lanka has already experimented the system for the past twenty years.
However, taking into account the mood of the southern people, the degree of pressure on the Government for political solution and the confusion in the country over what the lasting solution should be, it is surmisable that the status quo in respect of political solution would be the same for some years to come.

Aid gets into Sri Lanka camps, few people get out: U.N.

[ Reuters ]

By Laura MacInnis
GENEVA (Reuters) - Humanitarian aid is getting into Sri Lanka's war displacement camps, but very few of the 280,000 people they house are being allowed out, the top United Nations aid official said on Friday.
U.N. emergency relief coordinator John Holmes said survivors of the brutal civil war that Colombo declared over in May needed to be permitted to resume normal lives in order to ease tensions in the country's northeast.
Aid vehicles carrying food, health and other supplies are now gaining access to the camps which were closed to trucks in the first days after the 25-year fighting stopped, Holmes told a news conference in Geneva.
"We do have pretty much full access to those camps at the moment," he said, noting that problems with overcrowding and inadequate water and sanitation facilities with the onset of disease-spreading monsoon rains were gradually being overcome.
"What is more worrying is the nature of the camps themselves. They could be described as internment camps in some respects, in the sense that people are not allowed to move freely in and out of them for the moment," Holmes continued.
Sri Lanka has said it is in control of the refugee situation and blasted Western governments for their attempts at the United Nations to shine a light on reported transgressions during and after its war against the separatist Tamil Tigers.
Sri Lanka's government has said it aims to have 80 percent of the population back to their villages of origin by the end of the year, and will work to give ethnic Tamils a strong political voice in the majority Sinhalese nation.
Holmes said United Nations officials are "discussing in a very intensive way with the government" ways to buoy the welfare of people in the camps and to help them get home quickly.
Such issues he said "are crucial, not only for the sake of the people in the camps, but also for the sake of the future political reconciliation which absolutely needs to happen."
(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

China Crosses the Rubicon

[ Kosovo Times ][ Jun 19 17:30 GMT ]

This article is published honoring the exchange between members of the Project Syndicate network. "The Kosovo Times" is a member of the "Project Syndicate" network.By Wen LiaoLONDON – For two decades, Chinese diplomacy has been guided by the concept of the country’s “peaceful rise.” Today, however, China needs a new strategic doctrine, because the most remarkable aspect of Sri Lanka’s recent victory over the Tamil Tigers is not its overwhelming nature, but the fact that China provided President Mahinda Rajapaska with both the military supplies and diplomatic cover he needed to prosecute the war.Without that Chinese backing, Rajapaska’s government would have had neither the wherewithal nor the will to ignore world opinion in its offensive against the Tigers. So, not only has China become central to every aspect of the global financial and economic system, it has now demonstrated its strategic effectiveness in a region traditionally outside its orbit. On Sri Lanka’s beachfront battlefields, China’s “peaceful rise” was completed.What will this change mean in practice in the world’s hot spots like North Korea, Pakistan, and Central Asia?Before the global financial crisis hit, China benefited mightily from the long boom along its eastern and southern rim, with only Burma and North Korea causing instability. China’s west and south, however, have become sources of increasing worry.Given economic insecurity within China in the wake of the financial crisis and global recession, China’s government finds insecurity in neighbouring territories more threatening than ever. Stabilizing its neighbourhood is one reason why China embraces the six-party talks with North Korea, has become a big investor in Pakistan (while exploring ways to cooperate with President Barack Obama’s special representative, Richard Holbrooke), signed on to a joint Asia/Europe summit declaration calling for the release from detention of Burmese opposition leader Daw Aung Suu Kyi, and intervened to help end Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war.The calculus behind China’s emerging national security strategy is simple. Without peace and prosperity around China's long borders, there can be no peace, prosperity, and unity at home. China’s intervention in Sri Lanka, and its visibly mounting displeasure with the North Korean and Burmese regimes, suggests that this calculus has quietly become central to the government’s thinking.For example, though China said little in public about Russia’s invasion and dismemberment of Georgia last summer, Russia is making a strategic mistake if it equates China’s public silence with tacit acquiescence in the Kremlin’s claim to “privileged” influence in the post-Soviet countries to China’s west.Proof of China’s displeasure was first seen at the 2008 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (a regional grouping that includes former Soviet countries that share borders with China and Russia). Russian President Dmitri Medvedev pushed the SCO to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But the SCO balked. The group’s Central Asian members – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – would not have stood up to the Kremlin without China’s support.At this year’s just-concluded SCO summit, the pattern continued. The brief appearance of Iran’s disputed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have gained all the headlines, but China’s announcement of a $10 billion fund to support the budgets of financially distressed ex-Soviet states, which followed hard on a $3 billion investment in Turkmenistan and a $10 billion investment in Kazakhstan, provides more evidence that China now wants to shape events across Eurasia.Vladimir Putin famously described the break-up of the Soviet Union as the greatest geo-political catastrophe of the twentieth century. From China’s standpoint, however, the Soviet collapse was the greatest strategic gain imaginable. At a stroke, the empire that had gobbled up Chinese territories for centuries vanished. The Soviet military threat – once so severe that Chairman Mao invited President Richard Nixon to China to change the Cold War balance of power – was eliminated. China’s new assertiveness suggests that it will not allow Russia to forge a de facto Soviet Reunion and thus undo the post-Cold War settlement, under which China’s economy flourished and security increased.So far, China’s rulers have regarded emerging strategic competition with India, Japan, Russia, and the United States as a jostling for influence in Central and South Asia. China’s strategic imperatives in this competition are twofold: to ensure that no rival acquires a dangerous “privileged influence” in any of its border regions; and to promote stability so that trade, and the sea lanes through which it passes (hence China’s interest in Sri Lanka and in combating Somali pirates), is protected.In the 1990s, China sought to mask its “peaceful rise” behind a policy of “smile diplomacy” designed to make certain that its neighbours did not fear it. China lowered trade barriers and offered soft loans and investments to help its southern neighbours. Today, China’s government seeks to shape the diplomatic agenda in order to increase China’s options while constricting those of potential adversaries. Instead of remaining diplomatically aloof, China is forging more relationships with its neighbours than any of its rivals. This informal web is being engineered not only to keep its rivals from coalescing or gaining privileged influence, but also to restrain the actions of China’s local partners so as to dampen tension anywhere it might flare up.China’s newfound assertiveness, rather than creating fear, should be seen as establishing the necessary conditions for comprehensive negotiations about the very basis of peaceful coexistence and stability in Asia: respect for all sides’ vital interests. In recent years, such an approach ran counter to America’s foreign-policy predisposition of favouring universalist doctrines over a careful balancing of national interests. With the Obama administration embracing realism as its diplomatic lodestar, China may have found a willing interlocutor. Wen Liao is Chairwoman of Longford Advisors, a political, economic, and business consultancy.

Holding leaders accountable helps prevent and resolve conflicts

By Joseph Derr
Rotary International News -- 19 June 2009

Accountability and telling it like it is are critical components of building peace, said Jan Egeland, director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. Egeland was the UN secretary-general's special adviser for conflict prevention and resolution from 2006 to 2008.
At the second Rotary World Peace Symposium in Birmingham, England, on 19 June, Egeland discussed what he has learned during his career of more than 30 years in humanitarian relief and conflict resolution, which included participating in secret negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to produce the Oslo Accord of 1993.
As a peace negotiator, said Egeland, it's important to hold leaders accountable for their action or inaction. "We have to speak the truth. I have tried to say it as I saw it."
He also observed that "we're making progress, thanks to the good work of Rotary and hundreds of other good, nongovernmental movements." For example, when the December 2004 tsunami hit Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia, the response was highly coordinated and effective, he said. "We have succeeded more often than we've failed, and we've shown that we can do remarkable things when we work together."
Egeland said he feels optimistic knowing that a new generation of peacemakers coming out of Rotary's peace programs will have unparalleled knowledge, technology, and training to do the much-needed work.
"What he said about accountability is crucial," said Rebecca Gasca, a Rotaractor and 2003-04 Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar. "Not only is it at the leadership level that we have to hold each other accountable, but also at the grassroots level. I think there is a place for Rotary in both regards."
Ahamed Imthiaz Ismail, a member of the Rotary Club of Colombo Mid Town, Western Province, Sri Lanka, has mentored three Foundation Scholars and is involved in humanitarian land mine action and the resettlement of internally displaced people in his country. "His presentation was based on real-life experiences, and it had diverse views that you could relate to different circumstances and situations," said Ismail.
"I thought it was really inspiring to hear positive things and put a number of current conflicts in perspective," said Zélie Pollon, a Rotary World Peace Fellow from Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, who graduated from Rotary's professional development program at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand and will enter the University of Bradford in a few months. "In tandem, it's also good to be reminded of the things we're not focusing on that we can do."

U.S. takes seat at U.N. rights forum, urges unity

By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States on Friday took up its seat for the first time on the U.N. Human Rights Council, vowing to be a strong advocate for people worldwide who suffer abuse and persecution.
In a policy shift, the Obama administration sought and last month won an elected seat at the 47-member Council, which the previous government had shunned over what it called its "rather pathetic record" and frequent scrutiny of U.S. ally Israel.
Washington said it would use its new voting power at the three-year-old body "to be a tireless defender of courageous individuals across the globe who work, often at great personal risk, on behalf of the rights of others."
"For our part, the United States hopes to reinforce the ability of this Council to speak with one voice about situations that are an affront to human dignity," Mark Storella, charge d'affaires at the U.S. diplomatic mission to the United Nations in Geneva, said in a speech.
The Human Rights Council was set up in 2006 to replace the discredited U.N. Commission on Human Rights, which critics said allowed China and other countries to escape scrutiny for years while often singling out Israel for censure.
But even in the new forum, African and Islamic countries have often voted together as a majority bloc, with the backing of China, Cuba and Russia, whose own records are regularly denounced by leading activist groups.
The Council has also slowly eliminated the U.N. human rights monitors assigned to particular countries over the past three years, dropping watchdogs for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Belarus and Liberia.
On Thursday, the Geneva-based body decided in a narrow vote to keep an investigator in Sudan for another year, overcoming calls from African states to stop monitoring the country whose six-year Darfur conflict has killed an estimated 300,000 people.
The United States played a key behind-the-scenes role in negotiating the text ultimately adopted, diplomats said.
Storella said Washington wanted to ensure that violations are confronted with more unity in the Council's regular reviews of all 192 U.N. member states, as well as in emergency sessions looking at acute crises.
(Editing by Laura MacInnis and Elizabeth Fullerton)

Sri Lankan judiciary undermines the law

[ UPI ][ Jun 19 14:36 GMT ]
Sri Lanka has one of the worst policing systems in the world. Allegations of corruption and the use of torture are so frequent that the highest officers in the police force have admitted the crisis in the system. Former attorney generals have also publicly acknowledged the crisis facing the policing system. When an ordinary citizen complains against errant officers and the state exerts its full force to defend the alleged perpetrators, it puts the credibility of the whole exercise at stake. This decision of the Attorney General's Department should be subject to public debate, as it is a clear threat to the protection of their rights. [ full story]

Abuses In Sri Lanka Worry Human Rights Groups

[ NPR ][ Jun 19 11:29 GMT ]
It's been a month since the civil war ended in Sri Lanka. Government troops defeated the Tamil Tiger separatist rebels, who they fought for nearly three decades. Tensions remain high on the island, and human rights activists say they're worried about the future of democracy in Sri Lanka. [ full story]

Persuade Lanka to allow unloading of aid ship, Karunanidhi tells SM Krishna

[ DNA ][ Jun 19 11:39 GMT ]
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today asked external affairs minister SM Krishna to prevail upon Sri Lanka to allow the unloading of a ship carrying relief material sent by overseas Tamil diaspora for displaced people in the island nation.
The vessel, the MV Captain Ali, which set sail from Britain on April 20, is currently anchored outside Chennai port after it was turned away by the Lankan Navy on June 9, after it was detained for several days. According to the Lankan Navy, the ship was turned away on the ground that it violated internationally accepted formalitiesfollowed by merchant ships seeking to enter Lankan waters, and that it did not conform to the International Ships Port Facility Security code.
In a letter to Krishna, Karunanidhi said the ship carrying humanitarian aid collected by Tamils in Europe for displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka was turned away by the island nation's Navy. It is carrying about 884 tonnes of food, medicine and other relief material. "I consider it appropriate and timely as well as critical for the government of India to intervene at this juncture and persuade the government of Sri Lanka to allow unloading of the relief materials sent through the vessel," the Tamil Nadu chief minister said.
Karunanidhi said he was deputing state minister for Higher Education, K Ponmudi, to meet Krishna and take up the matter with him, adding that the Sri Lankan government might be requested to consider unloading and distributing the relief material under the supervision of international agencies like the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"I am confident that this intervention on purely humanitarian ground and based on several international precedents will go a long way in helping the internallydisplaced Tamils now housed in makeshift camps," Karunanidhi said in a letter released to the media in Chennai.

UN's Ban Says Sri Lanka Was Not Initially In His Speech, As UNDP Goes Off the Record on Sexual Violence

[ InnerCity Press ][ Jun 19 10:35 GMT ]
Less than 24 hours after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was protested as "covering up genocide in Sri Lanka" by a crowd in front of Manhattan's St. Regis Hotel where he received a humanitarian award, Inner City Press at the June 18 noon briefing asked Ban's spokesperson if he'd changed his acceptance speech because of the protest. Ms. Montas replied that "it was going to be in his speech, but he put it in front when he saw the demonstration and he was sensitive to the issues they were raising." [ full story]

Two UN staff reported missing in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Friday, 19 June 2009, 09:32 GMT]
A Tamil staff of United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and another Tamil staff of the UNHCR, both attached to the UN offices in Vavuniyaa have been reported missing for the past 3 days, civil sourceawaited. s in Vavuniyaa said. The UNOPS worker reported missing was known as Saunthi and the other was named Charles, according to the sources that alleged the abductions were carried out by the Sri Lankan Military Intelligence operatives at Temple Road in Kurumankaadu.
Full details of the missing UN staff are

Sri Lanka, unfulfilled challenge to peace mediators

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 June 2009, 17:43 GMT]


A group of well-known people in the peace making profession are gathering for an annual meet in recluse in Oslo between Tuesday and Thursday to reflect on current mediation processes, according to a news release from Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, Geneva. The participants include some of those from Norway whose peace process has led Eezham Tamils to face genocide and incarceration in internment camps. The highlights of this year’s meet for discussion are Islamic groups, Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Korea, which means Washington is the peace vantage and war and peace are over for them in the island of Sri Lanka. What they should prioritize for discussion is ways of salvaging the very credibility of mediation itself that is lost in the island. Mediation without justice to people is only contribution to conflict.

‘Mustard is tiny but the effect is strong’, is a saying in Tamil (Kaduku chi’rithen’raalum kaaram perithu).

Whatever small the population of Eezham Tamils are, However hard the powers tried to keep the crisis shrouded and allowed a war without witnesses, the reality was that it made all powers, big and small, to poke their noses and to con. The White House got the nose snubbed and the regional heavy weight has been forced to share the cake with uncomfortable allies.
The so-called tiny issue has brought in new power fault lines in the world. Transcending from the perspectives of a ‘unipolar’ world, now in the Oslo meet the participants are going to ‘reassert diplomacy and mediation in a fragmented world’.
But no peace mediator of the international community can escape from the responsibility of clearing the mess they created in the island of Sri Lanka. The biggest casualty to the international community in the war in the island was the credibility of peace mediation and the international community had invited it by its lopsided application of equations.
However, some among the peace mediators still believe that by continued appeasement with genocidal Colombo peace can be achieved in the island. The problem with some of them is that they approach peace from the vantage of power centres and not from the reality of people’s aspirations.
When both the Sinhalese and Tamils in the island have clearly demonstrated their divide in all violent ways possible, it is futile to impose unity on them just because certain powers want it. There is no point in mediators negotiating with Colombo because the way its polity is shaped it cannot move from the agenda of multifaceted genocide. China is a new entry to the region. It doesn’t have any legacy of natural leverage with the people, whether Sinhalese or Tamils. Its adventurism in the region, possible only through supporting belligerency, is not going to help for peace. Therefore the task of the mediators is convincing India of the need for recognising secession, which only can bring in peace and reconciliation in the island.
The mediators also have another important task. It is their mediations ultimately led to the tilt of balance against Tamils and excluded their voice in the international arena. Today there is a situation that only ‘others’ with vested interests have to mediate on behalf of Tamils or involve in the political organization of Tamils. Once again, Colombo with all its infrastructure advantages has an upper hand in negotiations. The mediators have to now negotiate ways and means for de-proscription so that the concerned people are officially involved in mediation.

Press statement from the Geneva-based Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre) follows:

Mediators Reflect on Today's Peacemaking

Some of the world's most experienced mediators, high-level decision makers and key peace process actors will meet in Oslo, Norway, from 16-18 June 2009, to share their experiences of peacemaking and reflect on current mediation processes.
(PRWEB) June 14, 2009 -- Some of the world's most experienced mediators, high-level decision makers and key peace process actors will meet in Oslo, Norway, from 16-18 June 2009, to share their experiences of peacemaking and reflect on current mediation processes.
The focus of this year's forum is "Reasserting diplomacy and mediation in a fragmented world", focusing on the utility of mediation versus that of military force to resolve conflicts. How can mediation and diplomacy be made more relevant and effective? Issues will include experiences of negotiating with organised Islamist groups; assessments of the potential for dialogue in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and the threat of North Korea's nuclear proliferation to peacemaking.
Participants will share their perspectives on conflict resolution and mediation in an informal setting behind closed doors.
The retreat will be inaugurated on 16 June 2009 with an opening speech by Liberian Foreign Minister, Olubanke King-Akerele. Participants to this year's events include Jonas Gahr Store, Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, President Olusegun Obasanjo, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary- General for the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Mr Ahmed Abdisalam Adan, Former Deputy Prime Minister of Somalia, and Ambassador Thomas Pickering, Former United States Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs.
The event is co-hosted by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Geneva-based mediation organisation, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre). It is part of a process known as the Oslo forum - an on-going series of informal and discreet retreats for those actively engaged in peace processes around the world. It features an annual global gathering in Oslo, Norway, and regional events in Asia and Africa.
Chatham House Rules prevail at the Oslo forum: the discussions are completely private and quotes during the meetings may not be attributed. However, some participants have agreed to be interviewed by journalists.

If you would like to arrange for an interview, for photographs of participants and the event or to know more about the work of the HD Centre, please contact Flore Brannon on +41 22 908 1157.

Participants:

Mr Ahmed Abdisalam Adan

Former Deputy Prime Minister of Somalia; Managing Partner & Director of Programs, HornAfrik Media Inc.



Dr Ziad Abu Amr

Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council

Mr Barney Afako

Legal Adviser to the Ugandan Peace Negotiations in Juba

Ambassador Yasushi Akashi

Representative of the Government of Japan on Peace-Building, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction in Sri Lanka

Ambassador Hiruy Amanuel

Head, InterGovernmental Authority on Development Capacity Building Program against Terrorism

Ms Francesca Bomboko

Member of the Steering Committee, World Movement for Democracy; founder of the Bureau d'Etudes, de Recherche et de Consulting International

Ambassador Merete Brattested

Ambassador of Norway to the Kingdom of Thailand

Atty Sedfrey M Candelaria

Government of the Republic of the Philippines Panel Member, Peace Negotiating Panel for Talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines- National People's Army- National Democratic Front

Mr John Carlin

Senior International Writer, El Pais

Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas

Executive Secretary, Economic Community of West African States

Mr Luc Chounet-Cambas

Project manager, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

Sir Robin Christopher

Secretary-General, Global Leadership Foundation

Mr Chris Coleman

Chief, Policy Planning and Mediation Support Unit, United Nations Department of Political Affairs

Professor Nieves Confesor

Panel Chairperson, Government of the Republic of the Philippines - Peace Negotiating Panel for Talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines- National People's Army- National Democratic Front

Professor Chester Crocker

Professor of Strategic Studies, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Mr Alastair Crooke

Co-Director and Founder, Conflicts Forum

Ambassador James Dobbins

Director, International Security and Defense Policy Center, Rand

Ms Lyse Doucet

Presenter, British Broadcasting Corporation World

Mr Jan Egeland

Director, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs

Mr Vegard Ellefsen

Political Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway

The Honourable Gareth Evans

President, International Crisis Group

Professor Ezzedine Choukri Fishere

Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, Political Science Department, American University, Cairo

Ambassador Chas Freeman

Former President, Middle East Policy Council

Mr Hans Jacob Frydenlund

Deputy Director General and Head of the Africa II-section, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway

Minister Jonas Gahr Store

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway

Mr David Gardner

Chief Leader Writer and Associate Editor, Financial Times

Mr Kenny Gluck

Senior Adviser, African Union/United Nations Joint Mediation Support Team

Mr David Gorman

Mediation Adviser, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

Mr Vasu Gounden

Founder and Executive Director, African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes

Ambassador Thomas Greminger

Head, Political Affairs Division IV / Human Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland

Mr Martin Griffiths

Director, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

Ambassador Tim Guldimann

Senior Adviser, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

Advocate Mojanku Gumbi

Legal Adviser, South African Presidency

Ambassador Jon Hanssen-Bauer

Special Envoy for the Peace Process in Sri Lanka, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway

Ambassador Tore Hattrem

Ambassador of Norway to Sri Lanka

Ms Priscilla Hayner

Director, International Center for Transitional Justice, Geneva Office

Professor Nicholas Haysom

Director, Political and Peacekeeping Unit, Office of the United Nations Secretary-General

Mr Kamal Hyder

Correspondent, Al Jazeera International ( English )

Ambassador Mona Juul

Deputy Permanent Representative, Norwegian Mission to the United Nations in New York

Ambassador Bjørn Janis Kanavin

Head, Afghanistan/Pakistan Section, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway

Ambassador Denis Keefe

Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Georgia

Minister Olubanke King-Akerele

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Government of Liberia

Mr Pierre Krähenbühl

Director of Operations, International Committee of the Red Cross

Professor Radha Kumar

Director, Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia University,New Delhi

Ambassador Ramtane Lamamra

Peace and Security Commissioner, African Union

Mr James LeMoyne

Senior Adviser, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue; former Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General for Colombia

Mr Isaac Maposa

Director, The Zimbabwe Institute

Mr C Andrew Marshall

Deputy Director, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

Mr Ian Martin

Head, United Nations Board of Inquiry into incidents in Gaza

Ambassador Haile Menkerios

United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs

President Olusegun Obasanjo

Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for Democratic Republic of Congo Crisis

The Honourable Santa Okot

Member of the Lord Resistance Army Delegation; former Member of Parliament in Uganda

Ambassador Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Somalia

The Honourable Professor Ramasamy Palanisamy

Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, Malaysia

Mr Frank Pearl

High Commissioner for Peace, Colombia

Mr Geir Pedersen

Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway

Ambassador Thomas Pickering

Former United States Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs

Dr Surin Pitsuwan

Secretary-General, Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Mr Jonathan Powell

Senior Adviser, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

Sir Kieran Prendergast

Senior Adviser, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue; former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs

Ms Meredith Preston McGhie

Acting Regional Director for the Africa office, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

Ms Elisabeth Rehn

Independent Expert, Crisis Management and Gender; former Minister of Defence, Finland

Mr Ying Rong

Vice President and Director of the South Asian Studies Center, China Institute of International Studies

Mr Carne Ross

Executive Director, Independent Diplomat

Ambassador Salim Ahmed Salim

Former Special Envoy on the Darfur Conflict, African Union; former Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity

Mr Tamrat Samuel

Director, Asia and the Pacific Division, United Nations Department of Political Affairs

Dr Johannes Schachinger

Mediation Focal Point, General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union

Dr Jennifer Schirmer

Senior Researcher and Director, Program on Armed Actors and Peace Dialogues, University of Oslo

Mr Michael Semple

Independent Analyst; former Deputy European Union Special Representative for Afghanistan

Ambassador Svein Sevje

Ambassador of Norway to Sudan

General Sir Rupert Smith

Former Deputy Supreme Commander Allied Powers Europe; former Deputy Supreme Commander, British Armed Forces

Minister Erik Solheim

Minister of the Environment and International Development, Norway

Mr Tomas Stangeland

Assistant Director General, Section for Peace and Reconciliation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway

Professor Stephen Stedman

Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University

Lt General Lazaro K Sumbeiywo ( rtd )

Chief Executive Officer, Moi Africa Institute; former Special Envoy for the Inter Governmental Authority on Development Peace Process in Sudan

Dr Azzam Tamimi

Director, Institute of Islamic Political Thought

Ambassador Roeland van de Geer

European Union Special Representative for the African Great Lakes Region

Dr Michael Vatikiotis

Asia Regional Director, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

Ambassador Francesc Vendrell

Diplomat in residence; visiting professor, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University; former European Union Special Representative for Afghanistan

Mr Johan Vibe

Deputy Director General and Head of the Section for Peace and Reconciliation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway

Ms Teresa Whitfield

Senior Fellow and Director of United Nations Strategy, Centre on International Cooperation, New York University

Mr Rahimullah Yusufzai

Editor, The News International, Peshawar

The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue is an independent organisation dedicated to improving the global response to armed conflict. It mediates directly between belligerents and helps others to do the same. The HD Centre is active in approximately 15 conflicts around the world, some of which are necessarily confidential.

The price of Sri Lanka’s victory

[Channel 4 News ]
Author: Jonathan Miller

Sinhalese Sri Lankans are so relieved their war is over that most appear blinded by patriotism, drunk on victory and deaf to the clamour from outside their island for investigations into possible war crimes.

The country’s pliant media speak with one voice, exhorting their loyal compatriots to celebrate this great triumph over terror.
But the only terror I saw there was in the eyes of vanquished Tamils. Those I met were terrified in case they were caught talking to us, constantly looking over their shoulders. A Tamil journalist pulled out of a meeting claiming he’d be killed were he caught.
And there was fear in the eyes of the handful of ethnic Sinhalese “traitorous” enough to question what they describe as an orgy of militant Sinhalese chauvinism. “Traitors” are what dissenters are branded in President Mahinda Rajapakse’s triumphalist brave new world, in which the press are compliant and the Buddhist monkhood complicit.
Working covertly in Sri Lanka, I saw first hand what military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam means to ordinary Tamil civilians, of whom there are more than two million on the island. A ruthless rebel movement - that never shrank from murdering civilians itself - has been defeated, but the Tamil people of Sri Lanka have also been crushed.
They are rudderless, paranoid, beaten and broken - and Sinhalese people and Tamils I interviewed confirmed this impression. Hopes of self-determination dashed, the Tamil minority have been left in no doubt about who’s in charge on the island.
And this, despite President Rajapakse’s assurances that they’d have equal rights. In his “victory speech” in parliament, he even spoke in the Tamil language and promised to take personal responsibility for protecting them. “Our heroic forces,” he said, “have sacrificed their lives to protect Tamil civilians.”
There’s no room for misty-eyed liberation mythology here: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were a vicious organisation, whose suicide bombs, assassinations and training of child soldiers were funded by extortion rackets among the Tamil diasporas worldwide. Listed as a terrorist group in 32 countries, they never hesitated to blow up or gun down civilians themselves. Even Buddhist monks and young novices.
There’s euphoria among the Sinhalese majority - it’s as though the pressure cooker lid’s been blown off. But Tamil civilians have been forced to pay a terrible price for Rajapakse’s great victory.
Now the civil war is over, Sri Lanka is busy touting itself as an international tourist nirvana again, with its “white sandy beaches, lush greenery, amazing wildlife and rich heritage. “The warm and friendly smiles of the people await you in the Isle of Sri Lanka.”
But tourists see a veneer of beauty and bravado. A capital city buzzing on the adrenaline of victory. There’s the normal stuff: the traffic jams, shopping malls, markets and streets festooned with banners and bunting. And then there are the billboards - everywhere glorifying the heroes who sacrificed their blood for the motherland and the sixty-foot high cardboard cut-out of the triumphant president. There are soldiers at checkpoints with fingers on triggers and a lurking fear that revenge could yet come.
A businessman on the plane back to Europe tried to persuade me that everything’s normal and that foreign journalists had got it all wrong. But it is not normal in Sri Lanka. Especially if you are a Tamil. And there are many things that the government does not want the tourists - or journalists - to see.
There’s a beautiful old name for this island: Serendip, from which the English word “serendipity” derives. Its meaning: “the lucky tendency to happen across desirable discoveries by chance.”
My dictionary lists no antonym for serendipity. But as the fog of war slowly lifts, the rulers of modern day Serendip might be advised to brace themselves. Slowly but surely, a suspicious world is developing what, for them, is the unlucky tendency of making undesirable discoveries.

Sri Lankan Journalists Face Severe Persecution

[IPS ]
By Marina Litvinsky

WASHINGTON, Jun 17 (IPS) - At least 11 Sri Lankan journalists were driven into exile in the past 12 months amid an intensive government crackdown on critical reporters and editors, said a new survey from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released Wednesday.

"Sri Lanka is losing its best journalists to unchecked violence and the resulting conditions of fear and intimidation that are driving writers and editors from their homes," said Joel Simon, CPJ executive director. "This is a sad reality in countries throughout the world where governments allow attacks on the press to go unpunished."
Worldwide, 39 journalists fled their home countries in the past 12 months - a decline from a record 82 in the prior year - after being attacked, harassed, or threatened with violence or imprisonment. The decline reflects in large part circumstances a decline in the violence in Iraq.
As in prior years, most journalists who fled their homes in the past 12 months were driven out by violent attack or the threat of assault. At least five journalists who sought exile in the past year were severely beaten prior to their departure, CPJ research shows. Another 24 had received threats against their lives or those of their families.
Top journalists have been killed, attacked, threatened, and harassed since the Sri Lankan government began to pursue an all-out military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) in late 2006. Many local and foreign journalists and members of the diplomatic community believe the government is complicit in the attacks, said a CPJ special report.
Sri Lankan journalists have faced severe retribution for producing critical coverage of government military operations against Tamil rebels.
Journalist and editor-in-chief of the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickramatunga, a fierce critic of the government, was murdered by two men on motorcycles in early January. Anticipating this, he wrote an editorial, "And Then They Came for Me," to be printed in the event of his assassination.
"No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism," he wrote.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa denied any government involvement and ordered an investigation of the attack.
"There is now a climate of total impunity since there hasn’t been a single successful prosecution of any of these deaths or attacks," Jehan Perea, a friend of Wickramatunga who works with the Independent Peace Council of Sri Lanka told the Washington Post in January.
Following Wickramatunga’s death, six former U.S. ambassadors to Sri Lanka wrote an open letter to Rajapaksa discrediting speculation that the attacks were "carried out not by elements of the Government, but by other forces hoping to embarrass the Government."
"We urge you to take steps to reestablish accountability and the rule of law in Sri Lanka. Investigations have been promised before but have been futile."
On Jan. 23, the editor of the Sinhala-language weekly Rivira, Upali Tennakoon, and his wife, Dhammika, were attacked by four men on motorcycles while driving to his office. Though his paper was pro-government, Tennakoon had criticised a high-ranking army official.
After receiving threatening phone calls at their home, the couple fled Sri Lanka. In May government forces killed almost the entire senior Tamil Tiger leadership, including its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, ending the 26-year war between the army and the rebels.
"There is no LTTE now, because we have totally destroyed their capabilities and their hierarchy," Media Minister Anura Yapa said.
Nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamil civilians from the rebels' former stronghold in the north are being held in refugee camps as security forces search the rest of the country for remaining rebels.
International relief organisations recently called on the Sri Lankan government to permit greater access to refugee camps, which it denied, citing the possible escape of former LTTE members.
"They don’t want the media to be talking to people about what happened in the conflict zones," one aid official told the Washington Post, referencing speculation that the government has committed war crimes against the Tamil minority.
Along with Sri Lanka, Iraq and Somalia rank high among the nations from which journalists fled in the past year. At least two journalists each from Pakistan and Russia also sought exile in the past year. All five countries are among the deadliest for journalists and among the worst in solving crimes against the press, according to CPJ research.
Nearly 400 journalists have been forced into exile worldwide since 2001, when CPJ began compiling detailed data. More than 330 of them remain in exile today only about one in three have been able to continue journalism careers in exile.
The survey does not include the many journalists and media workers who left their countries for professional or financial opportunities, those who left due to general violence, or those who were targeted for activities other than journalism, such as political activism.

Sri Lanka: International Investigation Needed

[ HRW ]
End of Government Commission on Wartime Abuses Puts Justice at Risk
(New York) - The Sri Lankan government's announcement that it was ending its special inquiry into conflict-related abuses underscores the need for an international commission to investigate violations of international law by government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Human Rights Watch said today.
"Sri Lanka's presidential commission of inquiry started with a bang and ended with a whimper," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The need for an international inquiry into abuses by both sides is greater than ever."
The mandate of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which was established in 2006 and assigned to investigate 16 incidents of killings, enforced disappearances, assassinations and other serious abuses, expired on June 14, 2009 and reportedly was not renewed. Although the commission's chairman, former Supreme Court chief justice Nissanka Udalagama, said that seven of the 16 cases had been investigated, none of the commission's reports have been released or any other public action taken. Among the cases the commission investigated was the brutal killing of five students in Trincomalee, the summary execution of 17 aid workers in Mutur, and the bomb attack that killed 68 bus passengers in Kebitigollewa. Human Rights Watch has expressed concern about the slow pace of the investigations and President Mahinda Rajapaksa's unwillingness to release the investigation reports.
The last weeks of the war heightened the need for an independent and impartial inquiry. Fighting in northeastern Sri Lanka intensified from early January until the government's defeat of the LTTE in May. During that period, both sides were implicated in numerous serious violations of the laws of war. LTTE forces used displaced persons as "human shields," and fired on civilians who tried to flee the conflict area. Government forces repeatedly fired heavy artillery into densely populated areas, including at hospitals caring for the wounded.
During the special session on Sri Lanka of the UN Human Rights Council in May, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pallay, said that an "independent and credible international investigation into recent events should be dispatched to ascertain the occurrence, nature and scale of violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as specific responsibilities."
On May 23, Rajapaksa and the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, issued a joint statement from Sri Lanka in which the government said it "will take measures to address" the need for an accountability process for violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
"The decision to disband the presidential commission shows that President Rajapaksa has little intention of fulfilling his promise to Secretary-General Ban," said Pearson. "It's now up to concerned governments to step in and ensure that justice is done for the victims of abuses in Sri Lanka's long war."
There have been serious ongoing violations of human rights in Sri Lanka and a backlog of cases of enforced disappearance and unlawful killings that run to the tens of thousands, as described for example in the 2008 of prosecutions.
Human Rights Watch said the presidential commission of inquiry was just the latest inadequate and incomplete effort by the Sri Lankan governmentprosecutions. to investigate serious human rights abuses and bring those responsible to justice. Other efforts to address violations through the establishment of ad hoc mechanisms in Sri Lanka produced few results, either in providing information or leading to Human Rights Watch report "Recurring Nightmare." Despite this track record, there have been only a small number

Sri Lanka scoffs at new Tamil exiled government

[ Reuters ][ Jun 17 15:57 GMT ]
By C. Bryson Hull C. Bryson Hull – Wed Jun 17, 10:24 am ET
COLOMBO (Reuters) – The remnants of the Tamil Tigers have vowed to form a government in exile to push their separatist cause, which Sri Lanka on Wednesday called an "hallucination" and another illegal attempt to violate its unitary status.

The decision came less than a month after the Sri Lankan military finally crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a 25-year civil war, and President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared Sri Lanka reunified.

Selvarajah Pathmanathan, the top remaining LTTE leader, in a voice clip e-mailed on Tuesday signed off on the formation of a committee to create a "provisional transnational government of Tamil Eelam to take forward the next phase of the struggle".

Tamil Eelam was the name for the separate state the LTTE fought to create for Sri Lanka's Tamils, and what it had called the areas of northern and eastern Sri Lanka it had ruled until the end of the war.

Reacting to the announcement, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said "imagination will lead to hallucinations" and said the country had stepped up efforts to have Pathmanathan, known as KP, arrested.

"I have carried personally the arrest warrants for KP and handed them over to my counterparts in several countries and I expect the earliest arrest of KP. He will stand trial in the judicial system in our country," Bogollagama told reporters.

Pathmanathan spent most of his career building and operating the LTTE's weapons and smuggling networks, and is wanted by Interpol.

IN HIDING

He is believed to have control over the LTTE's substantial financial assets and is thought to be in hiding somewhere in southeast Asia under one of his many assumed names.

Pathmanathan named a committee, to be led by former LTTE peace negotiator Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, which is expected to form a plan by the end of the year to create the government.

"We call all Tamil people and Tamil organisations to provide this committee their wholehearted support and assistance," Pathmanathan said.

Pathmanathan is the highest-ranking LTTE member believed still alive after most of the leadership including founder Vellupillai Prabhakaran were killed in a cataclysmic final battle.

Rajiva Wijesinha, the head of Sri Lanka's peace secretariat, said the plan was an attempt by the "rump of the LTTE" to keep its control over Tamil politics in Sri Lanka.

"It is an effort by the Tigers to pursue yet another illegal action, and I only hope the world won't react positively," Wijesinha said. "The real problem is it puts pressure on the democratic Tamil parties."

In his announcement, Pathmanathan said the Tamil National Alliance, a grouping of Tamil parties long known as its front, would remain so.

Col. R. Hariharan, a security analyst who was head of military intelligence for India's 1987-1990 peacekeeping mission to Sri Lanka, said the plan was more likely an effort to harness the financial resources the LTTE left all over the world.

"It is more connected with recouping the Tigers assets," he said. "Nobody will recognise it in any case, but some countries might tolerate this kind of thing. There are kinds of ghost governments in existence."

Wrong priorities in Sri Lanka

A MONTH after Sri Lankan forces crushed the last resistance by the separatist Tamil Tigers, the island's conflict has faded from the world's news bulletins. Yet 280,000 Tamil civilians remain in government detention camps, under what are reported to be conditions of privation, while officials screen them - in a process of so far indefinite length - for hidden Tiger fighters and cadres.

Among them, we now learn, are three Australian passport holders of Tamil extraction who were in the combat zone, whether involved with the rebels or just helping relatives is not known. Sri Lanka's high commissioner in Canberra, Senaka Walgampaya, says his government doesn't know who they are or their whereabouts, but airily states they will be subject to the same screening as any other internees.

This is an extraordinary claim, pointing to either neglect of duty by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in making concerns for the safety and wellbeing of our nationals known to Sri Lankan authorities, or Colombo wilfully ignoring Canberra's approaches. Either way, Mr Walgampaya should be summoned to DFAT forthwith and the concerns spelt out to him.

Officials from the Australian High Commission in Colombo are on their way to the Tamil detention camps in Sri Lanka's north, but it is unclear how much access they will get, either to look for the Australians or assess general conditions. International agencies have had only limited opportunities to visit. A shipload of relief supplies sent by Tamils in Britain has been turned away at sea, not even allowed to unload its cargo in Colombo under government supervision. A Canadian MP has been turned back at Colombo airport.

Possibly the Sri Lankan Government thinks the Rudd Government is not really concerned about the plight of Tamil civilians, Australian citizens or otherwise. After all, Australia's deputy navy chief, Rear Admiral David Thomas, was there on Tuesday - to talk about people smuggling. This suggests a government more in fear of a popular media backlash from more boatloads of asylum seekers.

But that prospect will actually be increased if foreign countries don't put pressure on Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to modify his hubristic celebration of victory, and put ethnic reconciliation into practice before Tiger remnants find support for a renewed fight. Openess to scrutiny must be part of this. So far, and suspiciously, Mr Rajapaksa is shutting out third-party observers, while local thugs - men in white vans - brutalise his critics with impunity, the latest victim being a journalists' union leader, Poddala Jayantha

Fresh claim over tamilcasualties

By Jonathan Miller


A doctor working with injured and displaced Tamils in northern Sri Lanka tells Channel 4 News that there may be as many as 20,000 amputees among those who fled last month's routing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.


Eyewitnesses interviewed during a week-long undercover investigation for Channel 4 News, told of thousands of civilian deaths as government forces advanced on the Tigers' final stronghold.


The deaths, they said, were the result of government shelling.


The Sri Lankan president and senior government ministers have repeatedly denied causing a single civilian death in what the government had desginated a "no-fire zone."


International aid agencies believe as many as 100,000 civilians may have been trapped inside, under a fierce bombardment.


"I think every day a thousand people were killed," one of the very last to escape the tiny enclave told us. He was referring to the final two weeks of the conflict, during which the Sri Lankan government claimed not to have used heavy artillery.


"There were continuous shelling attacks," said the eyewitness. We have verified his identity as a man in a position of authority, but we are unable to reveal it.


Members of Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese majority also expressed deep misgivings about the fate of the island's Tamil minority now that the Tamil Tigers have been so decisively defeated. Despite severe restrictions on access to camps for displaced civilians, evidence is emerging of maltreatment, despite a promise made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his "victory speech" to Sri Lanka's parliament.


Speaking in the Tamil language, the president promised equal rights for Tamils and took "personal responsibility" for protecting them.


"Our heroic forces," he said, "have sacrificed their lives to protect Tamil civilians." A senior Roman Catholic priest, who has worked with the displaced in the heavily militarised northern town of Vavuniya, said the triumphalism of Sinhalese was "very sad" to witness.


"There is no one to represent the aspirations of the Tamil community," he said. "They have a very uncertain future. It means they will live as a subjugated community, like under a foreign ruler."


One of the few senior members of the Tamil Tigers to have survived, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, its head of international relations, said yesterday that the rebels' struggle for a separate Tamil homeland would now continue from exile.


"The legitimate campaign of the Tamils to realise their right to self-determination has been brutally crushed through military aggression," said a statement, released from an unspecified location. Sri Lankans expressing concerns about the welfare and treatment of Tamil civilians -- or questioning the army's version of its final assault on the Tamil Tigers -- are branded unpatriotic, even traitorous.


Dr Wickramabahu Karunarathne, a left-wing politician and one of the few dissident voices in the Sinhalese community said: "The state media, every day, radio, papers, they classify us as traitors and they are rousing people against us."


Dr Karunaratne was the only interviewee prepared to talk openly on camera without having his face obscured and voice changed. One prominent Sinhalese journalist, Podala Jayantha, who had campaigned for greater media freedom, was abducted and severely beaten by unknown assailants, two weeks ago.


Amnesty International says that since 2006, 16 Sri Lankan journalists have been murdered, 26 assaulted, and many more detained. Foreign journalists have had their movements severely restricted and last month, our own accredited Asia Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh was deported.


Journalists and all independent observers were banned from the no-fire zone, during and after the fighting, so no independent assessments have been made of government claims not to have killed civilians. It has blamed any deaths on the rebels.


Journalists have also been unable to enter the hospital in Vavuniya, where thousands of wounded civilians are being treated. Channel 4 News successfully smuggled a small camera into Vavuniya and interviewed a Tamil doctor there.


"It is most sure that the numbers without limbs are over 20,000. Most of the injuries causing loss of limbs were from shelling," he said. The doctor alleged that conditions in the camps for displaced people around Vavuniya, are poor and that malnutrition and disease are rife.


"We were all gathered together recently by the government and we were told that if we told the figures of the sick and why people are dying to the foreign NGOs that we will be killed for doing this."


Response from the Sri Lanka government


http://www.channel4.com/news/media/2009/06/day17/srilanka_response_x.jpg

Sri Lanka to get $ 2.5 B IMF loan

[ Daily Mirror ]
Sri Lanka is expected to receive a US $ 2.5 billion loan from the International Monitory Fund (IMF) this month, a top Central Bank official told Daily Mirror on condition of anonymity.

The loan is more than the US $ 1.9 B that Sri Lanka had sought from the IMF, the official added, although there was no official confirmation from the IMF yet.

A Reuters report, meanwhile, said Sri Lankan shares rose on Monday to a new nine-month high, led by foreign buying of blue chips on an expected IMF loan approval and continued local purchases of plantation and hotel shares.

The rupee closed flat as a state bank bought dollars. The Colombo All-Share Price Index rose 1.4 per cent or 31.50 points to 2286.12, its highest close since Sept 16.

“It was a very active market,” said Shivantha Meepage, a research analyst at Acuity Stockbrokers. “There is high hope of Sri Lanka getting the IMF loan soon. Foreigners bought blue chips, while retail investors bought plantation and hotel shares.”

Analysts say foreign funds have been slow to come to the market, which has been driven higher by retail buyers on positive sentiments since the war ended on May 18.

High oil prices, which go along with synthetic rubber prices, and high tea prices had pushed up plantation shares, analysts said. Oil eased to around $71 a barrel on Monday, retreating from a near eight-month high last week.

Sri Lanka’s average total tea price has jumped around 22 per cent to 342 rupees in May, from January on high global demand. The bourse has risen around 20 per cent since the government declared victory in the 25-year war and is up 52.1 per cent so far this year on post-war optimism.

Tamil Tiger rebels' chance to keep the nationalist dream alive

From The TimesJune 17, 2009

Catherine Philp and James Bishop
Provisional transnational government is not the snappiest of phrases. But its vagueness, and the emphasis on the global Tamil network, is exactly what the handful of surviving Tiger leaders are aiming for as they struggle to work out how best to resurrect their bloodied, beaten cause.

For weeks Tamils around the world have waited for word from their leaders-in-exile about what would happen next. Until Selvarasa Pathmanathan confirmed that the Tigers’ supreme leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was indeed dead, many in the diaspora refused to believe it.

Mr Pathmanathan’s pronouncement is the best chance they now have of keeping the Tamil nationalist dream alive. About half the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora live in Canada — 400,000 — and in Britain, where they number 300,000. There are also smaller but vocal communities in Norway and Germany.

In Parliament Square, where British Tamils have been staging a protest against the Sri Lankan Government since April, there was a cautious welcome for Mr Pathmanathan’s call.

Related Links
Tamil Tigers say struggle continues from exile
“It’s definitely progress,” Prem Hariendran, a student at the University of Portsmouth, said. “No one is listening to our rallies but if we have a provisional government people should listen.”

With an indicted arms dealer at its head, that is questionable. Sri Lanka has fended off much international criticism of its conduct during the military offensive by insisting on its right to wipe out a home-based terrorist force. Many foreign governments have been reluctant to confront Colombo over its conduct, given their own battles with terrorists.

None of which is any consolation to the thousands of Tamil civilians languishing in camps. This week Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, added his voice to the growing international chorus, warning Sri Lanka that lasting peace cannot be achieved without reconciliation. Sri Lanka’s problems, he said, were “larger than the LTTE” and Tamils still nurse bitter grievances.

Mr Hariendran is a good example. “We don’t just want a government abroad, we want one in Sri Lanka,” he said. “The only solution we will accept is a separate country for ourselves.”

Search goes on for Aussies in Sri Lanka

AAP June 17, 2009, 6:30 pm

Australia is continuing the search for three NSW residents thought to be in refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka, where Tamils are being kept following the end of the civil war.

Human rights groups have labelled the camps a disgrace, urging Sri Lanka to free the 300,000 displaced people being held there.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith put Sri Lanka on notice that it would be judged according to how it dealt with those in the camps.

"We think the Sri Lankan government and the Sri Lankan authorities will now be judged on two things - how they manage and deal with the vast number of people in the displaced camps," he told reporters.

"And ... how they move to a reform program that enables all of the Sri Lankan community to feel that they have a share in a democracy in Sri Lanka."

About 300,000 people are being held in the government-run camps following Colombo's defeat of the Tamil Tigers' long-running rebel campaign.

The government is keeping people in the camps until they determine whether they are members of the Tamil Tigers.

The three Australians - two women aged 26 and 29, and a 62-year-old man - believed to be in the camps are all from NSW.

Mr Smith said there was nothing to suggest they weren't safe.

"We currently have officials in the north of Sri Lanka to seek to locate the whereabouts of three Australian citizens who we believe are in one of the displaced persons camps," he said.

"We don't have any information that would cause us to believe that the three aren't safe.

"It's just we haven't been able to locate them, either through the UNHCR ... who are working in the displaced camps, nor have we been able to locate them through Sri Lankan authorities, but we are working very hard to do that."

The Tamil community in Australia is continuing to pressure Canberra to speak out about human rights in Sri Lanka.

It held a forum at Parliament House on Wednesday where community leaders spoke of the plight of the Tamils.

John Dowd, president of the Australian section of the International Commission of Jurists, told AAP the federal government needed to do much more to draw attention to the problems in Sri Lanka.

"They should be talking out volubly so that the rest of the world knows that Australia is concerned," he said.

"Its approach has been far too muted. The Australian government has conveniently not made as much of a fuss as it ought."

Paediatrician John Whitehall, an associate professor of public health at James Cook University, said it was a euphemism to call those in the camps displaced people.

"They are inmates of concentration camps and history has few precedents for incarcerating all the people after a civil war indefinitely and isolating them the way that they have," Dr Whitehall said

Tamil Tiger rebels' chance to keep the nationalist dream alive

From The Times

Catherine Philp and James Bishop

Provisional transnational government is not the snappiest of phrases. But its vagueness, and the emphasis on the global Tamil network, is exactly what the handful of surviving Tiger leaders are aiming for as they struggle to work out how best to resurrect their bloodied, beaten cause.

 

For weeks Tamils around the world have waited for word from their leaders-in-exile about what would happen next. Until Selvarasa Pathmanathan confirmed that the Tigers’ supreme leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was indeed dead, many in the diaspora refused to believe it.

 

Mr Pathmanathan’s pronouncement is the best chance they now have of keeping the Tamil nationalist dream alive. About half the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora live in Canada — 400,000 — and in Britain, where they number 300,000. There are also smaller but vocal communities in Norway and Germany.

 

In Parliament Square, where British Tamils have been staging a protest against the Sri Lankan Government since April, there was a cautious welcome for Mr Pathmanathan’s call.

 

Related Links

Tamil Tigers say struggle continues from exile

“It’s definitely progress,” Prem Hariendran, a student at the University of Portsmouth, said. “No one is listening to our rallies but if we have a provisional government people should listen.”

 

With an indicted arms dealer at its head, that is questionable. Sri Lanka has fended off much international criticism of its conduct during the military offensive by insisting on its right to wipe out a home-based terrorist force. Many foreign governments have been reluctant to confront Colombo over its conduct, given their own battles with terrorists.

 

None of which is any consolation to the thousands of Tamil civilians languishing in camps. This week Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, added his voice to the growing international chorus, warning Sri Lanka that lasting peace cannot be achieved without reconciliation. Sri Lanka’s problems, he said, were “larger than the LTTE” and Tamils still nurse bitter grievances.

 

Mr Hariendran is a good example. “We don’t just want a government abroad, we want one in Sri Lanka,” he said. “The only solution we will accept is a separate country for ourselves.”

Leaders of SCO members,observers begin annual summit in Yekaterinburg

[ Xinhua ][ Jun 16 10:51 GMT ]

Special Report: Hu Attends SCO, BRIC Meetings

YEKATERINBURG, Russia, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member countries and observer nations began their annual summit here on Tuesday to discuss such issues as the global financial crisis and regional security.

Chinese President Hu Jintao attends the small-sized group meeting of

the leaders of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states

and observers in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on June 16, 2009.

(Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

In his opening speech at the summit, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said the SCO would develop tools to overcome the current global financial crisis.

He proposed a special experts' meeting to tackle the crisis, which he said would be attended by representatives of banks and other financial institutions.

The president said that the SCO leaders would not only consider ways to overcome the financial crisis, but would also consider building the basis for future cooperation.

Sri Lanka and Belarus have been accepted by the SCO as dialogue partners, Medeveve said.

The summit is attended by heads of state from SCO member countries -- China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and leaders from SCO observer nations -- Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran.

Also present at the meeting are Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, a guest country of the SCO, and representatives of the United Nations and some other regional and international organizations.

The SCO, a regional organization, was founded in Shanghai in 2001

As UN's Georgia Mission Faces Russian Axe, Selective Sovereignty

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, June 15, updated post-veto below -- Amid dark talk of a Russian veto threat, Monday in the Security Council the UN's Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) faces cancellation or at most a mere two week reprieve, Western Council diplomats tell Inner City Press. Georgian diplomats, who are not on the Security Council but pace the hallways outside, seemed resigned that any resolution containing a reference to their country's territorial integrity and continued claim over Abkhazia and South Ossetia would be vetoed by Russia.
On June 12, Inner City Press asked French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert about the status of negotiations about the Georgia Mission, given French president Sarkozy's loud diplomacy last August to ostensibly solve the problem. We are working on it, Ripert said. The German mission said work would continue over the weekend. But on Monday, Western Council diplomats told the Press that they might not be able to get even a two week roll over. "Russia is playing hard ball," one said. The Georgian diplomat nodded wanly.
Russia's position is that its recognition of the unilateral declaration of independence by South Ossetia and Abkhazia rendered moot much of the so-called Sarkozy agreements. Now, many predict that South Ossetia will simply be incorporated into Russia. Abkhazia, on the other hand, seems to be aiming for more independence, putting out a call for its diaspora in Turkey and elsewhere to return and "build the nation."
Speaking of nations and wanna-be nations, it is hard not to notice that Russia, which supported Sri Lanka's position that the Tamil "separatists" in northern Sri Lanka could be attacked along with civilians without any formal Security Council meeting, now enforces the separatist rights of Abkhaz and South Ossetians. Russia's argues is that these people were attacked. And the Tamils weren't?
At UN, Russia's Churkin under UK Sawers' watchful eye
At 10:38 a.m. outside the Council, a Georgia diplomat shook his head and told Inner City Press, "It's either short lived or its dead." Watch this space for updates.
Update of 12:53 p.m. -- Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin has made the veto threat public. First he spoke with the Russian press -- "eight minutes straight without taking a breath," one non-Russian speaking reporter described it -- then in English at the stakeout, for UN TV. He said that even on June 12, the "Friends of Georgia" indicated they would look into what to call the mission, for purposes of a rollover. But now, Churkin said, they've put in blue a resolution which includes the name Georgia and pre-conflict Resolution 1808. Russia had said it would vote no, and has counter offered a one month rollover with no reference to Georgia or its territorial integrity. A vote is scheduled for 5 p.m.. They are playing chicken: who will blink first?
Inner City Press asked Churkin to distinguish the UNMIK mission in Kosovo, the extensions of which refer to Resolution 1244 (1999) and Russia's insistence in dropping any reference to Resolution 1808 (2008 -- April). Churkin, choosing his words careful, said among other things that Kosovo is still governed by 1244, while this is not the case in Abkhazia, given the different format of peacekeeping. Video through here. Like we said: selective sovereignty, on both sides...
Update of 5:45 p.m. -- the Council has consulted, now reportedly waiting for China to get instructions. A Western diplomat tells Inner City Press that it could be over by 6 p.m.. By over he means, the end of the mission.
Inner City Press asks, what would happened with envoy Verbecke? Back to Lebanon? Or is he... a man without a mission? Watch this space.
Update of 6:10 p.m. -- the members are in the Chamber, and Inner City Press in the cheap seats filing this report. Russia's Churkin is speaking before the vote, against "old terms in documents." Veto seems assured.
Update of 6:13 p.m. -- Churkin says the Westernerns were "chasing political chimera." A word straight out of Baudelaire, rarely heard these days even at the UN. "Our partners preferred poison to medicine" -- Russia "cannot allow its adoptions."
Update of 6:17 p.m. -- Russia votes no, alone. Then four abstentions, including China, Libya and Vietnam. Ten in favor. Not adopted, based on the negative vote of a permanent member. Now Ripert of France is speaking, a counter-telling of the run up to the veto.
Update of 6:21 p.m. -- Ripert says there are areas of hatred still remaining, France regrets this Russian veto and expresses its support for Georgia's territorial integrity in its internationally recognized borders. Now Mr. La of China says "we should have made further efforts" with six hours to go. China urges the Group of Friends to arrive at a compromise plan, to show "maximum flexibility."
Update of 6:25 p.m. -- the US' Rosemary DiCarlo takes the floor, expressing regret. We may now need to consider measures to deal with a Georgia without a UN presence. She says, "Abkhazia, Georgia" and thanks Johan Verbecke for his service. The man without a mission...
Update of 6:28 p.m. -- Vietnam says it abstained to allow negotiations. The UK's Deputy Permanent Representative says he "regrets' Russia's decision. He says the Abkhaz want the mission to stay, only Russia didn't.
Update of 6:32 p.m. -- Japan's Amb. Takasu speaks of humanitarian issues, and "disappointment." There was no reason, he says, to have dropped the reference to Resolution 1808. Croatia follows suit. Uganda calls UN presence "on the ground... vital."
Update of 6:40 p.m. -- Costa Rica's Urbina speaks of the "Grupos de Amigos." Mexico's Heller also laments the end of the Mission.
Update of 6:47 p.m. -- Libya's Deputy has that any activity on behalf of UN must have the agreement of "all parties of the United Nations." So, my delegation abstained on the vote, he says.
Update of 6:49 p.m. -- Burkina Faso says "malgres tout," his delegation calls on all parties to try peaceful response. And now Turkey, the last member after the vote. Turkey co-sponsored the attempted roll over, that Russia vetoed.
Update of 6:51 p.m. -- now Georgia's ambassador speaks, that a single member has killed the mission. He refers to "Russia's invasion last summer." The occupied region of Georgia is the phrase he uses. He says without UNOMIG there will be less objective information. It is evidence that Russia does not wish to have evidence, he says. Sound like Sri Lanka.... Expect Russia to reply.
Update of 6:56 p.m. -- here comes Churkin, using his right of reply. For many years now, we were very patient, in listening to Georgia. Abkhaz representatives were not given an opportunity to tell the Council their position. I could be critical of the statement of the Georgia representative, there is not enough time.
But he takes on two or three colleagues. Contrary first the French -- Churkin says all that was at issued today was a draft, on a technical rollover. Then against two unnamed members -- no one mentioned Georgia's aggression, he says. At 7:02, that's it -- to the stake out!
Update of 7:50 p.m. -- And after the veto and the abstentions, the doomed resolution's proponents took to the stakeout microphone. Absent, it seemed, was Turkey. Inner City Press asked the UK Deputy Permanent representative for the basis of his statement that the Abkhaz favored the continuation of the mission. He said it was UK sources there. But did they oppose inclusion of a reference to resolution 1808 in the resolution? In the ultimate big resolution, yes they did oppose, was the answer. The implication was that the Abkhaz could have lived with 1808 in the roll-over resolution that Russia vetoed.
Inner City Press put the question to Russia's Churkin, who said that Russia is in touch with the Abkhaz, and that it was a shame that the Council never heard from the Abkhaz authorities. As he began speaking, the US' Rosemarie DiCarlo was whispering to some reporters over the stakeout barricade. Churkin indicated that she should be more quiet or move further away. "We are a rules based community," he said.
Churkin praised (former?) Abkhazia envoy Johan Verbecke as a good colleague. Inner City Press asked the proponents what happens next with Verbeke. You have to ask the UN, Amb. DiCarlo answered.
Finally Georgia's Ambassador came out, saying that "one country" had blocked everything. Inner City Press first asked if he stood behind his allegation that Russia blackmailed Ban Ki-moon into changing his report on Abkhazia, to drop the name of Georgia. Yes I do, he said, adding that the day's result showed that Russia couldn't blackmail the whole international community. He again said, one country alone blocked it. Inner City Press asked, what about the abstainers. He replied that each of them had expressed support for territorial integrity. Note that Russia does too, some of the time -- and the proponents didn't, at least when it came to Kosovo.
Like we said, selective sovereignty.
* * *
On Sri Lanka, UN Has No Comment on Prison Labor, New GA President Will Not Explain
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, June 12 -- The UN at all levels demonstrates blindness with respect to Sri Lanka, from the use of prison labor in the now emptied out north to even recognizing the name of the country. Incoming General Assembly president Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya on Friday took questions from the Press.
Inner City Press asked him about two countries, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. To the latter, Libya agreed to a $500 million loan, to make up for the $1.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund delayed by reports of mistreatment of civilians. Inner City Press asked Treki, since Libya was among those blocking Security Council action, if he could imagine Sri Lanka being taken up in the General Assembly, as Myanmar has been. Video here, from Minute 17:46.
Ali Treki latched on to the Myanmar part of the question, praising the UN's envoy to that country Ibrahim Gambari, whom he said he knew when Gambari was the foreign minister of the Sani Abacha administration in Nigeria. He said he would meet with Gambari on Friday afternoon to get a report about Myanmar. About Sri Lanka, Treki said nothing, then moved on to another questioner.
Inner City Press followed up, asking why Libya didn't view the conflict in Sri Lanka as impacting international peace and security. Treki said it "interests the world, the human rights aspect," but that what "Asia says is very important, they tell us if what goes on in Myanmar" effects peace and security. Video here, from Minute 19:39.
So had Treki simply refused to answer about Sri Lanka? He will be president of the UN General Assembly from September 2009 through August 2010.
UN's Ban and Libya's Ali Treki, action on Sri Lanka and prison labor not shown
Meanwhile at the UN's noon media briefing on June 12, asked Ban Ki-moon's Spokesperson Michele Montas had read out a statement that access to the camps in Vavuniya in northern Sri Lanka is getting better and new camps are being built -- internment camps, with UN money -- Inner City Press asked for the UN's response to Sri Lankan authorities' statement that they will use prison labor in the north.
Ms. Montas said "no comment at this point, maybe later we will see how the issue is being discussed." Video here, from Minute 18:39.
Later Ms Montas' office sent Inner City Press the following response:
Subj: Response from OCHA on your question at the noon briefingFrom: unspokesperson-donotreply [at] un.orgTo: Inner City PressSent: 6/12/2009 12:43:56 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
On use of prison labour in reconstruction in Sri Lanka, we have not heard these allegations and have no information.
Apparently, the UN's "close monitoring" of Sri Lanka doesn't even read the news from Colombo, with quotes from government officials:
Prison inmates to be deployed for the redevelopment process in Sri Lanka's North
Thu, Jun 11, 2009, 11:51 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
June 11, Colombo: Sri Lanka government is planning to deploy prison inmates for the redevelopment process in the liberated areas of the North.
Prison Commissioner General, Major General V.R Silva told the media that this would be an appropriate decision to develop the liberated areas in North.
According to statistics there are nearly 30,000 inmates are in the prisons at the moment. Most of them are able bodied people with various skills, he added.
Yes, the skills of those in jail, including for violent crime, are those the Sri Lankan government is unleashing in the north. And the UN? They "have not heard these allegations and have no information." Watch this site.
* * *
On Sri Lanka, UN's Holmes Contradicts His Colleague's Caution, Sudan Double Standard?
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, June 11 -- During the bloody conflict and humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka this year, most often UN Headquarters, personified by humanitarian chief John Holmes, has sounded more cautionary notes about government conduct than has UN staff in Colombo, who face deportation or denial of visa renewals.
On Thursday, however, Holmes was decidedly more pro-government than the UN's local spokespeople, at least Mark Cutts, who expressed concern that now people will be kept in the UN-funded internment camps for up to a year. Inner City Press asked Holmes, who chose to disagree.
"I don't think anything has changed," Holmes said, repeating the government's statement that 80% of those detained will be allowed out of the camps by the end of 2009.
Holmes told Inner City Press that there have for months been some semi-permanent structures in the Manik Farm camps, made of "zinc sheeting, you probably saw them yourself when you were there." Inner City Press did see the zinc structures, along with barbed wire and armed guards.
Holmes had been briefing the UN Security Council about the situation in Sudan, with a focus on the international NGOs whose international staff members were ordered out on March 4, after Sudan's president Omar al Bashir was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. When Holmes came to speak to the Press, his assistant announced that questions should "keep to Sudan, wider issues will be address by the Secretary General in his press conference later."
As Inner City Press has reported in recent days, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokespeople now say they will not comment on developments in Sri Lanka such as the deporting of Canadian MP Bob Rae, the extension of state of emergency anti-terror laws, and the country's outgoing chief justice's statement that those in the UN-funded internment camps have no protection from Sri Lanka's courts. That's a national issue, was the answer of Ban's spokespeople.
Since Holmes focused, to the Council and press, on NGOs in Sudan, Inner City Press asked about the recent expulsion or exclusion from Sri Lanka of international staff from the Norwegian Refugee Council, Forut, CARE and Save the Children, among others. Holmes had just mentioned moves to re-admit both CARE and Save the Children (as well as Mercy Corps and "something not really an NGO, called PADCO") to Sudan.
"It is hard to make comparisons between the two," Holmes said, apparently referring to restrictions in Sudan and Sri Lanka. "NGOs have not been expelled from Sri Lanka... There have been some visa issues for some members of NGOs' staff which we take up with the government."
Holmes said UN agencies "have difficulties from time to time." Among those difficulties was the detention by the government of Sri Lanka of UN staff and their families, something Sudan has not done.
UN's Holmes in Sudan, Sri Lanka staff not shown Whistleblowers raised the issue to Inner City Press, after which Holmes said the UN had been complaining behind the scenes. In Sudan, the UN complains publicly. In fact, the government of Sri Lanka stated that the UN had not complained about its detained staff until after the issue was raised publicly by the Press in New York.
It is hard to make comparisons between the two -- the UN is loud in its criticism of any move against UN staff in Sudan, while it stayed silent as UN staff were held in detention by the government of Sri Lanka. How then to read Holmes' upbeat assessment on Thursday? We will continue to inquire.
Footnotes: Regarding Sudan, Inner City Press asked Holmes why UN envoy Chissano has ended his attempt to solve the problem of the Lord's Resistance Army. Holmes said Chissano "will end or has ended" this work because it is "not a very realistic hope" that Kony will sign a peace deal with the Yoweri Museveni government of Uganda. What next?
Inner City Press is informed that, in closed door consultations, Western Council members such as Croatia insisted that there is a wider "humanitarian gap" in Sudan than even Holmes would portray. Holmes and the UN apparently feel no such pressure regarding the situation in Sri Lanka, and therefore revert to the path of least resistance, trying to not criticize the government despite what's happening to civilians. Watch this site.
Channel 4 in the UK with allegations of rape and disappearance
Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.